Overheard at work today.

Dr.Jass

Dr.Jass

Pastor of Muppets
Today, my old store called CarQuest looking for a part they didn't have on hand. I didn't take the call, but apparently there was some sort of animated discussion going on in the background at Auto Value, loud enough that it was disrupting the call. At one point the call was put on hold by our guy to verify if the part was on the shelf even though we didn't show it, and he said "Whoa... something's going down over there." He returned to the call (we didn't have it) and told 'em no dice.

After he got off the phone, of course we were all curious as to what he'd heard. Of course, he was trying to overhear a discussion beyond the one he was having, but he did say he heard quite clearly, "Well, if you're not going to pay me more, then fucking replace me!" Of course, knowing the whole crew over there, I asked if he knew who it was. He said it was definitely male, so I guessed it was Jordan or Tom, both of whom are part-time. He said, "No... what's the other guy's name? The one that took over when you left?"

Apparently those 60+ hour work weeks are getting to the new manager, and with their ludicrous bonus program he's not making any extra coin (strange--I did). Suck it up, pal; you've only been there one year and I put up with that shit for over three. You know what? I'd still be there now if they had a fucking clue about strong employees.
 
That may be. However, it might be a good thing to let it go. The whole experience obviously bothers you still. Getting fired from pullapart still bothers me, but I don't think about it much anymore, and the less I do the faster it matters less.
 
It's hard for me to let it go, v8. I tried so hard, busted my balls, never bitched to my superiors about hours, etc. I just wanted to be the best at what I was. They didn't appreciate that, and now they've got a guy that wants to be "40 and out" and is demanding more money--but I can't get a fuckin' job. He's not half the parts guy I am, but they're more worried about administrative bullshit than actual sales. I warned him on my last day on the job, and he laughed it off. He's been laughing a lot less since. Let's face it: when I have people calling or e-mailing me at home to find parts for them while I'm not really working, it says a lot... and strangely enough, I always find it when no one else can. The one thing I can't find is a fuckin' job.
 
Even better... as many of you may remember, I wouldn't stay on at Auto Value largely because the guy taking my place was a thief and a liar and I didn't want anyone pointing fingers at me.

He apparently got the job for which I was vying at the body shop that will soon be opening just down the street. Unbe-fucking-lievable.
 
Doc, such is the price one pays for becoming proficient at ones job. We build a reputation at being the best at that particular position and have advancement door closed in our face.

I went through a similar situation back in the early '80's. Sold my body shop because of the cost of meeting environmental requirements and went to work for a multi-line dealership body shop as the manager. The manager of myself and one other employee with a monthly gross of less than $15k. Within 6 months we were up to over $60k per month and the owner started to take us seriously.

Fast forward two years and we now have 8 employees, new location with two shops, state of the art equipment, more work then we can handle and grossing over $400k per month.

Enter dealership owners' nephew. New manager. I go back to the line, not even a foreman position. Six months later I leave.

Six months after that, the shop closes. Seems the nephew was doing "cash deals" on the repairs.

Sorry to rant about ancient history, but it still pisses me off to this day. All of those hours and efforts wasted.
 
Believe me, I busted my ass to make manager at pullapart. I mean, I was able to do some heavy equipment repairs, deal with environmental agencies, deal with the media, deal with angry customers, I fixed an electrical problem on the car crusher, shit the list of stuff I did that isn't really in the job description of management is longer than I can remember. NO other manager had the car knowledge I brought to the table. In the end, I got fucked over some trumped up racial bullshit. It is what it is. I will admit that I take comfort in the fact that the place is running at a considerably lower standard than when I ran it, but life goes on. Reliving the betrayal and anger over and over just eats me up-they're still the same old company.
 
Well, I talked to my biggest customer this afternoon and he told me, "Well, now I'm going to have to find a new place to buy parts, unless Auto Value calls you back." I told him there was no way I'd go back there, and his one-word reply was, "FUCK!" Apparently, no one wants me and the customer base I'd bring to the business... that guy alone would pay my wages twice over in a month just in profit, much less overall sales.

This guy that replaced me at Auto Value and has now taken the body-shop job, has a proven track record of slight-of-hand with previous employers. Am I the only one that actually checked references while hiring someone?! Talking to his former employers is much of the reason I quit Auto Value... that's right, I checked on his previous employers rather than just look at his resume and be impressed, but the decision had already come down from above. It was simply a matter of whether I wanted to work with this man, and from what I discovered, no fucking way would I put myself in that position. I may not be a model citizen, but I'm not going to be accused of theft.
 
