Kinda sucks

[Terry Lightle]

Was told last week the parent company is closing our shop.Kinda hate to start over somewhere else after 24 years.I will trust the good Lord to put me where he wants me.Have a couple of prospective leads already Just hope they want a 54 year old balding grey headed pipe fitter.They are acting interested.

[popperfly]

Sorry to hear the bad news Terry!! This could always be a blessing, pipe fitters are hard to come by these days and having a couple of prospect's sound pretty promising....keep your head high!!

[MontanaMoose]

Terry, all my life when i lost or quit a job, i always wound up better off. I'm of the opinion that if someone
wants to work, they'll find a job or make one for themselves. That said...

Luck.

MontanaMoose

[Uncle Jesse]

Having been there a couple of times I can feel for you and hope things to work out for the better. I'm still waiting for the most recent one to get better. It may take a little while but keep your spirit up. A friend who had his job shutdown after about 20 years said there are two things I know I can do, I can get up and get to work on time and I can pass a drug test, there are a lot of folks who can't do either. Most places don't t expect you to be around more than 5 years anymore so being over the half century mark may be more of a plus than a minus.

[ohiotuber]

Terry,
You're in my prayers, & remember that there is a positive in EVERYTHING, no matter how bad it may look (believe me, I speak from experience(s)). I'm sure you'll gain from this.
God Bless,
Mike

[danbob]

Terry;
I'm sorry to hear that news.
But *always* keep in mind that your 54 years, gray hair, and 24 years work at that company puts you in a very special position. You are a highly-experienced expert now!
If there is something difficult and tricky about your job that you know how to do and did every day for 24 years, you might be in a very good position....and if you are willing to teach others how to do that tricky task efficiently and safely, you might be surprised how quickly a teaching opportunity might spring up, even if you simply get hired as a pipefitter by someone else again. You can become a trainer. Even a freelance one--it's not hard to set up a consulting business online, promote yourself, and you might be amazed at what opportunities pop up. You can even do it while working a regular job. A buddy of mine ran a certain printing press model for 10 years, and got sent all over the country to direct the setup and tuning operations for new customers. Now he owns his own consulting business, setting up this same press and training employees on how to run it. He wrote a full curriculum, training program, etc. They can't hire anyone full time to do that, hard times, so they use consultants now. Then he goes to the next site...and so on.

I own a small business, and we employ (part time, unfortunately, but maybe things will pick up) an ex master welder who does exactly that for us.....he's now a teacher. The only problem is calming him down when students don't initially perform up to his welding quality standards....

Don't underestimate yourself. You are an EXPERT.

DANBOB