The Perception of Competency

What I have noticed in this company is that people give the appearance of competency while not really knowing or understanding the fundamentals of what they’re doing. Since our last ‘real’ Engineer in Mobiles left to Dell, I have noticed a trend in what the other ‘Software Engineers’ as well as ‘Hardware Engineers’ actually do. It seems that they get by without any real responsibility for their actions simply because they are backed by the Management/Staff or are apart of a governing/powerful group within the company.

However, what I see from this unofficial hierarchy is the extension of racism and favoritism. The way this works is simple. Those in favor will be promoted over others regardless of knowledge or ability and the rest stagnate or fight over the scraps left that they think might position themselves into a position of power.

In reality, the job titles have little to do with what is really going on. They are simply for show and to show that they are just in a favored position.

I have been collecting evidence for a lawsuit and will continue to collect information in order to show my lawyer evidence of unfair treatment of employees/contractors. It saddens me how a few can spoil the bunch but in this case too many of the bunch either do not say anything about these injustices and/or actually feel that this is what should happen. Therefore my hand is forced to right these injustices myself.

Even company emails sent are very questionable in their materials (such are pictures or what the content may imply) and I will scrutinize them as well before handing them over for legal counsel.

The more that changes, the more things stay the same

Life can be such a wonderful thing. To live happy and be happy. To learn and grow as life carries on. To develop a sense of self, what is real and what is not. I haven’t spent much time thinking deeply or wallowing in long isolated periods of self reflection as of late since I am forced to deal with many unnecessary outside forces.
However, I have learned many things about the artificial system that has been constructed, in which we are forced to live in. I have learned during my time in Corporate America how the bureaucracy of Management works.
What happens, in short, is that (from the top, down) those in places of authority hire subordinates and lower level staff/Managers that will replicate not only the will and values of the organization but more importantly, the attitudes (whether good or bad) and perceptions of morality, what is fair, what is just, what is business and what is considered not.
In this system there are many different players but where I work, I have come to realize that as many things change, things remain the same. This is not a good thing. Life is constantly evolving, changing and as humans we are apart of that cycle of change. However, there are always those that will want to perpetuate a broken system either because they benefit from that system and fear a perceived loss of power or incorrectly believe that what they believe in is genuinely correct.
An artificial system based on artificial tools will only create a more artificial system. What I’m talking about is the very system that benefits a few and actively destroys growth of the natural human social climate as well as the physical, emotional and psychological areas of the amazing, intrinsic human spheres of development.
What is destroying us as people is Capitalism, ie. human greed and the answer is not necessarily socialism but a Capitalistic socialism.
If the natural minerals, fruit & vegetables, oil in the ground and everything else in the lands, oceans off the coasts, in the rivers and waterways as well as in the air belong to the people of that country, then every dollar made from production, refinement or sale of those goods should be taxed from the company that produces those goods to the people (even if they are the customers of the product) of that country.
It doesn’t make much sense that only a small percentage of the population (usually already privileged), benefit from the natural resources that belongs to the people. I actually believe that it is robbing the people of that country. There should never be a system in place where the people of a country are at the mercy of a privileged class of people. That is what we call tyranny.
I think most people would understand and agree with that. What most people don’t probably realize is that, that is exactly what’s going on in the business world within the bureaucracy of Management in regards to its hiring processes and criteria of how they ‘select’ qualified candidates.
I’m going to be completely honest here and I’m not going to be politically correct about it. The Corporate system is a self serving, racist, neo conservative, dictatorial, tyrannical and pathological system. And if the people of the countries of the world don’t crush them now then they deserve what they’re in for in the future.
I can honestly state that hiring managers at HP, most especially at the director level, are racist, soulless, pathological halfwits. The level of reason exercised is that of a socially decrepit high school nerd that bases the world in a complete logical fallacy on steroids. Most of the people that are hired are done so out of favoritism or artificial, imagined freshly constructed grandeur (oh <insert name of favored individual> is great! Don't you know what he/she is capable of!?).
I have met many smart people during my travels around the world while here and abroad but I now realize that these people are so low they hire certain White college graduates without interviews, hire White people in general above everyone else without regard to skillset or ability and I have witnessed even a White Manager hire a newly contracted White contractor as a permanent member that doesn’t show any real talent, ability and most definitely, any more knowledge than any of the other contractors.
Let me be clear there is obviously something going on here.
I also have no problem putting their names into the public sphere and will gladly do so.
At Hewlett-Packard, in Houston, Texas at 11445 Compaq drive, the hiring Managers Gunnar Seaburg, Chuck Elliott as well as their higher up, Stan Gordon (Personal Systems Group, Supply Chain or PSG, SC) have questionable hiring practices.
If you have doubts about it then I challenge you to question Chris Evers (newly hired college graduate) about his hiring process and Matt Lohr (newly contracted contractor hired permanent, was told to interview for his position without anyone else knowing) about his hiring process. Of course, there are emails about how wonderfully they have performed but it was at the expense and knowledge of everyone else showing them what to do. This is a falsely constructed system to aid in falsely deserving positions of power.
What is most mind blowing is that all of their permanent new hires are all male and White. All of them. I don’t think it is plausible that this is just coincidence.

