tech pay

[klin6]

Hi guys....i'm new to this forum and i just got one question now. I work for a HVACR company ever since i grad and just wondering how do other company's tech get pay for overtime and weekend?? How can we balance it out w/o techs trying to do a job longer than suppose to and get pay more but at the same time will be happy working overtime and weekends?? Things do tend to break down at non business hrs and weekends as u all know...THanks guys...

[KB Cool]

Originally posted by klin6
Hi guys....i'm new to this forum and i just got one question now. I work for a HVACR company ever since i grad and just wondering how do other company's tech get pay for overtime and weekend?? How can we balance it out w/o techs trying to do a job longer than suppose to and get pay more but at the same time will be happy working overtime and weekends?? Things do tend to break down at non business hrs and weekends as u all know...THanks guys...

Pay your guys commision only. Not hourly. That should solve the problem with the guys milking the clock. But it might also create dis-honesty at the expense of your customers. But I think it all depends on the type of people you have.

[thegoodhumorman]

Commission?
I QUIT!

If you can't trust your workers then you have some big problems- I think most would agree that ( at least in markets and industrial refrigeration) they would rather be home than hauling in all that juicy overtime. YOu want my duty night - its yours bubba and don't comne crying for me to take it back!

Maybe if you don't have guys working for/with ya that have to have the newest Quad or boat or whatever so they NEED big money to keep their head above water-
just imagine a guy selling YOUR customer 5 lbs of crap he dont need because hes on commission. Every job becomes a complete overhaul, and only the smoothest BSer survives.

Pays yer money and take yer chances....

[x-files]

I worked for a company in Colorado that paid flat rate pay, they had a book that charted every possible repair with cost to customer and time attatched projecting allotted time to complete was your pay. Most of the time it worked to my benifit to get paid more time than it actually took. If your any good you can make real decent money! If it was a non-profit job, like warranty, they paid you a separate hourly rate. They also gave an extra 75 to be on call for that week. On call's never fun, but the nature of the business.

[Edited by x-files on 09-28-2006 at 08:57 PM]

[hvac wiz 79]

if your tech is billing for OT hours your making the OT hours back.. your not losing ...... if its a set price job like an install ... dont have them work on the weekends .. if your backed up to the point you have to have them work on weekends .. up your price ... it sucks to have to do so but the owner has to make money not lose it .. its not charity HVACR .... if you have enough employees to go around .... dont have them all work monday - friday ... have some monday to saturday guys .. just a thought

[Edited by hvac wiz 33 on 09-28-2006 at 09:00 PM]

[NedFlanders]

In the "market trade" , overtime is self regulating.(at least where i'm at)
I can work 24 hours a day...but I really don't want to. Burnout approaches fast. The trust issues with a slow employee should be dealt with one on one.

Why should it take a guy 4 hours to blow a drain and r&r a fan motor?

If you're billing an O.T. rate ...how will it not payback?

[ducklr1]

I pay my guys hourly. I also run some calls myself. Since I am the owner I don't pay myself OT. If we have a warranty call I tend to run it myself and keep my techs running billable calls.
We do commercial refrigeration and foodservice equipment so we do alot of OT. Some of the guys love the OT and some don't. I pay my techs time and a half for OT. You have to be able to trust your techs if you can't then you need different techs.

[gastech]

The Co. I work for pays hourly and o/t is time and a half. We have 10 techs w/2 on call once every 5 weeks. We get paid admin. pay when on call. That's for answering the phone and dealing with the idiots that call after hours. Holidays are rotated. The stress level went way down after we implemented this system. A laser focused tech can do a job in 1/2 the time and finish 3 calls for every 1 call performed by a not as focused or experienced tech. Call backs and billable hours vs. paid hours on paychecks are tracked. The good techs have anywhere from 80 to 90% billable hours on their paychecks.