Touchy subject here, but people walked out with a ton of knowledge doesn’t necessarily mean it was all valuable knowledge or current. I saw about 10 people who’s knowledge was past expiration in my department alone. In some of those cases, it was a good thing. 30 years of knowledge that is no longer viable in today’s technological world is ok by me being lost.
Good point by @XJcFmL4-abv.
Your post seems to imply that this is the first time this has happened. People with lots of knowledge (some valuable and some not) have left, retired, have been laid off, or have been fired since the railroad was founded. It’s just more emotional now because most of the people leaving are doing so involuntary while senior management either leaves with millions in stock or stays with millions waiting for them when they retire.
I was let go in November 2018. I have no ego to bruise. I know my knowledge (IT) didn’t move freight or generate income. I was lucky to have over 30 years so I have a good retirement. I got a severance, so I’m set. I consider myself lucky because I’m no longer walking in the door each day wondering if they’re going to let me go. No more going to bed worrying about the next cut day. But I have lots of friends still there that I really do pray for.
I’ll leave you with this. I started at a very young age and sometimes rolled my eyes while the old heads told me why they knew. Thirty years later I still remember what they taught me. Sometimes not so much about the job but how the railroad worked. Valuable knowledge for sure.
So I dont have to worry that they’ll move the goalposts again, putting my job in jeopardy. But you do - and will have to for your entire career.
A lot of butt hurt people on this thread, must’ve struck a nerve with all of the people with obsolete knowledge...
Since you know so much and are so smart, how about you post true numbers of the failure rate of EA,s? . I don’t know about at HQ, but in the field that isn’t accurate whatsoever.
Okay, let’s play devil’s advocate...go ahead and say that certain people don’t keep up with trends and their knowledge becomes obsolete. You let those people go, reassign them, pass them up for promotion, because the stop thinking of ways to move their department forward and nobody uses the programs they know anymore. Fine. You don’t just assume older people don’t know and lay them off. Some people do keep up to date.
And so begins the fall of this already unstable house of cards. Go ahead turn on eachother, fall into the trap
Okay valuble who’s. Maybe you should gain some knowledge, too.
one day, its going to be you, kid.
Right. If you were stuck in a blizzard on a broken down train, you’d be glad to have that engineer of 40+ years who knew that you needed to “take this wrench and bang on that thing as hard as you can until the brakes release.” Modern technology is not a cure all...
Just remember someone had to teach you...
Must be some young stuck on yourself know it all. Your knowledge, if you ever gain any will probably never be past expiration because it will probably never be worthwhile knowledge. This is especially true with your nose in the air attitude.
Someone who doesn’t know the difference between “who’s” and “whose” is perhaps not the best judge of what is valuable knowledge.
Your department must be management