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SMITH: How did that happen? What happened? FRITTS: After I was laid off from GD, when they shut down, gave you a sixty day
notice, mind you, there wasn't any incentive program. I stayed home for three years with my little girl because I was laid off right in the middle of my pregnancy, so that was affected, that hurt. It was really, really
sad getting that sixty day notice; you have no idea. They were just coming out left and right every week. There was another person that was getting a notice until everybody was pretty much done. Right before her third
birthday, I received an offer from a temp agency to work for Qualcomm personal electronics which is 49% Sony, 51% Qualcomm, and it was on the cellular phone line. I was there, they told me, when they gave me the
offer, they said that you will roll over as a regular employee after your 90 days. I said, ok, great, start collecting benefits, 401, you know, your thinking stability, secure, ok. My first paycheck on the job, there
was a notice with my paycheck, and it stated that QPE and the temp agency had changed their policy. Now it's six months that you roll over regular, so I thought, well, ok, what's another three months; it didn't seem to
bother me. At the end of six months, for about four weeks straight, I kept going back and forth to the temp agency and to my management asking when do I get to rollover regular, and they said it's on hold. A month after
that, that's when they told me at 12:30, Diane, all of the temps have to be in the break area at ten minutes till one. At about two hours and a half, they processed us out. They laid everybody off, about six hundred of
us. SMITH: You had twenty minutes notice? FRITTS: Um hum, and when my lead approached me and told me this, I knew right away what was
happening. I thought, ok, this is it, so I started saying goodbye to all my friends, oh no, Diane don't worry, you're not getting laid off, but we were. The representatives from the temp agency told us that we were the
next ones on the list to come back. When the third generation phones are up and running on all eight lines, you will be the first to be called back and given an offer, so that was six weeks later. I was unemployed for
six weeks. SMITH: And you were saying that the first layoff, then, was different? Your feelings were different at GD than at Qualcomm?
FRITTS: Compared to Qualcomm, yes, mainly because it didn't bother me so much being laid off at Qualcomm when I was. I left, not as sad. A little confused as to why, and the way they did it, with just a 20-minute
notice. But with all my experience, my education, my degree, company- sponsored training that General Dynamics had given me for so many years, I feel that I've made myself quite marketable. So I really wasn't worried
about not finding work. I knew someday, somewhere soon -- I didn't think it would take long to find myself another job. And I did. Qualcomm rehired me. And that was exciting. That was six weeks later. Now I'm just
patiently waiting to roll to a regular employee and collect the decent benefits that they offer, have my sick leave time, have my vacation time, because as a temp, you don't have any of that.You don't have vacation
time. You don't have sick leave. When we take time off of work, well, you don't get paid for it, and it really doesn't look that good as a temp. You don't want to miss any work. You always want to be prompt.
SMITH: So that kind of puts you in a precarious situation, doesn't it? FRITTS: Yes, it does. Because I can't take vacation, and you just hope that
your children don't get sick. I just pray that Alicia doesn't ever come down with something where I need to stay home with her, because I would just feel bad. You just feel guilty having to call in, and even though it's
for a good legit reason, as a temp, you just kind of -- you just approach it feeling a little uneasy, you know what I mean? SMITH: Have there been times when she's gotten sick
when you had to... FRITTS: Yes, when I was working -- when I was working for Qualcomm Personal Electronics, QP, she had numerous ear infections, recurring ear infections, one
after another. Antibiotics would knock it out for maybe a week. It would return again. And then finally we took her down to Children's Hospital and she had tubes put in her ears. And that is to help with adequate
draining. And that helped a lot, that helped a lot. But then there was a time where the tubes would fall out and one stayed in there, and that was a hassle. She had a lot of problems with that one tube that just took
time to come out. And her ear hurt a lot when they tried taking that tube out. And I remember having to miss time. I've missed days from work because of that. It made me feel bad and it made me feel a little edgy,
because right away I was thinking if I miss any more time, I could be fired, because, as a temp, you're supposed to be there. And when you go through orientation, upon being hired through a temp agency, they always tell
you the best thing to do is to always be prompt, always be here. And you know, when they say that, it's just something about being a temp. You just don't want to take any chances. There were mornings when I was even
late for work because Alicia would be up all night or half the night with those recurring ear infections. And she would be in a lot of pain. And a lot of times, infant Tylenol wouldn't knock it out. So here, showing up
late, punching in late, whether it's a minute late or whether it was an hour late. I always felt nervous about it. I always felt nervous going in there and having to go to my boss and explaining what happened, why I was
late. Or calling in, leaving a message on her voicemail to call me back. I can't make it in today and this is why. And there was even a day, on overtime, I was supposed to be there on a Friday, and I was asked to do
overtime. And I couldn't make it that day because of the problem that Alicia had the day before on Thursday with her ear. And you just get an uneasy feeling, because you just wonder if you're going to have a job.
