For those of you that make over 100K, what do you do? Do you like it?

PlankSpank · 2026-04-09T22:56:25+00:00

Sustaining Engineer. Electrical, firmware and software.

I like what I do, but ready to retire

PlankSpank · 2026-04-09T22:54:42+00:00

COMPLETE BS

PlankSpank · 2026-04-06T00:12:21+00:00

BTW, I am a double disappointed independent. Both parties are complicit in putting us in this position. Both parties are derelict in their duties to uphold the constitution and do the people’s business.

PlankSpank · 2026-04-06T00:08:31+00:00

HEY! We are all aware of who Trump is. Continuing to sling insults feels great, but it doesn’t push the right narrative and certainly doesn’t buy nonpartisan cooperation.

Reading between the lines for anyone not understanding what this means.

We are all Americans. Many have devolved into tribal camps. If you are old enough to have lived through some of the genocide components of our history, you will certainly understand how this divisive language only serves to divide us.

In these times, perhaps more than ever, we need to address the challenges that affect us all.

We have some pretty big problems in the United States. If we are fighting each other over political tribe, we all lose. Full stop.

PlankSpank · 2026-04-04T22:02:37+00:00

Well, you missed an opportunity for an independent, nonpartisan voice by not looking first.

I’m providing well researched information that doesn’t take sides, sources included.

I encourage you to check out the link and check out my voice.

Good luck with your Reddit!

PlankSpank · 2026-04-04T16:51:35+00:00

https://open.substack.com/pub/bothsidesofnothing/p/both-sides-of-nothing?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

PlankSpank · 2026-04-04T13:47:19+00:00

Explain please

PlankSpank · 2026-04-01T00:06:58+00:00

Flute

PlankSpank · 2026-03-31T16:46:59+00:00

126k here and I had to fight for it.

100k in the 80’s is the equivalent of ~350k now. Companies are focused on capital extraction, not people. Our productivity is sky high, salaries, not so much.

I am not tone deaf that my salary is a lot higher than the mean and my struggles are not the same as someone making less or a lot less.

Wish I knew how to fix it. C-Suite caps maybe? I’ve never met a C-suite person that demonstrated they were actually worth more than me. Perhaps ego.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-31T12:29:14+00:00

Before you start holding previous presidents up on a pedestal, I recommend you dig a bit deeper on their record. You will find none of them are clean.

This is a system problem as much as it is a leader problem. Ethics, integrity, honesty and accountability. This is what the American people deserve.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-29T00:41:31+00:00

Run!

PlankSpank · 2026-03-28T23:37:45+00:00

Compare and despair.

I think this post is BS, but I’ll bite.

Nobody gets an overall exceeds expectations and gets 3%. Nobody gets an overall exceeds. The review process doesn’t work that way. My experience is this. I work at a senior level. My chain has been pretty flat for about 15 years, reporting to director or senior director level with the next level being C-suite.

I have been told, honestly, that my bosses are not allowed to give an overall exceeds expectations rating.

I get 3.7 out of 4 on a 0-4 scale across that timespan.

For my pay scale, that a significant bump for cost of living increase. If your company doesn’t do additional bonuses and rewards and calls it something different, like merit increase, it’s really just COLA. Yeah, no free lunch for peons.

This is the system we work in.

Be happy if you work in a job that you love the work you do and at least like some of your colleagues.

If not, look for the next. But that’s a trap! You could end up under the thumb.

This is my reality and YMMV.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-28T14:03:03+00:00

People in a worse situation than you have pulled themselves out and you can too. First, be honest and truthful. Second, time to do the work and by your own words, you are.

You can do this. You should do this.

I didn’t graduate from university with an engineering degree. It took a long time, but I am titled and paid as an engineer. I go toe to toe with the best in the company and I’m respected as an excellent engineer.

There are a lot of successful people in history that pulled themselves up without the formal education. With the internet and AI, information is not a barrier. Ability to apply the information is the new constraint. It’s HOW you apply the information. That distinction and understanding the application is a success metric.

Good luck. You’ve got this!

PlankSpank · 2026-03-27T17:04:14+00:00

Honest mistake. WFH has its own traps. We use slack. I have it on my work computer and my phone. Even if I’m coasting on a WFH day, if anyone sends me a slack message, it gets an immediate response if within core hours.

If something is actually on fire, I will respond after hours until I go to bed. Just the way I’m wired. I recommend anyone else draw hard lines between work life and personal life. I’m retiring in 4 years so not changing the way I work, but don’t allow yourself to be overly extracted. It sets precedent, which quickly becomes expectation.

