Flat Rate Pay Needs To Go

[Eric]

I work at a Chrysler Dealership as an hourly lube tech, but every other guy in the shop is flat rate and I refuse to work flat rate because I’ve been there almost 3 years and I’ve seen what the flat rate system does to both the techs and the work they put out.

Here are some reasons I’ve found that flat rate is bad:

1. Enables favoritism and feeding techs

2. Enables service writers and managers to starve out techs they either don’t like or who don’t go along with the politics of the shop

3.Creates the concept of gravy jobs that pay great and are easy (brakes, fluid flushes, etc) and ** jobs that pay next to nothing but take half the day (pretty much anything warranty, water and air leaks, etc.).

4. Encourages techs to rush through jobs and cut corners to get things done faster, which normally results in butchered car (i.e. cutting or bending a bracket out of the way instead of unbolting it)

5. Selling work vehicles don’t need (calling brake pads at 5mm because “the shop is slow”. I remember one of the techs telling me a story about a former service manager telling him “when the shop is really dead in the winter, just call the rear main seal on a car under warranty and just spray it off with brake clean and don’t do anything else”)

6. Discourages techs from helping each other (I don’t get paid to help you)

7. Lets dealerships unload their losses and slow times on the tech (Oh business is slow, well you’re just not upselling enough on the cars that do come in, or Oh you didn’t diag. that car right the first time, well now you get to fix it for free)

8. Creates a cutthroat work environment (i.e. the shop favorite is getting all the gravy work and the rest of the guys get stuck with warranty jobs)

9. Undermines the value of the work techs do and makes customers think everything can be done fast and done correctly (which it can’t in most cases, you can be efficient at what you do, but if your just slamming through jobs you’re obviously cutting corners somewhere or not actually doing the work.)

10. If you lose your ass on a job or have a pay with low hours you are simply told you need to hustle more.

11. If you ask for a raise you are told ” you want a raise, turn more hours” and it becomes about quantity over quality.

Most arguments I’ve heard against flat rate are “Well if you pay a guy by the hour he’ll just goof around and play on his phone all day and not do anything” My answer to that is talk to the employee and if things don’t change, fire them. But the current solution to getting rid of a bad tech (which could just mean a tech who’s just not fast enough) is to”starve them out” and make them quit, which employers like because then they don’t have to pay unemployment.

I think flat rate was just a way for companies to not pay techs the actual time it takes to do something and just slap a number on every job to where “this can be done in this amount of time, every time, no exceptions” and that just doesn’t work in the real world. Plus when they calculate the labor times they use brand new vehicles that haven’t had a change to rust and experience the abuse people put their cars through.

In order for this industry to improve flat rate need to die and either hourly pay or salary plus commission need to take its place. I think that the only way you can make a good living off of flat rate is if you are feed gravy work, are not honest, or are in a shop that is literally always busy (which doesn’t exist, there are always slow days and weeks. Winter anyone?) I have seen though in shops with both flat rate and hourly guys that when it’s slow they’ll have the hourly guy running around and doing whatever (LOFs, state inspections, install mudflaps, etc.) while there’s two flat rate guys that have been standing around half the afternoon with no work.

So honestly I think if they went to straight hourly they would probably expect even more work from you than if you’re flat rate, because if they see you standing around and your being paid by the hour, you’ll probably either get sent home or be given some shit job to do (take out trash, clean, etc.) Just another thought that crossed my mind But the whole point of this long rant is that for the industry to improve the flat rate system needs to go. It’s pushing people away from becoming techs, it’s driving current techs out of the field, and it’s really doing a disservice to the automotive business as a whole. This whole idea of “everything needs to be done fast” needs to die along with the flat rate system. A tech’s main focus going into a repair should be “How can I fix this car to the best of my ability” not “How can I rush through this job and beat the labor time”

Topic

[Anthony Yakonick]

I’m the senior tech and one of the team leaders. We’ve slowed up quite a bit in the last few weeks. Today the service manager told me that the hour;y techs will be sent home if there is no work. Not the first time this has happened, wont be the last. Hourly techs are not immune, they lose also.

