u/Dismal_Yogurt3499

Fedex keeps delaying my 3 day express package by 1 day at a time, and its been happening for 3 weeks straight. They finally updated my tracker to "Tomorrow before 5pm" but fedex only delivers to this facility in the morning. I've been trying to fix this lab analyzer for weeks now and this part is held up in Indianapolis for some unknown reason. Support couldnt give me more information. My team and I thought this was a software glitch since repeated 1 day delays seemed too weird to be accurate.

I'm a field service engineer and it's basically 100% independent, unless im calling up a coworker for help. Occasionally there's a meeting to go over software updates but nobody ever has their camera on. I met my manager 4 months ago and that's the only interaction we've ever had. I'm just now realizing that's really weird to never communicate with my boss in any way shape or form.

Is there a way to sequence the organism to find a vulnerability to a less common drug? Is phage use more common now? My mom just got hospitalized with a bug that's resistant to everything in the panel, and im curious what directions doctors can go when this happens.

I'm exhausted from the heat in Minnesota lately and I need a break from work. I want to go as far as possible from home without leaving the country, and Alaska has always been on my radar. How is Girdwood for solo travel while trying to be cost conscious? I'm looking to spend up to a week there with a rental car. My flight is free, rental car is about $400 for 6 days, and i have a lot of hotel points/discounts available to use.

I'm planning on spending time at Alyeska and doing some hiking, haven't planned an itinerary yet. Is it a big solo travel destination? Ive taken some solo trips in the lower 48 where most people there are on couples getaways, and it's harder to meet other people.

Almost every part we're having to order is out of stock in the US and international. We have to wait on the OEM to produce and wait on customs. I've never seen it so bad before. Even simple, routine hardware purchases are out of stock.

I'm a service engineer for the OEM. A gear within a laser was slowly stripping itself over the last month or so. The signs of it were infrequent and started about a month before their annual, but could've been explained by software glitches or material buildup that would be addressed during a PM. After I did their PM, it got so much worse and the logs finally started to show data that the laser was about to die. Power settings were stable as long as the shifter initialized properly, so I ordered a new laser for a follow up visit. Power cycling daily was the only way to get the instrument to run if the laser locked itself up.

The problem is, only a handful of these systems exist globally and the manufacturer who builds the lasers didn't have any delivered to our factory for final testing. When we have stock, we can do international overnight shipping for almost anything. Usually we have US stock anyway. It took over 2 weeks for the part to get built, factory approved, and shipped out. Customer went down fully a last week, im guessing the gears fully stripped themselves. It's extremely rare for these lasers to fail at all.

Customer is high profile in pharma and clinical work, and they're understandably really pissed. Finally got the new part coming in, but now it's held up in customs and we have no idea how long clearance will take. Ive seen it take a day, orher times weeks. I have other engineers on standby who can be there for the repair as soon as the part gets in. My exports team is trying to get clearance expedited.

I'm trying to think how any of this could've been handled differently for the future, but I think me and my team did everything we could and it's just an unfortunate timing situation.

I'm a service engineer and we've had 2 restructurings in the last couple months. 3 engineers from my territory have quit and the positions are not being reposted. My work has grown massively. I'm in hotels 4x/week, last year it was 2x. There's constantly supply chain issues, customers get mad when the part for a repair doesn't come in and they take their anger out on me. Ive had 3 managers in 1 year and my current is not very responsive. I'm just so tired.

How do I know if its going to eventually work out, or of if it's better to cut my losses and quit.

I'm a service engineer for a high density hospital and pharma lab instrument. We're down 3 engineers for a 11 state territory, no positions being backfilled and we're about the lose the only other engineer in the region. All requests for additional engineers have been denied. Salary range for my position is 75k-130k, I'm at 90k. I'm ok with putting up with this, but I need a raise or I'm gone too. My lease is up in November and I'm more than OK with quitting and moving wherever I need to for a new FSE position.

My company can't afford to lose me, unless they're OK with taking a massive hit to service contract compliance. I know I have a valid justification for asking for a raise, but how do I go about it?

I'm a service engineer and I just finished an annual maintenance case at a major pharmaceutical company, where the previous engineer documented multiple fields on the previous maintenance report incorrectly. He quit after i got hired so im basically his replacement and im inheriting his customers. He also never uploaded copies of the paperwork, so we had no idea about these discrepancies until they started the review process.

When the QC manager was reviewing my work and giving approval signatures, she was comparing my document to their previous maintenance records. The previous engineer documented incorrect software versions, part replacement schedules, a power level setting, and used an outdated document revision. The document still included all necessary fields and wasn't missing anything, but he told the customer the documents were up to date.

My documentation was fully correct and I showed QC and management where these fields were recorded on their software, and they seemed confident in what I was telling them. They were very upset at the previous years document but I was able to talk them down a bit.

My question is, how big of an issue is this previous incorrect documentation, considering that I just gave them more updated and correct regulatory forms? I notified my team lead that they found these discrepancies and I was able to provide the correct documentation, but I'm wondering if this is something I should loop my managers in, just in case this company reaches out being upset.

I have a number of big pharma lab services comimg up that require the same level of regulatory documents, and im concerned that I'll run into similar situations.

I've finally found a good fit as an FSE for detection analyzers after some job hopping. I'm at a top instrument OEM, sales are exceeding targets, stock has been trending upwards, there's absolutely no sign of the company performing poorly. We've had a couple of cost cutting restructurings but they only affected sales, R&D, and management for poor performing product lines. Service has stayed unaffected.

