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So about two weeks ago, I got an entry level position in an independent shop. Every night, we bring customer cars into the shop until the next morning, and that’s usually my job. Yesterday, I was tasked with bringing in a car, and as I was backing out of the parking spot it was in, I accidentally stalled the car out, and since it was on sort of an incline, it lurched really far forward, into another car and that one hit another car.
Obviously my boss was pissed, and pretty much told me not to come back to work, but he did tell me I’m responsible for the damages. All that was really damaged on the car that I was driving was a turn signal assembly, the second car had no damage that I could see, and the 3rd car had a small dent in the passenger side fender. On Monday, I’m going in to pick up my tools, and I’m thinking of what I should say to my boss. Obviously I’m going to apologize, and I’m going to ask him if I can call up the customers and apologize to them personally. I know that I’ve lost that job and I probably screwed up any chances of getting another one in this industry, but what can I do to possibly make this situation a little bit better?
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I’m sure a lot of us in the industry have been in similar situations, especially when we were younger.
In this scenario, I would apologize once, perform the repairs as requested by your boss (at your cost), pack my tools and roll out.
You are not a bad person and this event does not influence your abilities as a technician. There are a lot of professions out there in which “you only work until your first bad day” and an automotive technician is one of them. Man-up for a day, fix what you can and move on.
Fortunately, you don’t have to list every job you have ever had on your resume or work application. It is your choice. I have had jobs in which I have been fired that I do not list because I know I will get a bad recommendation (ok, i got in the boss’s face one day and they fired me over something minor and stupid; there was an inherent personality conflict.) Also, there was another time I bumped a car with my company truck once and was fired. Did it stop me? Was I a bad person or a bad technician? No. My career at that company simply lasted as long as my first bad day. I learned from this early on and have been successful at a lot of different jobs since then.
I’ve worked at a German/luxury dealership for years. I also crashed a car, two cars actually. A customer came in needing brakes serviced. After the brakes were done and set I pulled the car around the be delivered, on an incline. Being a standard transmission I parked the car and waited to hear the auto parking brake engage. It did, walked away and inside to hand the keys to the writer and his face just fell off. I looked back and the car had rolled 30 feet downhill into a Porsche turbo. It was a very bad day. At least no one got hurt, and the bodywork was able to be done in house (No light assemblies were broken banana:
That being said, I did have to pay for those repairs and had a very stern boss to deal with for about a month.All I can say is that you are not alone, they are called accident for a reason. The best thing to do is learn from the experience. (I always park standard cars in gear now, with or without auto brakes)
Just last week the same thing happened in my shop. I wasn’t driving the car but an entry level tech was driving an Altima out of the shop after doing a brake job. He forgot to pump the brakes before driving and he had no brakes. He backed up out of the bay, pressed on the gas too much and since he had no brakes he couldn’t stop so he tried to jam it in park. Car was going to fast though so all you heard was the repeated click noise. Smashed right into another Altima that was up on a lift. Damage wasn’t too bad. The Altima with no brakes was pretty wrecked in the back but the Altima on the lift only had a scuff on the rear bumper. It almost fell off the lift but thank God it didn’t. That lift was damaged too. Poor kid driving was traumatized and didn’t even wanna see anyone after that. Our boss didn’t really care honestly because he knew it was an accident. The kid didn’t even have to pay for the damage. The insurance did. Everybody makes mistakes but that’s how we learn. Now that kid knows to pump the brakes before taking a car out. As for you just apologize and fix for your damage and move on. You should be good. Good luck. 🙂
Boss gave me another shot, which I almost had a happy cry about lol. Just need to keep my shoes dry and make sure my foot doesn’t slip off the clutch. Also I should practice my hill starts
Aaaaaaaaand I’ve been let go yet again. This time for a different reason. I walked in today and the owner of the shop said “We’re gonna let you go. We’ve tried to work with you on improving and getting things done. I don’t think you’re cut out for our business”. At this job, I didn’t get to work on cars that much, I was mostly washing cars and emptying trash cans. The boss only really got on me about not getting things done as fast as he would like to, but other than that, I thought I was doing fine. I was a little angry, but I’m fine right now, just looking toward the future and finding another job in the industry. Should I list this job on future applications or just leave it off? I only worked there for a month
There appears to be a lot of drama/politics/hidden adgendii going on behind the scenes here; it is better to cut all ties and get away from this bad marriage.
I would advise you not to list this job on future applications or on your resume’. Your next employment opportunity will allow you to build wrench turning experience with a clean slate… and you’ll have the valuable experience of your recent bout of life adversity to take with ye’.
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