So at the beginning of this month, I received a call back from the head of HR/Factory management at Mesa/Boogie's Petaluma plant, saying that he wanted me to start the next day. Needless to say, I was stoked! Given my love of amps, tube and solid state, I thought I had landed a job where I got to do something I love while being able to finally have an output for all the knowledge of amplifiers and pro audio I've accumulated over the years.
The interview process took a little while (about a month). The boss is a super friendly guy, not only that but he knows a lot about amplifiers...in our interview, we had an in-depth conversation of turret board vs. hand wired vs. PC board construction. He said he had many positions available, and asked me why I wanted the job. I told him straight up that if he didn't give me the job, I was going to build my own amps and put them out of business and we had a laugh.
After that month, he called me back and asked me to start the morning of the eighth. It seemed too good to be true, hours were 6-4, 4 days a week (three days off), optional overtime at time and a half on fridays, a dizzying amount of benefits including a 40% employee discount to factory workers. The pay was $13 an hour.
My first time walking into the factory was magical. The factory, which isn't as big as one would imagine, was a wonderland of vacuum tube technology. One of the first people I talked to was John Marshall, who was Kirk Hammett's former guitar tech. Finally I had a place where I could talk about amps in daily conversation and learn all I can to start a new career!
I am told I am going to be working final assembly. My responsibilities included prepping the head cases with washers, nuts, shielding foil, nailing leather corners on the amps and cutting tolex.
However, something about mesa boogie didn't feel right after a few days.
Something I couldn't help bur notice right of the bat was that all of the workers were, for the most part, segregated by race. All of the Caucasians and orientals occupied one side and the other side was completely compiled of hispanic men and a few oriental men. It took me a while to realize that I was the only caucasian on the entire half of the factory, which was NOT a problem whatsoever. The problem was, nobody on my line could speak English very well. There was one gentleman whose english was decent, but the problem was he was often placed at the complete opposite end of the assembly line. This was the man who was supposed to "train" me. The lead was a Hispanic man who also didn't speak english well and was from the beginning very rude to me. If it had something to do with my race, I don't know, I can only speculate.
However, I did know some rudimentary spanish. I thought this would help, but in a workplace environment, this simply does not cut it. It's one thing to ask "Quiere el aqui?"(Want it here) and gesture to an amp and another to ask, "Do all the nails on the rectoverb combos go on the left side or right side, and is this for just this amp or all of the combos?" and then have to interpret the response.
Obviously, not being able to effectively communicate with the other members of this line led to some confusion. Slow production times, and having to send things back to the beginning of the line were common issues. Not to mention the fact that I received virtually no training. Also notable is that all of the other members of my line had been working 10 years plus, which was also the average time one had been working for the company.
In short, they had simply thrown me at the assembly line and expected me to know it all.
One thing that bothered me as well was the fact that most working in the plant had no practical or technical knowledge of amplifiers. In fact, I'd say a good 9/10 didn't even play guitar or bass.
I had some ideas about some new amplifiers and technologies we could implement (I'm about to obtain patents for some of them) and thought it might be a good idea to pitch some the way of the company. I also had an idea for a comparison videos between the mesa 8x10 and 4/12 cabinets. I presented the ideas to my superiors. When I passed on my idea of the comparison video to my superior, he simply said "That's not a problem of ours right now." I told him I could do it on my own time, and asked him what were the problems currently plaguing the company. He said "Getting amps out the door" and walked off. I had a similar experience with my supervisor regarding that idea.
Another time I talked to the same superior above, and I told him I had lots of ideas for amplifiers and that I would love to propose my ideas to the company. He said, "Ideas around here are like ********, everyone's got one. You gotta-" and walked off mid-sentence.
I don't mean to sound conceited, but I actually knew more about amplifiers than both my superiors...one couldn't even tell you what a high pass filter was.
Both of these superiors were Caucasian and of course, worked on the other side of the building.
