Work & Retirement

I was excited to work when I was in grade school.  I had a lot of stamina and energy.  I wanted to earn my own money.  I cut the grass, painted, poured concrete and did other jobs.  I learned to play the piano when I was age 4, taught myself to play the bugle and became the bugler for my Boy Scout troop.  I got a trumpet when I was age 11 and won a trumpet scholarship to the family high school.   I started a Rock Band when I was age 14, singing and playing guitar.  We played 3 nights a week through high school.  Then I joined a Blues Band, sang and played bass guitar 6 nights a week through college.  After college I sang and played bass guitar on the weekends in Jazz Trios until I was age 31. 

I worked summers during high school on the Admiral, a huge riverboat that cruised the Mississippi in St. Louis.  In college, I worked at the St. Louis State School and Hospital, a home for 700 severe to mildly retarded children and Granite City Steel.

I was married at age 21 and took my first job at the Greater St. Louis United Way as a Campaign Director for St. Charles County.  I worked 2 campaigns and attained 125% of goal each year. I also worked with St. Louis County small firms.  I got to know the Leadership in these counties.   I started my Personnel career at age 23 at Kearney National, an electrical equipment manufacturer and was the analyst on a corporate team to study options for moving the plant.  We had Teamsters.  We decided to move the operation to Tucker GA.  I joined Monsanto Headquarters at age 25 to administer salaries for the Textile Division to maintain union-free status and converted their jobs to the corporate system.  I joined Washington University at age 27 to establish a Personnel function at the Medical Campus.  I defeated a union organizing attempt by SEU with 80% of the vote and set up the Medical Campus for federal regulatory compliance. I was promoted to the main campus, automated Personnel records and processes, installed a market-based compensation system, negotiated the Facilities and Food Service union contracts and set them up for decertification. 

I joined Schwan Foods at age 32 and moved to Salina Kansas to maintain union-free status and automate production operations.  I joined Rickel Manufacturing in Salina KS at age 36 and decertified the UAW. 

I joined Hayes Microcomputer Products at age 40, stopped a CWA organizing attempt and established the Personnel function to go global. We grew from 150 employees and $35 million in sales to over 1000 employees and $250 million in sales I joined Electromagnetic Sciences, Inc. at age 43 to support the Reagan defense build-up and expand LXE, the non-defense subsidiary. We grew from 500 employees to over 1000 employees and $100 million in sales.

I served on the American Electronics Association Board from 1987 to 1996 and was kidnapped by my fellow board members in 1993 to go on my own and be their Consultant.  I started this private consulting practice at age 50 in 1993.  I served as a consultant to 45 companies over the past 23 years. Several of these companies were active customers throughout that past 23 years.

In 2008, I called my customers and told them I wanted to take advantage of this crash to train current staff to take over my duties to save money and complete a successful transition.  

I started the Dunwoody GA Tea Party and this blog in 2011 at age 68.  I continue to do consulting projects for customers, but the economy doesn’t support the 80 hour weeks I worked until 2011.

My career was driven by my own curiosity.  I wanted to know how to do everything.  My career was more like a consulting career from the beginning.  I have always worked 12 hour days.  I was not interested in a big company lifelong career, although I appreciate those who have had these corporate careers.  

In my early years, my family moved from St. Louis to Texas to Rhode Island to Memphis to New York and back to St. Louis.  I learned to make friends quickly and move on. I was mobicentric.  I could always “turn the page” and move on to a new group. I recognized this trait as it was happening.

We had 6 kids to raise, so I avoided jobs with heavy travel and too many moves.  We had our first 10 years in St. Louis, a great 8 years in Kansas and a very good 33 years in Dunwoody GA.  Our 6 kids gave us 13 grandkids and 2 great grandkids.  We see them often.

I was the “physics loving” Personnel guy.  I learned what engineers do, so I was always the engineering recruiter.  Most of my work was for manufacturing companies who designed their own products.  I enjoyed working with engineers and manufacturing folks.  I understood that you couldn’t have a robust economy with a heavy manufacturing component.  I saw the damage unions do and refused to put up with it.  I was always the one at my company who was responsible for regulatory compliance, so I knew how absurd and destructive most of our laws have been.  Now at age 73, I continue to work to return our economy to its prior functioning state.

I have always been interested in why we work, human motivation, accomplishment, development, learning and curiosity.

Retirement

I witnessed the retirement delusion of the “baby boomers” and the early retirement scam.  Retirement happens when you physically can’t maintain the stamina required to work full-time.   Most of our parents didn’t really retire at age 65, especially if they were self-employed.  Our grandfathers and fathers worked until they were 80 or 90. 

Corporations determined that employees who were over age 65 were less productive, but they weren’t. Older employees were pissed off about not being treated with respect.  That’s why unions flourished.  They harbored resentment for their employers over past slights, not being promoted, being locked in to pension plans and not being appreciated or respected. Jaded attitudes were common in large companies. They really needed to leave, but were frozen in the pension trap. 

Corporations set up pension plans when the popular notion was that these companies would last forever and their employees would have a job for life. I thought this was absurd. I saw too many unmotivated, disgruntled older employees and wondered why they never escaped. I saw some of them later after they were laid off and had to find another job and they were much happier. Many of us preferred to seek promotion and build our careers by changing companies. 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader