On to the next Project... and its a Doozey!

 

Here I am ... Still hanging around in Vancouver working for a silicon chip mega-corp... pining for other things but apparently too afraid to pull the pin and just go.

Yep, I still feel dependent on the income, but I give myself a bit of a break on that front because thats exactly how we are all supposed to feel in order to keep us all being productive members of the economy for as long as possible. So Im being a good little worker I guess.

And at least its being a fairly lucrative enslavement to the man...  compared to times past anyway. Im currently being paid more than ever before and the company is also doing very well for its self with very high demand for its range of products resulting in consecutive quarters of record revenue and profits... And the company has been sharing some of those profits with their employees more than they have ever done before in the form of some bonusses. So things are better than they have ever been on that front.

But that doesnt stop me from realizing that money isnt the same as time and at some point, as I get older and have less and less remaining time available, I will decide that my time is more valuable than the money they are offering. And that point is in the near future Im sure.

At this stage, the initial disengagement from work will be July next year when Im taking a few months off as a "sabbatical" and I may or may not do some more work for mega-corp after that at my discretion rather than theirs.

And in the mean-time I've been planning a moto trip to Western Europ next year and started making contacts to buy a moto over in Ireland. And on the home front, Ive been kitting out my Tenere 700 ready for another long ride in the Americas when I get back to that... But therein lies a problem, because Ive basically completed that build over the past summer and Ive little left to do on the bike other than ride it ... which I did do all summer around Vancouver, and it was indeed enjoyable, though not like a big trip. The bike is all set-up with panniers and protection and large fuel-tanks (500Km range at least), and steering damper and improved suspension etc... Just gotta go ride it now.

So Im in need of a new project while I wait for next summers planned big trip and am still stuck in Vancouver working for the man. (Looking for "The Next Big Thing" for me to work on). And like lots of people I go exploring for ideas on Youtube and have come up with "a good one!". 

And I did this about a year ago actually but didnt act on it any sooner because I didnt have a solid plan wrt work and travels, and I also had just bought the Tenere as a project at that point, but mostly because the base unit that I would need for this other project was unavailable. Its not that it was too expensive or an impossible dream, its just that these things are very uncommon over here in Canada and none were available for sale... But a couple of months ago one showed up on the local second-hand web site and I enquired and started working through negotiations etc.  And this past weekend I closed the deal and Im now the owner of a 2008 Mitsubishi Fuso FG 4x4 truck!

It looks pretty mundane now but its going to be the base of an Expedition vehicle that Im going to "build".

These things are quite common in Australia for overlanding, but as I said they are pretty rare over here in North America and in fact Mitsubishi is pulling completely out of the NA market this year so buying used is the only way to go now anyway. The reason they are pulling out is that they just cant compete with the domestic truck market (things like the Ford F550, and Ram 5500 etc). But that competition is a different beast and does not do what I want. The main drawback of those vehicles is that while they are 4x4 and have big diesel V8 engines etc, they are very long. The little truck Ive just bought is very short because of the "cab-over-engine" format and that makes them great for tight and rough terrain.

Anyway, I now have a 5 tone 4x4 Turbo diesel, and it cost me more than any other vehicle I have ever owned... more in fact than anything Ive bought other than my house! At present it has an aluminium tipper box and a couple of large winches and snow-chains and a bunch of sundry items that Ill be selling off as I convert to a 4-season expedition camper.

Why am I doing this?  Because I have learned that I like going on long slow "walkabouts" and that as I get older, solo moto-touring is really quite hard on the body and more than a little inconvenient and uncomfortable for a lot of the time. This "expedition truck" thing seems to me to be a lot more comfortable and similarly able to go to the places I want to... tho it costs significantly more to do it this way (but it also accommodates 2 people pretty well too for when I want company on my travels.)

But this project will be nowhere near as quick to complete as the motorbike (which is a good thing and largely why I chose it) and will also cost a whole lot more too (that is a bad thing, but Im hoping to mitigate that by the potential resale value).

 There is a lot of stuff to design and build for this...

 1) Wheel and suspension conversion.

2) Camper body design and shell installation.

3) Camper interior fitout.

4) Solar/Battery/Power design/fitout.

5) Water/plumbing design/fitout

6) Heating and Airconditioning fitout

All in all I expect the full build to cost about $130,000 to $160,000   ... Thats a huge amount of money but it would cost probably twice that to try to buy one or haver someone else make it for me to the same spec. And it will not be a single build effort either, where I cant use it at all till its fully done... Im planning to build it in stages and use it in the meantime while I figure out the next build stage. Ultimately, I want it to be a full 4-season camper (That means from fully arctic conditions to full desert to full jungle etc) and I want the truck and camper body to be able to fit in a 40' container for international shipping (way better than shipping as supercargo).

So, Ive now committed to the project and done the first big spend. More spending will ensue and Ill post updates as I progress. First upgrades should be the wheels and suspension, and then the most expensive other single item which will be the camper body... but first I have to carefully figure out what the interior layout will be (much thinking and sketching).

Thats my update for this installment.

Cheers

Situational Update

 Well, I may have messed up a bit... or maybe not?...

Last post I was describing the situation with my employer and their lack of responsiveness to a "rapidly changing compensation environment" for their engineering employees.

That situation has continued with little change Im afraid... a steady decline in the number of engineers employed there due initially to significantly higher salaries elsewhere, and now due also to a pervasive lack of belief in the company any more.