[Eric]

What are your thoughts on a 35/40 hour a week guarantee under flat rate? Surely you can’t have any objections to that? You are still paid more the more productive you are, so you have the incentive to do more, and at the same time it guarantees that the shop can’t screw the techs over and starve them out or make them stand around while there is no work, and they will work harder to make sure that the techs are always busy, so it’s a win/win for the techs and the shop.

Also, I don’t consider being made to stay at work while not getting paid as “winning”, I would rather just be sent home than be made to waste my day at work while making no money, there’s always something I could be doing at home. Also, the hour guarantee system I mentioned above would eliminate this problem.

[Steve Naughton]

[quote=”Redneckmanwv99@yahoo.com” post=183592]What are your thoughts on a 35/40 hour a week guarantee under flat rate? Surely you can’t have any objections to that? You are still paid more the more productive you are, so you have the incentive to do more, and at the same time it guarantees that the shop can’t screw the techs over and starve them out or make them stand around while there is no work, and they will work harder to make sure that the techs are always busy, so it’s a win/win for the techs and the shop.

Also, I don’t consider being made to stay at work while not getting paid as “winning”, I would rather just be sent home than be made to waste my day at work while making no money, there’s always something I could be doing at home. Also, the hour guarantee system I mentioned above would eliminate this problem.[/quote]

They have to give you at least your states minimum wage for the hours you are at work.

[Jason White]

Like everyone is saying, there are pro’s and con’s of every type of pay. The best thing to do is look at your overall income and decide if it’s worth it or not. If so, stay. If not, leave and do something that does pay what it’s worth. Start training for something else. Be aware though that most real jobs do pay on some type of commission system. Even most salary jobs are paid on a salary/bonus plan. Sales is usually pure commission. You have to learn with accepting that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Just learn how to win and now to not lose as much.

[Steve O’Rourke]

[quote=”Redneckmanwv99@yahoo.com” post=183592]What are your thoughts on a 35/40 hour a week guarantee under flat rate? Surely you can’t have any objections to that? You are still paid more the more productive you are, so you have the incentive to do more, and at the same time it guarantees that the shop can’t screw the techs over and starve them out or make them stand around while there is no work, and they will work harder to make sure that the techs are always busy, so it’s a win/win for the techs and the shop.

Also, I don’t consider being made to stay at work while not getting paid as “winning”, I would rather just be sent home than be made to waste my day at work while making no money, there’s always something I could be doing at home. Also, the hour guarantee system I mentioned above would eliminate this problem.[/quote]

This is exactly my sentiment Redneckman. Since we as techs basically have to sit around out of sight and wait for the dealership/shop to bring in business, a 35-40 hour guarantee gives us ability and incentive to generate additional work beyond the guarantee as well as the comfort to know that if it’s a slow time or we get sandbagged on shitty jobs, we can still buy groceries. It also gives the business the candle under its ass that it needs to keep themselves honest and be aggressive in finding new/additional work.

Sales is probably one of the most common industries for purely commission work. However, they can market themselves heavily with business cards, advertising on ballpoint pens and mugs and stickers and fridge magnets and social media and even bus stop benches if they want. They can network and talk to people and often times write off advertising and dinners and fuel and a host of other expenses required in the process. Heck, half the time just being honest and comforting can flood them with business as well if it’s in an industry with a large demographic of very unscrupulous salespeople.

However, flat rate technicians can’t market themselves. They can’t pick and choose the customers they want to service. Yes, customers can request a certain technician, but my point is technicians are simply tucked into the back shop, proverbially handcuffed to a workbench and given keys and work orders as management and the individuals involved see fit.

As someone else mentioned, I know my own personal financial situation would not allow me to work in a flat rate shop. I’m a single-parent paying child support and sharing custody of my daughter, and even being very humble and minimalist in my lifestyle, I still require a basic 40 hours of pay every week to budget especially with the cost of tools added in.

