Ground Stop...

I'm off to China this week to meet with our joint venture partners and this is how my trip begins.
Yep UAL157 is my flight. SFO is on ground stop but good news! That only affects domestic flights... er... wait a minute I'm flying international. What happens if I miss my flight? Well I can get booked on the next flight which is probably tomorrow.

This trip has been doomed from the start anyway. I won't make it to CiXi until Monday afternoon - make that wouldn't have. If I miss my connection in SFO my trip drops to 3days effectively.

Wish me luck!

These are the guys I'll really miss...

It's sad to leave. This made my day.

From: Park, Ken

Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 4:29 PM

To: Babb, Brian

Subject:

Hi Brian
I just heard that you’re leaving Honeywell soon.
I want to say good luck at your new place and I know you’re going to doing well.
Also, say Hi to Russell for me.

And I would like to say thank you again for rehired me on Jul-2004.
This is something that I will not forget for a long time.
I’m enjoying work for Turbos for Mark and there is lots of opportunity to grow up for me.

Please take care and god bless you

Regards,
ken

Just quit, already...

It's official, after almost nine years toiling at Honeywell - I'm resigning...

That is of course if I can get my boss on the phone!

My boss and I are in the same location maybe 100 times a millennium. His travel schedule is far more rigorous than mine but we always seem to pass each other on the way to the airport/Mexico.

I have been trying for two days to get him on the phone to tell him I am resigning. This after spending an entire day finding an admin that had access to his travel profile to figure out what timezone he's in. I signed my offer letter on Thursday. The clock is ticking.

Anyway - today's the day - I'm going to call him, actually speak to him and tell him - I just feel it.

Leaving Honeywell will be difficult but it's the best thing for us right now. I'm leaving to go work for my previous boss as the product line director for a family of industrial valves. I know. Sexy. Glamorous. Certainly my life is going to change, what with all the models and movie stars I'll have to party with...

The hard part isn't leaving the job. Its leaving behind the many close friends, most of whom are in another country, that I've made over the last nine years...

Vindication!

Ok, I admit it. I hold on to things too long. Call them grudges if you will, I think of them more as emotional equivalents of the occupied west bank. Little fortresses built of ire.

In one particular instance I have been very good. I have been very nice. I have not made disparraging comments. I have not passed judgement. Not once.

Background: Last year I was asked to fill a temproary role as the Director of Program Management - while they looked for a real candidate of course...

Nevermind I was/am the most experienced in the division, regulary sought out as a resource by others in the organization and I know the business to boot... no, we needed a change.

We needed... someone new, someone with an outsiders perspective, someone with an english accent!

This morning I had the pleasure of really seeing my replacement in action. He's been on the job for 9 months. Here are some of the gems from a Project Phase exit he was holding.

"Is that very technical?"
(in response to a heat exchanger modeling tool used to appropriately size the heat exchanger - nah, any midly intelligent monkey can do it)

(while looking at two graphs - one showing the change in temperature over time)
"So the one on top is varying from zero to 650c and the one on the bottom is going from -900 to +500"
"Yes."
"Why is that?"
"Because its the derivative of the one on top."
(confused silence)
(I'll spare you the doomed attempt by one of the project engineers to explain what a derivative is)


"So how much is that going to cost to do that?"
(after reviewing the incremental costs necessary to improve the reliability of the product, line by line with the total summed at the bottom, in bold and labeled "Total cost to implement")


They were right - I was WAAAYYYYY over qualified for that job.