After a very good Fourth of July weekend, today is the day I have to tell my boss that I am resigning from ATS. It really is not going to be easy at all. I really love my work at ATS and will miss it very much, but there does not appear to be a great deal of job security in this division. Beyond that, I have a great opportunity up in Washington. So far, everything has opened up in a rather amazing way. I had to be offered a job at MEI twice before I was willing to take it. It just feels wierd telling a good friend that I have to resign. I have only been at ATS one year.
I have some more pictures I want to put up on the web of our wonderful Fourth of July weekend. I will try to get them up in the next day or two. On Friday night, we did our usual at the house, just hanging out, watching a DVD and goofing off mostly. On Saturday, Kelly and Christian had their parade and we went out to dinner. On Sunday after meeting we went to a great little chinese food place for dinner and then went over to shoot off our fireworks at the Ramsdell’s house with the Ramsdells, the Meyers, and Shauna Ramey. They are such hospitable people. Finally, we went up to the Washington Square Mall in Portland on Monday, followed by a visit to my dad and mom. We listened to The Hobbit on the way there and on the way back. We finally got to the part where Bilbo meets Smaug in the evening when we got back home and I was doing my exercises.
I stumbled on your blog doing some research for a Finance and Accounting paper I am writing comparing ATS to a competitor-Brooks Automation. I came to work at ATS in June of 2006 as a machinist over in the new building B. I missed you by a couple of years but it seems as though things haven’t changed much even if the Management has a few times. I have witnessed a transformation of ATS from a self-contained entity to one that is dependent on local shops and Chinese manufacturing. Time will tell if this was the best decision by our current GM but I am feeling the same apprehension as you felt back then. In my time at ATS I have been a machinist, technician, lead technician, manufacturing engineer and back to lead technician and I am a short 8 months from a degree in Management and Organizational Leadership from George Fox. I too love my job and it pains me to think that I can only grow if I leave ATS because I see no where for me to go with our current management team in place. Part of my assignment is to write about scandals that have occurred in both companies which have been a little difficult to find and I am wondering if you can enlighten me a little about the time frame you worked at ATS? If not, I understand. I like your 1000 day plan, I am not quite to that point in life, my youngest starts High School next year, but I am following God’s lead and enjoying the ride.
Thank you for your time,
Bryan