The other day a shop owner made a post complaining that their tech does 40/40 hours. What's this industry coming to when 100 percent efficiency is a problem? It seems like it's always a technicians fault, not the million and 1 things that can get in the way tech productivity Smh
40 hours is above 100% efficiency. I don’t get paid to wait on parts, wait on customers, wait on writers, look for cars, help other techs, help parts find parts,etc.
@@BrokeMekanic Finding parts yourself, looking, searching, all to find that the part isnt there, the stock system is broke, somebody took it out, its all messed up, and you're in it all that time for nothing.
I was the diag at a tire store 87% average over the month, and in trouble again. I don't work there anymore, Now, I'm at a shop making a salary + Commission. I've also stopped charging for "diag". I charge for testing. My tests produce data that drives the next test. and so on. Thanks for all you do Mario
@Duke I ended up getting pushed out. Took my service truck away while I was out of state doing work for them then left me at the airport and told me to find my own way home. Piss on em
I had never worked flat rate when I was hired into a flat rate shop. It was never explained to me that if the job pays 2 hours and you get it done in an hour and a half you still get paid for 2 hours. I was basically forced out because I wasn't turning the hours they wanted but they also didn't want to help guys like me learn and grow.
Been a mechanic for the last 35 years. Went to work at a tire store. Only making 26 dollars an hour flat rate. Mind you, I was the diag guy, I was the person called in when anyone had a job that went sideways. After a month or two of working there, just starting to learn how they do things, I was scheduled a meeting with the boss over 9 stores (the man has never been at the shop for an actual work day). He said "Mike, we really like the quality of the work you do. You really add to the team. BUT we were looking at your numbers, and your productivity is only 87%. I began to boil, I felt my face getting hot, it was all I could do to keep my composer. He went on to talk about how the alignment guy was at 175%. He explained that I would no longer be allowed to spend an hour on a diag if needed. The new protocol was for me to spend 15 minutes, and then shoot from the hip with the parts cannon. He explained, that if the car came back "let them worry about that". To my amazement, It actually worked somewhat. 95% of the time, there were no issues. I worked on 30 cars a week, that means I was misdiagnosing 1.5 cars a week, 6 every month. That is not only embarrassing but just plain unacceptable. Praise the Lord, He put me in a better job.
Worked for Pepboys on accident for a few months it quickly turned into me doing all the diag and all the comebacks most of my work was literally comebacks from the other techs that paid me warranty time. Then I realized the one writer who opened was feeding the “head tech” he would show the head tech a work order and if he shook his head he gave it to me obviously because it was a crap job. We got paid every other week and I got a $350 pay check so I stopped showing up on time and started looking for a new job. Head tech calls in sick and I was 45min late and a customer walked out because his car wasn’t in yet so they lost a 4,000 dollar job and blamed me that writer had the store manager wrote me up. When I was in the office all the managers were in there told me I’m on 60day probation and if I’m late 3 times I’m terminated. I told them what happened and why I don’t care anymore and they said it’s not true. I said get the assistant manager in here and ask him why I don’t care he doesn’t know what’s going on he just came in and he told them exactly what I said. I wrote down my explanation on the write up and refused to sign because they had to write everything into the computer and send it so I said I’ll sign it when you send it with everything I said which they started being nice saying ur not gonna get fired if ur late but I said well I either don’t sign or u send it which they did. A district manager came the next day or 2 and talked to me and said he was gonna straighten everything out and a bunch of people were transferred to different stores. The first job I got that day was to turn rotors on a car the work order said .4 labor for all 4 rotors I asked to see the labor guide I said that’s extra labor to cut you have to charge the r&r plus .4 which I was told I was wrong so I asked how is it more labor to replace the rotors then cut them? I was told that’s what it pays so do it or else. So I did and put my 2 weeks in.
Every dealership that I have worked in had one or two guys who got most of the gravy. For everyone else it was a revolving door. Everyone was forced to play beat the clock. The system promotes poor workmanship. I did find a home at a dealership which paid a salary with a bonus for no come backs. Much better.
That’s why just recently I got out of the automotive mechanic industry I left the dealership and feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders
"If anybody in this shop doesn't have work - it should be me" You are absolutely an exceptional foreman / lead / whatever your title is. This is why YOU will keep A techs, and attract them from other shops where they get crapped on by some jerk that feeds all the gravy to their buddy.