I talked to one of the lead techs, and asked him what ever happened to the 400+, he said we couldn't make them fast enough, so now we make these strategy/prodigy amps, which are "eh". He said the 400+ was much better.
The one person on my line who could speak ok english, one of the few times I talked to him, said that all of the orientals working at Mesa were in the same family (of Laotian descent, also directly related by blood). I already knew that this guy's uncle and brother worked at this company (they were hispanic) but also one of the men who worked on the other side's uncle was a higher up in the company. I thought it was funny that this man (who was about 19, 20) has worked three different positions in some of the most technical fields despite only working there for 3 months with no prior knowledge. Couldn't hold a conversation about amps. I was told I had to earn that, and that it would take 10 years at the least to get to where this guy was in the company...fishy. Also fishy was the fact that all of the workers on my side had been working for 10-15 years plus at the company and never moved up from final assembly...one man i knew had only gotten a $1 raise in 10 years!
I enjoyed my work but I could not see myself doing it for 10 years. That depressed me. Also depressing was working on amps I know I'll never be able to afford.
At the end of 2 weeks, I was cleaning up thursday at the end of my shift, and the boss asks to talk to me. He immediately tells me "it's not going to work out" He could not give me a straight answer why. I showed up on time, left on time, worked my hardest the entire time, but his first response was "You're not working fast enough." I explained to him I had been working for mesa for under 2 weeks and he said "We can tell if it's not worth the time to train someone, if they don't have potential". I asked him why not place me somewhere else in the factory. He said no other positions were available. ( I recall him saying many were available when I interviewed)
I explained to him I did not understand spanish and had difficulty effectively communicating with the other members of my line. He changed his response to "Well maybe your personalities didn't match up"
I asked him how he came to this conclusion of me being to slow, he told me that my entire line and supervisor had agreed I was too slow...but the day before I saw them all talking together. My lead also talked to them one on one several times in spanish but I was never included in the conversations.
I took my 2 week's pay and left. I was effectively discharged under an "employer at will" clause.
Despite almost a week having passed since, I'm still fairly bitter. I genuinely think I was the perfect candidate for this position, had lots of potential, and did everything as best as I could as a trainee.
Am I wrong for being bitter?
The interview process took a little while (about a month). The boss is a super friendly guy, not only that but he knows a lot about amplifiers...in our interview, we had an in-depth conversation of turret board vs. hand wired vs. PC board construction. He said he had many positions available, and asked me why I wanted the job. I told him straight up that if he didn't give me the job, I was going to build my own amps and put them out of business and we had a laugh.
After that month, he called me back and asked me to start the morning of the eighth. It seemed too good to be true, hours were 6-4, 4 days a week (three days off), optional overtime at time and a half on fridays, a dizzying amount of benefits including a 40% employee discount to factory workers. The pay was $13 an hour.
My first time walking into the factory was magical. The factory, which isn't as big as one would imagine, was a wonderland of vacuum tube technology. One of the first people I talked to was John Marshall, who was Kirk Hammett's former guitar tech. Finally I had a place where I could talk about amps in daily conversation and learn all I can to start a new career!
I am told I am going to be working final assembly. My responsibilities included prepping the head cases with washers, nuts, shielding foil, nailing leather corners on the amps and cutting tolex.
However, something about mesa boogie didn't feel right after a few days.
Something I couldn't help bur notice right of the bat was that all of the workers were, for the most part, segregated by race. All of the Caucasians and orientals occupied one side and the other side was completely compiled of hispanic men and a few oriental men. It took me a while to realize that I was the only caucasian on the entire half of the factory, which was NOT a problem whatsoever. The problem was, nobody on my line could speak English very well. There was one gentleman whose english was decent, but the problem was he was often placed at the complete opposite end of the assembly line. This was the man who was supposed to "train" me. The lead was a Hispanic man who also didn't speak english well and was from the beginning very rude to me. If it had something to do with my race, I don't know, I can only speculate.
