Official Luthiers Forum!

From a person who was a "Headhunter" for over 35 years, stop bad mouthing your former employer. It makes you look bad to all employers. No company worth their salt will hire a person known to speak poorly of a prior employer or their employees. What might they expect of you if they hire you and for some reason had to lay you off or fire you. It's a no win situation. I would recommend distancing yourself from the company by moving on to more productive efforts. You can't win the battle. They are the ones with the deep pockets to fund lawyers. Unless, of course, you are independently wealthy!

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Hey! Why you gotta make me look like the bad guy?

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Thats the mean bear, not the warm, cuddly one.

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

This was my thought exactly, Waddy! As a former (small clinic) employer, I would never hire someone I knew to be bad-mouthing their last employer (and I had a few that did so during the job interview with me). Don't shoot yourself in the foot. Build and be happy!!

If you really want to stick it to them (oh ya) Hugh, you should start your own, better, glue company. You can do it Hugh! Just trying to make a little light of a bad situation. I do feel for you.

How long till your father retires? What is the statute of limitations for pursuing legal action against Franklin for letting you go?
It's been a while back, but I worked with a guy who was let go for questionable reasons. Fours years later, he filed suit, won the suit and got his job back. He showed up, collected his 4+ years back pay and quit.

_________________
A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

You know something we don't know?

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Shhhhhhhhh "looks around" was talking about the wife shhhhhhhhh

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

No, but we aren't talking about goats though, are we.

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Careful Wud, if she reads this you'll never be allowed near St. Louis again!

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Poke.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

THAT'S IT! NOW I'M MAD!

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

MITE AS WILL FACE IT !! IT,S A WORLD GONE MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahh , dont worry . This is all just Hokie . Pokie .. THATS what its all about !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Thanks everyone. This thread has given me some good laughs, useful insights, and many other things. I appreciate it. Letting off some steam, whether fully appropriate or not, around the right people can be a good thing... There is good advice to be found in this thread. I don't think there was a single "keep your chin up, everything will work out somehow," and in my view that speaks to the quality of the people on this forum.

I disagree Todd. A well managed flock would continue to grow bigger, not shrink.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

Very interesting thread. I've been there and feel your pain. I won't elaborate (due to prior wisdom, and since this site has my real name), but a few thoughts:

This company will only reap what they sow. If they prefer employees who know less but seem to "play the game" better, it'll hurt the company in the long run. If you have some strong emotional attachment to the company or the brand, then that is something to be concerned about. Otherwise, I'd say it isn't your problem any more. It is like a bad breakup... you kinda have to decide "their loss, not mine". They'll only ever bother you as much as you let them. I know it isn't easy when the market isn't all that great, but it is still true. They'll keep having problems by discouraging real talent and having strange business practices, but those are THEIR problems. Take that as absolution, take that as schaden freude, but in any case it is the sad truth of the situation.

Congrats on the pickups! I spent a lot of time working on pickup designs myself. I learned a lot and got some cool prototypes out of it. Ultimately it wouldn't be profitable without selling it to a company with larger means (they were over designed) and I never fully got my $#!+ together to try to sell the design, but I learned so much I don't regret it. Pickup design really is a microcosm of lutherie itself, IMO. Playing with wire tension, traverse patterns and metal alloys is just as dizzying as bracing patterns and tap tones. But, I digress.

You're being a good sport, Hugh and that's great to see. I am still in agreement with Phil, Waddy, Beth et al, and can tell you from my own experience within corporate structures that nothing good will come of your poking the Franklin bear; not to you or your father. All you're doing is reducing the odds of your ever getting another gig within the industry.

I like the idea of formulating your own specialty glues and marketing them to niche groups, but that's the entrepreneur in me speaking and may not be practical in your own situation. It may well be that the terms of your severance restrict you from such actions anyway.

Good luck,

_________________
George :-)

Yo Hugh,

This brings to mind the story of the little bird that wooden't fly south.

Once there was this little bird that didn't want to fly south for the winter. But the winds came, and soon the snow and sleeting rain. Being quite miserable, she took off from the cold, wet tree branch.

But soon ice formed on her wings and she could no longer fly and fell to the ground into a cow pasture, cold, shivering, and miserable were upon a cow dropped a plop on top of little bird.
Well the little bird knew it was all over. But to her surprise the warmth from the flap thawed her out and she was so happy she poked her head out and started chirping.
Now the farm yard cat upon hearing the birds act scooped her out and that was the end of the little bird.

So Hugh there are three morals to this story:

1. Those that $hit on you aren't necessarily your enemies.

2. And those who get you out of your $hit ain't necessarily your friends.

and

3. If you're happy in yer $hit, keep your mouth shut.




blessings
?adma

_________________
.

Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


.

With respect to starting my own glue company: I probably could, because upper management specifically instructed HR to inform me that they would not enforce my non-compete. For those of you asking about my dad: the current head of the company came to talk to him the day I was liquidated... Followed by condolences from my department supervisor. He could comfortably retire at any time now and has nothing to worry about. Despite everything that has gone down I am eligible to rehire and to my knowledge the only person who ever wanted me out was my boss. However, the management structure is such that direct supervisors have final say on hire/fire. I'm not aware of so much as a single instance of a decision by a direct supervisor being vetoed from above. Corporate culture is what it is.

As it stands, if I could find an adhesives company that wants to take a shot at the title and depose TB from its high place in the guitar/furniture industries, I know how to make it happen. The upstart costs are too steep for me to take it all on myself... Not to mention, while I enjoy working with adhesives, no matter what I do-- everything always leads me back to guitars. Based on my background of expertise in guitar manufacturing, my ten year plan is to put my company on the map as a major player in the US market. What's that saying again? "Aim for the Moon. Even if you miss you will float through interstellar space for billions of years."

Start a company that sells color matched glues or tint for wood glues........
Hugh's Glue Hues

_________________
Formerly known as Adaboy.......