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This is a rant. I need to piss and moan to get this stress off my chest to other techs. If you dont like some complaining, stop reading here.
New Schedule
So it has become impossible to make 40, but we are there for 50. Now our service manager has decided that if he puts us on a rotating schedule for only 40 hours per week that we will make more hours per person…I dont see the logic, but I am just a lowly tech who drags his knuckles and has no business sense.
The worse part? Absolutely no consistency anymore. My wife will have to quit her job because no companies will work around a different schedule each week for three weeks before it rotates back around. Income lost. I will have to quit my part time since they do not want to work around it. There is no company in the world that wants to have 3 different schedule rotations rather than just my availability for the week be set. So what the hell do I do now?
New Guys
We have a new guy fresh, first time ever in the industry. He is useless, it takes him an hour to do an oil change. I feel bad for him, but he is just taking more out of my slice of the pie, use to have 2 lifts so I couls bang out 2 oil changes or 1 oil change and some real work at that same time. Now I only have 1 so even though he takes too long, he is taking an oil change and rotate and potential upsell from my plate and a whole lift. What the fuck man.
Our foreman recently quit. He said fuck it to this place. He went back to his old dealership since they just fired a useless guy and a spot opened for him. So what does my service manager do? Hire the guy they just fired for being useless. Brilliant.
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I feel your pain man, not on the scheduling but on the new hire.
The business owner (i work at a independent shop) just hired a new GS last week. Lets put it this way, my wife knows MORE about vehicles than him! I kid you not. I have NO idea why he was hired. I am all for training people and such but, you have to have an interest in the field and show your working towards it (education).
Now he is slowing us all down as he has no idea what allot of parts on a vehicle are or do.
I was going through a check sheet we use for one of our inspection services. When showing him how to check u joints on a drive shaft he said “oh, i thought this was the camshaft?”.
/sigh
Might be time to find a new job or even a new job in a new field.
They are screaming for mechanics in ny field hours are intense though i work14 days 12 hours a day. but get 14 days off.I second woodbaron. Not only you have to sufffer with your schedule, but your wife has to quit, which will bring down the incme even more. Time to grease the wheels under your box and get a tow truck ready.
First day on new schedule, nothing has changed still only seeing about 7.5 hours a day, but now with one less schedule day a week, so instead of 37.5 hours on average per week, I will only see 30ish. Can’t do this. Tomorrow I am going in to tell my manager 4.00 an hour raise or I walk.
this is just why the industry is so f/d up and its NOT going to get any better Wen you talk to people 90 % goes to a dealership for warranty work the rest goes to smaller shop
[quote=”SpawnedX” post=40838]Two weeks notice given. Seriously considering selling my tools and never looking back.[/quote]
Just remember not all mechanic style trades are as fucked up as the auto trade.I know, but working on cars is what I enjoy. Everything else is just a job and if I am going to do just a job, I am going back to banking, it pays much better.
Well I can see you finally see what I have seen for years. The auto repair business is totally DEAD
Both of my sons I made sure they went to collage They Booth became accountants
They both bring in well over 6 figures And all they have to bring each day is there lunch and a pencil
They sit in a warm office in the winter and a cool office in the summer I made sure that they DID NOT
follow my lead Every Day I talk some one out of the idea OF going to school to become a mechanic
Only when dealerships cant get good mechanics maybe just maybe they will can this flat rate shit
And if by chance you want to stay in the field go to work as a fleet mechanic with NO flat rate you will be much more happier That want I did years ago AND NEVER regretted it ITS the only way to go today look at FedX
They have a large fleet
II’m not going to mince words here but it sounds like the place where you work flat out sucks. I would say you’re better off leaving. You might give the profession at least one more try before you walk away though. You just might find the right place. I think if you did it would make all the difference. It would be a shame to loose yet another technician to this crap. I wish you luck no matter what happens.
I don’t want to leave the industry, trust me, I like what I do, but I am walking away from one of the largest and top rated dealers. My options are getting limited. I have applied for a tech job at a Honda but have not heard anything yet. In the 3 months I was there, I think enough work came in to flag 40+ twice, and most weeks I was the top flagger.
I have about 30ish people that contact me routinely for side work, but their cars don’t break every week so I doubt I am in position to go on my own yet.
Man that guy reminds me of a few guys working on my opposing shift, they leave huge messes, damage parts and are just complete dumbasses. But i wouldn’t of delt with it like that, as you found out it never works out right. Best thing is to do what he did and complane to a super/leadhand/forman and basicly put him under the gun.
As for the crackhead guy, jeeze i would try to find away to get him fired asap, it’s just gonna keep happening. It’s not fair your higher ups are telling you to lock your box while working, and not taking your side. The only other advise i can give is look for a far better job somewhere else.
Good luck
I had a similar experience at my job. For several years we ran teams of 3 that we all got our pay checks from. We’d split the total flag hours for the week between us and the percentage was 33.3%. A couple of years before I left they went to 4 man teams, effectively cutting our pay to 25% of the take. They claimed there would be more hours and that we would actually do better. This was not the case. To make things worse this was about the time labor times were getting cut and more and more warranty work was coming in. In summery, more work, less pay. Dealers can be a blessing and a curse all at the same time.
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