TheRobSJ
Großer Mechaniker
I know there's a whole section of Reddit called "am I the asshole" where people post their dilemma (usually some boyfriend/girlfriend thing), how they handled it, and are sometimes surprised because the consensus is that they were the one in the wrong.
I don't do Reddit. I've got a fair amount of free time on my hands, but not that much time that I'm gonna waste it all there. So I shall put this up for the BARF KS collective to decide if there was a way I could've handled the past several weeks with my employer differently. This is a done deal and my decision is made and already in motion, but maybe someone has some hindsight for me, or maybe this was inevitable. OK get comfy, it'll be a bit long. There will be a TL;DR at the end. But hey, it's a long weekend. There's no sports to really watch, so kill a few minutes.
I have been at my current employer (a franchised car dealership) for over 10 years. I'm a supervisor or maybe mid level manager at best, whatever you want to call it...I wear many hats throughout a typical week and everyone in the store (not just in my own department) comes to me for answers. I have achieved many many accolades, certifications, and awards and am considered by the manufacturer to be in the top 1% of the top 1% for what I do. Because of my relationship with the factory, my store is given a bit more breathing room (like warranty goodwill) on some issues than they give to other stores. In the past four years, I have built a very loyal client base of our most expensive vehicle who come to me, and only me (some from hundreds of miles away) to work on their car. And that reputation I built has allowed my store to see more of these cars come through our shop than any of the other dealers in the entire country. It's definitely not a cheap vehicle, so of course it's far from cheap to work on it. My next (and final) one is going to be something along the lines of $25k in revenue for the store. And when the pandemic got going and business slowed way down, I actually volunteered to be furloughed first if that meant one of my guys could stay and keep earning. Over the years, I have been granted quite a bit of respect from everyone in our organization and many people outside of it. That has given me quite a bit autonomy and past managers and even the owner of the store gives me a pretty wide berth to do my job the way I see fit.
OK so that's me blowing my own horn for the situation at hand. I could've easy kept going saying that I almost never call in sick or am late, but let's move on to the reason that's all ending.
Right before the pandemic, the owner hired a new GM to run the place. We had been without one for about a year, so I think most of us welcomed this addition. He was coming from the manufacturer, which is great since he's have lots of connections with the factory that might buy us a favor or two here and there. Though, he has never actually run a car dealership before...so it was an interesting choice by the owner to hire him. His very first day, he doesn't come around and introduce himself (though we all knew already there was a new rooster in the henhouse). Instead, he acts like he's a random customer and tries to "mystery shop" my service writers, who were pretty certain he was the new boss but went along with it anyways. His second day...still hasn't introduced himself to anyone in my department, decides that my giant banner showing one of my national level awards that the factory sent to the dealer to hang up in the showroom, is "not relevant since it's from 2014" and takes it down. It's got my name on it 3 feet wide. Did he maybe think to look for who answers to that name and see if they'd like to have it? Nope. Just pitched it. (Fine. Factory sent me one as well anyways.) Yet there still remains to this day in the showroom, a local boy scouts something or other second place plaque for trap shooting, a manager who hasn't worked there in 3 years won in 2015. So in case the tone isn't obvious, this guy is off on the wrong foot with me right off the bat. And he doesn't even know it yet since he didn't seem it necessary to come introduce himself to all of his employees or even supervisors yet.
Right away, I get a bad feeling about this guy. So I start seeing what's out there just to keep an exit plan in my pocket. Many of us were. I went on an interview at another dealership and their GM knew who he was and hated him and immediately said that my GM doesn't know what he's doing. Says he's been calling everyday asking advice from him (20+years in his position) on how to do his job. Got so annoying that he just stopped taken his calls.
The weeks go on, and this guy's micro managerial style is not sitting well with anyone. On top of that, it's become blatantly obvious to all of us that he doesn't know what he's doing (which is that lack of prior dealership experience showing for sure). Then we have almost a nationwide screeching halt of work. Since I volunteered, I am the first to be told to stay home. A couple weeks later, I'm called to come in for a day or two to do a small project (which wound up being completely meaningless). Then I'm officially furloughed along with many others. The store runs on skeleton crew. Unfortunately, what slowed my store down also hurt many others in the car business. All my leads dried up. So I just stayed home and binged watched shows.
