Would you take a job you didn't want if you were laid off? 6

[Careful]

If you were laid off for a while would you accept a job you didn't like just to have a job (in this economy)? How long would you stay with the employer for to make such a thing less "unethical"?

 

[PeterStock]

Of course, there were some that sounded good, but once I got there....

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services

http://www.infotechpr.net

 

[VTer]

How many people in the world take jobs that they do not like or may not want just to support their families? People do what they have to do! There is a big difference in want and need. If you really needed a job than you wouldn’t have asked this questions in the first place, but if you would like or not like to get one is really your choice. On the other hand, maybe you should really leave it for people that need a job and do not have the luxury to pick what they like or want at the moment.

"Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature". – Nikola Tesla

 

[NomLaser]

About 5 years ago I took a job as a machinist for about a month. At the time I was laid off for 11 months and unemployment was running out. It was a 3rd shift position (6pm to 6am) and I had an interview with another company after my first night on the job.

I received an offer letter before my first week was over. I put in my notice that I would be leaving in 3 weeks. Everyone pretty much knew that I wasn't going to be there long anyway. My boss at the time wanted to train me on the large equipment but knew it was pointless since I was leaving in a couple of weeks so they did all of the setups for me and I just pushed a button and inspected my parts as they finished. It was a good learning experience to know what machinists have to go through to make parts.

 

[cksh]

I would take the job.

My shortest job was 4 months. I had thought about staying there long term, not because I felt guilty, but the work turned out to be interesting for a short while. Then it went rapidly downhill, and at the same time a great job turned up.

My wife worked a temp job for about a week and quit for a full time position. Not quite the same thing but close enough.

The guy next to me quit his contract position with us after a month for something full time.

And always keep in mind what TheTick said, they would dump you in a heartbeat. Never forget it

 

[mauricestoker]

I was night manager for a gas station. How you get the money never means squat to the landlord. The owner was studying to get his BSME at the same school I went to, and used to lord his education over us peons. I certainly didn't tell him when I left for an engineering position, and I don't think it would've helped his outlook on going into engineering.

 

[Waidesworld]

My mother came home one day during the 80's when the Irish economy was in the tank. She had gotten in a conversation with the kid who was stocking shelves and it turned out he was a Chemical Engineering graduate.
You have to look outside the box. When I arrived in the US 15 years ago, I didn't limit my job search to being an engineer. Some of our pub owners around here are from all walks of education from the nephew of a loan shark to a Physics graduate.
I was a bartender when I met the President of a local company who needed office help. Knowing I was an engineer by trade he gradually over the next two months brought me from answering the phone to installation of the systems (custom software and hardware). Over the next seven years I rose in that company and that experience got me into my current position where I have been for the last five years.
Every thing you do teaches you more about what you like, dislike and can tolerate.

drawn to design, designed to draw

 

[Careful]

I'm not talking about McJob type job (I'd walk away from one of those in a heartbeat), but an engineering position that it turns out you wouldn't usually take. It would take a while (6 -12 months?) to come up to speed and be a real benefit to the company. If your still looking for hoping for another position it seems like stealing, taking a paycheck for doing little but training.

 

[KENAT]

Careful, while there may be a couple of managers/small business owners on here that really appreciate that view point, generally consensus is that most employers would let you go at a moments notice if it suited them, so it's difficult to justify treating them any better.

Not all of the jobs listed above were McJobs, 2 of mine were/are engineering. If something better (however you personally measure it) came along I'd take it.

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[apsix]

An experienced engineer doing work within their field of experience won't take 6 - 12 months before they are productive.

 

[patprimmer]

If a company requires at least 12 months service from you to recoup training time, they should offer you a contract in which you both have equal obligation.

Regards
Pat
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[KENAT]

Pat makes a good point, some people here, and I don't mean directors, have managed to get deals vaguely like that. At least one of them (purchaser) was gratefull of it when he got let go in June, he'd only been here just over 6 months but because of that agreement he got something like 3 extra months severance.