This is why I’m thankful I work in a small general repair shop where my boss is great to me and he pays us our full wage, guarantees me an 8-hour paid day and also offers a small but welcome commission bonus which is paid out based upon global shop volume for the entire week.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Eric]

Did you only create an account so you could talk about how great “flat rate” is? Because my thread is the only one you’ve ever posted on. Why is flat rate so good in your eyes, especially since the labor times are calculated on BRAND NEW cars that haven’t seen rust or been through what people put their vehicles through in the real world. Labor times are calculated under laboratory conditions, with all the tools and parts laid out and ready to go.

There is none of the reality of actually working at a dealership. They don’t have to go out in the lot and spend 10 minutes looking for the car, or round up other people to push it into their bay, or go and get the jumper box because the battery is dead. They don’t have to wait on parts or look for the special tools in order to do the job, and as I said before the cars are brand new and their is not a spec of rust or corrosion on them. So tell me how that system isn’t stacked against the tech from the start?

[Bluesnut]

I fully agree that a 35 hour guarantee (0r even 30) would be fantastic for the morale. However, I live in Oklahoma and have worked for 5 dealers over the years and one independent shop. Not one offered a guarantee of any sort. You get paid what you flag; nothing more.

In the early 80s the oil boom burst here and I went from flagging almost 70 hours in a 40 hour week to almost nothing. We mechanics would show up n the morning, grab a cup of coffee, and stand around chatting until lunch without even unlocking the tool box. Both temper and blood pressure rising as the clock ticked slowly along……

I think my last week there I flagged 3 hours and we do NOT get a minimum wage guarantee here. I found another job in OK City that was a 160 miles a day round trip commute but at least I was making some money even if all the driving (and cycle riding) was a pain in the neck at times.
Eventually things went south there also with little work. My last week there I flagged 14 hours and at that point I said to hell with this rat race, I sat at home for 2 weeks stewing with my wife asking me what I was going to do. Starve if need be but no more dealers and flat rate.

I opened my own small shop after selling one of my late model Harleys. Things were tight at first but eventually it got to the point I was highly recommended and well thought of. A number of cars were even towed from near a 100 miles out for me to service.
I specialized in foreign branded cars and carried around a pocket full of bright green business cards. During lunch and after work or whenever the need arose I would stick a card underneath the wiper of an appropriate car. I even wound up with 4 car dealers sending me work but at least in this case it was on MY terms; not theirs.

[Steve O’Rourke]

[quote=”Bluesnut” post=186646]I fully agree that a 35 hour guarantee (0r even 30) would be fantastic for the morale. However, I live in Oklahoma and have worked for 5 dealers over the years and one independent shop. Not one offered a guarantee of any sort. You get paid what you flag; nothing more.

In the early 80s the oil boom burst here and I went from flagging almost 70 hours in a 40 hour week to almost nothing. We mechanics would show up n the morning, grab a cup of coffee, and stand around chatting until lunch without even unlocking the tool box. Both temper and blood pressure rising as the clock ticked slowly along……

I think my last week there I flagged 3 hours and we do NOT get a minimum wage guarantee here. I found another job in OK City that was a 160 miles a day round trip commute but at least I was making some money even if all the driving (and cycle riding) was a pain in the neck at times.
Eventually things went south there also with little work. My last week there I flagged 14 hours and at that point I said to hell with this rat race, I sat at home for 2 weeks stewing with my wife asking me what I was going to do. Starve if need be but no more dealers and flat rate.

I opened my own small shop after selling one of my late model Harleys. Things were tight at first but eventually it got to the point I was highly recommended and well thought of. A number of cars were even towed from near a 100 miles out for me to service.
I specialized in foreign branded cars and carried around a pocket full of bright green business cards. During lunch and after work or whenever the need arose I would stick a card underneath the wiper of an appropriate car. I even wound up with 4 car dealers sending me work but at least in this case it was on MY terms; not theirs.[/quote]That’s awesome!!! Congrats on your shop success!!!! Truly jealous right now :).

