RANDOM EVENT 5: I got laid off by every single company I worked for in the Bay Area by the same reason (Budget Cut) (not clear at all) (working on explanation)
I got laid off at TMO in 2016 despite of hard working, and the company cut the budget to hire permanent employees. I left with a lot of questions in my mind. It demanded more man power to complete a lot of projects at that time, but the company decided to hire temp employees with lower compensation to accomplish the projects. The company was under re-engineered or restructured every single department, so no permanent employees would be hired. That reason seemed very popular to all the corporate businesses in Bay Area (Facebook, Google, Uber, and TMO). I was very curious how management team would handle these unbalance.
In 2017, I got laid off by Apple after working there for 10 days. I asked the managers why he fired me. Dave Susnitzky and Laura Yeager told me that I was not fit for this culture, not passionate enough, not communicate enough, and not learn fast enough. I could not sleep because I questioned myself about my mentality, my performance, and my communication skill. My mom and my wife thought that I didn’t know how to use MacBook well, not speak English correctly, not come from a famous school, and was too young for Apple. Those POVs are very irrelevant to me, so I completely ignored them.
After that, I worked for Production team at Nanosys in Milpitas. People were nice over there, and they were bonding very close to each other. I came there to work, and I promised myself not to repeat the same mistake. If I was making the mistake, I had better realize faster than anyone else. I was trying to grow fast over there so that I could work for big companies again. I got out of my comfort zone to learn and do more than what I need to do (5 tasks per day per person-my tasks: making 2 ZINC OLEATE, dried ZINC ACETATE, change oil for pump for swing shift, clean up the areas, filter green shells and core with TFF, and etc.). Even though I screwed up every single month, people were helping me to grow also. However, the manager told me that I would be laid off after 1 year contract. She told me the same reason that company cut budget because no customers’ orders come up next quarter. The production team was monitoring their budget very closely. They decided to let me go, and she was willing to be my reference for new jobs search.
To me, I was used to it, and I did my own investigation. Shareholder letters mentioned company’s debt was greater than quarterly revenue. Company started to doing budget control by training with Kaizen platform, inventory controls, restructuring every single department. There was abundant of new technology exhibition coming up 2018 and 2019. They needed to focus on marketing their technology. There could have been more than hundred reasons related to the company’s financial situation.
The randomness was why I was laid off when the whole production group or R&D group was short on people when I was there. I agreed that the bottom line was short on money. However, I was wondering how the management team was going to fix it. I would leave that question when I became the boss in the next 20 years then. My wife and I assumed that our destiny did not want us to be in the area. However, I did not believe in the destiny because I myself decided my own destiny.
I gathered my own information, so I would prepare when to get out and when to get in like value investment books. I need to recognize signals and noises, and I decided when to act. Usually, managers never mentioned about profits or money loss in the meeting. Managers mentioned about customer satisfaction, customers’ orders, delivery on time, productivity, budget controls. They were the major factors/signals in manufacture, and I should have addressed and understand those factors relating to our department. If the major factors are negative to our department, I would be ready to get out of that group because the layoff might drop the next day. Noises begin in a company that a lot of people quit, but they never mentioned why. The budget cut did not relate to how people quit because people were taking care of themselves only. Employees could not get laid off when they were having abundant of projects on their hands which considered as their own securities. Laying off could happen to the contractors because contractors are replaceable.
To the employees, layoff is tricky. Nobody could explain why because we live in the spinning world with a lot of noises. Even though the bottom line is money, the management team must make a lot of rough decision when to hire and when to fire people. If we knew why we were laid off, it would be not a random action. Layoff or hiring include moral hazard and adverse selection. Mostly, employees never knew why they were laid off besides their own assumptions, and managers repeated the same statement as “financial problem”.
To me, the partial disclosure of information in hiring or layoff caused the randomness in this situation. It was nice that some of my employers let me know in advance the laying off situation, so I could prepare. Otherwise, I could gather information on my own to understand the company’s business performance. Of course, the more I know, the more I do not know. When I could not dig more information, my guts would decide on the uncontrollable information. It was not random that I got laid off at every single company.
