Do any of you like what you do but hate where you work? Im getting tired of the day to day fire drills and getting yelled at for equipment that hasnt been taken care of before my time.On top of it all having no money to buy parts and supplies
Where abouts are you? Been this way as long as I can remember around this corner.
Nope. Overall pretty happy where I'm at. No, I don't get everything I want but the boss makes sure I get what I need to get the job done. All except for the new kenworth service truck. Everytime I mention it, I get the deer in the headlight look. If your not happy, look around. America has a severe shortage of mechanics and welders. Check out the thread " where are all the good mechanics".
Nope pretty happy where I'm at, get pretty much whatever is needed for the job and just got a new pete ordered to replace my f550. What area are you located?
Im in Rhode Island
I worked in a number of heavy truck shops generally speaking I never met a larger group of miserable people that hated their jobs....and the management was worse. Not to mention a large fleet of tractors and trailers is a never ending Battle.
Do you work on trucks or equipment or ?
Hi Mike I guess you could say I'm a steelmill mechanic that done some work on road trucks and heavy equipment. Are you looking for help or have a big project?
Land fill equipment excavator compactor dozers street sweeper vac trucks rollers walking floors pushers roll offs all tractors 5 years or newer earth moving equipment was newer but this was before computers. I drilled for oil out of Casper Wyoming
both
My last job i liked the work but it was a horrible place to work. I need cotter pins and ask every one above me to order some. I ended up useing nails or wire. This was on a million dollar piece of eqipment that we built.
Must of been some of the management i worked under at my last place
I hated my last shop. Didn't mind the people I directly worked for but the corporate philosophy sucked. The company is extremely top heavy leaving all the underlings to fight over scraps. When there is such a shortage of good mechs there is no reason to deal with it. They offered raises one year and the max amount that corporate would consider was $.35 and it had been almost 2yrs since anyone had seen an increase. We all threatened to quit and got $1/hr plus a scolding for holding them hostage. I left for a MUCH small company with great owners. It's awesome to be treated like family instead of like a 4 digit employee number. Been at my current shop for 8yrs and still happy.
I was out of work one time, took a parts job with a Fruitliner dealer.... six months was more than I could take. Back to heavy equipment. Prime example of the work environment, the company did not provide ink pens! I was and still am speechless about that, at ten cents apiece how did they expect people to work without pens???????????????
My rule of thumb is that if or when it becomes more work getting myself to go to work than the work is itself, it is time for a new job.
X's 2
This is my philosophy also. I HATE the guys that have stayed in one place all of their life's and are just miserable for it. If you hate your job that much change it up. A good wrench can always find a job.
At the last place I worked there was a guy that had been there near 20yrs. He hated it and was a miserable SOB. If it was slow he was the 1st to volunteer to go home and he never worked any OT. He stayed because he was comfortable and secure. Until the economy crashed, then he was one of the 1st to get let go because "he has a bad attitude". So much for his security. He could have left years before and took a position he enjoyed and been much better off.
Well there might be an opening for a mechanic where I work come the end of April. Just sent the preliminary paperwork in for my retirement after 44+ years here. Get to work on everything from rusted out old Ford pick-ups to 773G Cat haul truck. Local management is OK, can't say much good about those above him! Just feel bad for who ever comes in after me, after doing things my way for years I know where things are and where we get things but might not make sense to someone else I'm actually trying to rearrange things a bit to make it a little more logical. Like why are fuses in cabinet it the back of office, tail light bulbs on shelf by desk and the tail lamp housings down in the cabinet in the back of the main shop. Oh and the circuit breakers and fuse holders are in the store room where the filters are kept!
I feel your pain....I worked at a company that didn't supply employees pens, but supplied managers with expensive lap tops and high end digital cameras. :Banghead They couldn't understand why no one wanted to work there. I gave noticed when they asked me to use my own vehicle for company business and refused to pay me mileage.:crazy
Trashman, I get that ALOT.. I live about 50 miles away from the shop and get THAT about 3x a month.. About 4:30 in the afternoon, the foreman will say, "Hey, on your way in tomorrow, how about stopping at so and so's and have a quick look at such and such." and come to find out.. they were billing him mileage.. and it didn't COST THEM a penny.. it was MY GAS.. It didn't take me long to start adding 30 minutes of "overtime" to my timecard when this happens.. OH, and the time we had a meeting to tell the 30 man business.. WE MADE 7 MILLION DOLLARS LAST YEAR.. BUT SORRY.. THERES NO MONEY TO PUT IN YOUR PROFIT SHAREING ACCOUNTS.. THEN the 2 SOB's drove up in BRAND NEW Ford pickups, about 50k apiece with the company name on them..THE NEXT DAY !!!!! Don't get me started.. I could hijack this thread in a minute.. LOL I have to drive my own car to factory training school... They pay for gas, food and lodging.. no mileage.. I figure its an all expence, payed vacation for a week.. still sux tho..
