[speaker001:] [Throat clearing] See, wh-, when you're with a big company or a big organization, a lot of times, uh, you know, the benefits are good and, and, you know, the pay is regular but, uh, you know, sometimes you don't get tuned in to what's going on. And I, I think the biggest benefit or the biggest benefit other than wages that, that, uh, that anybody could get in, in dealing with a large company is to be in a situation where you, you get to know what's going on. And maybe that's, that's probably the toughest thing in the whole world to, to do. What's, what's your feeling about benefits? What sort of benefits would you like to get from a big company.
[speaker002:] [Hum] [talking] Well, since I'm kind of on the, the older side, you know, I, I, I just feel like, uh, when I start talking about benefits, I talk about, I'm concerned about medical benefits [NOISE]. Uh, my, uh, my husband works for McDonald Douglas and so his benefits, his medical benefits are so excellent, you know, that's really great.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] You know, I work for, uh, Wes-, a bank, Western Financial.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, uh, they don't let me know really about anything that's going on. Even some of the immediate things that I need to know, I don't know it until the next hour and all of a sudden we know we've got changes made. We're changing departments. We're changing policies. We're changing doing other kinds of things. Which to me is, is disturbing [lipsmack]. I mean, I feel like if, I, I don't necessarily need to, uh, be involved since I'm pretty much on a low level, you are, you are right there. You know, I'm pretty much on a low level as far as, uh, the company is concerned. But I, I do kind of like to know what's going on and what's happening and I think I can be a better and more effective employee if, if I
[speaker001:] Well, th-, I
[speaker002:] had a little bit more information along that line.
[speaker001:] I well I work for the government and, uh, actually I work for the F B I.
[speaker002:] Oh, my gosh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, and so, you know, we, we don't, there's lots of things that we don't get told. For good reason. But, uh, but basically, uh, there's lots of things that, that we should know about projects. I'm an engineer. You know.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I'm, I'm a COTR. And sometim-, and I, I worked in the same lab with a guy and we didn't really know that much about each other's projects for two years. And we should have, you know, we're, we're now collaborating.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] And
[speaker002:] And it, it,
[speaker001:] for two years we didn't. And, we, which was a, kind of stupid. But, uh, but our organization is doing something else t-, on Monday. Uh, we're having a, for all unclassified programs, we're, we're having little tables put up in front of lab in the hallways and every, all the other employees are going to come around and see what sort of things we do. Which I thought was kind of interesting and,
[speaker002:] Yeah, that is interesting.
[speaker001:] But, uh, but that, that sort, sort of thing.
[speaker002:] [Noise].
[speaker001:] But, if you, I think you can tolerate a lot of problems if you understand what's going on.
[speaker002:] Exactly.
[speaker001:] And, and, but of course most time, most of the time management has a hard time distributing or getting the word out to the people who must know. And, you know, if you don't really count. If you're not part of the program you might not get told for months. Or you might, you know, if it doesn't impact you directly. Or if your management doesn't think that. But, but regard to benefits. You know, most companies have, most big organizations have decent, you know, benefits like retirement and that sort of thing. In the private sector I would think that one of the major, uh, situations, especially when you reach, you know, the, the mid-fifties, wa-, is [swallowing] keeping a job until you retire.
[speaker002:] A-, right.
[speaker001:] And engineers are, uh, [throat clearing] are baggage to most, uh, uh, as they get older, to, to most companies. And, uh, it's very much like the military, it windows out. You know, you, you think well, boy, I'm getting more money and I'm getting more responsibility, I'm doing this. But as you climb up that tree, pretty soon you're, the, the branches get smaller on the top of the tree
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and pretty soon somebody falls off. I, I've fallen off twice in the private sector.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, [LAUGHTER] and, you know, I can get up,
[speaker002:] I know. It, it seems to be, be kind of, kind of scary, you know. Because you think of, uh, see my son's eighteen right now and he, he's, uh, [sigh] he wants to go into engineering. And the, the, the branches of engineering that he wants to go into is now kind of open and he's interested in, basically, three different areas. But, uh, it's difficult for me to try to give him any kind of advice or to advise him or anything like that. He needs to do his own course of investigation and, and see what he can do because who knows what's going to happen in another thirty years.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh. Yeah.
[speaker002:] And in thirty years it becomes pretty critical. I mean, my, uh, brother-in-law is like, uh, I mean he's sixty. He's not ready to retire but his company is, is, uh, is, uh, closing up.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And because of the defense cutbacks and all that kind of stuff. And all the nuclear and stuff which is what he, what he was working on. He's getting cut back and he's not ready to retire [hum] [talking].
[speaker001:] Yeah, he may be retired.