Missing time like that, as a temp, you're always in fear that, well, I'm going to lose my job now. I did not want to be let go. And they can let you go at any time without any reason, as a temp. Just think, when they
let us all go, they told me at 12:30 in the afternoon, all temps have to be in the break area at ten minutes till one. And that was it. They processed us out in two and a half hours. So you see, as a temp, you really
don't have any rights. SMITH: It sounds like making plans is a difficult thing. FRITTS: As far as making plans for the future, no, I know
we can't do that right now. Vacation time? Absolutely not! And as far as plans for my daughter, I do want to send her to college some day. Yes, I plan on retiring. I would like to retire by the time I'm 60. And my
retirement account from General Dynamics, I just rolled that over and hopefully, if I do become a regular employee with Qualcomm, I can continue to add to that. Right now I'm not. I can't add to my retirement. Not now.
It would be nice to jump on their 401(k) plan, get involved with that. But plans, that's really hard right now to make anything. I really can't plan for the future. As far as the next five years, I hope to still be
at Qualcomm, regular employee, maybe a lead person in a quality assurance group. Who knows? Maybe a supervisor someday. But I really can't plan any vacation time. Keeping my fingers crossed that my little girl does not
come down with any major flu bug or any other ear infections to where I would actually have to miss time off of work. I hope that doesn't happen. And it hasn't. It hasn't since I've been back. SMITH: Do you think you're asking for too much, you're wanting too much, you're being too greedy? FRITTS: Asking for too much when you want vacation time, sick leave
time, benefits? Absolutely not! That's the way of life. You need your benefits. You want your vacation time. Who wants to work every day of their life? You have to have a vacation. You want to take a vacation with your
family. I don't understand how that can be too much to ask for. SMITH: You said that you've been working overtime at qualcomm before the layoff. Can you tell me, you were working
how many hours a week or how many hours a day? FRITTS: Before the layoff at Qualcomm Personal Electronics, my regular shift was Monday through Thursday, 5:30 to 4:00, which were
ten hour days. And you're supposed to have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. But a lot of times, they would schedule you 5:00 to 5:00 on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Sometimes Friday and Sunday, sometimes Friday and
Saturday, or sometimes Saturday and Sunday. And I remember going to my boss asking, could I just work one of those three days, so I can have some time at home with my family.
SMITH: How do you feel at the end of your day? FRITTS: You're feeling it by two in the afternoon. You want that cup of coffee. We get two half hour breaks and one fifteen minute
break. Trust me, by two o'clock, you're feeling it. SMITH: And by six when you're done? FRITTS: You're just lucky to be leaving. It is,
it's a long day; twelve hours is a long day especially when you have to be there at six in the morning. SMITH: When you walk through the door? FRITTS: When I walk through the door, you're still tired, and I see Alicia running up to me, giving me my hugs which are more than welcome, and get dinner going and she's in the tub by eight o'clock. I'm in
the shower by nine and go to bed. SMITH: How do you handle juggling the time that she needs, that your job needs, that your husband needs, that your house needs? FRITTS: You manage. SMITH: What’s it like? FRITTS: Well, I don't have a chance to sit down on the coach and watch a sitcom
with him or browse through my Cosmopolitan magazine, so you kind of save things for the days that you have off, laundry, running errands, grocery shopping might not be done on Saturdays anymore. It will probably be done
on Fridays, so I can have Saturday with the family to do things. SMITH: What's it like, get me up in the morning with you, get me out the door with you, get me through the job
with you and get me back in the door? FRITTS: It's a lot of work....I get up between four and four fifteen. Then I'll leave the house about, anywhere between an hour from there,
between five and five fifteen. I have to stop for my coffee, say hi to my friends, and then I get back in my truck and I head to work. SMITH: What are you doing? Are you just
getting yourself ready? Are you getting your daughter ready? Is your husband taking your daughter to day care? What's happening? FRITTS: He takes her to preschool, so I'm just
getting ready for work, and then before I leave, I kiss her goodbye, and I pick her up and I put her in bed with him. Then he wakes up; he gets her ready for preschool. He gets himself ready for work. He had to be at
the office at eight o'clock, so he's usually dropping her off at preschool by seven thirty. Then I can't pick her up because I'm off at six. Preschool, they want the children picked up at six, so those days that I'm
working, he drops off, and he picks up. SMITH: So if your husband didn't have a, what an eight hour day job, or an nine hour day job, you couldn't handle it? FRITTS: I would probably have to arrange for someone else to pick her up or work with management somehow, some way to getting something done to where I was able to leave. I really don't know how well that
would go over. SMITH: Do you feel the time stress personally? FRITTS: Yes, usually around, because see it's at night, you know, after
dinner, giving her a bath, I just don't have time for me. I don't have any time for me. It's constant work around the clock from when I get up in the morning at four, getting myself ready for work, going to work, doing
a twelve shift, coming home, getting dinner, doing the dishes. A lot of times she'll be in the tub playing, and that's when I have my chance to get the dishes done. When she's out of the tub, it's story time. Then we
say our night, night prayers, then she goes to sleep, supposedly, tries to go to sleep. That's when I get myself ready for bed. SMITH: Are you living a particularly hard life, or
are you living a fairly typical life? FRITTS: I think it's typical because everyone's going through that, and there's some single mothers too in my work area. There are single
mothers; they have their own life, and they have their own ways of how they get around everything. They'll have mom or mother in-law taking their children somewhere, you know, to day care or preschool. It really depends
on what hour of the morning these places are available to parents. Our preschool is available 6:30 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening, so they're out there. You just have to look. [Back to top] |
