ATI SUCKS

I have always known that my present work environment is not the optimal place for me to be right now, today its just the icing on the cake.

Months ago I decided I wanted to go to the company Christmas party. So when the invite was put to us I asked Melissa if she would like to be my date, she agreed. The main reason for my interest in the party was pretty selfish. ATI is a company that last year made 2 billion dollars (public record, no confidential information here), so I figured at Christmas time they would be generous. Well I was a little put off by the fact that they used some of the funds for gifts this year on parking for everyone, that's great if your driving there, I had every intention on taking public transit, so it was less gifts for me.

Now however due to a family emergency I have to go home for that weekend. Well first I decide, I may as well give my tickets to some of my friends at work, only to find out they do not want to go!, great company spirit I tell you, ATI just breeds it. So with my friends and co-workers all not interested in free tickets I give up. So I send an email to the coordinator, figuring, family emergency and the fact that they sell out every year these tickets must be easy to get rid of. What I get is a very typical Toronto attitude (sorry to generalize, but I have found people here not to be as friendly as other places I have been). This woman tells me in a very cold sounding email that the tickets are non refundable ($40.00) and even if I sell them(or give them away), the draws will be in my name and I have to be there to claim the prize.

This just seems wrong to me. Part of me really wanted to go to get this fancy dinner and then just toss it in the trash and walk out, because that is what this woman was suggesting.

Anyway enough of my rant (I ended up giving the tickets to a co-worker that just got back from a months vacation, I guess he had been trying hard to get tickets to go).

So based on my frustrations with ATI Melissa was great and she passed me over a half dozen job postings(like the government space job, and the job at rim, aka the rim job (read that one out loud if you want a laugh)) .

So I propose to all of my friends that would like to see me back in Ottawa, if you know of a position in high tech (electrical engineering, semi conductors, computers, telecommunication, etc) or know of someone highering for such a position, please let me know! Feel free to send me a link or post it on my blog.

Well thanks for listening to my rant.

MikeG!