Any Boeing employee's living in Huntsville ? (Montgomery: 2014, layoffs, transfer)

[julilg]

Originally Posted by madisonmamma

Ohhhh, where do I start...

First of all, they contact you with this "we are here for you" attitude...NOT. They are here to make money, period.

They tried to get me to forge my husband's signature on many docs that they wanted. Even after I told them I did not have POA. We had a lot of "you don't really need to read through it, just sign". Uh, no. I read EVERYTHING my signature goes on.

They tried to say we had to leave ALL our appliances in our house (which Boeing bought) including our washer/dryer, refrigerator, chest freezer....none of which was in our appraisal. When we argued it, they tried to get us to sign the agreement and said they would "change that page"...yeah right I'm going to sign that! Then when we dug in they got REALLY nasty with us, we ended up having to contact Boeing and the supervisor took our case over. After it was done, our relo coordinator through Boeing told us the guy was fired.

Those were just the two BIG things....we started to feel like they were working more to our detriment that to our benefit. And I say "they", but in reality we ended up with a really pushy relo specialist at WRRI.

My experience with Weichert was highly stressful and disappointing, but we completely trusted them in the beginning and felt they were acting in our best interest. We quickly found out they were not.

Boeing was great, the movers were great, everything about our relocation was great EXCEPT the relocation company and our Realtors, on both ends.

Our company was WRRI. I do 8-10 Boeing relos a year, and every one I suggest the employee switch relo companies if they are assigned Weichert. I know a couple of other Boeing employees who have had similar experiences with WRRI. Sirva is excellent to work with. I just recently heard (from a Boeing relo employee) that they are no longer using WRRI, but I cannot confirm that. Sirva is just so much better to deal with.

Not to mention every time I handle a Boeing relo, they call demanding their referral fee...yeah, like I am going to give them 35% of my money as a referral for someone I have known for 10 YEARS!!!! They tried to get me to pay a referral fee on my COUSIN! I have a special speech for those calls!

Depending on the employer/re-lo contract, many employers will not or can not let employees change re-lo companies. However, employees are entitled to select their own RE agent. If strongly discouraged, they just have to be insistent. In which case the agent is working for the employee rather than the re-lo company focussed on pleasing them for future referals. In my experience, using an "outside" agent Vs a re-lo referal, the re-locating employee generally gets better results with less frustration. The agent may take a beating so to speak from the re-lo company and maybe even the employer, but that's part of representing the client's best interests.

[blackkarma]

Boeing does, cause I did. Boeing uses several companies and will let you change, if requested.

[Charles]

For an internal Boeing homeowners relo (like from low cost Huntsville to high cost DC), is the SLA always included for experienced professionals (higher P levels)? Or, are there relos from low cost places like HSV to DC without SLA?

[Charles]

Things may be looking up for Boeing in Huntsville

Boeing floats new anti-missile idea for Europe | Reuters

Some scenerios here: The tanker deal, maybe a give and take thing with the government.
C-17 (mentioned in the article).

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by Charles

Things may be looking up for Boeing in Huntsville

Boeing floats new anti-missile idea for Europe | Reuters

Some scenerios here: The tanker deal, maybe a give and take thing with the government.
C-17 (mentioned in the article).

Why bother even to land the C-17 on the ground?

Push that puppy out of the back of C-17 in mid-air with a parachute, ignite the solids in mid-air and it's good to go!

I'd called it "Air-based" missile defense !

[cornutt]

Ten-year Boeing employee here. I should point out that Boeing has a number of facilities in town. The Jetplex is the most visible, but the company really has outgrown it; missile defense has taken over most of that complex and most of the other programs are elsewhere. NASA work is mostly in MSFC facilities on the Arsenal. Advanced programs and site management are mostly in the Research Park building on Explorer Drive. Future Combat Systems is in the SAIC facility on Odyssey Drive. There are some other pieces around that I'm not even sure where they are. I myself work on a GMD offshoot project that is in a Teledyne Brown building.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by cornutt

Ten-year Boeing employee here. I should point out that Boeing has a number of facilities in town. The Jetplex is the most visible, but the company really has outgrown it; missile defense has taken over most of that complex and most of the other programs are elsewhere. NASA work is mostly in MSFC facilities on the Arsenal. Advanced programs and site management are mostly in the Research Park building on Explorer Drive. Future Combat Systems is in the SAIC facility on Odyssey Drive. There are some other pieces around that I'm not even sure where they are. I myself work on a GMD offshoot project that is in a Teledyne Brown building.

What's your "gut feeling" on the staffing situation (for engineers) in Huntsville? Trending downward, upward, level? Any feel of cuts coming? Any feel of new programs, ramping up?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by cornutt

Ten-year Boeing employee here. I should point out that Boeing has a number of facilities in town. The Jetplex is the most visible, but the company really has outgrown it; missile defense has taken over most of that complex and most of the other programs are elsewhere. NASA work is mostly in MSFC facilities on the Arsenal. Advanced programs and site management are mostly in the Research Park building on Explorer Drive. Future Combat Systems is in the SAIC facility on Odyssey Drive. There are some other pieces around that I'm not even sure where they are. I myself work on a GMD offshoot project that is in a Teledyne Brown building.

Another question. If one of your colleagues was given notice, what is the liklihood he could find another job with Boeing in Huntsville? If not Boeing Huntsville, what about Boeing elsewhere? Would Boeing relo him there?

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by cornutt

Ten-year Boeing employee here. I should point out that Boeing has a number of facilities in town. The Jetplex is the most visible, but the company really has outgrown it; missile defense has taken over most of that complex and most of the other programs are elsewhere. NASA work is mostly in MSFC facilities on the Arsenal. Advanced programs and site management are mostly in the Research Park building on Explorer Drive. Future Combat Systems is in the SAIC facility on Odyssey Drive. There are some other pieces around that I'm not even sure where they are. I myself work on a GMD offshoot project that is in a Teledyne Brown building.

Many companies do the same. Usually buildings are owned by "site" management and Programs/ Projects pay the rent to site management as "tenants". Sites pretty much manage lands/buildings like a landlord and charges a higher overhead rate if less # of programs/projects are using the same site. They also lease new buildings to house new projects/programs needs.

In this case, all Huntsville Boeing are under one "site" management. In the case of NASA work where employees use NASA facility, contractors like Boeing charge a lower rate to NASA because less of overhead (including G&A) expenditures.

Sites also own the people (engineers, admin & business staff) & processes that work on programs/ projects. So it's not unusual to see the same Boeing but different sites do things differently.

[cornutt]

Originally Posted by Charles

What's your "gut feeling" on the staffing situation (for engineers) in Huntsville? Trending downward, upward, level? Any feel of cuts coming? Any feel of new programs, ramping up?

As you probably know, Boeing laid some people off here last month. That was the first time that's happened in a while. There were rumors at the time about more layoffs in September, but that didn't happen. Right now, the situation seems to have stabilized -- not much hiring, but no layoffs either. It's still too early to say we're out of the woods, with missile defense and FCS still taking cuts, and the NASA Ares program being re-thought.

If Boeing wins the KC-X tanker competition, some of the jobs will be in Huntsville (a point that escaped the Montgomery politicans' attention after the protest was upheld). Until then, I personally don't foresee a lot of hiring here in HSV over the next year or so. Boeing is pretty good at relo from what I've been told, although they have recently cut some of the benefits. I'm not really sure what all is happening at other sites. I know there were recruiters here a couple of months ago looking for people to go work a Navy program in Dallas; one of my co-workers took a transfer there.

Not speaking for Boeing -- just my own opinions.