The irony (idiocy) of it all

[Betonov]

There's a prestigius award in my country, the golden gazelle, which is awarded to companies that are fastest growing in the country (most revenue growth, positive employment etc...). Our company received the regional gazelle just two weeks ago and today my employment contract was terminated due to the company going into the red...:down: if thats not ********* up :nope:

So, any similar experiences out there and anyone looking for an experienced modeller/boatbuilder to hire ???

the company is Seaway group d.o.o. (GmbH or inc. me thinks)

[SteamWake]

Is that the Seaway group that makes luxury boats?

[frau kaleun]

Sorry to hear about the job loss, that sucks. Especially when on the surface things seemed to look so good.

[Betonov]

Is that the Seaway group that makes luxury boats?
the same. They screwed themselves by starting the greenline 33 hybrid boat. It was an off the line serial production that brought them substantial loses. It's like Rolls Royce would start producing Ford Fiestas

[Jimbuna]

That's bad news....best of luck in finding alternative employment :up:

[SteamWake]

A 'hybrid' luxury yacht? That makes perfect sense.

Al Gore should get one :haha:

[Castout]

Aaw sorry to hear that Betonov but my impression of you is that you're a capable man. . . .I hope you'll find another soon or make your own!:03:

[TLAM Strike]

Wow I figured their would be no shortage of rich Sheiks wanting yachts. :o

SOCOM is looking for a new Special Warfare boat (https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=ff9685dd1d1237a9f4ad970e7cf75682&_cview=0), maybe find a company looking to produce that. :03:

[FIREWALL]

An old saying.... All the skill in the world won't beat, Bonehead management thinking. :haha:

Hope you find work soon.

[Reece]

Sorry to hear that, hope you find a better job!:oops::yep:

[krashkart]

Best of luck to you, Betonov. How long had you worked for them?

[krashkart]

An old saying.... All the skill in the world won't beat, Bonehead management thinking. :haha:

*Pshaw!* :haha::yep:

[Betonov]

The problem is, with all the experience I have, I have no formal education/qualification for anything. I worked for them for 3 years and became quite experienced, but now I have the problem no employer will want someone with a non-specialized high school education, and my diploma is still a couple of years away. :down:

Wow I figured their would be no shortage of rich Sheiks wanting yachts. :o
we can make them but the bonehead management cant sell them

A 'hybrid' luxury yacht? That makes perfect sense.

Al Gore should get one :haha:
It was a good idea, but the strategy was to lay off the experienced manpower and hire cheap labor from former yugoslav republics. I have nothing against them, they're capable but they dont put their hearts to it. You cant make a 5 star product without wanting to make a 5 star product and not just get trough the day and collect the pay. Some of the greenlines I saw going out the gates, like a 10 year child would make them. Plus it was a rushed production, somekind an idea about making more boats each month without increasing the manpower. And behold, the sales suddenly stopped, what a surprise :nope:

To avoid further confusion, I was working in design&tooling, I wanst directly involved in construction of the actuall boats, we made the models and moulds. D&T was recesion proof due to Seaway being the design company for many other european companies like Bavaria, Jenneau and Bennetau. But the greenline curse caught up....

Thanks for the support :salute: and dont worry, I wont start drinking because of this

[Betonov]

This cartoon kind-a sums it up :nope:, for everyone

http://politics.usnews.com/usnews/php/galleries/image.php/141/33/33.jpg

[Respenus]

The major problem for Betonov is the fact that since he lives in Slovenia he either needs to move abroad or remain unemployed. While his experience in tool and model making is sure to get him some sort of a job in our industrial sector, the whole Slovenian economy is in shambles. There is no other way of saying it. The whole economy is just working on inertia right now. A couple more set backs like the failure of the Seaway group and we'll be the next Greece, considering that in almost two years of tenure, our government has been unable to do squat s*** (I apologise for the language, yet there is no other way of saying it) to try and restart the economy. Sure, it threw a lot of money to companies with correct political affiliations, that is company of the current government coalition, while every other profit making company had go to bust due to the inability to get any working capital. The same thing happened to me. Damn shame really, considering that we make the kind of product that should restart certain economic sectors. Just goes to show that Slovenia is still a backwater banana republic country. If you're an ex-communist, calling yourself a neoliberal, you get all the luxury a man or woman could want, while the man on the street is without a job and most importantly, is humiliated by his own state. Not that I support the constant right wing attacks against ideological enemies, yet they at least proposed laws which should in theory (much more cannot be asked from a government in Slovenia anyhow) work. That was two years ago, when there was still some money going around. Now, we're hung up high and dry. Good thing I still draw government scholarship, yet how long that will last is another question.

[Betonov]

and that ladies and gentlemen, is the whole truth. Respenus beautifuly summed it up.
In the end of the day it's political afiliation that will get you high level position, not competence. The more people you set your ass out, the better you'll do in life.
And the saddest thing is, when the left wing is in power the right wing will constantly undermine them, even in anything good being done to the people. When the right wing is in power its vice versa

[SteamWake]

When was the last time the 'right wing' was in power in Slovenia?

[Respenus]

***WARNING: Rant ahead***

2004-2008. Now, I am not saying that our centre-right parties whose political programme in certain regards is more social-democratic than of the official party (things are seriously screwed here. You cannot tell who is who. Or as an exchange student said: "I don't wish to my choice to be limited to the social-democrat or pensioner's party. More on the topic below). Still, the projects that they proposed were, economically wise, better suited to serve Slovenia's economic structure than the quick repairs and pouring of money in failed businesses which was proposed and carried out by the ruling coalition. Those enterprises are now bankrupt, our budget deficit bigger than ever and our economy in practical ruins. You constantly hear of PIIGS in the EU. It should be PIIGSS, luckily, we are far to small a cog to bother anyone right now. Plus no state, except Finland, has any large state contracts with us, at least which are public. So should Slovenia go the way of the dodo, no-one would really be bothered about it and the markets wouldn't go into a fit. One more thing comes to mind. We hired the previous director of German railways to get ours into order. We pay him a tonne of cash, which I wouldn't worry about if he were allowed to do his job. No, every single worker and manager is having a go at his plans. While I am not saying that worker's shouldn't have a say in the whole matter, in fact, they should be heard more often since abuse is rarely reported in our media while the workers bear the brunt of it all, it is just that the interest of our community as a whole, the good of the many, depends more on this project being done. And this is the final reason why Slovenia will fall and collapse in on itself. Nothing ever gets done due to the individuals in the community which our parents and grandparents decided to name Slovenia, always and only think about themselves first. Smith can be proven wrong in Slovenia. The free market does nothing to bring the common good out of individual self-interest. Our forefathers in the 1870s, fighting for our political freedom in calling the Emperor to establish a unified Slovenian land were better at working together. Even after 1918, in the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, built on the ruins of Austria-Hungary, we stood together and for a short time had our own land and were our proper rulers. Now, we are reduced once more to be the bailiffs of those around us. How Cankar must be rolling in his grave right now. His prophetic words sound true a hundred years since he has written them and his advice made more pertinent by every passing day.

///Here the text splits into another semi-coherent thought///

What Betonov speaks of is usually true in every political system. The opposition attacks the coalition (or the ruling party) and usually only party supporters get the good jobs. But here in Slovenia nothing is "sacred" or free from political interference. From the economy, to the simple administration jobs. We truly are a partitocracy, in the truest definition of the term. Even our universities take part in the fight, with a lot of our current ministers retaining the professorial posts at the Faculty for Social Sciences in Ljubljana. Damn, some are/were even my professors.

I realise that in the end, this is what is going on in most modern western states, yet one rarely sees it so poorly covered than in Slovenia. Either it is out in the open, or there is enough open space and media scrupulosity that "democratic" processes might take hold. The shame is, most foreigners who come to Slovenia say that is is a wonderful country with a high standard of living and comfort. While to a certain extent this is true, I must admit that right now, being an ERASMUS student abroad, my mind does often wonder to how easy we have it. The problem is, people do not realise that it is too easy. Even today, the old communist (the reds) versus the Slovenian Home Guard (the whites) continues to be the centre point of our politics. Imagine if the Civil War were constantly on the subject and Texas was always trying to secede. Stable democracy my a**.

[Betonov]

Respenus, not a rant, words of wisdom.

If we were some backwater east european banana state one would understand. But we are not. Slovenia is on a European crossroad. The bulk of goods coming from or going to the balkans and Turkey pases trough Slovenia. Balkans may have a rather poor reputation but it is still an enormous market, billions involved. But the infrastructure is like ut of an african documentary, highways are giant contruction sites, local roads have so many potholes that roads look like they've been shelled. Nothing gained, all squanderd :nope:
Slovenians have had a reputation of very skilled workers since the Habsburgs. Some of the companies are world renovned, like Instrumentation technologies, which has a contract with CERN, ELAN, which is still widely known even if it is going down the toilet due to bonehead management, Seaway which was setting the quality in luxury yachts standards just 5 years ago and many more. But being put in charge of companies here is som kind of a political award. The director of Mura (clothes and fabricks) had a degree in tourism, Mura went bust creating a economical disaster for an entire region. :timeout: wheres the logic in that. I remember an article, one or two years ago, when a company that was making train parts and even whole trains for Siemens went broke, even while they were drowning in orders. And I doubt the Germans were responsible for the closure.
When it comes to tourism, we could be swimming in money. Everyone that ever comes to Slovenia cant stop saying what a beautiful country it is. Ljubljana has been voted as one of the most idylic cities in the world, not a small feat considering the competition (Paris, Amsterdam...). The Alps, the seashore regions, the plains of panonia and endless forrests that rival Finland, in a country the size of New Jersey. And every region has so much cultural distinctivnes, the food, the rituals, history, dialect, one would think that every region has it's own nation. If one is an adventurer, one will be satisfied here, if one seeks culture, one will be satisfied, if one just wants to relax, he can relax. Also billions could be raked in from tourism, but the politicians just cant sell it. :nope:
Instead of creating a tax heaven for foreign investors taxes are being increased and even created. Small companies strugle, big ones get relieves (if an ass has been offered to the goverment). :nope:

It's sad. To waste a potential that we can be richer than Switzerland