My contractor job was replaceable and expensive because agency ate 30% hiring cost of the company for one contractor. Even though I temporarily worked hard, it only lasted more than 15 years before the company replaces me with another younger worker. Therefore, if the company was truly struggling in budget, it would be time to get out. To be proactive on the job market is the survival key in the Bay Area. There are a lot of jobs in the Bay Area, but to look for right decent paying job requires a hard search.
RANDOM EVENT 6:MY WIFE SUDDENLY GOT LAID OFF FROM THE BACKGROUND CHECK AFTER PASSING THE BACKGROUND CHECK (not clear on the solution)
It happened weird on that day when my wife came home early at 4:30pm. Usually, she got off at 5:30pm, and it took her 2 hours to get home from San Mateo. She started crying that Friday night, and she told me what happened at her job. She got the phone call from her recruiter, and the recruiter said that they found untrue information from her background check. According to my wife’s story, the recruiter told her that they could not verify from her Facebook job because Facebook could not find her name in the database. Facebook said my wife might work as the advance coordinator instead of the temp operation manager. The recruiter told my wife not come to work for a week starting from Monday. My wife sent an email to her boss about what happened. Her boss did not reply for a week, and she called the recruiter the next Friday to find another candidate to replace my wife. It meant my wife got fired again even though she passed everything on her background check before starting her job.
To me, everything was completely stupid about the advice from the recruiter. I did not know why the recruiter told my wife not come to work for a week, and the recruiter should have understood that the contractor job could be replaced any time. For sure, the most negative impact was my wife because she would not have a job. The recruiter could not guarantee to find her another job right away.
My second question at that time was why the background check initiated again after the employee passed and started her job. That was very irregular. Everyone I talked to questioned me about the real fact behind that story. Thinking back about that story, I was not sure if the story was real or not. I told my wife to give me the phone number from the recruiter, and she told me it was okay. She did not want me offend people because of my English.
Now I am writing about this random event, and I could have questioned more about that specific event to understand why it was so sudden. I could have executed some actions to find out the fact, but my wife stopped me. I did believe her, but now I realize the irregular story. I saw she was crying when telling me the story, and she only cried if she felt guilty. To me, it was random because I could not understand the whole cause-effect relationship in that story. I could not find out more about it because Linda did not let me investigate and call people like crazy.
RANDOM EVENT 7: GREEN CARD INTERVIEW AND THE CAR BROKE (not clear explanation)
As I was waiting and calling the USCIS monthly, the time finally came. The notification box emailed me about the green card process and my work permit. I was so happy, and I let my wife and my mom know. On my way home, the car engine shut off right in the middle of the road. I was only 1 mile away from home, and luckily one mechanic man offered to help because he lived close there. That unexpected event stressed both of us the last minute. We had no car, and we had to take summer classes for my Pharmacy school. Therefore, three weeks later, we had a green card interview.
There were abundant of events happening almost the same time every single day in my life in 2019. If I was going to be stressed out by those events, I would act stupidly toward those events. I must deal with the uncertainties by the right way which mentioned in Security Analysis book as “coping with the market behaviors”. One by one, I broke down each event with a plan. For the broken car, I am going to find all the leasing deal. Because I had to pay my cousin to fix my car any way, I was going to rent the car from Fair.com under Uber account. This way might reduce rental cost a little bit. While I was waiting for the rental car to be available, I had to borrow a used car from my cousin. However, the borrowing process happened to be another unexpected event.
My cousin gave me his old 1997 Acura, and the car battery died when I was trying to start the engine. I had to carry the portable charger with me on the way driving home. The Acura kept shaking when I was hitting the pedal to pass 40 miles/hour on the freeway. I brought the Acura car back for an exchange. My cousin told to get the 2005 RAM car. Everything was fine until one hot day in July (99 degree F). I could not start the engine because the battery was overheated. I exchanged the RAM with 1997 Acura, and it went fine this time with 60 miles per hour limit. I carried the car battery charger with me along with my toolbox. Two weeks later, the Fair car was ready, and I came over to pick up the car by using BART in Oakland.
