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What are some shop politics, and other stick situations you guys have been in? I saw on one of Eric’s videos he dealt with some shady politics at the dealership. I haven’t really dealt with to much politics in the automotive field, yet….
I can tell you guys some pretty funny stories from when I was active duty.
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I have had foreman tell me to put grease/oil filled shoes back on trucks before. In which case I go no you can do it because I am not going to get sued because someone wanted to save 50 bucks. I have also done the same thing with Brake drums that were overly saturated. It is your name on the repair ticket not your foreman’s. If the shit hits the fan he is going to lie. You are liable for the repairs you do no matter what anyone ever tries to convince you of otherwise. If you truly believe something will hurt someone ask for a second copy of the Repair Order write on both copies what you wanted done and keep one in a safe spot at home and then hand the other to the Foreman/Service writer whom ever and explain to them why. Also tell them they need to inform the customer. You must CYA Cover Your Ass. I rarely have to do this as my foreman are fairly intelligent especially the one I have been assigned for the past 2 yrs. Every once in a while it needs to be done though. Normally when I put it that way the foreman backs down or the customer gives in.
dealership example would be certain techs getting customer pay work constantly while others get more warranty work..the problem with this is booking hours doing warranty work is very hard to do specially when you get those intermittent problems you spend too much time on for no real extra pay/hours through warranty. One of the smartest tech in my shop, I have the luxury of working next to him, is not even close to the highest paid due to this..he gets the tougher issues while other favored techs get customer pay brakes, flushes, etc gravy..it was brought to his attention several times that his hours were so low compared to others in shop and was told he needed to bring his booking hours up..
I agree completely tech123. I spent over 12 hrs on an electrical diag for an intermittent issue with the CAN network in a big rig. I had to tear the entire dash apart, rip out the dog box, cover the floor because of a leaking windshield and pull 3/4 of the wiring harness out. I then repaired 3 unrelated wiring issues and replaced one related splice that I was only half certain was bad. Later on I had time to cut the splice open and it was missing the crimp connector. Warranty pays 2 hrs for that job. It is rare that I can beat SRT times unless I know of a pattern failure or I have special tools to allow me to access things I shouldn’t be able to.
I’m pretty lucky, I haven’t really seen to much politics where I’m at. I honestly just keep my head on a swivel, my mouth shut unless I am asking questions, always thankful for help and advice, and keep my eyes and ears open also. Hopefuly things stay good for me.
The Air Force however was so political simply doing my job was 99% politics and 1% actual work.
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