Will I Have A Job Tomorrow??

Having been self employed most of my working career I have not had to deal with working within the corporate world. My good friend had worked for a large tech firm for 15 years when they got boought out by an offshore corp. The first act was to replace all the upper management with their own. Within six months the layoffs began. His new manager could'nt stomach the work and passed it off to my friend to do. On the third round of layoffs his name showed up on the list but because he was doing them he just ignored it. He did that for four years until a new manager came in and figured it out.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
 
Buffalo,
I hope you do well with your new owners.
What are we looking for? I've been at the same place for 35 years, maybe I'm not qualified to have an opinion.

To be treated with respect, to have the freedom to manage or perform your job the way you think is best, To be paid a fair wage, to have a sense of a future and be given a chance to grow with the company.

Good employees are hard to find and harder to keep.
I think any new management team should know this reality.
 
Janderso said:
Good employees are hard to find and harder to keep.
I think any new management team should know this reality.
Click to expand...
A good employee might be hard to find but are not hard to keep. I’ve never left anyplace that was treating me well. i can see a good employee leaving if they are moving out of the area. Managers around here knew there was 16 applicants for every job and treated us like, you don’t like it? There 16 others out there who will do it for less.

When they brought in a new floor manager I was shocked to find out from him I was seen as their #1 go too guy because none of them managers ever treated like that. But when they slashed our benefits by handing out this little chicken handout with our checks at noon I knew something was rotten in Denmark. So I went to my Forman and told him I was history and come and inspect my toolbox, he knew I was going to be furious. The other formen came around and saw me off but nobody tried to talk me out of it. No managers came around either. I punched out at noon at that was the last time I punched a clock. Best thing that I ever did.
 
Buffalo21 said:
At 2:30 pm this afternoon, I received a phone call, from my former (as of yesterday) owner, he would received his asking price, plus 20%, if he walked away immediately. He took the check and signed the papers, so at this point I have a new owner (or owners).

The new principal owner called me this late this afternoon, he promised me nothing would change, business would go on as usual (we shall see), I expressed my concerns and serious doubts about the old owner leaving, so abruptly, but he tried to reassure me all would be well. I have to be at the company office on Tuesday morning, for a face to face meeting, something I’m not really looking forward to.

now where did I put that resume..........
Click to expand...
Good luck to you.
 
C-Bag said:
A good employee might be hard to find but are not hard to keep
Click to expand...
I would agree to an extent. Like you say, unless they are leaving the area.
We lost one of the best to the Seattle area, another pro retired and another moved to Roseburg OR.

We do have 3 guys left (technicians) that have been with us for over 20 years, we must be doing something right.
I'm always concerned, some dealer may steal one of our master techs. There is such a shortage of qualified auto technicians that dealers are paying bonuses of over $20,000, moving expenses, guaranteed wages of over $130,000 a year.

I know of one dealer in the bay area, that put a down payment on a new home for one of his new hires, as part of the deal. That's big money. Houses in the SF Bay area are over a million.

Many auto techs are going to city and county jobs for the retirement packages.

It's getting cut throat out there. Now you guys know why the hourly rate may be over $200. We are $135 =cheap!
 
$130k to wrench on a car??!
 
A whole lot has changed since I bailed on working on cars in '89. They had become very hard to work on for the independent mech forcing me to tell more and more of my customers they'd have to go to the dealer. Especially for electronic probs. This was obviously the plan. Meanwhile the guys I knew from my time with the dealership's I'd worked in, the trend was to hire trainees and have them supervised by a lead man. Of course that was all on flat rate.

I was shocked when I took in our Chevy Volt for a warranty repair and offered to compensate the mech for his inspection and was told no need because they are all on salary. I had no idea what guys make now. That's more than my psychologist wife with a PHd. My times have changed.
 
7milesup said:
$130k to wrench on a car??!
Click to expand...
And then some.
It's more than wrenching a car. There are electronics in every component these days. You want to flush your brake fluid? You have to engage the vehicles chassis module to allow for the actuators to work to allow for the fluid to drain through the anti-skid modules.
Engine and transmission electronics are so complex, you really need to be smart to do this right.
If you are just busting tires, changing brakes, shocks, suspension components then that's still old school.
Electric mirrors, variable rate wipers, even cruise control has electronic modules.
A hack would plug into the data link, pull a code that directs you to a bad sensor. That doesn't mean the sensor is bad, it just gives you a place to start.
There are very few diagnosticians in this business. many shops only have one. he/she diagnoses the issue then it goes to a parts replacer.
Sorry, I do go on.
I had a call yesterday from a dealer in the wine country. He just got audited by Ford. He asked me how we recruit techs and how we keep them.
We had a long conversation.
We are flat rate, they are hourly.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top