Quitting my job today

[KUTradition]

work to live, don’t live to work

[DeletedUser]

work to live, don’t live to work

This.

Even if you're lucky enough to work in a field or for a company that you love.

[jfish26]

I posted this on Link’dIn, where most in my network are in the boat business:

“One thing that has become crystal clear for me these past few years: in the marine industry, no one seems to be truly interested in curing their ills.

Despite having survived significant challenges, many veterans are being replaced with less experienced people for less money. But who do the top-level managers feel is more experienced and equipped to navigate the rough waters ahead?

As seasoned professionals, we recognize the sound of thunder and know that it's a precursor to something bad on the horizon. Rather than being what we are viewed as (scared or weak), we get lean….we encourage our managers to work with our manufacturer-partners to chart a course of survival.

Let's focus on KPIs that build real growth and develop a team of customer-centric staff to focus on the client, not just the product. Underappreciated, but not defeated, we will continue to navigate these choppy waters.

Good luck to all of my professional friends as we find ourselves waving goodbye to the craft that WE built.”

The responses have been very encouraging, and I am confident apply to many fields.

Very well written/said!
I too, am confident it applies to many fields/industries.
I refer to it as the hiring of bodies over minds. I see it all over, sometimes multiple times a day.

Far too often, companies treat their experienced employees as no more than an expense that can be easily replaced by a lesser expense and fail to realize the revenue generated by that experience. I work in one of the few IT jobs in a bank that generates revenue and as the lead on a team that would completely fucked without me so I feel safe from the chopping block but I have already seen numerous invaluable resources let go and replaced with younger, cheaper, less valuable employees.

My world is having a different problem.

We are ALWAYS 18-36 months behind the curve - so we panic-hire (and panic-overpay) when there is an acute need, but by the time those hires are fully on board and integrated, the demand has waned and we have brought people on at compensation structures that are not supportable by rates that clients are willing and happy to pay.

Which inevitably results in some natural attrition (people can't stay busy enough, at the rates they're at, to bonus well or advance in the hierarchy of things), which natural attrition means (ALWAYS) that when demand ramps back up, we're short-staffed to manage it.

And on the cycle goes (but with each iteration raising the salary bar for new people in ways that complicate the business).

[jfish26]

work to live, don’t live to work

This.

Even if you're lucky enough to work in a field or for a company that you love.

Lord knows it's hard enough when you do.

[japhy]

My world is having a different problem.

We are ALWAYS 18-36 months behind the curve - so we panic-hire (and panic-overpay) when there is an acute need, but by the time those hires are fully on board and integrated, the demand has waned and we have brought people on at compensation structures that are not supportable by rates that clients are willing and happy to pay.

Which inevitably results in some natural attrition (people can't stay busy enough, at the rates they're at, to bonus well or advance in the hierarchy of things), which natural attrition means (ALWAYS) that when demand ramps back up, we're short-staffed to manage it.

And on the cycle goes (but with each iteration raising the salary bar for new people in ways that complicate the business).

Engineering goes through similar cycles. One of the things we do in conjunction with ramping up hiring, is evaluate our clients more closely and fire the worst clients. Productivity and profitability can increase when you fire a "bad" client.

[DeletedUser]

Very well written/said!
I too, am confident it applies to many fields/industries.
I refer to it as the hiring of bodies over minds. I see it all over, sometimes multiple times a day.

Far too often, companies treat their experienced employees as no more than an expense that can be easily replaced by a lesser expense and fail to realize the revenue generated by that experience. I work in one of the few IT jobs in a bank that generates revenue and as the lead on a team that would completely fucked without me so I feel safe from the chopping block but I have already seen numerous invaluable resources let go and replaced with younger, cheaper, less valuable employees.

My world is having a different problem.

We are ALWAYS 18-36 months behind the curve - so we panic-hire (and panic-overpay) when there is an acute need, but by the time those hires are fully on board and integrated, the demand has waned and we have brought people on at compensation structures that are not supportable by rates that clients are willing and happy to pay.

Which inevitably results in some natural attrition (people can't stay busy enough, at the rates they're at, to bonus well or advance in the hierarchy of things), which natural attrition means (ALWAYS) that when demand ramps back up, we're short-staffed to manage it.

And on the cycle goes (but with each iteration raising the salary bar for new people in ways that complicate the business).

That has also occurred within the appraisal industry.

[jfish26]

We're also only now truly digesting what a disaster Covid was for development, of both "soft" and "hard" skills. The entire cohort of lawyers who had 0-4 years of experience going into Covid are now grossly overpaid (and thus their rates way out of whack) with reference to their actual skills and experience.

Because, during Covid, they became scriveners (and didn't learn how to think), and had a lot less organic exposure to the strategic side of things (to say nothing of the great experience that comes from simply being in an office and getting, organically, work that really pushes their abilities, which is where growth comes from).

[Overlander]

I am getting a LOT of job offers.
Plano/Overlander will be just fine.

In the meantime, lots of Jeeping, lots of hiking.

Did a badass 5.5 mile hike by Mt Rainier yesterday.