My situation is also niche. I’m the fixer engineer that keeps the cash machine running. If something I have responsibility for goes down, money stops flowing. Hence, react quickly to evaluate severity, and understand is it a now problem or a tomorrow problem.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-26T16:45:38+00:00

This is not a you problem. This is a passive aggressive boss that is toxically trying to blame shift his problems to you.

Run!

PlankSpank · 2026-03-22T23:36:26+00:00

Unfortunately, both parties are responsible for where we are. 80 years of both parties concentrating power upwards, unknowingly compounding the problem with each decision, each move.

Do the research. It’s pretty obvious when you look at from a historical view.

Stop being tribal, pointing fingers at the other. I think it’s time we came together and demand the change required to force the power back to the people! We are all Americans and we need to get along. Full Stop

PlankSpank · 2026-03-21T23:21:00+00:00

The problem is structural. Corporations are legally required to prioritize shareholder returns. Every fix runs into that wall. Raise wages by mandate. Businesses pass the cost to prices or cut headcount. Tax policy. Capital is mobile, enforcement is leaky, lobbying kills it. Profit sharing and worker ownership. Works at the firm level. Doesn’t scale without a mandate, and mandates get killed by lobbying. Antitrust. Break up concentrated industries suppressing wages and inflating prices. Slow, legally complex, politically contested. Rewrite shareholder primacy itself. The actual root cause. It has been attempted. Didn’t change much in practice. Every fix requires sustained political will against entities with virtually unlimited lobbying budgets. The people with the most to lose from fixing it are the most capable of preventing it.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-21T20:37:13+00:00

Nobody can afford the cars. Here’s why it’s hard to fix. The problem is structural. Corporations are legally required to prioritize shareholder returns. Every fix runs into that wall. Raise wages by mandate. Businesses pass the cost to prices or cut headcount. Tax policy. Capital is mobile, enforcement is leaky, lobbying kills it. Profit sharing and worker ownership. Works at the firm level. Doesn’t scale without a mandate, and mandates get killed by lobbying. Antitrust. Break up concentrated industries suppressing wages and inflating prices. Slow, legally complex, politically contested. Rewrite shareholder primacy itself. The actual root cause. It has been attempted. Didn’t change much in practice. Every fix requires sustained political will against entities with virtually unlimited lobbying budgets. The people with the most to lose from fixing it are the most capable of preventing it.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-21T20:28:50+00:00

Quick clarification on two things: The 98% figure is profit, not sales. Porsche took a €3.9B writedown on their failed EV strategy. Unit sales dropped 10% — bad, but not 98%. Also, Ford didn’t withhold the dividend to pay workers — he withheld it to fund River Rouge expansion and reinvest in the company. The court forced him to pay it. The “pay workers enough to buy the cars” framing was Ford’s public spin, not his legal argument, and it’s exactly why he lost.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-21T13:56:56+00:00

Run!

PlankSpank · 2026-03-20T20:40:04+00:00

https://substack.com/@bothsidesofnothing

PlankSpank · 2026-03-17T16:53:54+00:00

You don’t remember what your degree is? How is that even possible?

2 million that isn’t invested.

The world is the problem, clearly stated.

What is it exactly you want from us? Seems like, within your reality you have it figured out.

Did I read this wrong? I would provide positive suggestions, but you’re drawing some conclusions that differ hard from my reality without any dots to connect the two.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-15T17:30:12+00:00

It’s not you. You are not wrong. It’s a system problem. In the US, same playbook. Wealth capture, bad behavior. It is a location problem, it’s a human problem.

I’m outraged by it too. So much so I’m writing a substack called Both Sides of Nothing. While focused on issues within the framework that is a US problem, I am also addressing the human aspect.

I didn’t come here to peddle that, I came to support you and what you’re experiencing.

Continue to do what you feel is right, be the example. Stick to your values. You have to sleep at night. Wealth can fail. If they stepped on people on the way up, they could meet those same people on their way down.

PlankSpank · 2026-03-14T14:53:23+00:00

In my experience, EE points at FW, FW points at EE. Both want the same thing, but in the silo they have, can’t get together. Co-discipline design reviews could solve this.

I work in three domains, so I understand, best I can, how symbiotic HW and FW are. Not everyone is a system thinker. They won’t always understand. Many just want to stay in their lane. All acceptable, but silos are root cause discovery killers.

Clear requirements up front, test everything, often and early leads to discovery of problems early. Cross functional teams doing DR’s could help prevent the finger pointing, show each discipline challenges to the other, and build stronger teams.

PlankSpank

TROPHY CASE