If they need them they’ll pay them.
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You speak of ideal and theoretical situations
But the reality is quite different
I’m out of here, moving on to different discussions
This one is pointless, in my opinion
My student loans came from the local bank. Thank you Mr. Berg. I suppose the 6% interest rate was a little lower than standard and payments were deferred until graduation so there must have been some government involvement. Still the bank and I were on the hook for the payback, not the feds. I started making the $60 payments with my $80 a month Army pay so things were a little tight. Never late and never missed a payment.
Had you declared bankruptcy or not-paid for some reason (poverty or death) the feds would have paid Mr Berg off. The feds didn’t lend directly but guaranteed loans from certified lenders.
Sounds like the very low pay that most states allow as minimum wage (~$3/hr) for wait-staff in restaurants…at least there, you can “expect” to have to wait. And there are tips, as poor a system as that is.
Why not a livable wage for all? As Oklahoma teachers are proving…a union is the way!
The most favorable interpretation of that is that Reagan was an idiot. The more realistic one is that Reagan was speaking platitudes that sounded great to the non-owner class, but in fact would work in the owner-class’ favor.
Or to put it in more concrete terms, fine, I’ll vote with my feet, which means I’m now unemployed and collecting unemployment. But in order to collect unemployment I have to submit evidence that I’m trying to land a job, and if those jobs keep offering garbage wages and I keep “voting with my feet,” that’s not going to look good to the unemployment office. And then, of course, unemployment only lasts so long before I’m thrown off, at which point if I keep voting with my feet, those feet will take me straight to the homeless shelter.
So, “vote with your feet” sound great and empowering and all, but in reality we’re talking about feet belonging to individuals that are voting against giant business entities who are holding all the cards.
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Piecework is a great deal for employers but a raw deal for employees and customers. I don’t want my mechanic rushing through my brake job so he can make more money and he doesn’t want to rush through repairs just so he can feed his family.
My car is having the transmission replaced today. It is a 14 hour job, by the book, but the dealer admitted they have a tech that change a transmission in 8 hours. I am not sure how I feel about that. Is this tech so skilled that he can shave 6 hours off of the job? Will he cut corners?
Same reason I don’t want some outfit trying to replace my oil in 5 minutes…
I’d love to start a shop where I paid mechanics a basic salary with incentives for going above and beyond, shift premiums etc. My shop would also supply any tools required to do the job. Reasonable hours to ensure a good work/life balance. No hard sells but we would lay out options for customers to consider. I’m betting I could attract some of the best talent in the area and have a booming business…
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I have often “voted with my feet” I was working as a helper on a delivery truck 1956-60 making $150 an hour for someone who owned and drove the truck. He picked me up at my house one payday and told me he could not pay me this week, he would make it up next week.
Itold him to make a full stop at the stop sign. He asked why and I told him I was getting out because I was not going to be owed 2 weeks pay. When he skipped town two years later, he owed the guy who replaced me almost a years pay.
Ehh, using someone else’s or the shop’s tools is like wearing someone else’s underwear. I once had a job where the shop provided tools, and they were all SK, Cornwell, some Craftsman, etc. Junk. Once I held a Snap-on wrench I never went back. It’s unlikely that a shop would provide top-level tools for every mechanic. That’s an investment that would have little return. You could buy 3 12,000lb lifts for what one set of quality hand tools would cost.
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I wasn’t endorsing Reagan’s comment but using it as a premise to the necessity of employers’ paying enough to get the workers they want. In the '90s NYC had trouble recruiting qualified teachers; after trying everything else, they raised their pay.
You can vote with your feet but need to use your head a little too. My dad voted with his feet a few times but he always told me to make sure you have another job lined up before you quit your first job. Neither one of us left places on bad terms though.
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Providing tools for technicians would be costly. I am careful with my tools but I lose $100 in tools each year. When tools are provided, people are not as cautious. Tools are dropped in engine compartments or left inside vehicles, it is different than working on your own car, the vehicles leave and the tools don’t come back.
Auto repair is a competitive business, salaries, easy hours, casual upsells, comfortable chairs and free tools are not the norm.
You think automotive repair tools are expensive, try working in a high tech manufacturing environment. I just bought three oscilloscopes as replacements for older scopes that were $35k each. The guys pick out their own tools. Not every one has the same stuff. It has to be reasonable however and justified if it will be way out of the ordinary. My guys have about $200k per employee of various tools and diagnostic gear on average and there are 24 people in one group alone. Stuff breaks all the time, we deal with it. If someone is overly hard on equipment, that is addressed separately. For the most part, they respect the equipment and take great care of it because they know if it breaks, it will take time and money to replace it. Besides, they are vested in profit sharing so have a keen interest in keeping costs like this low.
I got news for you, all businesses are competitive and need to contain costs. Auto repair is not unique in that regard. Some value things differently than others. Keeping people down, making them buy their own tools etc is misguided way of approaching it IMO.
The fellow who writes the legal column for the local paper weighed in on this case, in case you are interested: https://www.abqjournal.com/1168424/overtime-law-exemptions-pit-management-labor.html
I’ve never been terribly impressed with any dealership service advisor I’ve encountered. None that I’ve met in person (so far) have much in the way of real mechanical/automotive knowledge. Whenever I’ve had a question, their standard reply has always been “I’d have to check with the technician about that”. Other than trying to upsell people on the virtues of the induction service or power steering/brake flush, I really don’t see how the job is terribly difficult vs, being an actual technician. Seems to be more paperwork and telephone calls than anything else. This is one of the reason why I like independent shops better, there’s a much better chance you’ll be dealing directly with the actual tech/mechanic who’s doing the work.
I’ve worked 70-80 hours a week when I was selling cars for no guaranteed paycheck, it’s not for everyone, and I did for a few years before deciding that a steady paycheck for a lot less hours was a better long-term choice for me. With that said, these days, technically I’m supposed to be able to get overtime, but my employer made it clear that they were not interested in paying overtime, and instead would issue comp-time if you went over your contract hours. Complicating this is that they don’t like to roll over comp time hours beyond the current pay period, but I’ve never had mine taken away so far.
Service advisors are salesmen, not mechanics. Even if they have a mechanical background, they’re not mechanics now - they’re trying to sell you stuff. The back office isn’t going to particularly care if they even know where the engine is on the car, as long as they generate sales.
Oh, I totally get that. To me, I find it somewhat insulting that the person I have to talk to when I take my car into the dealership for whatever is probably going to have less product/automotive knowledge than the customer (me). Last time I was there, the service advisor told me that I definitely needed to have the cabin air filter replaced for $89.99 and that it was something that I needed them to do because it requires a special tool to access the filter. Now, I had replaced the cabin air filter myself the previous week at a cost of $11 for the filter and about 5 minutes of my time. It’s in the glove box and is held in by a plastic cover that is secured with a single T-20 screw. The “special tool” is a torx bit. I was very close to taking the service advisor over to my car and give him a quick demonstration on how arduous a task replacing the cabin filter is, but I summoned some self-restraint and calmly declined his offer.
You have a TORX BIT!?! You must be loaded! 
Yeah, Acura used to pull that with me because it’s a “complex disassembly process” to get to the filter. Yeah, 'cause Acura put an unnecessary plastic panel behind the glovebox that blocks access to the filter. I finally showed them that I had taken a box cutter to the plastic and cut a hole in front of the filter so that all you have to do now is open the glove box and pull the filter out. After some mumbling about voiding the warranty (on what? The useless plastic blocker panel? Tell ya what, I’ll absorb the risk!) they stopped asking.
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