I'm seeing that at my shop now. Problem is the 2 guys I'm thinking of are just there to hang out and talk. I was told one didn't need to work the other is closing in on retirement.
I’ve had this happen to me at my old dealership and it’s happening at my current dealership. Our dispatcher will give the big tickets to his buddies and leave the bs tickets to other techs but claiming he’s passing em out from the top of the pile down. Seen him skip ROs just to give certain techs the good tickets.
I have definitely had this happen. They were holding tickets for certain techs and when I busted them on it they had the audacity to ask me why I was quitting lol
Good points and realities, once again many of your insights transcend just the auto repair industry. Personally I am against commissions in the auto repair industry, it breeds up-selling often unnecessary services/repairs.
That's not what quiet quitting is. Quiet quitting is where you stop working extra hours for free or doing work outside of your work scope as a salary employee.
Like maybe taking your full breaks...taking your full lunch. No hey well this guy just needs XYZ real fast, which turns into 15 20 minutes. Let alone if they pay you for that 15 minutes, if its during a time i'm not meant to be working? Eh.
My husband quietly quit a job when he was hired as a HD mechanic on a low wage at a cement company and the owner didn't give him the promised raise in 3 months, even though they said he was doing an excellent job. He quietly quit in order to get employment insurance so he could get healthier and he did.
I got those bs tickets when I worked at ford , I was hungry for work and willing to learn to better myself but the powers that be only created resentment and forced me out , this video is as real as it gets. Ps I still do automotive but in a different dealer now and much happier
A lot of businesses do this. It's a lot easier for them if the employee quits however, using some of these tactics if they go too far can result in all kinds of lawsuits if they want to take it there.
Had an issue with “favoritism” recently. The service writer was accused of favoring me, when in a shop of 4 techs, I’m the only diag tech and the one who can do heavy line work. So when there is only diags I would get them and the other guys would be standing around. 🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️
Attorneys use legal template software that makes filings a breeze, so they have 100+ billable hours per week. Dentists charge x amount per procedure a good dentist can perform a root canal in 7 minutes a bad one can take an hour.
If you're being "quietly fired" leave the drain plug loose on an expensive engine. Or do a brake job don't prime the pedal, use the parking brake to park the car, backed in facing the front of the shop. Leave a banjo fitting on a fuel line loose. You get the idea.
I would knock your front fucking teeth out for even considering the not priming the brakes and parking the the car with an E brake. Hecka funny though.
I’m also an apprentice at a kinda unique diesel shop and it sucks most of the time. Just keep learning and don’t look at your efficiency. If you get fired over it, collect unemployment, then go next door to another shop that’s needing techs and continue learning. Rinse and repeat every year or so until you either learn mostly everything and can keep yourself above water, or you miraculously find a good shop that understands not everyone is born with a complete understanding of automotive systems and perfect efficiency.
That has been going on for over 40 years. I was a heavy line flat rate mechanic at a dealership. I had 4 cars stacked up waiting for parts and they hauled me in the office. They proceeded to chew me a new one. I take one look and started in on the 6 tickets I had stacked up, doing the show and tell of the four tickets with three engines and number four requiring a transmission and all of them in pieces. I was never bothered again. A couple years later I had got my training and went into aviation and never looked back.
I don’t blame you. I’ve been doing it since 2014 and I’m so burned out on it. It’s so toxic and bullshit. That’s why so many people are getting out of it and that’s why so many shops can’t find employees. People are starting to figure out how miserable this career is.
@@fishnfreak18 Yes and I took it for 11 years before I got out then spent the following 30 as an aviation mechanic and had a good retirement and left the work force. I ended up at Boeing for 30 years and actually retired early but that was a sweet offer that came up plus I was going to retire anyway as my wife needed me home as she developed health issues
@@mikeske9777 Good for you. It sounds like you got a pretty good set up after you got out of it. I think the only way I would stay in it is if I got some kind of union job working on fleet vehicles somewhere but even that would be irritating. Honestly I’m thinking about getting into plumbing or something like that. It’s crazy after reading the comments on all these videos. So many people hate this career. Glad to see I’m not alone.
