Things a technician should consider in a workplace

Forty years is a very long time to consider for a career of broken skin, busted knuckles, sweat-soaked clothing and the mental tax you pay each day. And that’s just for technicians who love where they are. But what if you’re not happy? What criteria must be satisfied to call the next shop “home?” Well, I will tell you mine.

In the Beginning

Fresh out of GM ASEP school (General Motors’ Automotive Service Educational Program) with a straight-A track record, I was full of vigor and anticipation of a great career ahead as a certified, up-and-coming GM technician. I transitioned to an opportunity with our Saturn franchise and quickly moved through the training curriculum as a fully certified Saturn technician.

The paychecks were astounding! I was one of only five technicians in the store and there was more than plenty of work to go around. Needless to say, it was great to be a flat-rate paid technician in a shop environment like that one.

But as time went by, I realized a few things that didn’t sit well with me. It was plain to see that the ethos at the front of the house seemed to have transitioned from, “Let’s be profitable by ensuring our customers are well looked-after” to something more like, “Let’s get whatever we can from them, even if it means they never come back.”

Whether I was correct about that notion or not, I chose to move on. All I can say is not only has that store closed, but that once thriving organization is now extinct. I realized that I wanted to be profitable by helping others. I wanted to be one of the heroes that customers relied on and trusted.

Shifty Handshake

I found myself in the southwest of Florida, fulfilling a tremendous opportunity at my dream job. My primary responsibility in this well-equipped facility was driveability and diagnostics. It seemed the days of hanging exhausts and slinging brakes were coming to an end. This allowed me to focus my energy on doing what I love — I and got paid to do it. When I shook hands with the shop owner, he and I were in full agreement that I was to be provided regular, paid-for training of my choosing.

Well, the time came for my first training opportunity and as promised, the shop owner sent me to the two-day training course. I had a great time but upon my return (and the next pay cycle) my paycheck was docked 16 hours labor and none of my travel expenses were satisfied.

Upon speaking with the shop owner, he recanted. In fairness, he said, “I never said that. Why would I pay you to go to training? It’s to your benefit.” My point of mentioning this is that moving my family nearly 1,300 miles away from home rested on this agreement. Something similar happened with my “paid-vacation.” After a trip back home, I returned to find that I was docked 40 hours pay and I was told I was not eligible for the (promised) paid vacation for at least two years. This may all sound like sour grapes but I will make my point soon.

Rank Without Reward

Ironically, at the same training event I just mentioned, not only was it the beginning of the end with that shop. It also became the start of something new. This is where I met my soon-to-be new employer. So I left the first shop for an opportunity to work at another well-established shop that was well known in the area.

The man was very generous, offering me not only a cash initiation bonus but he also sent a tow truck for my tools, and paid to have my diagnostic equipment software updated. I looked at him with a dropped jaw and he said to me, “What are you so surprised about? How can you be at your best if your equipment isn’t? This is going to benefit the entire shop.”

Let me first say that this was a very generous thing to do and I don’t want anyone to get the impression that this should be expected. I certainly don’t wish to set the bar higher than it really is. In my experience, this is not the usual situation and I would never expect it again.

My time at the shop grew more fulfilling almost daily. The bonds I formed with my co-workers was very strong and we truly worked like a team. We all had our strengths and we played off each other, like well-planned military-type tactics. Of course, my duties were to address diagnostics/driveability but also included overseeing the shop and preventing bottlenecks. Many times, I served as a liaison to customers, especially when it came to addressing NVH issues. This really saved a lot of time. Yes, I was still a flat-rate paid technician, but my hourly pay was substantial enough to keep me earning a fair wage — but only if I was willing to work hard — and that was never a problem. There was always plenty of work. This meant the front of the house was doing its job well also. This is a very important, and typically overlooked, factor in a flat-rate paid atmosphere.

But things took a slight turn in the wrong direction. My primary duty (to prevent bottlenecks) turned into cleaning up unnecessary messes. And these occurred due to nothing but sheer neglect and laziness.