I’ve honestly wanted to have my own shop now for several years, but it’s nowhere near being within my financial snack bracket to do so. I’m a single parent sharing custody of my daughter with debts I’m trying to get paid off asap so for at least the next few years I need to earn a steady paycheque and work for someone else.

I went to the Honda/Acura trade school in Toronto and many of the guys in my class told me horror stories about the no-guarantee flat rate environment at their dealerships. Technicians getting into fights over jobs when the days were slow or hopping the parts counter from impatience waiting for parts. Not doing the difficult parts of a job (i.e. cabin filters that were a royal pain to get out) yet clocking on it as if they did and then tossing the component in the garbage. Tower operators and shop managers sandbagging technicians when they would reach a certain high amount of hours.

I am happy that I’m paid hourly and plan to remain in such a shop indefinitely. I honestly wouldn’t trust any flat rate shop that doesn’t offer a good guarantee (at the very least 30-35 hrs) because to me that speaks volumes about their attitude not only towards their technicians but also the company’s desire to put profit above quality and employee happiness.

[Bluesnut]

Thank you for your kind words. The first 5 or 6 months was pretty tough but eventually things got rolling due to word of mouth. Being honest and halfway competent accounted for a lot.

One example. I get a call late one afternoon from a small car dealer about a mile away. He had a rough running Audi that the long time fully ASE certified import shop had said had a fuel injection problem that was going to cost 800 bucks minimum to fix. I went and picked the car up after 5 and drove it back to the shop. Feeling it was something minor I discovered a split vacuum hose. Snipped it off, plugged it back in, and voila; “800 dollar FI problem fixed”.
I took it back to him before 6 and he was absolutely stunned to get a sweet running Audi back that quick. He sent me a lot of work after that and recommended me to other dealers.

In another case the assistant head basketball coach at the college here (later to be an NBA assistant) brought a poorly idling BMW in that the same shop had also said was an “800 dollar FI problem”. The tiniest touch on the CO adjustment had it idling like a Swiss watch. Needless to say he was dumbfounded, and not only brought me both his cars after that for service but was also telling everyone on campus. Got a lot of work that way.

There are a number of other similar repairs that snowballed and led to a lot of work including one elderly man who was so impressed he never quit trying to get me to pack up and move to where he lived about 85 miles out. His shop there had been hosing him badly for weeks over a burned 25 cent fuse problem; not through crookedness but through sheer incompetence or stupidity.
His last fling with them involved replacing all of the rocker arms and valve springs on a Mazda when the complaint was that the car randomly shut off……. 🙁

[Steve O’Rourke]

[quote=”Bluesnut” post=186657]Thank you for your kind words. The first 5 or 6 months was pretty tough but eventually things got rolling due to word of mouth. Being honest and halfway competent accounted for a lot.

One example. I get a call late one afternoon from a small car dealer about a mile away. He had a rough running Audi that the long time fully ASE certified import shop had said had a fuel injection problem that was going to cost 800 bucks minimum to fix. I went and picked the car up after 5 and drove it back to the shop. Feeling it was something minor I discovered a split vacuum hose. Snipped it off, plugged it back in, and voila; “800 dollar FI problem fixed”.
I took it back to him before 6 and he was absolutely stunned to get a sweet running Audi back that quick. He sent me a lot of work after that and recommended me to other dealers.

In another case the assistant head basketball coach at the college here (later to be an NBA assistant) brought a poorly idling BMW in that the same shop had also said was an “800 dollar FI problem”. The tiniest touch on the CO adjustment had it idling like a Swiss watch. Needless to say he was dumbfounded, and not only brought me both his cars after that for service but was also telling everyone on campus. Got a lot of work that way.