However, I did know some rudimentary spanish. I thought this would help, but in a workplace environment, this simply does not cut it. It's one thing to ask "Quiere el aqui?"(Want it here) and gesture to an amp and another to ask, "Do all the nails on the rectoverb combos go on the left side or right side, and is this for just this amp or all of the combos?" and then have to interpret the response.
Obviously, not being able to effectively communicate with the other members of this line led to some confusion. Slow production times, and having to send things back to the beginning of the line were common issues. Not to mention the fact that I received virtually no training. Also notable is that all of the other members of my line had been working 10 years plus, which was also the average time one had been working for the company.
In short, they had simply thrown me at the assembly line and expected me to know it all.
One thing that bothered me as well was the fact that most working in the plant had no practical or technical knowledge of amplifiers. In fact, I'd say a good 9/10 didn't even play guitar or bass.
I had some ideas about some new amplifiers and technologies we could implement (I'm about to obtain patents for some of them) and thought it might be a good idea to pitch some the way of the company. I also had an idea for a comparison videos between the mesa 8x10 and 4/12 cabinets. I presented the ideas to my superiors. When I passed on my idea of the comparison video to my superior, he simply said "That's not a problem of ours right now." I told him I could do it on my own time, and asked him what were the problems currently plaguing the company. He said "Getting amps out the door" and walked off. I had a similar experience with my supervisor regarding that idea.
Another time I talked to the same superior above, and I told him I had lots of ideas for amplifiers and that I would love to propose my ideas to the company. He said, "Ideas around here are like ********, everyone's got one. You gotta-" and walked off mid-sentence.
I don't mean to sound conceited, but I actually knew more about amplifiers than both my superiors...one couldn't even tell you what a high pass filter was.
Both of these superiors were Caucasian and of course, worked on the other side of the building.
I talked to one of the lead techs, and asked him what ever happened to the 400+, he said we couldn't make them fast enough, so now we make these strategy/prodigy amps, which are "eh". He said the 400+ was much better.
The one person on my line who could speak ok english, one of the few times I talked to him, said that all of the orientals working at Mesa were in the same family (of Laotian descent, also directly related by blood). I already knew that this guy's uncle and brother worked at this company (they were hispanic) but also one of the men who worked on the other side's uncle was a higher up in the company. I thought it was funny that this man (who was about 19, 20) has worked three different positions in some of the most technical fields despite only working there for 3 months with no prior knowledge. Couldn't hold a conversation about amps. I was told I had to earn that, and that it would take 10 years at the least to get to where this guy was in the company...fishy. Also fishy was the fact that all of the workers on my side had been working for 10-15 years plus at the company and never moved up from final assembly...one man i knew had only gotten a $1 raise in 10 years!
I enjoyed my work but I could not see myself doing it for 10 years. That depressed me. Also depressing was working on amps I know I'll never be able to afford.
At the end of 2 weeks, I was cleaning up thursday at the end of my shift, and the boss asks to talk to me. He immediately tells me "it's not going to work out" He could not give me a straight answer why. I showed up on time, left on time, worked my hardest the entire time, but his first response was "You're not working fast enough." I explained to him I had been working for mesa for under 2 weeks and he said "We can tell if it's not worth the time to train someone, if they don't have potential". I asked him why not place me somewhere else in the factory. He said no other positions were available. ( I recall him saying many were available when I interviewed)
I explained to him I did not understand spanish and had difficulty effectively communicating with the other members of my line. He changed his response to "Well maybe your personalities didn't match up"
I asked him how he came to this conclusion of me being to slow, he told me that my entire line and supervisor had agreed I was too slow...but the day before I saw them all talking together. My lead also talked to them one on one several times in spanish but I was never included in the conversations.
I took my 2 week's pay and left. I was effectively discharged under an "employer at will" clause.
Despite almost a week having passed since, I'm still fairly bitter. I genuinely think I was the perfect candidate for this position, had lots of potential, and did everything as best as I could as a trainee.
Am I wrong for being bitter?
