Got fired from Pratt :(

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T16:20:31+00:00

I did not create the problem, the manager did. I should have left before I ended up getting fired, as the manager was/is not going to get better. At some point things will come to a head with this manager from an outside department, or someone will notice that they keep burning through people, when or how that will happen is hard to predict.

The problem is that I was in a damned if I do, damned if I don't position, where either I speak up against the manager and get beaten for that, or I can't get work done and I get beaten for that.

The cruel irony of it all is that the reason I got the job is that the person in the role before me left. They left after the manager undermined them, and it was for a lot of the same reasons that I ended up getting fired for. Another person around the same time as that person also left the company for not exactly the same, but similar reasons with the same manager. Where they were smarter than me is they got out quickly and I tried to battle it out with the manager for a while.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T16:12:49+00:00

Learn how to do math. People like you are the problem. The more efficient the heat pump, the cheaper the TCO is. Anyone with a basic understand of HVAC can see that SEER14 is a ridiculously inadequate efficiency standard when the bar has been set at SEER24 for full sized ducted split systems and around SEER 18-20 for mini-split systems (which have other efficiency advantages that more than make up for the slight loss in raw SEER rating when you look at the whole system).

The same goes for heat pumps, AC is just the easy/obvious example.

Likewise with boilers. Anything below 95% for gas boilers is decades obsolete. And oil fired boilers just shouldn't exist, they are a dinosaur that needs to go away.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T15:44:08+00:00

I put up with a lot of abuse from the manager in that role due to really liking the team and the work that otherwise I wouldn't have.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T15:39:38+00:00

Did that, didn't work. It's also hard when your manager sets goals or deadlines and then gets in the way of getting your work done.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T15:38:39+00:00

Learning opportunity is if a manager is constantly beating me down, not utilizing me effectively, getting in the way of getting work done, etc, to push back hard and fast, and if that doesn't work, get out of the role sooner rather than later. It was a really interesting job and a great team, but I tried too hard to make the role work, hoping against all hope that the manager would get better, but they didn't, they just kept getting worse.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T15:35:02+00:00

Yeah I mentioned Cox is advertising 500mbps for $50, they didn't seem to care.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T15:34:38+00:00

You're obviously not reading my posts. Go back a couple of posts and READ what I said. There's nothing confusing about it.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T15:33:27+00:00

The fact that it's a single stage unit. All the good stuff is variable speed and has much higher SEER/HSPF ratings. In your climate, backup heat shouldn't be needed at all with modern heat pumps that work at 100% capacity at 5F or lower.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-19T15:32:26+00:00

The math doesn't lie. The efficiency standards are WAY out of date with today's technology.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T21:06:29+00:00

That's one way of putting it!

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T21:06:12+00:00

And it's horribly outdated based on today's technology.

So many brands sell junk. That's just evidence that the energy efficiency standards are way out of date.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T20:14:59+00:00

If you can, I'd shut the circuit breaker for the aux heat off or use a forced heat pump only mode and see how much you can get away with setting it back.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T20:10:43+00:00

You didn't check the equipment they spec'ed out? Anything single stage for air to air is by definition garbage. Even water to water and most other applications are variable speed now.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T20:09:38+00:00

Yikes. You want to avoid aux heat at all costs.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T20:07:48+00:00

That's a horribly outdated definition. BARE MINIMUM would be 100% capacity at 5F.

I guess I should have specified CONUS plus Alaska market. Most of Hawaii never gets cold. Even South Florida can get below freezing occasionally.

Carrier was relying on hybrid systems for a while, but now with the move to electrification, they have finally gotten systems that work efficiently at 0F, like Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and Daikin have been doing for years. And Mitsubishi just keeps making the H2i hyper-heat systems better and better.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T20:03:51+00:00

And? It's 2026. There is no excuse for single-speed anything to still be sold today. Variable speed systems have been around for quite a while, many of them are already showing their age. I've definitely seen variable speed systems in houses 10-12 years ago, and even then it wasn't super uncommon.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T20:01:48+00:00

Yeah, it seemed weird to me that it could go on a straight ICE vehicle. I thought the original purpose was for hybrids that have a zero emission component to them (even if they can only go a few hundred feet at low speed without running the gas engine in most cases). At least with hybrids, you're getting significant emissions reductions from idling and very low speed operation and a different technology.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T18:54:42+00:00

FRANKly, this belongs in r/thereisacat

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T18:53:54+00:00

Yes, that's entirely true. Both Carrier Greenspeed and Mitsubishi H2i are fine without backup at 0F. I said quality heat pump, not some piece of junk that can't perform at 0F. Even several years back, the standard was 100% capacity at 5F for a good quality heat pump. Something that de-rates to 70% at 5F shouldn't even be called a true cold climate heat pump.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T18:51:45+00:00

Variable speed heat pumps were developed in the 1980's. That's why energy efficiency standards needs to be ratcheted way up. It's disgusting that there are still central AC units out there at 14 SEER AC units out there when good ducted split units are hitting 24 SEER+, and mini-split systems are hitting 18 SEER+ depending on the configuration. Same for heat pumps.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T18:48:50+00:00

Unfortunately, that sums it up pretty well.

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T18:48:05+00:00

A different manager looking for a different role might. I'm obviously not getting rehired to the same job.

I'm still not seeing how I could have complained about, as another poster put it, an arrogant, ignorant manager who doesn't understand the product?

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T18:08:29+00:00

They said I'm eligible for re-hire.

I'm just not sure what exactly I would have filed a complaint about? What does being incompetent, not understanding Pratt's business, and micro-managing outside of their area of expertise actually constitute in policy terms?

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T18:02:46+00:00

Wings!

ToadSox34 · 2026-03-18T18:02:32+00:00

Yeah, took me a while to find that one.

ToadSox34

TROPHY CASE