One of the techs began to take dangerous short cuts and caused quite a bit of damage to many vehicles. Of course, when the cars came back (or, sometimes never even left) I was forced to address them. At the same time I was forced to abandon profitable work to complete these clean-up jobs. Many times, I had to sacrifice an eight-hour job to do so. The worst of it is to come.

While I was tasked as the clean-up guy, I wasn’t paid extra to do the work. In fact, I was told that it was part of my job. But here's my perspective on why that cut deep and didn't work:

• The offending tech was paid the full amount for a deliberately botched or rushed job.
• He was given my eight-hour jobs to do while I tended to his messes.
• He was never docked pay or reprimanded in any way.

In a polite and quiet manner — and at an appropriate time, after hours when I had the shop owner’s full attention — I shared my concerns with him.

• The current situation promotes this improper behavior.
• It rewards the offending technician.
• It punishes me in several ways (lost opportunity to earn, working for free).
• Customers are noticing and voicing concern of work quality.
• I’m losing my desire to work under these conditions.

Because I don’t think it is fair to offer criticism without a solution, I had a list of  ideas, as well:

• Conduct a meeting between the three of us to discuss these occurrences.
• Offer a verbal warning with the explanation of a forthcoming written warning for future occurrences.
• Each neglectful occurrence would require the offending tech to repair the vehicle properly, without additional compensation, or relinquish previous compensation to pay me to make the necessary repair,
• A neglectful occurrence after the written warning would result in termination.

My goal here was not to inflict punishment but offer the shop owner perspective, as well as the offending technician. We all know accidents happen but neglect is simply dangerous and unacceptable. Besides, it’s just not fair to treat faithful team members negatively to compensate for a poor performing technician who shows no sign of wanting to improve.

Unfortunately, my ideas fell on deaf ears. There were no hard feelings but I chose to move on to pursue another opportunity.

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

Shortly after becoming an instructor, my applied time in the shop got spread thinner with each passing day. The shop where I was working was a great place to work. The shop owner approached me. He recognized my desire to be an instructor and offered me his support. However, he reminded me that I was his shop foreman and he needed my focus if I was going to stay on board. He said he supported whatever decision I made, but he wanted me to go home and think about if I truly wanted to be a technician or an instructor. There just was no room for both in this shop. I respected that and chose to be an instructor.

This worked out well for me. A dear friend of mine — who also owned a shop — needed a part-time diagnostician. So I took him up on an offer and kept fixing cars while teaching in the evenings. It worked out well, initially.

Every business exists to make money. But, in my opinion, using the cheapest parts to increase profit margins doesn’t typically work well. And I found that out on almost a daily basis.

A vehicle came into the shop with extremely positive fuel trims under all operating conditions. In almost no time at all, I diagnosed the fault due to a severely under reporting MAF sensor.

The short version of this long story is that this vehicle took 10 minutes to draw a diagnosis and should have taken less than one hour to have it back on the road again. Well, we had it for an additional eight hours. We went through at least five different “white box” MAF sensors and after each consecutive replacement sensor, my friend’s confidence in my abilities grew less.

I finally put my foot down and told him to get me an OE sensor from a junk yard. (He didn’t want to pay the nearly $400 for a new one.) It fixed the fault. Instead of receiving an apology, he said the real fault was likely an issue in the harness and I fixed it unintentionally with all my botched attempts.

This wasn't a one-time occurrence. I had the dash out of a Dodge Ram three separate times because of cheap replacement HVAC door actuators. Again, I warned him of the potential for premature failure but he wanted to save a few dollars. That old saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water but can’t make it drink."

A Third Party Weighs In

A vehicle came into the shop with a noisy, chain driven DOHC engine. The noise occurred at cold start-up and disappeared after only two or three seconds. I diagnosed it as faulty VVT phasers and suggested replacement, along with timing components. All was documented clearly on the repair order.