I've worked a few places that I liked the work but working conditions were deplorable, no decent lighting, scrimping on tooling with cheap imported junk that wouldn't hold up, etc. I would stay out of sheer stubbornness until I could find a better job. One shop I went to the foreman told me to be half an hour early to get the crew lined out for the day. When I asked if that was going to be o'time, he said "hell no, it's on your time!" I grabbed my feed bag and tools and left before I'd even punched in. Shortest job I've ever had. .lasted all of 5-7 minutes
Speaking of overtime.. When the economy tanked, the company ended ALL overtime.. NONE WHAT SO EVER.. even if you worked it, they wouldn't pay for it.. NOW.. with everything back to normal in my business, after about 5 years of suffering..they want you to bust your arse for them.. If I'm told I HAVE TO BE on a jobsite at 5 or 6 am, I tell them I start at 8.. no exceptions.
As they say "Your Toolbox has wheels for a reason" Personally I'm very happy with where I'm at. great bosses, from my shop foreman to operations manager to branch manager (I work for a dealership) all the way to the head honcho of the company (very good dude). Find yourself one of these types of places.
Blanchard, of course? They are great from the customer side, too.
I always tell others and believe it myself, you were looking for a job when this one came along, its time to move on.
Worked for company for 12 yrs come January started as the low guy worked up and now shop foreman! Mechanic/truck driver/operator/whatever else and love my job no po #s I can authorize stuff without call to boss (owner of company) and just pretty much enjoy my job of course every job has its down sides but I say if you don't enjoy your job you aren't going to give it your all and like others have said there is a shortage of good quality want to work type of help go find a different job!
I work on the principle that "I was looking for a job when I came here. I'll be looking for one when I leave." The "Famous Phone Call" used to go a bit like this........ Me: You need to come and get your company pickup truck. Them: Where is it? Me: At the airport. Them: Why is it at the airport? Me: Because I'm leaving on the next flight out, you forget that I have a personal credit card. Oh, and by the way you'd better bring the spare keys when you come for it. It's locked and I left the keys in the ashtray...........
Things are somewhat good for me although I am at the lowest level just hired in for the day or however long it takes me to do the repair, I still have to fit in with the spanner men working for the Company directly, the other day I was working on a large site with 4 mechanics that worked for the Company, a van pulled up and took 3 mechanics and 5 drivers to the office?? 7 of them managing to fail a Drugs Test resulting in the "Tin Tack" so out of 8 tested only 1 man managed to pass muster, you cannot dream it up. tctractors
Must be a very stressfull place to work if that many were doing drugs to manage the stress.
LMAO!!!!! Being one of the minority that never got involved in using drugs, I can tell you it's a lot more stressful working around potheads and coke snorters than anything they might be concerned about! I did drink a fair bit after work in my youth, the good thing about beer or booze, you can always smell it when they come to work in the bag and either steer clear or put them on some job that would keep the rest of us safe.............. Boss says. "We need you to take a drug test!" I responded I would have to study for it, I knew nothing about them..........
Have to feel a little bad for the one mechanic left! They will probably expect him to pick up the slack and then complain if he wants to work over time.
I get excited when I get paperwork for a wizz quiz. It's probably the only test I've passed on the 1st try in my life.
Back in the good old days there were only two rules - don't drink and drive, and get to work on time. Everybody ignored the first rule, nobody ignored the second. You dragged your sorry *** to work even if you'd only just got in from the local bar an hour before. Happy daze........
Of the 4 Mechanics on site 3 had the drug test along with 5 drivers, the only 1 to clear the test was the young mechanic, leaving 2 spanner-men on site, just of late it has rained a good amount so the going is a swamp of muck, plus the winter is starting to hit home so faces need to be dropped off, they never tested me although I am on their site and working under their rules so I have to comply with any wish the Company ask, I might not pass the "dope" test but its not from drugs but to do with working in a swamp, I could say the Mechanics that copped the Bullet seemed to be normal to me and not in any "Zone" that chemicals might put them in, this is not the first time I have been involved in a Saga like this,the first time was at the largest airport in the U.K. 6 of us travelled to the port 4 in a Company Van myself and a lorry driver in a Truck, all 4 of the men in the van failed the drug test with only myself and the Truck driver passing, it was hard work and a long day with just the 2 of us to do the job. tctractors
The last place i worked they would test 3 at a time. It was a new shop with about 60 workers. Most of the time 2 wouldnt pass. It was a random test but every time some one was out sick for a week they would get random picked. This happened alot because alot of guys got pnemounia and would be off sick for a week. I had it twiced one winter and got picked to be test shortly after comeing back to work. A young guy got pnemounia the last winter i was there before i walked out got tested and didnt pass he was gone sick for more than 2 weeks and told me it must be something to do with the meds he was on. He got retested at some place else and past but they wouldnt let him come back to work. I belived him becauce i had work with him alot over the 4 years we were their. I know that the test places say about meds but no test is perfect.
I hate working with druggies. Fortunately none at my shop, but in my previous career I had to work with quite a few of them. It was very frustrating, they were unreliable, could not "get" stuff, and basically had to be babysat all damn day. This job is just too dangerous to tolerate that.
Yep. This is literally the best employer and job I've ever had.