Ha ha.

[Alex Bruene]

[Jim Warman]

Something over a year ago (caution - memory thing happening) this link appeared on FRT. While it might seem to be "cute" to some, I cannot tell you how irate this video made me.

 

Techs that work flat rate will swear up and down that "management" is the big problem. Shrinking SLTS, unreal expectations... A tech on flat rate can't make a living because of managers.

 

And along comes a cutesy video showing that we are the cause of our own problems.

 

Techs and service advisers DESPERATELY need to work together to win over their customers. If you think YOU are the main man... you have a problem (I'm not pointing that at you Alex).

 

This video portrays techs (and SAs) making life hard for techs.... Isn't that a wee bit STUPID!!!

[Alex Bruene]

I still think it's funny.

[Jim Warman]

yes, it is funny, in a twisted, demented sort of context.... but it does reinforce the idea that everyone else is good and techs are bad.

 

If we are to have consumers agree that techs are downtrodden, under-appreciated and underpaid, videos like this one are not going to help... This video proclaims that we are underpaid because we spend all of our time making our own lives miserable.

 

Sadly, that last part starts to ring true - I just went through a flat rate tech spend over a half hour looking for a tool another flat rate tech couldn't be bothered putting away.... three fucking days after he no longer needed it.

 

If we wish to be treated as professionals, I can only suggest we start acting that way...

 

How can we ever convince people that piecework (aka flat rape)is bad if we show the bad guys as being "us"?

 

And let us not forget that the video promotes the idea that it is "us" (the techs) against "them" (the service advisers). If some guys would put their cock back in their pants and try teamwork for a change (tough to do with SAs paid commission, I'm sure), we would find that life can go much smoother.

 

Years ago, a chef would say "I want to make the best damned hamburger there is". Today.... "I want to make as much money as I can off a hamburger shaped object". How many people can we piss off all at once?

[DwayneGorniak]

I don't see that video the way you do Jim. I guess it's all in the way each individual interprets it and can relate to their past experiences. I see the tech banging on the jug with a wrench as the straight time tech getting paid to smash ball joints with a hammer and making a shit load of money in the fast lane service while the flat rate guy starves to death doing all the hard work. Keep in mind that I see this relating to some of the shops I walk into these days.

[Brad Clayton]

I can totally relate to the hvac screen shot, I wouldn't wish that job on my worst enemy. The 6.7 heater boxes are even worse.

[Jim Warman]

I don't see that video the way you do Jim. I guess it's all in the way each individual interprets it and can relate to their past experiences. I see the tech banging on the jug with a wrench as the straight time tech getting paid to smash ball joints with a hammer and making a shit load of money in the fast lane service while the flat rate guy starves to death doing all the hard work. Keep in mind that I see this relating to some of the shops I walk into these days.

I think there is no secret that you and I seldom see eye to eye on many things... It's been a while since I saw this video - sadly, I can't bring myself to subject myself to this travesty another time.

 

At one point, our poor slob is looking for keys... keys that other techs gleefully reveal that they have been concealing. The SAs are shown as "the enemy"... in fact. most of the video is dedicated to fomenting an "us against them" attitude. Nothing is to be gained by reinforcing this attitude and, I believe, everything is to be lost. More on that later.

 

There are two major problems at work in the life of todays tech. First and foremost is the lack of teamwork we see all too often in the workplace. Instead of each of us dedicating our efforts to making customers satisfied, too many of us are busy trying to "long cock" everyone else. Service has to look better than parts... you have to look better than me...

 

Often, management will encourage this shit without thinking about it. If parts is going to "look better", it is easier for them to do it at service depts expense... If someone wants to look better than me, it is often easier to cut me down than than it is to actually be better.

 

There are a lot of problems with this industry.. one of them is people looking for the first chance to bail out rather than actually make a difference. The other is to misdirect our focus from things that actually matter.

 

Jacques Nasser (affectionately known as "Jack the Knife" in some circles) began a movement that saw the slashing of SLTS. This movement continues to this day as times get less and less realistic. Ford has learned, from Jacques, that millions can be saved by simply ignoring the plight of the tech. Techs have replied by being something less than mediocre in the smarts department.

 

So... we are going to continue this finger pointing and blaming the folks we work with rather than trying to reach a solution to the whole deal.

 

One of the things that truly amazes me (well, maybe not since I have a little more "seen that" experience than some) is that we cannot see the writing on the wall. Once we reach tech competency only, it will only be a matter of time before HVAC pays this, driveability pays that and brakes pays the other. The next step will be a diagnostician directing a cloud of "worker bees". And that diagnostician may not be in your shop.

 

OASIS quick start should have been your first warning... Interactive diagnosis is but the next chapter. The marvel of modern electronics is insidiously stealing your every opportunity.

 

Don't believe me? Look at MOS FET circuits as they apply to the modern automobile. They can detect an "over amp" situation and turn a circuit off before the fuse blows. You can replace a bulb but the module remembers a problem and somebody/somewhere is going to waste a great deal of time looking for a concern that doesn't exist because they didn't clear a code. As I speak, datalogger and SGM are underused... and the second boot is about to hit the floor (holy shit... there's an old reference).

 

"more on that later". A football team wins because they work as a team. A baseball team wins because they work as a team. That common goal means ever so much - without it, we might as well stay home.

 

I am paid straight time.. I don't make a secret of that... Why do I get paid straight time? Because I do what I do and not what other people do. I don't play with the bullshit - I deal with my customers... people that have known me since the early 80s... People that trust me... people I do not intend to disappoint.

 

I don't fix cars for a living... I make people happy (not in the massage with a happy ending way). And I do that whether I have to swim against the current or not.

 

The video sucks - end of story.

[Keith Browning]

For me the video not oly displays a lack of teamwork, it also depicts the immature and unprofessional behavior too many of our colleagues display. It only takes one of these guys to disrupt a shop and make a dealership look bad. With the advent of the Internet and cheap digital cameras, it only takes one of these guys to make us ALL look like immature and unprofessional clowns. If this video is presented as "slapstick" then it makes sense but is still does nothing for our image.