@@fishnfreak18 that’s the reason why I just left my Flate rate dealer to a fleet shop. If you had not been there for half a century you were fed nothing but crap and treated like shit or if you didn’t kiss up to the “foreman” who was usually a shitty guy that couldn’t be bothered with. Screw that
@@dongf5628 Yeah I feel you. I experienced that as well whenever I worked at my second dealership. They fed the guy that had been there 30 years and his son you didn’t know how to do shit was making 60 K a year doing easy gravy jobs. Meanwhile the rest of us had to figure out how to fix shit and we’re barely making 35K a year. That was the last time I ever work in a dealer. The whole industry is just a shit show it sucks.
My husbands job is a quick lube tech at a large dealership and were full in capacity with techs. They fired 1 and then hired 4 so his hours have dropped significantly. Not just for him but for the whole quick lube line. Georgia as well.
It's a Jungle. Everybody trying to get one over on someone and or trying exploit the situation. Let alone the sticky hands environment with your tools a target, too. If you're good and have the tools there's a job. Customer flow is not always there and can be seasonal and weather driven. I had to build my clientele.
I loudly quit my last job cuz I would get water leaks and wind noises all day. While watching the “foreman” next to me get gravy, 3 hour air bag recalls that take 15 mins, and 60ks all day everyday.
Or the Advisors/Managers/Franchise Owners that hit you with, “well this job only takes 1 hour to do!”. Well show me how it’s done in one hour, here are my tools for you to use! If you can’t show me how it’s done in a hour, Stfu and let me work, stay in the front desk where you belong and let me wrench.
I'm an Ex-ASE Master automotive tech, I got out in 1994 after 10 years and went back to college for an Electronics degree and never looked back. The entire automotive market is a SCAM top to bottom.. If they would have standardize automotive parts like transmissions, engines, differentials, A/C compressors, computers, sensors ect.. cars would cost about 1/2 to 1/3 third of what they do now.. Why have so many different parts from Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, Toyota, Nissan ect.. that do the same thing?? Now its a race to see who can put more useless electronic crap on a car to drive up the purchase price and maintenance costs. Personal computer motherboards, hard drives, RAM memory and other components were standardized in the 1990's and computers got a lot cheaper as they got a lot faster. Same could have been done with cars. Also standardized components would save parts houses like Auto Zone on having to pay taxes at the end of the year on all that inventory as they do now. Unsold inventory is considered an asset and one that you have to pay taxes for and that cost is also passed on to the consumer.
In my shop, if you are Polish then you are in the cool kids club- you are going to get gravy everyday. Me? Maybe one ticket per week. Fucking politics is real
Worked for a few years in a shop that my management team showed favoritism. My hours were great , but I was the guy getting the crap ticket while others sat around and did nothing yet were praised. Needless to say I left..
In the corporate world you are promoted to a job they know you can't handle and you are forced to leave. Once you leave that job title will no longer exist.
$9 an hour in 1972 is equivalent to $63.77 an hour in 2022 when adjusted for inflation, as of writing this. So what is your point? If anything, you are actually proving that the vast majority of technicians these days are actually underpaid for what they have to deal with on a daily basis, and paid less on average than they were 50 years ago when inflation is accounted for.
I'm not getting black balled at work. But I'm going threw a situation with my vacation pay. It's not enough for me to quit or hate my work, but it's enough for me act an ass in return. 😂 I have no plans atm to quit my job, but I do plan on a early retirement near September 35 years as a Over the road trucker is enough. Especially after finding my main artery in my heart was 100% clogged, I'm all good now, it's time to retire 10 years early and do something at home. Requardless what state you love in, you pay into unemployment. You might not get it on the 1st or 2nd try but that's normal. Most unemployment claims are denied on the 1st and even the 2nd try. Because you may have found a another job by the time it goes threw. I personally never collected it, Because I always had another job when I walked out the door. My #1 rule is at work , has always been I'll agree to give you a 2 weeks notice before I quit if you agree to give me 2 weeks notice before you fire me. Jobs are are replaceable just as employees
As for the hourly thing, i work where we need a certain area to use to finish a job...well if another co worker has it clogged up with their junk, and is talking to a customer, friend ect, for the whole day, i CAN'T get my job done. Plus if its slow season, theres not much else. So now i look like i'm slacking in the time i can mark down for what i've done. (Can't charge 2 hours for 1/2 hour work and 1 1/2 not working on it OBVIOUSLY) so here i am just in a standstill. Oh move to another job, oh now they went and used that other area/tool i need... on and on. Gets boring REAL quick.
There is a legal term, constructive discharge, where they try to make your life so miserable that you quit. This has been around longer than the term quiet firing. Same thing though.
