My Dad Was a Vet and died Horrably crippled from the war , but one thing he did was teach us Morality what is wrong and what is right. Stealing is Stealing no words around this. I had this happen to me a client had the car repaired with us then a couple years later needed the same repair , found a dishonest tech at the dealer and fixed it out side the door. Then they had the Kuhunu’s to tell me I ripped them off. I called the Mercedes dealer Guess what The part number was short in the bin and they did not show any sales. So with this said the parts person and tech was in on scheme. Which is what happened here. They sold an $80.00 dollar part which they paid nothing for and made great profit. In closing I WOULD LIKE YOU TO GO INTO BUSINESS AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK THE FIRST TIME THIS HAPPENS TO YOU AND OR FIRST BAD CHECK. You do not like the dealer prices then search out other independant pricing , legal and moral , or drive what you can afford instead.[ It is funny we had a client on monday mad due to we told him he needed a cv shaft boot torn dry, he said I just had it replaced with a new one. We asked him to come over and look , it had junkyard writing on it - asked who did it - well some guy in his home garage.
Enough said good luck.
Danrsauto My Dad’s advice was. “If you have to think about whether something you are considering doing is right or wrong. It is probably wrong.”
…on the other hand, if the guy did the work from his own garage or yard and you had a meeting of the minds, I would think it would be fine. I m not a stickler for every rule or regulation, but doing side work , on another man s dime, using his parts and facilities is another thing all together.
if the guy was allowed by the owner to do such things, which I doubt, then, it would be okay. call the owner and check it out, then you ll have your answer
I’ve worked for 5 dealers over the years and 1 independent. Not one of them would ever condone a mechanic bringing in side jobs that line the mechanic’s pocket and which do not go through the service counter up front nor have I ever heard of a shop that would condone it. Most will state verbally or in an employee handbook that such a practice is verboten.
People have approached me multiple times at work and asked about my doing a side job at home for less money. I’ve refused to even accept a side job or even discuss it while on the employer’s premises. People have contacted me after hours and I had no problem with doing the work
Some dealers have allowed me to use the shop to service my personal vehicles after hours but no other vehicles are eligible. One dealer used to have a shop night every Thursday where employees could have free run of the place all evening with their OWN vehicles. Alignment rack, wheel balancer, machine tools; it was open season with free motor oil and any chemicals needed…
It was even cooler because the owner had no problem with us heading over to the store across the street after 5 and picking up some cold beer to make servicing a bit easier… 
You have to wonder why the OP even started this in the first place. He had to know that he was not going to get praises .
That’s my kind of boss @OK4450. With a boss like that I would never have gone out on my own.
I agree 100% with Volvo
If you think you won’t like the answer, don’t ask the question
@Rod Knox, that was a pretty nice place to work. Unfortunately, the new building they put up in anticipation of growth didn’t blend in with the type of growth that developed. Other dealers went in a different direction and this one became a side issue almost. Financial issues eventually did them in; along with a very nasty divorce between the owner and his wife that actually went through the Court of Appeals and to the OK Supreme Court where they refused to hear it before sending it back down the chain.
The owner’s wife was a Froot Loop and apparently vindictive beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.
There was actually one guy there who did line up side jobs right in the shop although no one up top really knew it. He was Middle Eastern and some of his Arabic friends would come down there. He would not screw anyone over except his Arabic brothers. He worked next to me and the conversation (gibberish to me) involved a lot of hand waving and the money sign.
On the weekends he would take them to the cleaners no matter how simple the repair. Bad plug wire; nope, needs a valve job which it never got. Vacuum leak due to a split hose: nope, valve job. New valve cover gasket, clean the engine a bit, and voila; runs great now at 900 bucks later.
This is a family forum so I can’t repeat what he said word for word but it involved an act, their intelligence, and that he was going to do to them every chance he gets to those desert animal riding maternal ancestry…(his words, not mine) 
He’s a great guy and I got along just fine with him. He was also funny as can be and held a degree in electrical engineering of all things.