There are a number of other similar repairs that snowballed and led to a lot of work including one elderly man who was so impressed he never quit trying to get me to pack up and move to where he lived about 85 miles out. His shop there had been hosing him badly for weeks over a burned 25 cent fuse problem; not through crookedness but through sheer incompetence or stupidity.
His last fling with them involved replacing all of the rocker arms and valve springs on a Mazda when the complaint was that the car randomly shut off……. :-([/quote]Good work my friend!!!

I too have been duped by a fuse or a bad piece of wire LOL, but now and then you need a simple oversight to keep you humble haha.

I love the AHHA!!!! moments for sure when you nail a problem others floundered on. Kinda make me feel like the Dr. Gregory House M.D. of cars :D.

My favourite moment for me like you described was when a shop brought us a Pontiac Pursuit (it’s our Canadian version of the Cobalt) and it wouldn’t start. Shop tried a bunch of the typical GM things and kinda gave up and had it towed to us.

I got it and immediately put it on the hoist and bumped the fuel tank while my coworker tried cranking it. No dice. Checked the fuel pump relay and I didn’t hear it click. Went to ProDemand and printed out the fuse box map and the schematic for the fuel pump circuit and when I walked over to the underwood fuse box I was puzzled. Something didn’t look right according to the map so I double and triple checked again on ProDemand since they don’t list info for a Pursuit and instead guys have posted in the Tips Comments to use the same hear of Cobalt.

Turns out someone had removed the fuel pump relay and not paid attention and put it back a row over, then added an extra fuse LOL. Since the fusebox basically has identical looking cavities for fuses and relays, they had three relay prongs in empty locations and one prong in one half of a fuse location. Then they had a 25A fuse in the other opening so one fuse prong was in a terminal and one was on a blank location.

What confused me was a 25A and a 15A fuse were next to each other where according to the fuse map only a 15A should have been.

Removed the 25A, dropped the fuel pump relay down a row and confirmed
the 15A location and VROOMMMMM car fired right up :).

[Bluesnut]

Excellent job figuring out that Pursuit and I agree it’s a source of great satisfaction to sort something out that others have failed on. I have a lot of sympathy for customers who have paid through the nose for things their cars did not need. Very good job of going to the schematics. So many seem to rely on poking and guessing rather than looking at a diagram and getting a feel for what’s going on.

I agree with you that dealer flat rate can be a circus with politics, backstabbing, and sheer idiocy involved.

At one large multi-line dealer in OK City I became the shop foreman there. My goal was to watch out for the flat rate guys. So every morning I would get with the dispatcher and see that maintenance, brakes, suspension, and other gravy jobs went to the flat rate techs and that squeaks and rattles went to the two hourly trainees we had. I also had to fight with the service manager every week because he kept interfering and mucking up the works.

He would botch something in the paperwork or get chewed by a customer for whatever reason and would for example give the customer a 100 bucks back just to pacify them. He would then turn around and try to backflag the mechanic for a come-back when there was nothing wrong at all with anything the mechanic did. I would always have to fight tooth and nail to make sure the mechanic got his hours. It became very, very tiresome.

The VW factory rep used to do most of his dealings with me when it came to questions about warranty claims and things of that nature because as he put it, “XXX is the dumbest S.O.B. on the face of the Earth” with XXX being our moronic service manager. He would clear up questions with me and then go to the service manager’s office, slam the door, and chew him to shreds for 20 minutes at a time. It was an all glass office so all of us in the shop could watch and laugh…..
It eventually got so bad the VW rep refused to even make a monthly round to the dealership.

One of his last rounds he said that it was only a matter of time before the dealer was going to sink. He even gave me a card and graciously said that if I ever needed another job to give him a call and he would get me in somewhere.

[Steve O’Rourke]

This is what I was describing earlier and I think I may not have explained myself very well and it came across like I was pro-flat rate.