(Funny story, apparantly HR didn't know about this agreement, only the former VP of operations who was no longer with the co. When the purchaser asked for his 3 months, HR said no. So he got his copy of the agreement to show them. They tried telling him it was no longer valid as the VP that signed it was no longer with the company! They were persuaded of their error. His wasn't the only similar case in that round of lay-offs, they underestimated the severance payout overall by several 10's of $thousands.)

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[GregLocock]

Twice I've taken jobs I didn't really want to (working in the auto industry for the last 30 years has been one long recession) and enjoyed them, and twice I've started jobs I was really looking forward to and ended up chucking them within 3 years.

That is entirely useless information, but the moral would appear to be that I, at least, cannot seem to judge whether I will like a job without actually doing it.



Cheers

Greg Locock

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[Careful]

"An experienced engineer doing work within their field of experience won't take 6 - 12 months before they are productive. "

Yes, but an engineer entering a new field they're unfamiliar with could depending on type of training the new company provides.

 

[MadMango]

I have yet to work for a company that had any sort of organized "training program". Usually one is pointed to a cubicle crammed full of useless paperwork (some pertaining to what you were actually hired to work on), shown where the manufacturing floor is, and maybe given a short description on how the network is (or isn't) organized. It's up to the individual to get up to speed before thier 90-day probation period is over. 3 months is a long time.

I've never taken a job for the sake of being employed (post-career), but I came very close to doing so this year. I stay at jobs until I feel I have stopped growing, then it's time to start looking. If you've been laid off, I don't find anything unethical about getting any job, and leaving that job as soon as possible if you want to return to your career field.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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[KENAT]

Careful, it sounds like you've already decided you wouldn't do it. Despite most of the above saying they'd do it it doesn't sound like you are going to change you mind.

Look at if from a different point of view. As a tax payer, how do you feel about someone that could be working instead getting by on government subsidized beneffits? Is that any more ethical than taking a job expecting not to be ther long?

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[desnov74]

MadMango;

This is a fact, I've paid for every dime of my post graduate training at seminars and community colleges. The only one companies will let people go to are the over glorified free technical "infomercials" that vendors offer.

Some of them have been good infomercials with more info than mercial.

 

[IRstuff]

You pretty much have to be working for a company with a few thousand employees before you might see an educational reimbursement program.

As for "liking" your job, in tough times, that's a luxury. It's a relatively recent phenomenon that people actually get a choice between jobs they "like" and those they don't. Engineers are already quite lucky in that regard; most people only get to choose between jobs they "hate" and those they hate less. Their "dream" jobs are probably close to the one you just don't "like."

As for duration, be professional, give adequate, or longer, notice, and finish your projects before moving on. If you make any term commitments, honor them.

TTFN

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[MechEng2005]

In this and other threads, it has become apparent that people seem to think company turnover is the employees problem to correct. When did this start? Keeping employees is the responsibility of the company.

-- MechEng2005

 

[Lion06]

Here's my two cents.

How can you possibly make any commitment to an employer as to how long you will stay there? You may have the best of intentions, but life happens. Maybe your wife gets a job that requires you to move. Maybe you have to move to care for an elderly parent. Maybe you find another job that pays better and had better benefits. There are a whole host of reasons that your plans could change.

While there may be some difference in your feelings toward different jobs, is there really any difference in taking a job that you hate with the idea that you're going to keep looking or taking a job that you love, but something happens with your family and you have to find new employment? There may be subtleties there that make YOU feel better about the situation, but is the end result really any different?

Additionally, how is it unethical to put your family's interests above your employers. I would hope that most people do that. As long as you're doing your job to the best of your abailiy, what's the problem?


IR, My company has less than 100 employees and they're paying for my graduate education.

 

[BJC]

It ain't what you want that makes you fat, it's what you can get.