And in my last post I was also describing what I thought my own personal options were as a result of it all. Over the following several months, as I said, things have progressed along the same lines and Ive been feeling more and more internal pressure to take some sort of action... I did reach out to a couple of people I knew at other companies to see what was happening there, and I did in fact try interviewing with one of those companies, but it didnt seem like a good fit, so both sides decided to pass and move on... though I admit that if they had been more interested, it would have swayed my opinion to be more interested in turn... nothing to do with the actual inherent opportunity in a rational sense, just an emotional response... Im so "plastic" :/ 

But still my internal increasing pressure... So I decided it was time for an ultimatum to my existing employer ... It had become clear (not least through an in person visit and staff meeting at our Vancouver office of the CEO from way down in Arizona) that the company executive, while starting to make some compensation adjustments, were just not going to do enough to retain our experienced engineers. I decided that since I had been working with them for the past 20 years, Id be at least polite enough to give them the opportunity to retain me if they wanted... but I was not going to let them decide what that was worth, rather, Id tell them what I needed in order to stay.

So, I told my direct manager specifically what I needed to see within a month, or Id just leave and go ride my motorbike somewhere for the summer.  Ive known this guy for the full 20 years Ive been at the company and he is a great engineer and someone who I get along pretty well with as a manager... so it was uncomfortable for me to "hold his feet to the fire", but I felt it had to be done. And once done, I have to say that I immediately felt that "internal pressure" dissipate (because I had taken decisive action), but I also felt that I didnt really have a strong opinion about what I wanted the outcome to be of the three possible paths.

Now it was certainly not clear to me if my manager would want to keep me around that badly, or that he would have sufficient clout to get what I was asking for... I guessed Id find out within a few weeks. And in the intervening weeks I was planning my next actions...

If they simply denied my request, then Id have to leave (no point giving ultimatums unless you are willing to carry out the threat), and then Id either want to go ride the motorbike or I could look for a new job in earnest... And I did start feeling about for job openings again its true, but my main plan was another moto journey... Europe...

But Europe now is not the same as it was 6 months ago is it!... What with Russia invading Ukraine. And my original plan was of course to ride all the way through Europe and Russia from one coast to the other and back again... Well, I guess thats not going to be happening any time soon!... Bummer.

But it is getting late in the year to set that up and get it done before the weather gets bad... Seriously, I think Id need to start in March or April at the latest in order to fly over to Europe and buy a motorbike and get it set up correctly and then to ride from coast to coast and back... So that plan is off for now. So, the alternate plan would be to just ride around Western Europe for a few months, which is still definitely feasible though of course, Id be avoiding Ukraine and having to adjust plans as I go in case the situation changed suddenly.

Anyway, Id been pondering my options and starting to look into flights and motorbikes and visa requirements, as well as possible alternate employers and remote working options etc for a couple of weeks when my manager asked to have a chat (as I had of course been expecting at some point).

... And it turns out that I had read the situation about right... 

The company acceded to my "demands" and they have definitively met my compensation request as well as having a clear understanding that Im taking 6 months off next year starting in April to do my motorbike travel thing... The details of that are yet to be defined, but in short, if they want me back after my 6 month break, Ill do a couple more years of working with them before I really wrap things up, and if not, then Ill wrap things up early.

And with this result I have a couple of conclusions... One is that Im neither disappointed nor elated at the outcome... It seems I truly did not mind which path my life took at this point. Another is that my long stated goal of "wanting other people to leave the company first so that it increases the pressure on the company to the point that I dont have to leave to get appropriate compensation from them" seems to have worked just as stated... Though it did come with considerably more internal stressing and fretting than anticipated.

But now Im in a new situation that I had determinedly decided not to think through till now... And that is that I have now agreed to stay committed with my current employer while most of the other employees are still "in the wind" and are both steadily departing and certainly not feeling committed... I guess I will do the best I can to make them as happy with their current circumstances as possible to try to keep them with the company... its what I signed on to do.

And its going to be difficult for a few more months at least; although the company has been steadily increasing compensation over the past 3-4 months already... just not at the level that it needs to be... though its no where near as far from the "market rate" as it used to be.  But I have to say that having been in the industry for a few decades and seen the cycles first-hand, I feel there is a downturn coming within about a year or so... and it feels like a big one! We will have to see how things actually turn out of course, but if there is a downturn then I expect external job opportunities to seriously reduce and there would likely be a lot of industry lay-offs as well, which might mean those people who just changed employer for more $$$ are rather vulnerable... I guess I hope Im wrong, but time will tell.

And the final thought Ive been pondering here is that I had to push them really hard to get what I felt was right from them... There is no way they would have done it without my ultimatum... In a fair and just world it would have happened more or less by its self after a few months of the attrition we had been seeing, but it took 18 months and still they would not adjust things as far as I felt they needed too... But the world is not fair... and if you want something enough then you really have to push for it and be willing to take the consequences of failure as well if things dont work out how you want them to. How do I feel about it now that Ive got what I wanted but other employees have not (and likely wont unless they give their own ultimatums)... I guess Im mostly OK with it... I would certainly rather that the world was fairer, but given the Western Capitalist model that runs this part of the world, this result is exactly in line with how things work here. So yeah, its the way things are and I dont have the power to change them, but knowing the rules, I am able to play by them as well as the next guy.

Now lets see if I made "good choices" as we roll into the future :)

Cheers till next time.