I honestly wouldn’t survive in an environment like you and others have described here. Just knowing that there are so many variables that can affect your paycheque would drive me insane and I’d have to quit and do something else if flat rate was my only option. What frustrates me the most is the people in the dealership who are responsible for distributing the work or who have their hands in the distribution pot are generally not affected by any of the variables that technicians are. I can guarantee you that if you took a tower operator or a service writer or a parts department person or even a shop manager and had them put in a full days work only to tell them that they essentially had to work for free for so many hours on such and such jobs because they exceeded the times or it was a come back or whatever, people would lose their damn minds.

That’s what frustrates me the most about the trade and I’m glad that I work at a small independent shop where we are paid hourly up here. When I worked at the Honda dealer for a number of years, I believe we were one of if not THE last dealer in Canada that paid technicians hourly, but as I’ve mentioned earlier I kept thinking to myself as I worked on jobs how shitty it would have been if we were straight flat rate. My efficiency before I left was in and around 110-125% (I wasn’t the fastest guy in the shop but I definitely wasn’t the slowest; my quality was top notch, my comebacks were almost nil and I was the most requested and referred technician of anyone there) but there were some weeks where it was so slow that I didn’t even bring home a 30 hour paycheque. They brought a new business manager on board and apparently he started making sweeping changes and basically started turning it into a big city dealer like those in Toronto. I knew there were lots of changes coming, and a recent visit to the dealership and a chat with my old service manager revealed as of April 1 they were finally going to flat rate. I just cringed at the thought of that and despite the fact that my service manager really liked me and was sad to see me go, hearing of all the changes confirmed my decision to leave was a good move.

Flat rate with a guarantee of 40 hours would be the most ideal in a perfect world. That way technicians can still bank on a full standard week of pay at their full wage rate without the added stress of slow weeks, politics and funnelling of good paying work to favoured employees. Yet they still have the ability to produce extra hours and benefit from being ultra efficient all the while the dealership has great incentive to actively pursue new business I doubt they will want to pay techs to stand around lol.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bluesnut]

Probably the worst flat rate situation I ever got into was when I worked for Nissan. We made an average of about 5 bucks less per hour than mechanics in other dealerships. However, the word ‘warranty” was never mentioned and we got paid full book on any repair. Every mechanic there was flagging 65 hours or more in a 40 hour week without killing themselves. The service manager kept all BS off of the mechanics backs.

The service manager retired and things went to hell. The new SM called everyone together and announced we were going to a Team Pay Plan. Every mechanics’ hours were to be put into a pool each month and divided by the number of techs. You can see the problem with this.
On Monday morning every tech came in in a foul mood with everyone eyeballing everyone else to see if they were slacking off or coming in late.

The premise was that if one mechanic flagged 60 and another 30 then 15 hours of the high guy would be taken and given to the low man so “it would be fair”.
Needless to say this didn’t last more than a few days. The lot porter (who contributed nothing to the flat rate pool) came and told me that he had been placed into the pool. He wasn’t happy either as he knew we techs were essentially paying his salary; not the company. We then heard rumors the detail guys were going to be put into the pool also; and neither of them contributed flat rate to the pool.

I won’t go into the story but suffice it to say I started a revolt that involved a little violence with every tech in the shop quitting at the same time. The GM called us all in and tried to smooth things over. Eventually he caved and put things back to the way they used to be but they were never the same after that.

Good thing too. The first 2 days i was down over a 100 bucks out of my future check to other guys.

Funny thing. Before the “reconciliation” I had told the SM to step outside and get his tail beat after kicking his chair out from under him. He took off running for the up front offices and locked the door behind him. During the “reconciliation” in the GM’s office the SM got a little brave and mouthed off something. The tech sitting on my left dived over me and the end of the GM’s desk to cold cock him. The SM flinched back and smashed his head into the block wall when his chair went over backwards. It sounded just like a coconut smacking the floor.
The rest of the meeting went on with him sitting there dazed and glassy eyed with his mouth shut.

It’s pathetically sad that workplace conditions like this ever occur.