The Paycheck Protection Loan comes though, and we're all recalled back. Yay! Well, not yay for everyone. The GM had been butting heads a bit with my direct boss, the service manager (and the best service manager I've ever worked with in 25 years) since he got there. Also to some extent, the receptionist since she's very loyal to the service manager and also because she's pushed back a bit at some of the GM's micro managing requests a bit. So those two have their "positions eliminated" and are not brought back. Even though the PPL could've brought them back essentially for free anyways. Also three salesmen and a F&I manager decide not to return. The day we all come back, one of my junior technicians, works half a day and then gets a call that he was hired at another dealership and leaves immediately. Whoa. So many people gone now, that we have to "hire" the HR manager's daughter as the receptionist (wait I thought the position was eliminated?), who we see all of four hours a week, just because you have to bring back 75% I believe of your workforce to get the PPL. In the meantime, I had a bunch of my clients who were waiting for me to come back to work plus I was lining up new ones. All of which I coordinated through dozens of emails, texts, and so one while I was on unemployment. So I was busy for awhile and kept a nice steady stream of big tickets coming into the shop.
In the coming months, the GM would have some more managers who work directly with him up in the sales department grow tired of his condescending attitude, and quit on him. He fired another F&I manager. He hired a new sales manager, and fired him two months later. Most recently, he brought in a new GSM, because he finally admitted that he doesn't know what he's doing and needed to bring someone in to run the sales department. A lot of churn. He also had me take on another silly project where he wanted to restructure the pay plan for the technicians (who are all grossly underpaid as is, borderline illegal actually) which would take effect August 1. Since he has never run a dealership, he had no idea how to go about that other than to copy another store's plan and then have me modify it to suit our organization. I put in the effort and cooked up something very good based on plans I've seen at all the shops I've worked at in my career. August has come and gone...no changes have happened.
Now we get to the meat and potatoes here of the AITA. A few weeks ago, I was punched out for lunch, and well...eating my lunch as one tends to do at noon. A customer with one of those expensive cars just out of the blue rolls in (all of my clients set up appointments with me) and wants to just sell the dealership his car. He doesn't want it anymore. The GM sends a salesman to come find me and have me do a pre purchase inspection. I politely say I'm on lunch. Have the guy leave it for a couple hours and I'll get to it after lunch. He says well the GM wants you to come and look at it now. I get annoyed and tell him an inspection on a car like that isn't just kicking tires for five minutes in a parking lot. It requires a couple hours to really go through it, because if you miss something on that car, it could cost thousands. That, and I'm on lunch. I'm not on salary. I'm an hourly employee, so I punch a clock, and right now I'm punched out for lunch. So I guess he accepts that and goes back and tells the GM what I said. I guess the customer who was just so hot to sell his car like he was hawking a Rolex to a pawn shop, didn't want to wait and leaves with his car. After I come back from lunch, the GM calls me to his office and tells me that I spoke disrespectfully to the salesman. And for a car like that, I should have been "a team player" and just sacrificed and put off lunch till later to do the PPI right there on the spot.
A week after that. I get word through the grapevine that the fucking guy went to another dealership and tried to poach one of their master technicians to become the foreman at my dealership and replace me because he "doesn't like my attitude" is the exact quote. He got a hard no there because the pay was not enticing in the slightest bit. Almost within hours, I also hear from the district manager from the factory who I have a good relationship with that the GM asked him "if he knows anybody" to come work at our store.
Ho. Lee. Shit. Just like that, this guy is gonna fucking Pearl Harbor me. I'm glad that I'm more liked inside and outside our walls than he is, that people immediately tipped me off on his plans. So I immediately started scrambling. The job market is complete dogshit right now. I could easily get a job at an independent shop, but I absolutely really do like working at a new car dealership. You get to stay up on the latest tech, and for the most part, the cars you work on are super grimy rattle traps. Nothing local in my own brand was hiring. But I did find another high line brand that was hiring though I have absolutely no experience in it. Couple interviews later, and they offer me a position for $5/hr more than what I make now to be the supposedly highest paid technician in my dealership since I'm the most skilled.
There. We made it. If you read through my little sob story there, I thank you. Now. Am I the asshole because I wanted to finish my Togos sandwich? Or really did this guy do me a favor by forcing my hand to make a move I should've kept my foot on the gas for and did months ago? My past service manager (the new one got moved up from within who has almost been fired several times by each of his predecessors in the past several years for being overly aggressive and rude to customers and employees) told me that he's amazed at my patience for lasting this long.
If somehow anyone at my employer is reading this and knows who I am based on all that? I'm fucking Audi 5000 people. I'm almost positive this is not a case (at least I don't think so we'll see what the KS says) of it's not you, it's me. When a new boss comes on, and that many people leave? Pandemic or not, it's you. I'm sure my arrogant attitude is why you want to replace me, but good fucking luck doing that for what you want to pay. And even better luck finding someone who can do everything I can do, for any price really.
TL;DR? I go from being a big fish in a small pond and close a big chapter of my career with the brand I've been at for almost 15 years collectively. Then I'll just be a new goldfish dropped in another pond, where hopefully I can grow up big and strong again. And me talking this out is probably just some form of therapy or whatever.
