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A couple years ago at my dealership they hired a guy named Steven. He was around 25 and was a recent graduate from UTI, he also drove a late 90’s Dodge Neon with a big fart can on it and generally acted like a know it all douchebag. I didn’t care for his attitude, so I tried my best to stay away from him whenever possible, though I would help him out if he asked. He was almost always on his phone or outside smoking a cigarette, or both, or when he wasn’t he was going for an hour long test drive (Seriously, one day I swear he was gone at least 1 1/2 hours).
He couldn’t fix a sandwich let alone a car, and nearly everything he touched came back with either the same problem, or some new problem that he created do to his stupidity. He would go all gung ho and make a simple problem into a complex nightmare, hooking up all kinds of diagnostic equipment and sitting in the bay revving the engine, sometimes for hours at a time. If a car had a front end noise, he would call both inner and outer tie rods, upper and lower ball joints, struts/shocks, CV axles, basically everything on the front end. The parts guys started calling him the “kitchen sink”, because every time he would bring them an RO he would have 30 parts listed on it, asking for everything but “the kitchen sink.”
If he couldn’t figure it out on his own (and he rarely could), then he would go around to all the techs and ask them if they had seen the problem before and what it could be. I remember one time he had this lifted Ram 2500 (the lift kit was installed by him) that was making a clunking noise when turning to the left. He had that truck all day, took it on over 10 test drives, and had it up on the rack multiple times, perplexed as to what the problem was. I had just clocked out and was leaving when I saw him out back and he stopped me and asked me to look while he turned the wheel back and forth. Turns out, he had installed one of the bolts in the steering stabilizer upside down and it was rubbing on the toe bar. It took me literally 30 seconds to find a problem he couldn’t find in a day.
At the dealership I work at, no techs ever got fired. I had spoken to a couple of the guys that had been there over 15 years and both told me that they never fired a tech, no matter how bad they screwed up or didn’t come to work or anything like that, they all had quit on their own. So Steven was in no danger of losing his job, despite the fact that he wasn’t well liked by anyone in service (I could stand to talk to him sometimes, but most times I just found him annoying). When he either had nothing to do or couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the car he was working on, he would browse facebook, google and porn blogs, and took a cigarette break every hour or so.
He was hourly for the first 3 months or so, then management pushed him to flat rate and I know he didn’t make any money when he was flat rate. Service writers didn’t like giving him work, because it always took forever and would likely come back, and he was given to screw around anyways, so after about 9 months of flat rate and a 25 hour paycheck for two weeks, he put in his two week notice. This was on a Wednesday, and they gave him a couple cars Thursday and Friday. But come Monday he didn’t have anything, so he went to the manager (who was an ass) and asked if he had anything for him to do. He said “No, I don’t think we’re going to need you here any longer”, so he called someone with a truck, loaded up his toolbox and that was the last I saw of him. He needed to go, though.I’ve never seen a tech fired before, though, and that was the shortest lasting tech at my dealership. Don’t even want to think about how many detailers went through there, lol.
Do you guys have any stories like this?
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One day at our place. Unloaded a toolbox out the back of his car in the morning. By 3 o’clock, he told the foreman to f$&k off and away he went with his small amount of tools lol. One day is the fastest I’ve ever seen.
I don’t know how to call this one. They hired a tech to become the fourth tech a couple months ago. On his first day, talked a lot. Of course, there was plenty of face time with his phone in between otherwise incessant and unwanted conversations. The second day, he managed not to talk so much, but was already asking me to loan him my tools. He didn’t start small as he hit me up for the $500 hydraulic brake line tool kit. He dragged two carts and a long & large Mac tool box you could almost live in but he’s already looking to borrow tools. When I shot him down, he whined, “I see how it is.” so I’m guessing one of the other techs suggested I might loan him the kit. The other two techs I work with are good kids so they’re always welcome to borrow my tools. The day two jabber jaw is not. Anyway, he then disappears for two weeks allegedly to a flu. I thought he was already terminated for job abandonment because he started not calling in to report he was still sick. But he got one more day where he came in and said that he was still sick and he threw up before coming to work. He got a half day out of that and then he was fired. So roughly 2.5 days in roughly 2.5 weeks. I don’t think I’m allowed to tell you about the guy before him. He only made it about a month and I think he’s responsible for some power steering fluid in a master cylinder.
I’ve been in this business a while, and I’ve seen quite a few people get fired and quit really quickly. I’ve seen a few that came to work their first day DRUNK.
I quit the first hour of one job because I started my first day and the manager came out and said he couldn’t pay me what we agreed but he would pay me even more after a 90 day period. I finished the car I was working on, got my box and left.
Another, first day quit was I started at this shop and the owner had a 20 year old son with downs syndrome. The shop was his playground. I was told not to leave the keys in the car because he likes to get in and start them even while you are working on it. Basically told I was responsible for his safety. Also told not to upset him because he can get angry and throw fits, and had hurt people throwing wrenches and stuff. This is a shop, not a daycare. When I was there, a pretty girl came in and he was all over her, harassing the crap out of her, she was so uncomfortable and the owner did nothing. I feel bad for someone with downs but a auto shop is not a place for that, so I got my things and left.
In the car repair side they usually lasted 3 weeks to a month at least.
In truck repair the shortest was 3 days to a week.
There is no tolerance for guys who do not know how to do what they claim they could do. Plus they have no tolerance for guys who cannot do what they are told to do or do not have enough common sense to report to their supervisor when they have a problem. If they let something go out the door that is not fixed or should not go out the door there are meetings the same or next day and they are fired.
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