Venting

[Justin]

This may be long

Well it’s summer time and works been slow. I can hardly pay my bills with the small amount of work coming through the shop. Our service writers absolutely suck, with the exception of one. I’ve been in talks with the tool guys and they say the indy’s are busy still but it’s a struggle to make 45 right now.

I was out for a month with a sprained ankle and management hired another guy, which meant when I came back I lost a bay to share with him so now I’m down to one bay. I spend a lot of time jockeying cars around which I think is bs. Management said he was going to install more lifts in the flat bays which was over 6 months ago. It seems like lately I spend 1/2 of my day at the parts counter, and can never find special tools when you need them because the parts manager is too lazy to place them where they belong instead of in the plastic bins they’re in.

I’ve gotten almost all of my gm online training done, and my boss is getting close to sending me to school hopefully. I’m a learning line tech and would like to consider myself a seasoned B level tech, with a few ase’s. But I’m seriously contemplating talking to the ford dealer down the road, and seeing if they’re any busier. This was a great move for me from where I was at, but I want to grow faster. I like the people I work with out in the shop but man it’s frustrating coming to work in the morning knowing I probably won’t break even for the day.

Sorry guys, just venting some. I’ve sat around all morning until the overnight truck came just a few minutes ago at 1:30 in the afternoon with nothing to do.

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Topic

[Larry Bible]

Things don’t always go smoothly. It sounds like it will take an increase in service business before things can get back on the straight and narrow. It sounds like you have some time invested there. It would be a shame to have to start over. It’s been a number of years since I have unlocked my toolbox every morning trying to make flatrate, so maybe I am remembering the good things and not the bad, but when I have gotten in a situation like that before, I have just tried to work my way through it and things usually change. I wish you the best with it.

Just so you can put it all in perspective, I will tell you what is going on with me. This past Friday was to be my last day at work before my job was over due to declining business, non auto related. I had recertified for the job hunt and lined up a tech job at the local small town GM dealer and was supposed to start June 13. The dealer has a great reputation in town and the employees seem happy.

Tuesday morning I got up to find that my lovely and wonderful wife of 42 years had died in her sleep.

My grandpa told me a story once about the guy who felt bad because he had no shoes until he saw a man with no feet. No matter how tough you think things are, it can always be worse. Be happy to have a job and work hard to make the situation better. Some times it is easy to get the idea that no one recognizes your good work, but if you keep your head down and turn out some quality work, it almost always pays off in the end.

Best of luck in turning things around there.

[Jason White]

They probably have bad service writers because they don’t want to pay for the good one’s. That’s an issue at my work. A tech for every bay, even if there isn’t work for half of them, that’s the way most dealerships want to go, it’s their dream anyways. I’ve been a Chevy guy most of my life, and in fact, I like working on GM’s. There are more GM’s on the road than anything. I even worked at a GM dealer for a little while, and liked it a lot. However, there is a reason I work for Nissan. The thing is that everyone and their dad works on Chevy’s and so many techs at least start with Chevy, they seem to have an abundance of GM techs. Lots of work, lots of GM dealerships, but then again, lots of techs.

One thing about this industry is that you are either the lead tech, seasoned A tech/Master tech, or you’re nobody. One thing you’ll also find is that the politics is everywhere. You might go to Ford and it could be worse. I’m not going to say it’s better at a Forign dealership, same thing. I’ll have to say that I’ve been there three years and not until recently has things turned around for me. There were things going on that I should have quit. There were things that happened that I honestly would have been justified in just rolling my box out without notice. I almost did. I’d be kind of embarrassed to tell you some of the things they did and to tell you that I stayed.

What you need to do is get out and over all of the riff-raff. Stand out by standing up. Get all that online training done, which you probably should have done while you were out with your ankle. Next you need to get all your ASE’s. If anything else, that will make you the prime candidate for going to training. How your employer treats you and how they pay you has everything to do with how easily they can replace you, and how easily you can replace them. Right now, if you leave, you will likely find yourself in the same position, somewhere else, with new problems, but now you are the new guy, starting all over. Getting all your certs and online done at a minimum will make you more hirable if you do leave.

[Jason White]

[quote=”MBDiagMan” post=167035]Tuesday morning I got up to find that my lovely and wonderful wife of 42 years had died in her sleep.[/quote]

SO so so sorry for your loss. 🙁

[Bob]

I may be out of line here as I have never worked for a dealer, always worked out of my own shop after working all day at a non auto related job.

Have you ever thought of work on the side until the shop picks up? Before I retired I charged time and a half what I was making at my day job and was still only about a third of the dealer price. Just a thought.

[Justin]

MBdiagman, so sorry for your loss. Sending thoughts and prayers to you and your family.
I agree with you, it always can be worse. I was just in a horrible mood and needed to blow some steam off. Sometimes it makes me question why I’m in this field. The past few weeks I have just put my head down and tried to push through it, but just need to keep my head up and looking foward. I appreciate the advice.