Perhaps he started it because he’s proud of what he got away with.
I can think of much better things to be proud of.
And he DID ask us what we think. I don’t think he got the answers he hoped for.
This thread takes me back to when I worked in an engineering R & D lab for many years. We had complete freedom to do what might be normally thought of as unethical activity that was never, ever mentioned or discouraged by management. Some of these things that were observed were one hour coffee breaks every morning, requisitioning minor parts out of stock for personal use, raiding the screw thread supply bin, taking stationery items for personal use, government jobs (personal projects) on and off company time using company equipment and materials, sick days when there was no sickness, and using company time to seek advice on any topic as many there were expert in at least one hobby or other field of endeavor. One fellow that I knew spent longer than normal lunch hours at a nearby tavern. He accumulated about a half dozen US patents; was a formidable problem solver so he was left to do what he liked.
Management was not ignorant of these things. They knew that this community effort of people helping themselves and each other made for a whole building full of people who had more than one reason to love their jobs which enhanced their ability to do their primary job. Creativity was of primary importance and the environment to foster it needed to be stimulated, not suppressed. One work friend who became a manager believed that you could not possibly take anything within reason from your workplace without giving it back in some form. Not all types of employment can justify the freedoms that I described but it may not be readily apparent or even consistent where it is or is not appropriate and useful. In some instances, side work and other non job activity can keep people moving, active and even learning new things or can be an appropriate diversion to relieve pressure so as to come back to the main purpose for being there with a refreshed mind.
I also had auto repair done on the side. I did not seek it but the mechanic offered it when I complained about the expense as initially quoted. When I questioned him about it, he told me that he even got help from other mechanics at the dealership. It seems that this would be impossible to be kept a secret from middle management in a car dealership. The dealership is still there today, alive and prospering as they always have.
Wha who, what you’re describing was not at all uncommon to some extent or other in manufacturing organizations’ engineering departments in the '70s and '80s. They were the perks that came with providing marketable products. It’s also true that perhaps more innovative solutions come to the typical engineer while trying to get to sleep at night than at any other single time. There have been times when I could not get a good night’s sleep until I solved the problem, or at least had figured out what my next step would be in the morning.
Things tightened up in the '90s, but I left that world for academia in '96 and don’t know what’s normal now.
You may even be familiar with the old tale of a company that was laying off employees and laid off one particular engineer who seemed to spend all his days standing in the door of his office BSing with his coworkers. Eventually the management realized that he was actually providing valuable technical advice and guidance to his coworkers, and without him progress slowed considerably. They ended up hiring him back as a consultant at twice his previous salary.
I would argue that the scenario is very different from what the OP is describing, but my impression is that you already know that.
I think y’all are setting an impossibly high bar, accusing OP, of all people, of complicity in tax fraud?!?
I mean, just because you pay somebody in cash…and the work is done on an “unofficial” basis…you can’t automatically assume the guy’s not paying taxes! And what if he isn’t? It’s not really your place to act as “Mr. Unpaid Revenue Agent!” That’s like saying I’m complicit in tax fraud every time I buy a dinner on credit and leave the tip in cash (I do this so the waiter doesn’t have the house take a portion of his tips, as many do). Or, that you’re complicit in tax fraud for bartering.
I’m a handyman, do not have an established business name, only produce handwritten receipts, and am frequently (though not always) paid in cash. An outside observer would conclude I’m not declaring those wages; an outside observer would be wrong! I claim every dollar I make (though I’m aggressive with expense deductions…if you’re caught hiding cash, you’re “up the creek”; if you are overly aggressive with expenses, it’ll just be disallowed unless you’re outrageously blatant about it.)
It would not be ethically wrong to hire me; it would be ethically wrong to attempt to get into my personal finances over what you falsely perceive!