I don't do Reddit. I've got a fair amount of free time on my hands, but not that much time that I'm gonna waste it all there. So I shall put this up for the BARF KS collective to decide if there was a way I could've handled the past several weeks with my employer differently. This is a done deal and my decision is made and already in motion, but maybe someone has some hindsight for me, or maybe this was inevitable. OK get comfy, it'll be a bit long. There will be a TL;DR at the end. But hey, it's a long weekend. There's no sports to really watch, so kill a few minutes.
I have been at my current employer (a franchised car dealership) for over 10 years. I'm a supervisor or maybe mid level manager at best, whatever you want to call it...I wear many hats throughout a typical week and everyone in the store (not just in my own department) comes to me for answers. I have achieved many many accolades, certifications, and awards and am considered by the manufacturer to be in the top 1% of the top 1% for what I do. Because of my relationship with the factory, my store is given a bit more breathing room (like warranty goodwill) on some issues than they give to other stores. In the past four years, I have built a very loyal client base of our most expensive vehicle who come to me, and only me (some from hundreds of miles away) to work on their car. And that reputation I built has allowed my store to see more of these cars come through our shop than any of the other dealers in the entire country. It's definitely not a cheap vehicle, so of course it's far from cheap to work on it. My next (and final) one is going to be something along the lines of $25k in revenue for the store. And when the pandemic got going and business slowed way down, I actually volunteered to be furloughed first if that meant one of my guys could stay and keep earning. Over the years, I have been granted quite a bit of respect from everyone in our organization and many people outside of it. That has given me quite a bit autonomy and past managers and even the owner of the store gives me a pretty wide berth to do my job the way I see fit.
OK so that's me blowing my own horn for the situation at hand. I could've easy kept going saying that I almost never call in sick or am late, but let's move on to the reason that's all ending.
Right before the pandemic, the owner hired a new GM to run the place. We had been without one for about a year, so I think most of us welcomed this addition. He was coming from the manufacturer, which is great since he's have lots of connections with the factory that might buy us a favor or two here and there. Though, he has never actually run a car dealership before...so it was an interesting choice by the owner to hire him. His very first day, he doesn't come around and introduce himself (though we all knew already there was a new rooster in the henhouse). Instead, he acts like he's a random customer and tries to "mystery shop" my service writers, who were pretty certain he was the new boss but went along with it anyways. His second day...still hasn't introduced himself to anyone in my department, decides that my giant banner showing one of my national level awards that the factory sent to the dealer to hang up in the showroom, is "not relevant since it's from 2014" and takes it down. It's got my name on it 3 feet wide. Did he maybe think to look for who answers to that name and see if they'd like to have it? Nope. Just pitched it. (Fine. Factory sent me one as well anyways.) Yet there still remains to this day in the showroom, a local boy scouts something or other second place plaque for trap shooting, a manager who hasn't worked there in 3 years won in 2015. So in case the tone isn't obvious, this guy is off on the wrong foot with me right off the bat. And he doesn't even know it yet since he didn't seem it necessary to come introduce himself to all of his employees or even supervisors yet.
Right away, I get a bad feeling about this guy. So I start seeing what's out there just to keep an exit plan in my pocket. Many of us were. I went on an interview at another dealership and their GM knew who he was and hated him and immediately said that my GM doesn't know what he's doing. Says he's been calling everyday asking advice from him (20+years in his position) on how to do his job. Got so annoying that he just stopped taken his calls.
The weeks go on, and this guy's micro managerial style is not sitting well with anyone. On top of that, it's become blatantly obvious to all of us that he doesn't know what he's doing (which is that lack of prior dealership experience showing for sure). Then we have almost a nationwide screeching halt of work. Since I volunteered, I am the first to be told to stay home. A couple weeks later, I'm called to come in for a day or two to do a small project (which wound up being completely meaningless). Then I'm officially furloughed along with many others. The store runs on skeleton crew. Unfortunately, what slowed my store down also hurt many others in the car business. All my leads dried up. So I just stayed home and binged watched shows.