4 waterfalls, one huge one that you walk under. Good day.

[Overlander]

My world is having a different problem.

We are ALWAYS 18-36 months behind the curve - so we panic-hire (and panic-overpay) when there is an acute need, but by the time those hires are fully on board and integrated, the demand has waned and we have brought people on at compensation structures that are not supportable by rates that clients are willing and happy to pay.

Which inevitably results in some natural attrition (people can't stay busy enough, at the rates they're at, to bonus well or advance in the hierarchy of things), which natural attrition means (ALWAYS) that when demand ramps back up, we're short-staffed to manage it.

And on the cycle goes (but with each iteration raising the salary bar for new people in ways that complicate the business).

Engineering goes through similar cycles. One of the things we do in conjunction with ramping up hiring, is evaluate our clients more closely and fire the worst clients. Productivity and profitability can increase when you fire a "bad" client.

The old school rule:
80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your client base.

Help your clients become part of your 20 or part of your competitors’ 80

[Sparko]

95-percent of your problems come from 5 percent of the customers too.

[twocoach]

Very well written/said!
I too, am confident it applies to many fields/industries.
I refer to it as the hiring of bodies over minds. I see it all over, sometimes multiple times a day.

Far too often, companies treat their experienced employees as no more than an expense that can be easily replaced by a lesser expense and fail to realize the revenue generated by that experience. I work in one of the few IT jobs in a bank that generates revenue and as the lead on a team that would completely fucked without me so I feel safe from the chopping block but I have already seen numerous invaluable resources let go and replaced with younger, cheaper, less valuable employees.

My world is having a different problem.

We are ALWAYS 18-36 months behind the curve - so we panic-hire (and panic-overpay) when there is an acute need, but by the time those hires are fully on board and integrated, the demand has waned and we have brought people on at compensation structures that are not supportable by rates that clients are willing and happy to pay.

Which inevitably results in some natural attrition (people can't stay busy enough, at the rates they're at, to bonus well or advance in the hierarchy of things), which natural attrition means (ALWAYS) that when demand ramps back up, we're short-staffed to manage it.

And on the cycle goes (but with each iteration raising the salary bar for new people in ways that complicate the business).

COVID created a glut of IT professionals who are available to be hired on short term contracts so we fill project specific, unexpected or short-term holes through that market now. We don't need to keep them on as bored unnecessary expenses once the real reason we needed them is completed, which has been nice.

[Shirley]

I am getting a LOT of job offers.
Plano/Overlander will be just fine.

In the meantime, lots of Jeeping, lots of hiking.

Did a badass 5.5 mile hike by Mt Rainier yesterday.

4 waterfalls, one huge one that you walk under. Good day.

Which proves something I learned early that's not only true, but also a double-edged sword:

"If you do good work, they'll give you more work to do."

[jfish26]

Far too often, companies treat their experienced employees as no more than an expense that can be easily replaced by a lesser expense and fail to realize the revenue generated by that experience. I work in one of the few IT jobs in a bank that generates revenue and as the lead on a team that would completely fucked without me so I feel safe from the chopping block but I have already seen numerous invaluable resources let go and replaced with younger, cheaper, less valuable employees.

My world is having a different problem.

We are ALWAYS 18-36 months behind the curve - so we panic-hire (and panic-overpay) when there is an acute need, but by the time those hires are fully on board and integrated, the demand has waned and we have brought people on at compensation structures that are not supportable by rates that clients are willing and happy to pay.

Which inevitably results in some natural attrition (people can't stay busy enough, at the rates they're at, to bonus well or advance in the hierarchy of things), which natural attrition means (ALWAYS) that when demand ramps back up, we're short-staffed to manage it.

And on the cycle goes (but with each iteration raising the salary bar for new people in ways that complicate the business).

COVID created a glut of IT professionals who are available to be hired on short term contracts so we fill project specific, unexpected or short-term holes through that market now. We don't need to keep them on as bored unnecessary expenses once the real reason we needed them is completed, which has been nice.

Wish it worked that way in my day-to-day. Unfortunately, I can't really expand/contract my teams like that, on a project basis.

[jfish26]

I am getting a LOT of job offers.
Plano/Overlander will be just fine.

In the meantime, lots of Jeeping, lots of hiking.

Did a badass 5.5 mile hike by Mt Rainier yesterday.

4 waterfalls, one huge one that you walk under. Good day.

Which proves something I learned early that's not only true, but also a double-edged sword:

"If you do good work, they'll give you more work to do."

By far the MOST difficult time of my career was the year after I made partner. You get there by saying yes to everything, but I was caught quite off guard by how succeeding as a partner requires breaking hard AWAY from that mentality. Going from the top of one ladder to the bottom of another was difficult in many ways.

[japhy]

The old school rule:
80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your client base.

Help your clients become part of your 20 or part of your competitors’ 80

Occasionally I let a competitor "have" a project. Especially if it's a particularly small difficult project to get right and do on a budget.

