[speaker001:] well a large organization offers uh usually a good vacation time and they offer uh holidays and and medical and dental programs sometimes as well as just the ability to takeoff uh personal leave or whatever you need and one thing that I've found coming in handy lately is juror duty uh being paid for that or or at least a full days pay plus whatever the the local government pays you it's nice to be able to do that and not have to concern yourself with your job as it were especially if you get on a case
[speaker002:] that's true
[speaker001:] so uh
[speaker002:] and you get sequestered or something then you're there for months
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] when when you get sequestered and you're there for months
[speaker001:] right that would be uh a
[speaker002:] true
[speaker001:] problem of course in my job I don't know who would do it while I'm gone that long we're desperately trying to find time to uh train someone else to do it but I feel certainly it would still be there if if not burying me but uh it'll be there when I get back uh flex times another benefit that I I like that TI's been doing uh though officially they just started it uh uh relatively recently uh we were always given the privilege with our supervisor that was there we were really small shop and there was only one shift so we didn't interfere with anyone and he liked the idea of having someone there early enough to handle third shift's concerns and late enough to handle second shift and so he allowed us to come in basically as we as we wanted to and as it worked out two or three of us were there about six in the morning and
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and later on well eight to nine o'clock some other ones would show up and that puts people there at the five o'clock time frame and it really worked out well and then then of course they came long and sanctioned it and and actually made it a little worse in that they said they didn't want any of us starting before six thirty so uh it wasn't too much of a blow but uh the people that we were interfacing with didn't like that too well
[speaker002:] yeah right
[speaker001:] they have to hang around a little later to get there third shift work in but uh it's it's nice to have flex time especially being able to take off in the middle of the day and uh not hurt your pay if you come back and finish your eight hours that's that's a real benefit what have you found that you like in a big organization
[speaker002:] well as as you say the the um benefits are the biggest part of it I think that today with costs uh for medical insurance and eyeglasses and dental and all that it is a boom a a a plus to have that even as far as your uh salary goes you know along with it because it's not out of pocket money and it they also have good insurance uh life insurance policies good retirement Dakota the um jet funds all that stuff I think you know the IRA's
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh the profit sharing the stock options there are a they offer a lot of ways for you to save money too if you have any extra you know that like the uh code over the two for one type of thing or they match half I guess it is
[speaker001:] um-hum right
[speaker002:] and um I think that uh a a lot of it's the personal recognition that the company gives people if they do a good job uh the incentive you know to want to do a good job and the um MIR awards banquets and things I think they do a lot as far as trying to motivate people and they're uh meetings to keep you full informed
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] you don't find that much in small companies because you can kind of interface but when you get a big company like ours I think it's great that they take the time to you know give us a monthly meeting to tell us what's going on
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] that type of thing um uh
[speaker001:] do you
[speaker002:] we interface kind of like uh on the tip teams and things I think that's a good deal
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] it gives you a chance to feel like you're a part of a group or the organization and that you're heard and know and if you have ideas that type of thing
[speaker001:] um-hum do you find that your vacation time do you manage to use it up or do you end up into the must use okay
[speaker002:] oh I use it up
[speaker001:] there's a number of us in our little group that end up having to take the must used five or six of us in fact uh just tend not to get around to taking it all at once and uh by the end of the year it kind sneaks up on us and I managed to carry forward the maximum amount there is and and uh I'm still doing uh my wife works uh half of a half of one day one day a week so on Thursdays
[speaker002:] do you have a mandatory
[speaker001:] excuse me
[speaker002:] uh do you have a mandatory shut down
[speaker001:] no we don't have uh we do have mass vacation but in our group it doesn't apply we're so busy year round yeah
[speaker002:] oh that's why see see you can you're able to do that but we haven't got much choice
[speaker001:] right too
[speaker002:] that's the if I had to say one thing negative that would be it because I feel like you know you earn your vacation time and you should be able to take it when you want to
[speaker001:] take it when you want to yeah
[speaker002:] but we're not allowed to we have to take two weeks when the company shuts down you know
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and I can understand it from there point of view in on the one hand because they have to you know consider the customers that they're supplying
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] but it makes it very hard especially if a husband and wife work at Texas Instruments
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and one has vacation one time and one has vacation another time you know you're not in the same area
