My dealership experience
I have spent my career working as an automotive technician for independent shops. I never had any interest to work for a dealership. The biggest reason is how they pay their technicians, and I don't really enjoy doing the same few jobs over and over again. My wife and I are trying to not put our kids in daycare while both of us have full time jobs. I found a job ad for a night shift technician at a domestic dealership. The thought process was, wife works during the day, then I work evenings/nights.
I sent them my resume. Half hour later the service manager emails me. He wants to interview, like yesterday. I take the afternoon off and sit down with the service manager and the working shop foreman. I really enjoy interviews, it's like a career date. This was actually probably one of the better interviews I have had. I felt that I was only being marginally lied to. They said they have a few more people to interview and will be in touch. I got halfway home and a offer of employment shows up in my email. I thought about it for a day or two, then accepted the position.
This is the first dealership I have worked for. From being in the industry for many years, I know exactly what I'm walking into. I'm being paid flat rate, I'm paid off of the labor hours that I produce and not my attendance. An oil change pays 1 hour, if I get it done in 20 minutes or 3 hours, I'm only paid 1 hour. This pay system is why I end up quitting this job. I'm told that for the first few weeks I will be paid 40 hours a week until I learn how things work and get up on my own two feet. My working hours are 4:30pm to 1am or whenever I decide to go home. Technically it's evening shift, but everyone calls it night shift.
On my first day. I meet the non-working foreman, I like him. He comes from the old formation, before the snowflake generation. He gives me a tour of the shop, shows me my bay, and introduces me to the team lead, who will be showing me the way. The hierarchy in the shop is oil change/tire techs-> apprentices-> general technician-> specialist technician-> team lead-> shop foreman-> service manager. The team lead is also on flat rate. That means the time that he spends showing me the way is non-productive time for him. He is not being paid to help me. I grew up in a household where sucking at your job is not acceptable. My performance at work helps define who I am. I am about to apply 100% effort to this job.
Night shift is new at this place, it has only been running for a few months, there is a lot kinks and problems that need to be sorted. I'm OK with this, this type of stuff is not new for me. Management, foreman, service advisors, other staff mostly go home at 5pm. The parts department stays open for us until 8pm. After that, night shift is on its own. If something goes wrong, it's our problem. Like every automotive shop, the on boarding process is terrible. You get thrown to the wolf's and told to figure it out. I created myself a binder, I called it the bible. I would wander around dispatch, service drive, and the shop. Any time I found labor operation codes, maintenance schedules, inspection forums, instructions/procedures or anything that I needed to do my job, I would photocopy it and put it in my bible. Having this stuff saved my ass so many times. It is beyond me why they didn't already have one and I had to create my own. Wandering around this massive dealership at 1am in the dark was actually a lot of fun.
After a few months, I'm now fully on flat rate. I'm doing OK, not good but OK. The parts department closes at 8pm. Security closes the parking lot at 10pm, so no test drives once the lot is closed. For the first hour or two of my day, I organize my shift, unpaid. I figure out what vehicles I'm working on, get all of the parts, and go on test drives. If I don't set up my day, I'm going to get boned for parts or vehicles at like 10pm and go home with less money. The original team lead went back to day shift. We had hired more technicians, they needed a lot of help. He is also on flat rate. His pay took a beating because of this, management refused to pay him for his lost time, so he pulled the plug and went back to days. The new team lead was a more senior technician, but only committed to staying until 9pm. At this time I'm being groomed to be the next team lead, I basically already am from 9pm to 1-2am. Neither one of us is being paid to train or deal with problems. I see the writing on the wall, the two previous guys are getting hosed. I'm going to be no different. If they moved me from flat rate to hourly I would still probably be there. But, I know they won't do that, so I don't even try.
Two things happened that made me decide to leave. An apprentice got given a wheel alignment, he had no idea how to do it and asked me for help. I remember thinking to myself, if I help him, I'm not going to finish all of my work today. Helping this guy is going to directly take money off of my paycheck. I spent an hour and a half and gave him an above trades school quality education on wheel alignments. He absorbed every word I said and improved himself. I do not regret my decision. After that, I had a steady stream of apprentices and young technicians coming to me for help, because very few were willing to sacrifice their pay to help. This employer is actively blocking the advancement of the next generation of technicians over greed. Fuck them. One night I finished an inspection on a truck that just returned from the oil field. It was 12:30am, pitch black dark and pouring rain, the parking lot is unpaved and is a huge mud pit. I'm looking for a spot to park this truck in the oil field section. I drive down this aisle and it just gets more and more narrow. I don't feel reversing out is a good idea. I drive a few feet forward, get out and check my clearance on both sides of the truck. It's literally 1 inch on one side and 2 inches on the other. I could just plow through damaging like 30 or so trucks, I probably won't be fired. But that is a poor way to handle this situation. By the time I got out of the aisle, found a parking spot, and got back to the shop it's 1:30am. I'm fully soaked and covered in mud, that doesn't bother me. From 11pm to 1:30am I made $60 before tax. I'm not OK with this. There was many nights I would deal with drug addicts wandering into the shop, computer systems crashing. Missing keys, vehicles, tools. Technicians hurting themselves, only to make like $100 for the night. Fuck that.
A shop that I wanted to work for put up an ad for a technician. I thought about it for a few days and sent in a resume. 10 minutes later my phone rings, the boss and I have a 20 minute phone interview. I'm offered the position and I accept. I'm now paid based off of my attendance. I can now spend the appropriate amount of time with an apprentice teaching technical knowledge, ethics, processes and procedures while actually being paid. It is one of the better shops that I have worked for.
Dealership job ads are mostly copy and pasted bullshit written by a HR department. They give the impression that if you come and work for them, you will make so much money you could have a money burning contest with Elon. This was hands down the lowest paying job I have ever had as a licensed technician. I do not regret it though, it was a fun experience, I only lasted 6 months. A few months after I quit. I was contacted by a recruiter from the dealer group that owns that dealership. I had a good conversation with one of their top cheeses in the recruiting/retentions department. They are trying to figure out why they are bleeding technicians and why no one wants to work for them. I told him all of this and more. I really hope they fix their shit, they a large employer and are destroying this trade.
Quote
Originally Posted by 2002civic