Jason- I agree. Politics will be at any work place, just some issues are easier to point out than others. I took care of almost all my online training while I was out. That is how I made a paycheck lol. I’m left with online seminars which I have scheduled myself in as many as possible through the next couple of months. Also looking into more certs and studying for them at the moment. Hoping to broaden my resume soon with more training being done.

I occasionally pick up some
Side work but most of the people I know either work on their own stuff or can’t afford to pay someone to do it.

Thanks for the insight everyone. Tomorrow is a new day and will be better than today.

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[zero]

I would have to agree that getting certifications should be your first priority. Especially if you have down time. Once you have recognized and transferable certifications you can go anywhere and expect a minimum level of pay etc.

My previous employer neglected to send in my papers for apprenticeship and the one before that will never sign off on my hours that I accrued there. I’m literally sitting in a position where after almost 3 years doing general service, to stay in the industry I’m seriously in a position where I would have to consider working in a lube bay.

Get all the certifications and classes done that you can and demand to go to school. If they don’t want to send you, toolboxes have wheels.

MBDiagMan, sorry to hear about your loss.

[Larry Bible]

[quote=”Cammed 05″ post=167048]MBdiagman, so sorry for your loss. Sending thoughts and prayers to you and your family.
I agree with you, it always can be worse. I was just in a horrible mood and needed to blow some steam off. Sometimes it makes me question why I’m in this field. The past few weeks I have just put my head down and tried to push through it, but just need to keep my head up and looking foward. I appreciate the advice.

Jason- I agree. Politics will be at any work place, just some issues are easier to point out than others. I took care of almost all my online training while I was out. That is how I made a paycheck lol. I’m left with online seminars which I have scheduled myself in as many as possible through the next couple of months. Also looking into more certs and studying for them at the moment. Hoping to broaden my resume soon with more training being done.

I occasionally pick up some
Side work but most of the people I know either work on their own stuff or can’t afford to pay someone to do it.

Thanks for the insight everyone.[i] Tomorrow is a new day and will be better than today.
[/i]

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That’s the spirit! Go show ’em some quality, professional work and it will improve.

Best of luck!

Thanks to all for the condolences, but I was not asking for sympathy. I was just trying to make a point. For those who are happily married, don’t take a single minute of it for granted. Enjoy and savor every moment.

[Daniel Rose]

Flagging “45” is nothing to complain about, believe me it get worse. Strange you are slow moving into summer as two things break cars,heat and cold.( and cold helps the body shop out also,so does the rut)

[kevin]

[quote=”MBDiagMan” post=167035]Things don’t always go smoothly. It sounds like it will take an increase in service business before things can get back on the straight and narrow. It sounds like you have some time invested there. It would be a shame to have to start over. It’s been a number of years since I have unlocked my toolbox every morning trying to make flatrate, so maybe I am remembering the good things and not the bad, but when I have gotten in a situation like that before, I have just tried to work my way through it and things usually change. I wish you the best with it.

Just so you can put it all in perspective, I will tell you what is going on with me. This past Friday was to be my last day at work before my job was over due to declining business, non auto related. I had recertified for the job hunt and lined up a tech job at the local small town GM dealer and was supposed to start June 13. The dealer has a great reputation in town and the employees seem happy.

Tuesday morning I got up to find that my lovely and wonderful wife of 42 years had died in her sleep.

My grandpa told me a story once about the guy who felt bad because he had no shoes until he saw a man with no feet. No matter how tough you think things are, it can always be worse. Be happy to have a job and work hard to make the situation better. Some times it is easy to get the idea that no one recognizes your good work, but if you keep your head down and turn out some quality work, it almost always pays off in the end.

Best of luck in turning things around there.[/quote]

I am so sorry my mechanic brother in arms. At least you had her for long time…42 years…beautiful long years…i had been fighting a lot with wife latey but, i think most of times…it’s good..sometimes it isn’t…

Take care of yourself out there…at least you got one more person watching out for you….up there.

[kevin]

[quote=”Tech 1″ post=167127]Flagging “45” is nothing to complain about, believe me it get worse. Strange you are slow moving into summer as two things break cars,heat and cold.( and cold helps the body shop out also,so does the rut)[/quote]

45 in one week or two weeks?my last job it was sitting around 60-70 some in two weeks…in 2 year period, i had 4 times hit hired than 80…

Gm dealer suck with their menu price to play with tech wages. This is normal in CAN dealers….GM dealers say “we are more competitive with indy shops”
my thoughts are …never can compare to indy shop….

[Justin]

Tech1 typically 45 a week. Lately we have had a few low 30’s with the occasional mid 20’s weekly for some of us here and there. When we have work it’s nothing for us to flag over 100 in the typical 2 week period. Usually we are in the 120-130 range on average when we’re busy.

I am slowly seeing more a/c tickets roll though but not quite comparable to last year around this time. Today looked up and was a good day. Hoping to finish out the week on a good note tomorrow. My team leader had said we should be stacked most of the day.

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