Corporate America is a joke

 

I am constantly surprised by what I see in this place on a daily basis.  I thought lack of technical ability was a weakness here but I’m wrong.  I think the real deficit is due to plain stupidity.  I honestly believe these people bought their degrees rather than earned them.

If I was to put some of these guys against high school kids, I’d wager the high school kids would give them a run for their money.  To be honest, I am an average skilled worker.  Nothing special.  I know that no one is perfect but what I see is fellow degreed Engineers that have to be trained in their profession, rather than trained about internal processes.

However, this is my last post about this topic.  I long for the day to save enough money to start my own software company and leave this god forsaken place.

Hewlett Packard - The place where….shit sucks?

I guess my frustration with this place is beginning to get to me. I honestly think the management of this place is going to kill the company.

I’m not just talking about the executives.  I mean upper management, middle management, lower management, supervisors, staff and all other areas of ‘management’ personnel.

The level of bureaucracy and dumbing down of everything is absolutely ridiculous and pathetic.  My only hope out of being here is to just stay employed while I hone my skills on my hobbies at home.  There isn’t much this place can offer most people with half a brain and are self motivated after being here a few years.

I think the Corporations in Western countries are going to end up destroying civilization as a whole.  The level of creativity in this place sucks, the software…sucks, the vast majority of most of anything this place makes even in the hardware now sucks.

Since working here I have seen the most horrendous business practices, horrendous Engineering practices and pure absolute incompetence or a lack of intestinal fortitude overall to say anything about such practices, even by people with direct responsibility to challenge it.

I truly hope that another decent opportunity opens up for me.  I really want to get more into the Software Development side of things and make good products.

The Socio-Economic Structure we live in.

 

As a military Veteran with a degree in Engineering and another degree in Software Development, I’ve come across a lot of different personalities and people with varying extremes of points of view.  However, looking back at the people that I have worked with in the past, both in military and civilian environments, as well as the people I work with now I have noticed very similar patterns.

Largely, the people I have worked with in the past that were in supervisor positions (in the military or in civilian life) appeared to lack any real working knowledge about the job that was very technical in nature.  At the time, it didn’t seem like much of a deal because ‘if someone was senior they deserved respect’ and such.  Of course, now I have worked in the Engineering/Technical fields for quite some time and still see these very similar these happening.

The corporate and military systems (higher up) believe in a more closed system rather than open system of merit.  And more so, play at ‘favorites’ rather than talent, which is why many products that appear to be made by well established companies are really sub par.  The real deficit in many countries is the deficit of valuing real talent.  I see many that would rather tell someone that may influence their career perspectives what they want to hear rather than what should be done.

At first it may seem to be very obvious how it works, but after observing for a while it has become more insidious than first believed.  Knowledge, intelligence, and crucial information is hoarded and kept for those ‘deemed’ worthy of knowing but in reality there aren’t any officially recognizable factors at play.  It all comes down to favoritism and how exclusivity rules over every other factor.

Since I have worked in the military and in corporate America, I have watched  redundantly the weak govern the strong to its own peril.  There are so many ‘management’ or ‘staff’ personnel that benefit without much effort while everyone else is forced to play politics.  Of course, it seems almost morbidly humorous until you realize it really isn’t at all.

One could argue how truly unfair life is but it never was meant to be fair but as intelligent beings we should be able to see how ridiculous the power structures are and their influences on the world at large.  However, I believe with the addition of the internet the power can be put back into those that can create and produce versus those that just have money.

The old paradigm was good workers are good until they aren’t worth paying anymore.  The creative are good creators until they aren’t worth paying anymore.  Now, I think a new paradigm is going to happen within the next fifty years.  Those at the top of this nonsensical pyramid are not worth being at the top anymore since they don’t really have any unique value that anyone else is unable to acquire.