A couple of my other midwest and NW coworkers quit to take a career break, and now im the only one left for our busiest product line to cover the midwest, some of Missouri, and parts of Wyoming and Montana. I'm travelling 5 days a week now, im on my 3rd manager since I started last year since the others quit, and im so tired. I used to be in hotels 2x/week max, and I'd do day trips when flying for a repair if the flight schedules allowed for it. Now, im hitting multiple states almost every week. My PTO keeps getting denied because we have no extra coverage yet, my manager wants to crosstrain me on an entirely different type of spectrometry because it's an "easy" instrument to learn, and I really don't see how this job is going to improve.

My managers have made proposals to rehire for my region, but senior directors keep rejecting them. My utilization is about 100% since I have to travel on weekends on occasion and I might have 1 day at home per month for paperwork and catch up days. I'm just exhausted. I've looked at other FSE positions but they're all a pay cut. This is my 3rd job in 4 years since I graduated, and im afraid that it might look weird to hiring managers if I job hop again.

The benefits look incredible, but my main concern is housing availability. My interview isnt for another 2 weeks. Application states they'll provide resources for establishing roots in the valley area. I'd be making over $100k and most likely won't qualify for any of the affordable housing options. Am I better off finding roommates and housing on my own?

I'm an engineer for a biologics company, but most of my customers are big pharma, defense or government related. I'm usually in BSL3 and sometimes 4 which I'm used to, but it's different as a 3rd party contractor. At every site, I'm being watched by staff who question everything I'm doing, and some customers have me working under armed guard supervision. I hate getting my car searched and going through extensive security all the time. I understand that I don't work for these companies so they have to be strict and cautious about letting me on their site, but it's starting to wear on me. It's been about a year and I thought I'd be used to it by now.

I've had a lot of long trips lately and we put rental cars/hotels/parking on our company card that we're responsible for paying off. I have a new manager and it's been over 2 weeks since I submitted a few expense reports, and theres still no movement. Accounting takes at least a week to go through simple reports (local trips that are only mileage and per diem) and up to 2 weeks for longer trips with flights, rental expenses, etc. But they can't start that process until my manager approves it first and pushes it to them. I don't mind having to pay a $4k statement a few days before the reimbursement comes in, but now I likely won't get reimbursed for at least 1 more pay period now. I'm in expensive cities pretty frequently this time of year and these trips are not cheap.

Is this common with some managers? Someone else brought this up in a meeting last week too and he said "sorry, I get behind on those reports sometimes" and theres still no movement.

Microflex LRF. When I start the pumps up after venting, the turbo started making a loud whining noise. It went on for 30 seconds as the rotations started, then dissipated. Is this anything to be concerned about? I have the same pump on another LRF and an old microflex LT and they make the same sound, but much quieter. It was pumping down fast, about 8.0e-5 mbar after 40 mins after the stage being opened for 4 hours, so I'm not suspecting pump failure.

I'm based in Minnesota and everywhere I've been in the midwest over the past month is wildly more expensive than the beginning of the year, even compared to the east and west coasts. I never see hotels under $200/night anymore. Rental cars used to be $50/day but now they're almost always over $100. Delta is the only carrier for direct flights to lots of my regional customers, and the average one way price has gone from $400 to $600/$650. My flying trips are on average $400 more expensive than a couple months ago. Sure there are other carriers, but the costs of being on the road for extra travel days and checking my toolcases make it pricier anyway, and I wouldn't be available for more customers.

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My manager has been asking why I'm spending so much, but I don't have a choice. The only way I can lower my expenses are by staying in super 8s or places like that. Is everyone else seeing these same pricing changes? I'm spending about $1400 for a 2 day when I'm flying and it's insane.

My grandfather is about to pass and we are getting a celebration of life planned. He loved nature more than everything. Lived deep in the woods and he had a really deep appreciation for the simplicity of life. He was a social worker for kids In the rural north too. Just a really strong and caring man who was so in tune with the outdoors.

I'd love some song recommendations from artists like odesza, of the trees, clozee, etc. Something really earthy, organic, and relaxed that would fit for an outdoors celebration of life.

I was thinking Courage by Clozee would be a good pick. Its going to have family of all ages and backgrounds there and I dont want anything that'll sound too fast paced or bass heavy and out of place. I'm sure odesza has some good options but I just don't have the time to go through everything.

I'm a field service engineer for chemistry instruments, but the stress is really getting to me and I'm looking at an industry pivot to something outdoors. I'd love to work with ski lifts, but the highest pay I'm seeing offered at LP or Doppelmayr for lift engineers is only $35/hr for essentially 24/7 call. The benefits don't look like anything stellar either. Is working for the manufacturer the highest paying, or is 3rd party the way to go?

FC is really cheap for my return flight right now. I do machinery repairs and sometimes I have to extend my trips last second if parts get delayed or something. I'd love for fly FC to get back home but I don't want to throw the miles away if I have to switch the flight.

I repair analytical lab instruments and I cover a big region. Lots of driving and flying. There's some days where I wake up thinking I'll just be at home catching up on paperwork and emails, but then I'm on a plane 4 hours later because there's an emergency a few states away and im the only person available to take care of it.

I feel like I'm always "on" and with my old job as a lab tech, I used to be so productive and busy on my weekends. But now, I can't predict my schedule at all during the week and I just want to relax and do nothing on the weekends. I can typically get all my errands and chores done during the workweek so I don't ever have much that I need to do on weekends.

I think this is healthy since having a couple days to decompress is really helpful for prepping for the next week, but I'm curious what other people with jobs like this do.