It was very stressful for me to deal with the car at that time because I was taking prerequisite classes for my Pharmacy school. Plus, my dog, Logan, got sick with diarrhea. When I had the Mazda 3 (Fair car), I used it to work my second job in Fooxmaxx in order to pay for the car. However, I was completely stupid to think that I could take three jobs and two classes during that period. I ended up registering the online Colorado State University class for Physiology, and I failed the first exam. I ended up owing the school money for $1000 after dropping out for two weeks. I had to negotiate the monthly payment with the school. My wife had to jump in by looking for online Physiology classes for me. I finally passed the course after quitting my second part time job. However, my bank account ended up negative after all the bills from the car rental, rents, and the school courses.
While dealing with those unexpected events, I had to prepare for my green card interview. At the same time, my company had an opening full-time position, and I know the hiring manager since 2016. I showed her the green card interview slip, so the hiring manager and the HR specialist would not be worried about my immigration status because they were trying to help me since 2016. However, I was on OPT at that time, so they could not hire me after the contract expired.
From June to August, there was a serial of events happening in my life that I could not even handle them perfectly. All I could do was trying continuously, and I could not give up. There is new problem every day in my life, and I had to continue solving my problems. I ended up having more debt. However, it was just a beginning of my immigration life after receiving the green card. (about my wife situation, she did not want to work because she had bronchi pneumonia for two months)
Besides the negative consequences about money, I did not deal with the actions and the communication well. The result was I finally survive with the stress hanging in my mentality and my wife’s mentality. I did not plan well, and I did not know how to tell my wife for planning with me. My wife was freaking out because of Logan while she was having the bronchi pneumonia. Jocko, author of Extreme Ownership, says that the command only succeeds when your team understands, and you have the responsibility to ensure the command facilitates the right way because the whole team operation depends on it. My wife did not understand what I was doing, and she only observed that I was voluntarily running around like a crazy person without any clear purposes. I was completely owned by the bills and money.
My suggestion for the this type of solutions is to ask for help, but I would recommend to clarify the specific help that I need. Planning and breaking down the problem is the first step to find the right solution. Breaking down the problems, I had the number of following issues such as: prerequisite classes, medical bills, rental car bill, broken car bills.
Solution 1: Finding online classes would take time, so I should have asked her to help me finding classes with affordable cost. Even though she found the online Physiology class which cost $1250, I missed the deadline because I had no money to pay upfront. Since the bottom issue was the money, I should put the conditions to her as affordability and potential to pass the class. It should not require more than 3 hours per day for that class because of my time portfolio.
Solution 2: This is not a solution, but this is a sacrifice. Linda and Logan both had to go to Hospital. Linda had a bronchi pneumonia, and Logan ate Ollie’s human grade food that caused diarrhea. Both ended up with $900 medical bill total. My weekly paycheck could only cover half of the medical bill. The action I could have done was to delay the medical bill and receive the finance collect letter from the Washington hospital.
Solution 3: rental car and second job are the double edge sword for me. I worked really hard at Foodmaxx along with my biotech manufacture full time job. My foodmaxx paycheck went to pay the rental car. I could not drive Uber because I was so tired from two jobs and two classes. I learnt that I should have bought the full coverage insurance including the rental car option when the car had an issue. The school work should be done first before taking another part time job. Working and going to school while covering the bill meant that I was trying to kill myself, and I would recommend everyone not to do that. My knees were fucked up after quitting working at Foodmaxx. It was not Foodmaxx fault, but my body could not sustain with the sleeplessness and tiredness.
Solution 4: The broken car bill had to be delayed when I told my cousin about my situation. I paid him half of the repairment cost, and I said I would work on my earning situation.
Summary output: I delayed all the bills to work on my school. This was a solution for a part time student with a low paid contractor job, and my wife could not work because of weak health. I told all the young couple about my stories before deciding to live together in Bay Area. I had to sacrifice a lot of things in exchange that my family would not be worried about the financial situation.
P/s: I realize two events on my list are not random at all. they were all the signals and unexpected along with prolonging uncertainties from the government. I should put those events under survival guideline for immigrants in Bay Area. Please leave comments or feedback to help my writing better.
Source:
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