Las Vegas hosts several trade shows throughout the year. One that is related to the automotive aftermarket arena is the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show. Even though I have worked as an engineer for an automotive company for over 15 years, I have yet to go to this annual event. At one time, my company was chock-full of enthusiasm, the spirit of innovation, the possibility of a rewarding future, and engineers. During those exciting times, upper management deemed it vital that members of engineering investigate upcoming technology. Research and Development was important to the powers-that-be for future revenue. When everyone returned from this important show, we came up with a lot of profitable products for the company. Of course, from the stories that I heard, not a lot of time was spent sleeping in those Vegas hotels in pursuit of R&D ... and other things.
Ah, good times. Here we are today where greedy owners who are closing in on retirement have stripped the company for immediate profits. The engineering staff is down to a tenth of what it once was. There is no R&D at our company anymore. Engineer has become as most positions in the plant have become -- a necessary evil. The only innovative work that I'm doing now is a redesign of all our production testers from their dying 386, DOS platforms to XP-based systems. This year, only the sales department and, naturally, upper management will be making the pilgrimage to SEMA to peddle our almost obsolete technology.
While moral is at an all time low, we still have a flicker of hope. We all dream that someone will buy the company soon and return us to our productive, happy selves once again. Maybe then, we can return to SEMA as a major factor in the industry.
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