However, several hours later, my parts arrived and the phasers were not included — just the timing chain components. The shop owner had taken it upon himself to tell the customer that we simply suggest the replacement of the phasers. (This was because the customer didn’t want to approve such an expensive repair.) Reluctantly, I assembled the engine without the replacement phasers and the noise was still there. Of course, this was considered another misdiagnosis on my part.

However, as luck would have it, a mutual friend of mine and the owner's showed up at the shop to say “hello.” He inquired about the owner’s bad mood and when it was explained he chuckled and confirmed with the shop owner that the mistake was not made in the shop, but over the phone. Although it made me feel better to hear that third-party opinion, it didn’t change a thing. But what took the cake is yet to come.

Friends Are Forever

There was an accident in the shop where two vehicles gently bumped each other (it happens). There was minor paint damage but it did require some body work to repair. The shop owner’s father owned a body shop down the street.

Without notice, my friend (the shop owner) garnished my paycheck of nearly $800 for the incident. This was a huge loss to me because I had no time to prepare. Not only was this unethical, but it was illegal as well. I didn’t press the issue but he fired me not too long after that.

However, I told you all of that not to complain or gain your sympathy. In the end, when he decided to fire me, he sat me down in this office and opened a “book of shame,” as he called it. It was a diary describing every negative situation that occurred and “how much money I cost him on a daily basis.” Included was every single situation that occurred due to faulty parts. Not once did he acknowledge the bad parts. Instead they were all due to misdiagnosis, according to him. And that was the basis for my termination.

We were friends for a long time but not after this experience. In fact, we haven’t spoken since. It is a shame but there are lessons to be learned from this as well as every other situation included above.

Set Your Standards

You could look at all of those perceived negative situations and consider them as opportunities to complain. However, that is not my goal. Like all of you, I’ve grown as an individual and I know what I consider exemplary performance for a technician. I also know what I desire, and what I’m not willing to tolerate. Here is what I’ve learned for myself and my standards:

• Treat my customers like family — with honesty and integrity and always be accountable.
• Be a valuable and contributing team member who pulls your own weight and gives more than is required when others can’t. Set an example so others respect you and want to follow you because you're a leader who leads and doesn't just delegate. My thought is “take care of my team and my team will take care of me.”
• Don’t settle for neglect and disrespect simply because you have been told it is in your job description. It’s understood that the customer is of the utmost concern. I feel the team members are too, and when we do right by our people, everything else will fall into place. The team members are happy to take care of the customers. However, when you are not being treated fairly, be polite, choose the appropriate time, and speak about your concerns. Do so in a fashion that offers solutions instead of just complaints.
• When interviewing for an opportunity, have your standards written down. Share them with your prospective employer and get any offers in writing. Be sure to hold your employer accountable for the promises made and don’t ever take a job that doesn’t support your growth and prosperity as a technician. Your time will be better invested elsewhere. Don’t ever let anyone hold you down.
• Do your job properly and thoroughly. Be sure to document properly and explain your documentation if need be. Just because it’s written doesn’t mean it’s interpreted as intended. When communication is good, mistakes and mishaps are reduced. Share your concern for installing sub-par components and be sure to document that as well. No longer will I let an employer tell me I’m at fault (and working for free) when the fault is not of my actions.
• As a blanket statement, I’m no longer a believer in the flat-rate system as it stands. However, it can work well under the right situations. If I’m ever offered a flat rate position, I would make it known that my prosperity depends on the efforts of others. I wouldn’t accept flat-rate employment unless the conditions to do so successfully were in place. And that includes the abilities and communication skills of the counter staff and service advisors. That also means my monitoring a day in the life of that counter staff. And, yes, I have visited shops to interview them for their performance. They must suit my standards if I’m going to call that place “home.”

Right or wrong, they are my personal feelings. I’m not sharing them with you to convince you of anything. But I care about each and every one of you like brothers and sisters and love you all dearly. I want you to think long and hard about what you want as a technician, as an employee, as a team member, as parents/spouses, and as the person you wish to be. The person that makes you proud to look in the mirror. If I can help you recognize and become that, this article served its purpose to help you find “home."