One of the reasons I left the Automobible field. You can’t be a star player otherwise you get outcasted by the whole shop, it’s even worse when upper management notices you’re a better candidate than current shop manager…. Just a tip, don’t outshine or blap how good you’re, be humble and this field. You’ll be fine…
@@85jmccoy I've done jobs where i get them done in the same time or less than the people who have been doing it for 4 5 years, when it was my second time, or when i had a struggle and it took another hour, and still at time. It's not hard to just work and not talk and chat (hourly)
I don’t see this happening too much these days, if you show up for work and work half ass, it seems the company is so appreciative just to have someone filling the void that they will give ya a Radom bonus or two. Oh and right to work laws in my state kinda weed out these practices anyways.
@@michaelwitmer7536 Missouri diesel mechanic. Our top scale is 43 an hour plus cost of living and all of the other stuff …. Union shop … awesome benefits … my advice is to just put in a year or two in a job you can learn a lot … sweat equity goes along way … but walk away and don’t get stuck in the dealer crap or small shop pettiness unless it pays so … our top salary’s are a couple hundred grand a year easy … I have four or five major companies calling about every six weeks asking if I’m ready for a change …. Nope … my retirement is what my highest year is going to be …. And that’s when I turn 62 … these jobs are everywhere .. over the years I’ve thought about opening a shop but with the overhead and such it really doesn’t pay that much in the end … neither does flat rate in my opinion but that’s just me.
Just a friendly note. You explanation of “quiet quitting” is not accurate. However, you are spot on with everything else. There is too much BS in the automotive repair industry. After 18 years, I’m so happy I finally left for the heavy equipment trade.
The reality is that if you're being "quietly fired," you need to reevaluate your effort. No business is looking to get rid of employees unless they are pretty bad. Getting people just to show up at all is difficult nowadays, putting their phone down is only an issue if they show up. 50 hours is really good for someone who actually does all the things that were sold. I've seen guys doing 70+ hour weeks but only by working 50-60 or cutting corners on things like flushes.
This is crazy cus I just got let go and it was because the shop owners wife didn't like me so she must of kept bugging him till he got sock of it and just let me go.
Hello, Flat rate master! thanks for your amazing video! Just have a quick question, so I just started buying tool from the tool truck and looks like some of tools are used cause I can see some rust in it, but the truck dealer charge a retail price, is it common for tool truck dealer charge full retail for a used tool? Thanks!
@@unclejoe6811 that’s a good thing, all the trades are like that right now, my 2 cents, just do it, stop wasting time at a company someone doesn’t want to be apart of.
That is NOT what quiet quitting is. Quiet quitting relates more to white collar salary jobs that people used to work 80 hours / week at for no compensation just to suck up, and show what a "team player" they are and whatnot. Quiet quitting is just realizing that there's more to life than work, and you shouldn't "invest yourself" into a company when you're just an employee. You go there, do a good job, make money and go home. Quiet quitting is not killing yourself working at a job like you're the owner - when you literally have no stake, and they'll fire you in a heartbeat to save 2 bucks.
@@magnumjohnson9628 I used to until I seen his character unravel. He has videos based on investing, how to make money in the industry, videos claiming flat rate is dead. Then as of recently(The past few monrhs) he will have videos on quitting the dealership life and wanting to work at harbor freight, building a bunk ass trailer for him neighbor. Then he will say money is tight all the while he's drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Just random ass shit. He's not a tech you should take advice from.
On the other hand of you take an hour to do an oil change and only bill 20 hours a week....don't wonder why you get treat bad. 007 Zero motivation Zero skill 7 smoke breaks
The average time it takes from dispatch to closed RO for oil changes where I work is an hour because of waiting for parts, pulling the car in, and it's usually a waiter with a tow in parked in front of it. I've had a waiter oil change take 4 hours because of so much going wrong.
When it's time to get rid of a tech at my shop we have a trick where my wife can get just about anyone to quit in about 2 days. It's actually pretty funny to watch.
seen a guy get the (FLAT RATE SHAFT ) the guy already knew what was going to happen, then the guy came to work shortly after on a off day , sent a few of his buddies they shot the boss in the leg and ran off , they came back that night and shot over 70 rounds inside the cars and he also shot holes in all the new and used oil drums / containers outside. they never got caught , needless to say the boss left next paycheck. y'all old school people will soon learn that flat rates TRASH. ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
