[speaker001:] so how do you like the benefits of TI
[speaker002:] um well actually to tell you the truth uh not very well I resigned from Texas Instruments not shortly
[speaker001:] oh that's right yeah
[speaker002:] ago and found that my uh after having worked there for twenty one years  my vested interest in my pension fund was amounted to less than three quarters of a year of salary
[speaker001:] yeah that's that's one problem with uh engineering jobs is it's you you really need some sort of more flexible or portable pension you know something more like a either 401K well I guess you get part of into 401K one oh 401K but what what is the uh key health plan that people who are privately employed use
[speaker002:] um I don't know uh the the uh I guess I guess the that that issue was a TI retirement uh benefit is it is what they call a defined a defined benefits program which means if you retire you get benefits
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] um if you don't retire you get shit
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh but I think the government sort of passed some kind of legislation some long time ago that said well you can't do that you can't just kiss them off if they don't retire and so there's some nominal uh amount amount that has to be vested with the employee but uh in this modern day and age where there is job mobility I mean uh it's time for employers to stop screwing the employees out of their retirement benefits by invoking this uh defined benefits plan
[speaker001:] yeah what also seems like a lot of company set the benefits based on your last salary when you left the company so you know let's say you've worked there for twenty years
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] you stopped working there you go work for somebody else for fifteen years and because of inflation alone um you know your twenty years is worthless just because it's it's not an index to fund it's based on the actual dollar amount of when you worked there
[speaker002:] right which is all the more reason I think that the employee should have control over his pension account
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um of course the initial question that was asked related to uh actually I can't remember anymore but to
[speaker001:] it benefits benefits in general
[speaker002:] it related to what do you look for in a position other than salary and I guess my mind before it referred to benefits my mind was not thinking a long the with the ideas lines of benefits at all but rather um career gratification gratification and you know that kind of thing
[speaker001:] um-hum well that's one thing you do get with a large company they're you know it's well it's actually can go both ways something some ways you have more opportunities because there're so many things going on within the company but you also may get key holed and you are a ex type person therefore you should only work on this type project
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and that I guess to some extent depends on the philosophy of the company and whether they pigeon hole people or allow people to go in to to any area they want to
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum boy I there there were some something happened to your signal your signal at that point did you notice it
[speaker001:] yeah there there was some clicking on the line I'm not sure what
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] whether that's local or somewhere in the long distance network between New Jersey and wherever you are
[speaker002:] in California
[speaker001:] California okay
[speaker002:] or whether it's part of the uh switchboard system
[speaker001:] this is also possible
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] somewhere between Texas
[speaker002:] well party of my part of my reason for coming to California was California
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh it is it I love it it's a wonderful place but the the price of housing is is just totally looney
[speaker001:] well it depends on where you go if you go up uh far enough north it doesn't it gets cheaper again but then again there's you you
[speaker002:] well that's true up in Redding uh the housing prices are probably comparable to Dallas where I came from but down here the housing prices are
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] about a factor of five higher which is really ridiculous
[speaker001:] yeah I know New Jersey is just slightly above the national average which was yeah it's about twice the price of Atlanta
[speaker002:] at any rate
[speaker001:] but uh the housing the housing prices have definitely dropped
[speaker002:] so I guess one of the things you look for in a job uh is um affordable cost of living
[speaker001:] yeah cost cost of living cost of housing is the salary enough to allow me to do the activities I want to do
[speaker002:] of course the most wonderful thing for the company and the most wonderful thing for the employee too is if what you want to do is to work
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] not so great for the family but uh