OUR DEAR FRIEND HAS CANCER FCS

[Doug Lockhart]

Well, comprehension of the 'whole' picture is hard when we only see a small part usually Moonrunner......
The flip side is you can have an employee 'not give a $hit about checking his work' professionally and cost the 'boss' $60,000 and the customer.......whilst he says when he comes in on Monday..."oh sorry, $hit happens"...
I've had that 20-30 times too.....
If we all take ourselves out of our own and into the other......we'll collaborate for our common good MUCH better....and talking is sharing the load between many shoulders

[Moonrunner]

Doug, what happened here would be like telling your tech to wait in the shop while the truck is getting serviced, it will be serviced "any time now" and to keep checking in on it.. Then not paying him for the time he spent waiting for the truck in the shop, as per your instructions. Yes, the company has certain policies that cover that contingency (along the lines of "too bad, so sad, you ain't gettin' paid), but that doesn't really foster the spirit of collaborating for our common good with those who get screwed by the policy. Next time around, when you tell him the truck will get fixed "any time now" he'll just tell you "see ya tomorrow" regardless of how many clients are getting cooked or freezing to death, while waiting for him to come over and fix things.


Edit: Let's take a look at this from the shop owner's perspective. You send a tech to service the RTU's on a highrise but the elevators are broken and they ask your tech to wait until they get fixed. Time spent waiting is half of the total time he was out on location but they only wanna pay you for the time he spent on the rooftop. How would you react to that?

[Doug Lockhart]

I've got one similar but in my perspective (after riding back to the employee's place to take the van to give him the long weekend off call) I realized why I have a $500 brake job to in again in 13 months and a $8000 transmission to buy or a $4-6000 rebuild. (Sprinter Van) That's a pi$$ pot full of service calls to 'pay' for his stupid driving techniques.
I ALWAYS tell those who whine about the a$$hole bosses.......start your own company RIGHT AWAY and chomp on that grass......
Yer boss might have been 'led on' too....
FWIW ...???

[Moonrunner]

But you'd still pay your employee if he's on your clock, doing what you told him to do, whether it's a service call or watering your garden. Yes, this company is full of goofballs who don't earn half of their minimum wage (I make my living cleaning up their messes), but that doesn't excuse treating techs who go above and beyond bare-bones professionalism like dirt. Nobody wants to work for free.

[Doug Lockhart]

I can't pay what I can't collect Ilija.
We don't "print money" , we have to have it billed first or we go bankrupt if were that stupid of a businessmen
FYI most business owners work a 80-90 hour week and we get paid for about 1/4 of that IF were lucky.

[fcs]

morning all

[fcs]

OK Baseball rule for me today
3 major falls befor noon . I'm out

2 twice laid banging the left finger #$!!2#$.

[Moonrunner]

I can't pay what I can't collect Ilija.
We don't "print money" , we have to have it billed first or we go bankrupt if were that stupid of a businessmen
FYI most business owners work a 80-90 hour week and we get paid for about 1/4 of that IF were lucky.

I'd have no problems with hanging on a little (depending on the boss, of course) if I knew that I'd get paid for doing my work when you collect the money. In my case, I'll never see that money and it has already been collected from the customers. You wouldn't send one of your techs to shovel your driveway and then tell him you can't pay him for it because you can't bill anyone for the work?

By the way, if we're talking malfunctions on the work truck, let's assume the tech drove just fine, that the tranny went because you were too cheap to replace the ATF for 300,000mi and the pads went because you were too cheap to replace the rotors last time they replaced the pads.. Then you tell the tech to hang around until the truck gets fixed but you won't pay him for hanging around, ever. Chances are, the tech would develop a keen interest in the Classifieds and sites like monster and workopolis.

[Doug Lockhart]

The beauty is we all have "choices" Ilija. We also have good days and then we have 'learning days'.
FYI the brakes are 13 month old/12000 km wear severe duty pads and the van has a total of 110,000 km. !!!
So it looks like with our diametrical views, we both have "choices".

[supertek65]

Hey guys!!!

[Moonrunner]

Doug, we're describing 2 different situations here.. I have zero influence on how the equipment runs. It's all on the maintenance department and these issues are caused by poor maintenance practices. If it craps out, I'm expected to keep trying to make it work but not to get paid for my time. As a business owner, I am sure you'd laugh a customer out of the office if he suggested having your shop do work for him for free. Your customer gets billed for the time the mechanic spent on site, whether he was working on the RTU or stuck in the elevator. How they maintain their elevators is not your problem. I am sure the client company owner works 90 hours a week and gets paid for 1/4 of that time, but that doesn't excuse him from paying you what he owes you.

[crackertech]

Good morning Bret and all.

[timebuilder]

Good morning, Bret and everyone.

Now, I get to vent a little, so keep your sticks on the ice, and listen up, eh!

A truck with worn brakes is one thing.

How about:

you do a bunch of work for a major bookstore chain and they go out of business (seven of those stores in my territory alone)

you do a bunch of work for a teen clothing outlet chain and they declare bankruptcy (maybe 12 stores in my area)

You do a MAJOR u.s. chain of hair salons, and the service broker loses the contract due to mismanagement (30 stores in my area)

the same service broker loses THE office copy chain in the world (another 12 stores in my area)


...and then you company has to lay off two men, which is 33% of the techs.

That's what my week was like, and one of them was a close friend and good helper.

Now, we have to figure out how to fill in those blanks, or next time, I'm one of the guys turning in his truck.

That's my ante. Who can raise me?