It was management-related. Though I know it's not true, he claimed Auto Value offered him an additional $11,000 a year to stay (that doesn't really jive with the conversation overheard). As much money as they've put into that building, I have a hard time believing that he's going to be paid $43K right off the bat with no experience whatsoever.
 
Do you mean $43k to manage a bodyshop, with no experience? In Michigan???
Geez, that's the going rate for an experienced manager over here, and for that kind of money, the manager is expected to be able to kiss some serious hiney and grow the business.
Don't worry, without some bodyshop/industry knowledge, he won't last long. It can be a pretty stressful job, if they do a lot of insurance work. Hell, it's stressful enough without insurance work.

You never can tell how some people can get that kind of money out of employers...

The local Nissan dealership next to the shop I work in closed August 1st of this year, tossing 10 or 12 people out of work. It's a wonder they lasted as long as they did - the lot man/clean up dude was making $20 per hour. The receptionist likewise (she didn't drive a Mustang coupe tho'). The service writer, a 23 or 24 year old girl, with NO previous automotive experience, was pulling down $56k per year. !!!!!! The techs were usually out of work by 2Pm daily, unless they were doing oil changes. Each tech (there were three) made $27 to $28 per flat rate hour. Two of them had 40 hr week gaurantees, the other was the favorite and got fed regularly. AND, they each got paid an hour per day for shop clean up, over and above their flat rate scale.
I had never worked near a place that had so many employees just walking around until I worked there. No wonder they folded.
They sold a fair number of Nissans, but obviously the service department was dragging them down instead of holding them up.
 
The building used to be a rental place; it's easily 5,000 square feet. The guy that bought it owns the largest body shop in Escanaba, MI and one of the largest in Marquette, MI. The guy is not afraid to spend money. I don't know what he paid for the building, but he put a ton of money into it. He added onto it, jackhammered the entire floor out and replaced it, installed three brand-new downdraft booths (one is large enough for a semi), and literally moved every opening on the building, be it door or window. The ouside was completely redone as well, including a new parking lot, landscaping, etc. It's impressive to say the least. About the only thing he saved were the exterior walls, and as I said they were heavily modified. I would guess between buying building and renovations there's probably half a million dollars at stake if not more.

The owner of the shop also owns a '68 or '69 Dart (I haven't seen it in a while). It's a Ray Barton 528" Hemi with a crossram and direct-port nitrous plumbed under the intake. If you didn't know about the nitrous, you'd never find it. The car is gorgeous (Stretch has seen it). A former employee of his tells me the car ran low 10s before the laughing gas was installed.

The guy that took the job has no body shop experience whatsoever. He was a parts manager at the local GM dealership for a couple years (got fired from that) then worked in a heavy-truck mechanical-repair place for less than a year (just stopped showing for work there). He's been managing Auto Value since September of 2011 when I left. Both the GM dealer and the big-truck place suspected him of theft, but were unable to prove it. Like I said, he's much of the reasoning behind my leaving. When he took over Auto Value, the local GM dealer refused to call there anymore simply because he was running the place. If none of the other parts places had what they needed, they simply told the customer they'd have to wait, even if AV had it on the shelf.
 
And the bodyshop hired him?
No offense, I don't know how well you know the owner, but it sounds to me like he's stupid. He might do well in business (obviously), but hiring someone with a bad rep is a BIG mistake, no matter how well they sell themselves.
Small town rumours and gossip get around quickly, and no one wants anything to do with someone branded a thief.

That's a pile of money to spend on a bodyshop, where profits are traditionally in the 15-20% range if everything goes well (it usually doesn't).
 
I think I explained the whole situation with this guy in my original post about quitting Auto Value over a year ago. He'll kiss plenty of ass and is actually pretty charming when you're dealing with him, but he's a slimy little bastard underneath it all. He's also one of the biggest bullshitters I've met in a long time. I don't know if he managed to turn a profit at Auto Value in his one year, but I cannot possibly relay all of the complaints I've heard about them losing sales because no one can find parts in the catalogs that they have on the shelf, piss-poor service, and slow or completely-forgotten deliveries.

Now, Auto Value has to find a manager within 2 weeks, which means they'll either A) put in an interim manager, or B) pull someone from another store and do to them what they did to me--tell 'em to run it with no training whatsoever. Probably both, knowing those clods.

As far as the body shop, I have no desire to work there no matter how close it is to my house as long as he's there. It's not that I feel like I have to be king (the manager), but same as the situation at Auto Value, when the finger-pointing starts I don't want one directed at me. He may not have done anything wrong at AV, but their corporate system is so locked down it's pretty difficult to steal money... then again, walking out with a part at the end of your shift is easy enough. I highly doubt this body shop's accounting measures are nearly as stringent.
 
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