[Steve O’Rourke]

[quote=”Bluesnut” post=186721]Probably the worst flat rate situation I ever got into was when I worked for Nissan. We made an average of about 5 bucks less per hour than mechanics in other dealerships. However, the word ‘warranty” was never mentioned and we got paid full book on any repair. Every mechanic there was flagging 65 hours or more in a 40 hour week without killing themselves. The service manager kept all BS off of the mechanics backs.

The service manager retired and things went to hell. The new SM called everyone together and announced we were going to a Team Pay Plan. Every mechanics’ hours were to be put into a pool each month and divided by the number of techs. You can see the problem with this.
On Monday morning every tech came in in a foul mood with everyone eyeballing everyone else to see if they were slacking off or coming in late.

The premise was that if one mechanic flagged 60 and another 30 then 15 hours of the high guy would be taken and given to the low man so “it would be fair”.
Needless to say this didn’t last more than a few days. The lot porter (who contributed nothing to the flat rate pool) came and told me that he had been placed into the pool. He wasn’t happy either as he knew we techs were essentially paying his salary; not the company. We then heard rumors the detail guys were going to be put into the pool also; and neither of them contributed flat rate to the pool.

I won’t go into the story but suffice it to say I started a revolt that involved a little violence with every tech in the shop quitting at the same time. The GM called us all in and tried to smooth things over. Eventually he caved and put things back to the way they used to be but they were never the same after that.

Good thing too. The first 2 days i was down over a 100 bucks out of my future check to other guys.

Funny thing. Before the “reconciliation” I had told the SM to step outside and get his tail beat after kicking his chair out from under him. He took off running for the up front offices and locked the door behind him. During the “reconciliation” in the GM’s office the SM got a little brave and mouthed off something. The tech sitting on my left dived over me and the end of the GM’s desk to cold cock him. The SM flinched back and smashed his head into the block wall when his chair went over backwards. It sounded just like a coconut smacking the floor.
The rest of the meeting went on with him sitting there dazed and glassy eyed with his mouth shut.

It’s pathetically sad that workplace conditions like this ever occur.[/quote]

I have quit work places several times due to tense situations and unruly employees, but thankfully I’ve never had to endure physical altercations.

I’ve had really shitty service managers who had absolutely no clue what working on the vehicles entailed, which was mind-boggling to me because I could not for the life of me understand how somebody with less technical knowledge than me about working on vehicles was in a position of authority to dictate what I was to do and how I was to work.

There were other times I worked with extremely negative people and it got to the point where I literally had enough of the person/people so much, I finished out my workday (I still worked hard and quick right to the end), went home and picked up a van big enough to get my toolbox into and came back after the shop was closed but while the sales department was still open and rolled my stuff out.

I just figure that life is too short to spend it going to work absolutely miserable every day.

[Bluesnut]

Things went into the tank anyway even after they agreed to drop the Team Pay Plan concept. Mechanics went from flagging 65 a week to fighting tooth and nail to get 35.
About 6 months later the oil bust hit and we were standing around most of the day doing nothing; and with no guarantee.

Three or four new car dealers went bellyup as did a dozen or so independent shops.

My option at the time was lag around doing what piecework I could find to do at home or find a job some distance off and start driving so I chose the latter.

Eventually I gave the dealer rat race up and opened my own shop.

I can’t even imagine what dealers are like now with the proliferation of things like Ford’s Fast Lane where they’re competing with the fast lube facilities.
I talked to a few friends of mine in OK City who still work for a dealer down there and they told me that the SM announced that all repairs were now going to be charged out at warranty rates; even for cars well out of warranty and no matter how many miles.

When dealers are competing with fast lubes and so on there’s going to be some low pay issues no doubt about it. The Ford dealer here even advertises on the radio about their Fast Lane and how customers can have “sandwiches, fresh baked cinnamon rolls, and biscuits and gravy” while having their car serviced.

[Author]

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