Done strategically, it can remind our client's employees why they like working with us. And it gives the competition an impression of how hard it can be to make money on very complex projects.

My associate used to get really nervous when I did this. Now he even suggests the project we might want to "let go". Losing a job does not always mean you will lose the customer. Sometimes it is the key to keeping the customer.

[Shirley]

The old school rule:
80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your client base.

Help your clients become part of your 20 or part of your competitors’ 80

Occasionally I let a competitor "have" a project. Especially if it's a particularly small difficult project to get right and do on a budget.

Done strategically, it can remind our client's employees why they like working with us. And it gives the competition an impression of how hard it can be to make money on very complex projects.

My associate used to get really nervous when I did this. Now he even suggests the project we might want to "let go". Losing a job does not always mean you will lose the customer. Sometimes it is the key to keeping the customer.

Never envisioned you as a military man, japhy.

Feigned retreat:

The act of feigning a withdrawal or rout to lure an enemy away from a defended position or into a prepared ambush is an ancient tactic, which has been used throughout the history of warfare.

Three famous examples are:

William the Conqueror used a feigned retreat at the Battle of Hastings to lure much of Harold's infantry from their advantageous defenses on higher ground, leading to its annihilation by a charge of William's Norman cavalry.

Medieval Mongols were famed for, among other things, their extensive use of feigned retreats during their conquests, as their fast light cavalry made successful pursuit by an enemy almost impossible. In the heat and muddle of a battle, the Mongol Army would pretend to be defeated, exhausted and confused, and would suddenly retreat from the battlefield. The opposing force, thinking that it had routed the Mongols, would give chase. The Mongol cavalry would, while retreating, fire upon its pursuers and dishearten them (see Parthian shot). When the pursuing forces stopped chasing the (significantly faster) Mongol cavalry, the Mongols would then turn and charge the pursuers and generally succeed. That was used partly as a defeat in detail tactic to allow the Mongols to defeat larger armies by breaking them into smaller groups.

Early on during the Battle of Kasserine Pass in 1943, tanks of the US 1st Armored Division followed what appeared to be a headlong retreat by elements of the 21st Panzer Division. The advancing US forces then met a screen of German anti-tank guns, who opened fire and destroyed nearly all the American tanks. A US forward artillery observer, whose radio and landlines had been cut by shellfire, recalled:

"It was murder. They rolled right into the muzzles of the concealed eighty-eights and all I could do was stand by and watch tank after tank blown to bits or burst into flames or just stop, wrecked. Those in the rear tried to turn back but the eighty-eights seemed to be everywhere."

[japhy]

Never envisioned you as a military man, japhy.

Feigned retreat:

The act of feigning a withdrawal or rout to lure an enemy away from a defended position or into a prepared ambush is an ancient tactic, which has been used throughout the history of warfare.

Three famous examples are:

William the Conqueror used a feigned retreat at the Battle of Hastings to lure much of Harold's infantry from their advantageous defenses on higher ground, leading to its annihilation by a charge of William's Norman cavalry.

Medieval Mongols were famed for, among other things, their extensive use of feigned retreats during their conquests, as their fast light cavalry made successful pursuit by an enemy almost impossible. In the heat and muddle of a battle, the Mongol Army would pretend to be defeated, exhausted and confused, and would suddenly retreat from the battlefield. The opposing force, thinking that it had routed the Mongols, would give chase. The Mongol cavalry would, while retreating, fire upon its pursuers and dishearten them (see Parthian shot). When the pursuing forces stopped chasing the (significantly faster) Mongol cavalry, the Mongols would then turn and charge the pursuers and generally succeed. That was used partly as a defeat in detail tactic to allow the Mongols to defeat larger armies by breaking them into smaller groups.

Early on during the Battle of Kasserine Pass in 1943, tanks of the US 1st Armored Division followed what appeared to be a headlong retreat by elements of the 21st Panzer Division. The advancing US forces then met a screen of German anti-tank guns, who opened fire and destroyed nearly all the American tanks. A US forward artillery observer, whose radio and landlines had been cut by shellfire, recalled:

"It was murder. They rolled right into the muzzles of the concealed eighty-eights and all I could do was stand by and watch tank after tank blown to bits or burst into flames or just stop, wrecked. Those in the rear tried to turn back but the eighty-eights seemed to be everywhere."

Being a partner in a 300 person engineering firm probably has more similarities to the military than differences. It's a lot about reading people and making strategic decisions accordingly. But our weapons are cheaper and cause fewer casualties.

[Shirley]

If you happen to have any 2,000 pound bombs lying around, I know somewhere you can sell them.

[Overlander]

I am dangerously close to closing a deal on opening a brand new, amazing, high end boat dealership on the Columbia River at Camas Wa!

Flying to Bend Oregon tomorrow to hammer out final details.

Stoked!

[DeletedUser]

I am dangerously close to closing a deal on opening a brand new, amazing, high end boat dealership on the Columbia River at Camas Wa!

Flying to Bend Oregon tomorrow to hammer out final details.

Stoked!

Good luck!

Is this something you're doing on your own, or with other investors?