Will I Have A Job Tomorrow??

[C-Bag]

Absolutely true, but the need for reliability and quality never changes.

My SO before we got married Cabrio had been an electrical nightmare which got worse as time went on. Truly a ghost in the machine type thing that she just got used to driving with the “check the engine” light on constantly. Never once did she get out of the shop without a $1200 bill and the engine light would be back on in a month or two.

She decided she was thinking about the VW Eon. She loved the ragtop on the Cabrio which was simple and actually the nicest feature about the car. The one local VW dealer had lost their franchise so we had to go all the way down to Fresno to see one. The salesman couldn’t wait to impress me with its BMW designed folding hardtop which he gleefully called the Transformer. You have to see that believe it. All these like 16 parts in motion, just barely missing each other..........I was horrified. My SO was delighted until she looked at me. She said I looked like I was going to faint. I felt like it.

 

[pdentrem]

2007 Passat with tracking headlights. Stopped working and never could be fixed properly after that. Dealer was not capable in doing anything. So locked in forward position and left there for time eternal.

 

[Larry$]

Do you really believe that all business owners are completely knowledgable, intelligent and never make mistakes? Is there anyone
that knows it all and can't benefit from the knowledge and experience of others?

I didn't say that! Did I touch a nerve?

 

[matthewsx]

Absolutely true, but the need for reliability and quality never changes.

Also true, cars now routinely go 6000 between oil changes. Did the spark plugs on my Cadillac at 105k. Years past that many miles would have been a complete rebuild or junkyard.

Not to mention how much more survivable auto accidents are now.

I grew up wrenching on cars from the 60’s and 70’s. As much as I love them if I’m being honest today’s cars are more efficient, safer, and longer lasting than those from the past.

Auto techs work hard for the money they make, often with a ton of pressure to get it right the first time. I just dropped a couple of hundred bucks on tools that will hopefully save me thousands on the projects I have coming up. I’d love to just drop my cars off at the shop but since I have the skills (and YouTube) I’m gonna get after it myself.

John

 

[Nogoingback]

I didn't say that! Did I touch a nerve?

Well, I retired a couple of years ago from a company that I spent 27 years with. It was, in many respects a good company, and
a profitable one. But, the hubris and arrogance of management was pretty much off the charts most of the time. They constantly
claimed to listen to their workers, (and their managers) and even would do surveys, but in reality they didn't at all. A number of
years ago they got rid of their CEO, who was doing a good job operationally but wasn't hitting a profit target they had in mind.
So, they brought in an accountant from the parent company who grandly announced he would DOUBLE the profit margin in 6
months. (This in a company that had been cutting costs for years.). This genius was presumably a good accountant, but apparently
knew nothing, zip, nada about how the company operated. Despite advice from knowledgable, experienced managers he basically
ran us off the rails within the next 12 months, and needless to say didn't hit his profit goal. This is an extreme example, but
characteristic of the management culture at that place that believed that anyone lower on the food chain didn't know anything worthwhile.
Sad.

 

[Nogoingback]

My SO before we got married Cabrio had been an electrical nightmare which got worse as time went on. Truly a ghost in the machine type thing that she just got used to driving with the “check the engine” light on constantly. Never once did she get out of the shop without a $1200 bill and the engine light would be back on in a month or two.

She decided she was thinking about the VW Eon. She loved the ragtop on the Cabrio which was simple and actually the nicest feature about the car. The one local VW dealer had lost their franchise so we had to go all the way down to Fresno to see one. The salesman couldn’t wait to impress me with its BMW designed folding hardtop which he gleefully called the Transformer. You have to see that believe it. All these like 16 parts in motion, just barely missing each other..........I was horrified. My SO was delighted until she looked at me. She said I looked like I was going to faint. I felt like it.

After my experience with the Rabbit I swore off buying another VW, but years later I considered buying a diesel after renting a diesel car
in England and liking it. So, I basically asked every VW owner I could find about their cars. Neighbors, friends, people in parking lots:
I asked them all. I got the same response almost every time: Love the car but reliability is terrible. I passed on the diesel option...

 

[C-Bag]

Well, I retired a couple of years ago from a company that I spent 27 years with. It was, in many respects a good company, and
a profitable one. But, the hubris and arrogance of management was pretty much off the charts most of the time. They constantly
claimed to listen to their workers, (and their managers) and even would do surveys, but in reality they didn't at all. A number of
years ago they got rid of their CEO, who was doing a good job operationally but wasn't hitting a profit target they had in mind.
So, they brought in an accountant from the parent company who grandly announced he would DOUBLE the profit margin in 6
months. (This in a company that had been cutting costs for years.). This genius was presumably a good accountant, but apparently
knew nothing, zip, nada about how the company operated. Despite advice from knowledgable, experienced managers he basically
ran us off the rails within the next 12 months, and needless to say didn't hit his profit goal. This is an extreme example, but
characteristic of the management culture at that place that believed that anyone lower on the food chain didn't know anything worthwhile.
Sad.

I was assigned this job because the sales dept. had gotten us tangled up with OCD customer who was running us ragged. I and another who was deemed the best had spent several all nighters on what was basically cosmetics. But was satisfied with our field fix and so that why I was assigned to replicate what we’d done on the next machine to be delivered. The head guy of the parent company wandered by and said I was taking too much time and basically wanted me to slop it together like they do overseas at the home company. I explained I had to do it this way or the customer would reject it and we’d be back down there pulling an all nighter. He proceeded to pull all the managers right next to where I was still working away. He was furiously calling me names because I knew cuss words in French and the managers tried to explain to him, even showing him the bills for the double overtime, and still he cussed me all in French. I was getting madder and madder and they walked away just I was ready to use my 4” grinder on him. As I was standing there trying to unfreeze from the rage one of the old hands came up and said “management is like a tree full of monkeys” that got me, “how’s that?”. The ones at the top only look down and see smiling monkeys, while us at the bottom only see monkey butts. That made me laugh and as I looked up the head guy was staring at us glaring. I just kept laughing.....

 

[savarin]

If management were honest and moral there would be no need for unions.

 

[C-Bag]

If management were honest and moral there would be no need for unions.

Ain’t that the truth.

 

[martik777]

If management were honest and moral there would be no need for unions.

Unions screw the public purse over as well, Teachers here make almost 100k with a gold plated indexed pension plan for basically part time work and whine about their benefits every time their union contract comes up.