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I also agree with a lot of what you’re saying, but as was stated above, most of your complaints sound like the fault of poor management of your shop. You will have the shop “princesses” that get fed and don’t get stuck with wind noises/rattles etc, but as you progress to journeyman then master tech, you will have the confidence and clout to stand up to such practices. And if you get canned, you have to ask yourself, was that the place you REALLY belonged after all? Shop politics is something you have to become very adept at unfortunately. What worked for me was to be the best tech I could, try your best to not make enemies, and prove to your boss that keeping you happy is in his and his department’s best interest. Make yourself into a good asset. Assuming this is what you want to do for a career…. Are you SURE you want to stick with this ? 😛 I’m always on the hunt for getting out somehow.
Flat rate also varies from state to state. In CA I feel like we’re really lucky. Techs with their own tools get double the state minimum wage by law guaranteed. Also, we now get that regardless of flagged hours due to the recent lawsuit a few years back. At the moment, that’s double 10.50 or $21 and hour. And because of that lawsuit, we’re not conventional flat rate, we’re hourly employees with production bonus. So I can flag 50 hours working 40, and they’d base my wage on me being 125% efficient. So my effective wage would be (x)125%. Lets say I made $25 hourly and flagged 50 hours. That’s $1250. What they do now is take the wage (my hypothetical $25) and multiply it by your efficiency (125%) which is $31.25. 31.25 multiplied by actual hours worked (40 hours) is $1250. A complicated way to pay the same wages. And if I flag less hours then clocked, I would just get that $21/hour regardless of how little I flagged.
Also, I wouldn’t take the retort “if you want a raise, flag more hours” response from any boss. I would look at him and say “Really?” with all the scorn and disdain my body language could allow. My response would be “you want me to flag more hours, bring me better work and fix the problems in the shop like some of living like tiny tims while watching the shop princesses ride the gravy train”. I’ve made my bosses eyes widen and his ears steam on a few occasions and lived tell about it. 🙂
For me, it’s the ridiculous complaints. Keep in mind I’m a dealer tech.
-“One side of the steering wheel has one more stitch than the other side! I want a new wheel!” The dude really counted….
-There are cracks on my gear selection indicator! (the “cracks” are the gaps between the LCD segments)
Those a just a few. My favorite customers are the ones that show up and make a huge stink about how their car has such a huge problem, threaten CA lemon law, lawsuit etc etc and come to find out, their warranty expired. Then they say “oh, well it’s not that bad after all’. uh huh…Another is the whole “why do have to pay your tech to diagnose my car when all he does is hook up the computer!?”
Customer pay customers are SO much easier. It’s the warranty whiners that suck. Most of them don’t do so much as a single oil change and have a jiffy lube sticker on their 50k car that I’m sure they probably lease.