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] so you have to take a two week shut down and it's not at the same time so that isn't too nice uh this year they were going to try to do something different about that too they were going to try to schedule the whole site to go down at the same time
[speaker001:] oh boy
[speaker002:] to eliminate that and that you're talking about five thousand people
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so that's quite a feat in itself
[speaker001:] yeah it is we've got um if I take half a day off during the summertime when the kids are out of school I can manage to be home in time to uh take care of the kids before the wife leaves she works uh oh I starts about eleven or twelve o'clock uh at the dentist office and works until seven thirty or eight that's just one late night to it to clean teeth as it were and
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] he had a hard time finding someone that was willing to work that that that seldom and in those hours and she didn't mind keeping her hand in the business while the kids were growing up as it were and she worked that day and then occasional Saturdays and uh with with the vacation time even if I takeoff the ten or twelve times a
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] a Thursday during the summer I still don't eat up all my vacation and end up taking a full week somewhere else and then having a day or two left over on top of that so
[speaker002:] oh that's great
[speaker001:] it's it's kind of nice to be able to do both and uh I'll probably be doing that for a few years now until the kids get old enough to stay by themselves
[speaker002:] yeah really that's excellent
[speaker001:] so yeah it's nice to have these little little benefits that I know wouldn't uh wouldn't happen in a real small company several of my friends have left uh the Metroplex is just full of little companies and they've left TI to go to a little company and and ended up you know even though they started with some vacation time uh it just did they had to schedule it around when they could get away and it just wasn't as convenient as being able to say well tomorrow I think I will you know
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] and uh then they don't have quite the job security although you know now there's a lot of people getting cut but still but by and large the majority of people that are still there in even in the defense industry uh
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] if the job has got something you know something worth doing as far as the contract goes if there is a contract then you're probably pretty secure on that contract
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and
[speaker002:] well they're doing a lot with um automation specialist also that's what I do uh where you have to go to school to or run the new automated automated equipment it's all computerized and and stuff
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh there's a lot of job security in that because it takes so long to uh come up to an experience level where you're able to you know you have to be able to maintain them do the maintenance uh
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] diagnose what's wrong with the machine and you know do whatever it takes to get it started again and things and interface with the technicians in the toolroom so you're kind of like your own boss as far as the machinery goes and um it's about a two year to three year experience before you're able to really um I would say payback
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] you know and and do the job well
[speaker001:] well that's good
[speaker002:] and you're still learning even after all that time because they're very complex machines
[speaker001:] yeah it's good that you can pick up something that adds to both your your security and your knowledge base
[speaker002:] exactly that's right
[speaker001:] you're getting two things at once there
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] well have
[speaker002:] and they offer uh a lot of uh opportunity to go to school
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] that's another good uh benefit that TI has and they'll pay for ninety percent of your schooling with no commitment to them
[speaker001:] right right
[speaker002:] you know like a lot of companies will send you to school but you have to sign a paper that you'll work for them for five years or uh you know to that affect
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and you're kind of locked in so that if a career move comes up where you could take advantage of it you can't if you're you know signed in a contract
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] whereas at TI they don't do that
[speaker001:] yeah I've I've looked at several uh courses as it were the only problem that we have is things that are that are specifically on our job uh that the courses that apply to our job other than the real basics like just the math and the physics and the like uh all of them are taught at colleges that are very remote in other words there like there's one in Washington DC and there's one in Oregon
[speaker002:] oh oh oh
[speaker001:] and they're they're just a few in the country that even have this type of training but just keeping up on the basics I guess are things that we could continue to do but um
[speaker002:] yeah well this part of the country there's no shortage shortage of uh good schools
[speaker001:] well we have we have lots of
[speaker002:] you know like MIT and and uh Boston's only uh an hours drive from here
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] so a lot of the the people can go you know to uh a good school
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and right in Rhode Island there are some nice colleges too Rhode Island college and
[speaker001:] we have lots of uh schools they just only only one in the entire area offers a course in what's called