The Paycheck Protection Loan comes though, and we're all recalled back. Yay! Well, not yay for everyone. The GM had been butting heads a bit with my direct boss, the service manager (and the best service manager I've ever worked with in 25 years) since he got there. Also to some extent, the receptionist since she's very loyal to the service manager and also because she's pushed back a bit at some of the GM's micro managing requests a bit. So those two have their "positions eliminated" and are not brought back. Even though the PPL could've brought them back essentially for free anyways. Also three salesmen and a F&I manager decide not to return. The day we all come back, one of my junior technicians, works half a day and then gets a call that he was hired at another dealership and leaves immediately. Whoa. So many people gone now, that we have to "hire" the HR manager's daughter as the receptionist (wait I thought the position was eliminated?), who we see all of four hours a week, just because you have to bring back 75% I believe of your workforce to get the PPL. In the meantime, I had a bunch of my clients who were waiting for me to come back to work plus I was lining up new ones. All of which I coordinated through dozens of emails, texts, and so one while I was on unemployment. So I was busy for awhile and kept a nice steady stream of big tickets coming into the shop.
In the coming months, the GM would have some more managers who work directly with him up in the sales department grow tired of his condescending attitude, and quit on him. He fired another F&I manager. He hired a new sales manager, and fired him two months later. Most recently, he brought in a new GSM, because he finally admitted that he doesn't know what he's doing and needed to bring someone in to run the sales department. A lot of churn. He also had me take on another silly project where he wanted to restructure the pay plan for the technicians (who are all grossly underpaid as is, borderline illegal actually) which would take effect August 1. Since he has never run a dealership, he had no idea how to go about that other than to copy another store's plan and then have me modify it to suit our organization. I put in the effort and cooked up something very good based on plans I've seen at all the shops I've worked at in my career. August has come and gone...no changes have happened.
Now we get to the meat and potatoes here of the AITA. A few weeks ago, I was punched out for lunch, and well...eating my lunch as one tends to do at noon. A customer with one of those expensive cars just out of the blue rolls in (all of my clients set up appointments with me) and wants to just sell the dealership his car. He doesn't want it anymore. The GM sends a salesman to come find me and have me do a pre purchase inspection. I politely say I'm on lunch. Have the guy leave it for a couple hours and I'll get to it after lunch. He says well the GM wants you to come and look at it now. I get annoyed and tell him an inspection on a car like that isn't just kicking tires for five minutes in a parking lot. It requires a couple hours to really go through it, because if you miss something on that car, it could cost thousands. That, and I'm on lunch. I'm not on salary. I'm an hourly employee, so I punch a clock, and right now I'm punched out for lunch. So I guess he accepts that and goes back and tells the GM what I said. I guess the customer who was just so hot to sell his car like he was hawking a Rolex to a pawn shop, didn't want to wait and leaves with his car. After I come back from lunch, the GM calls me to his office and tells me that I spoke disrespectfully to the salesman. And for a car like that, I should have been "a team player" and just sacrificed and put off lunch till later to do the PPI right there on the spot.
A week after that. I get word through the grapevine that the fucking guy went to another dealership and tried to poach one of their master technicians to become the foreman at my dealership and replace me because he "doesn't like my attitude" is the exact quote. He got a hard no there because the pay was not enticing in the slightest bit. Almost within hours, I also hear from the district manager from the factory who I have a good relationship with that the GM asked him "if he knows anybody" to come work at our store.
Ho. Lee. Shit. Just like that, this guy is gonna fucking Pearl Harbor me. I'm glad that I'm more liked inside and outside our walls than he is, that people immediately tipped me off on his plans. So I immediately started scrambling. The job market is complete dogshit right now. I could easily get a job at an independent shop, but I absolutely really do like working at a new car dealership. You get to stay up on the latest tech, and for the most part, the cars you work on are super grimy rattle traps. Nothing local in my own brand was hiring. But I did find another high line brand that was hiring though I have absolutely no experience in it. Couple interviews later, and they offer me a position for $5/hr more than what I make now to be the supposedly highest paid technician in my dealership since I'm the most skilled.
There. We made it. If you read through my little sob story there, I thank you. Now. Am I the asshole because I wanted to finish my Togos sandwich? Or really did this guy do me a favor by forcing my hand to make a move I should've kept my foot on the gas for and did months ago? My past service manager (the new one got moved up from within who has almost been fired several times by each of his predecessors in the past several years for being overly aggressive and rude to customers and employees) told me that he's amazed at my patience for lasting this long.
If somehow anyone at my employer is reading this and knows who I am based on all that? I'm fucking Audi 5000 people. I'm almost positive this is not a case (at least I don't think so we'll see what the KS says) of it's not you, it's me. When a new boss comes on, and that many people leave? Pandemic or not, it's you. I'm sure my arrogant attitude is why you want to replace me, but good fucking luck doing that for what you want to pay. And even better luck finding someone who can do everything I can do, for any price really.
TL;DR? I go from being a big fish in a small pond and close a big chapter of my career with the brand I've been at for almost 15 years collectively. Then I'll just be a new goldfish dropped in another pond, where hopefully I can grow up big and strong again. And me talking this out is probably just some form of therapy or whatever.
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