Leave Stable but Boring Job at a Risk?

[energised]

I have been with a company for 4 years now, Mfg. Eng and design(age 46 yrs,have AS in Mfg. Eng). After the first year it got really boring. Things don't happen too fast in this mature organization. My boss has given me better than average reviews with little complaint. I can do the work in 1/4 of the time expected. With the advent of Solidworks, they are having Masters degreed Engineers create all of the models. I am stuck with the tailings, besides some process improvement work and simple tool design. My commute is 1/2 hr, not horrible, but the health insurance is about double the usual and my wife is 3 months pregnant. I have been looking for other positions and have had 3 interviews in the last 3 years.
I feel like I am wasting my talent and time, I could be excercising my talents further. With an AS, nowadays the options aren't many, and besides taking a night class once in awhile, I am not interested in going for a BS at this time.
MY question is, a) Should I risk a job change with the pregnancy? b) Given the lousy economy, should I stay on for the security or take a risk with a different company?

 

[GregLocock]

Tricky one. Being bored at work is no fun, can't you find something to get your teeth into? For instance, how does your company do tolerance stacks? Is it workable? Is it best practice? I suggets that one as I am fairly confident that tolerancing is rarely done properly. Alternatively perhaps you could get involved with your suppliers.

I'm a couple of years older than you, and frankly my thoughts are aimed more at some sort of retirement in 8 years than needing some more excitement from work (which as it happens I get for free, like it or not).



Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[macmet]

Maybe in six months you'll look forward to the "boring" 9 hours at work...

 

[swertel]

At this point, I'd say stick it out.

FYI. I left my company about a year ago do to the repetitive nature of the beast and a few morale issues within the company. Six months later, I was back, but with a new found insight about myself and I find it much easier to deal with the daily mundane.

The grass isn't always greener, my friend. I pay a small fortune on insurance premiums. On top of that, we have a $5000 deductable. I now have credit card debt just because of the medical bills. I never used to have a credit card balance. It is stressful and really puts on edge on my marriage. But coming in here and dealing with that crap is much better than what I found outside.

You may not like your current position, but do you like the people you work with?
Do you like the products your company makes? Or the technologies they are using?
If you can do work in 1/4 of the time, find a project that interests you for the other 1/4 of the time. 1/2 the day is spent "fighting fires," I assume. In addition to my full-time responsibilities, I'm creating Access databases to do trend tracking of key performance parameters and metrics. This will help me do my job better and help the company over a long term.
Perhaps there are some continuous improvement projects you could pitch to management and get some internal research and development funding to pursue. They may not make it into production, but the knowledge may help the company.
Start a internal wiki to capture company wide best practices.
Read eng-tips.com all day.

There are lots of projects that you can probably take on yourself, without even requiring management approval. It will keep you on a task that is interesting to you when you have the time for the fill-in work between your designated duties.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[KENAT]

Gregs idea on the tolerancing is a good one, I've only found one or two other engineers here who have any significant grasp on it and both of them are at a level where they aren't doing the detail design etc. so don't really apply it.

That leaves about 20-30 other assorted Engineers, Designers & Interns designing things and creating drawings with little or no regard to tolerancing, at best they look up hole sizes etc in a chart, which they then frequently miss apply.

You don't necessarily have to become a full on expert at GD&T but being able to do basic stacks + co-axial features into stepped holes and simple hole patterns, at least initially, will give you the basic tools to find the most common problems.

If you decide to run with this idea look over on the GD&T & tolerance forum. forum1103

I tend to be fairly cautious by nature/fear change in the employment situation etc. so I'd stick it out with the Baby coming, but that doesn't mean it's right for you.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[vpl]

A very practical consideration: health insurance. If you leave now, your wife's pregnancy might not be covered. You might also run into problems if the newborn has any issues which keep it in the hospital for a while. You would need to be very, very sure that you would be immediately covered (and for "pre-existing conditions") with any proposed new company's health insurance. Otherwise, you could be in a very deep financial hole.



Patricia Lougheed

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[Helicopterjunky]

Boring can be good. The other alternative seems to be working your butt off. There seems to be no happy median.
With your family upcoming event I would be hesitant to change now and as others said have another solid job lined up and make sure it does not affect your eligibity for health plan.

 

[MedicineEng]

Go back to books. If you have 3/4 of the day available you will find that time extremely useful to make school homework and prepare classes. It has worked wonders for me. Due to the nature of my new job, I don't have a stable work load. Some days I might be working 10/12 hours day to finish a project and other I might be doing almost nothing. I've used those days to finish my MBA thesis. I developed more work in the thesis in the last 6 months than in the previous 2 years. Currently I am almost finishing the thesis. And I don't work in my thesis from home anymore. Once your baby is born you will find much more difficult to develop any work at home.
Educate yourself. It will be one of the few things that you will take with you once you change jobs.

 

[Zogzog]

After that baby shows up you will need the boring job to catch up on your rest.

 

[csd72]

It is probably now or never, if you arent willing to risk it before the baby arrives then you wont be afterwards either.

You run the risk of not growing in your current role and therefore not being able to justify increased levels in salary. I have changed one job because of that reason.

6 months is a decent amount of time, you will be stabilised in the new job before the baby arrives.