Bottom line, mechanic is violating the T+C of his employment…and probably “stealing” a minimal value of electricity, unreimbursed wear+tear on the lift, etc…but you cannot conclude anything beyond this.
Fair enough, Joe.
It doesn’t change my own opinion, but your post is well thought out and supports your position well.
I should remind you that the OP asked for an opinion of his use of the described arrangement. My opinion is that it’s unethical, and I stated my reasons. I never asked about his personal finances, and won’t.
Question: as a handyman, if you had employees taking materials from your sites for under-the-table jobs that they were taking while working for you and from which you received no income, not going through you and doing the work on your time with your materials, pocketing 100% of the proceeds themselves totally off-the-record, how would you feel about it? How many seconds would it take for you to fire the employee? If you truly feel that it’s okay to do this, why would you fire them?
I’ve only given my opinion of the scenario exactly as it was described by the OP, nothing more, nothing less. And the reasons for my opinion.
Truthfully, it would bother me. It would bother me a lot more if the employees in question were “cannabilizing” my sales from existing customers vs. scouting jobs on their own (possibly in areas I don’t serve).
Either way, I’d still have to get rid of them…when I hire somebody, I’m looking for a person with the skills (and ethics) to be trusted to work “semi-autonomously” on a job, if need be. My “worst-case-scenario” would be an employee stealing from a good customer of mine!
But…for the customer…it would bother me to know a long-standing customer would go along with this, but I could hardly work up much emotion for a customer unknown to me. If there’s no personal connection, it’s natural to expect them to go for the low-ball bid…
Quotes from TSMB: "Things tightened up in the '90s…
You may even be familiar with the old tale of a company that was laying off employees and laid off one particular engineer who seemed to spend all his days standing in the door of his office BSing with his coworkers. Eventually the management realized that he was actually providing valuable technical advice and guidance to his coworkers, and without him progress slowed considerably. They ended up hiring him back as a consultant at twice his previous salary." Unquote
Regarding the first comment quoted, feel free to clearly define what was your experience but not mine.
Regarding the second comment quoted, this story sounds aprocryphal. Any manager or group of managers who would fire a person who is a helpful and useful fountainhead of information without bothering to understand the entire circumstance could be accused of incompetence . We had a guy who spent much of every day BSing but his talents were recognized by our more astute managers and he simply was moved to the right job.
Wha Who, in my company, and other manufacturing companies with whom I had ongoing business relationship and I had personal friendships, controls over thing s like office supplies and inventory became more stringent. Pilfering was not tolerated as freely as it was in the '70s and '80. Were you in the industry in the '70s and '80s? Do you have those memories to draw from for comparison?
The second comment is a parable, to illustrate to managers the importance of peoples’ value within the entire structure. Versions of it were reiterated at countless management seminars. Did you ever attend any management seminars?
@Demo_Beta is not guilty of tax evasion or aiding and abetting a crime unless he knows that the mechanic is not paying taxes. The IRS would have to prove that he was aware of tax evasion and not that he guessed the mechanic was not paying taxes. I doubt that the government would go any farther than the mechanic if they brought charges. Still, it is unethical to use the dealer facilities for personal gain. My BIL and son in law (not related) are both practicing lawyers, and they would never do this.
“@Demo_Beta is not guilty of tax evasion or aiding and abetting a crime unless he knows that the mechanic is not paying taxes.”
I disagree, but I am not focusing on the tax issue.
I am focusing on Theft of Service, which is what the unscrupulous mechanic is doing, and that the OP is aiding and abetting.
I too seriously doubt that the IRS would go that deep. But if they did, Demo wouldn’t be a cop much longer.
Besides, I just don’t personally feel comfortable tacitly supporting cheating, especially if it’s illegal too. I consider it unethical. It’s a question of one’s personal moral standards. That’s what this really comes down to; how high are one’s moral standards?
Among the many things my parents taught me was this gem- there is only one thing other people cannot take from you and that is your integrity. You choose to give that up on your own…