This will be an interesting thread moving forward......

[Truck Shop]

Your telling me this whole situation seems like a synopsis of how this company operates.

Unfortunately this scenario-is all too common. The guy who supplies oil to our shop-one of his
customers {a trucking company I'm familiar with} decided to cut costs by extending the oil changes
way beyond what's reasonable-lost eight engines. Bad business decisions or no oversight seems
the norm in todays world.

 

[Questionable wizard]

How are the mechanics of the world supposed to have any work/life balance with situations like this? All caused by management FUBARs and SNAFUs. Invoice like hell to soften the pain!

 

[Truck Shop]

How are the mechanics of the world supposed to have any work/life balance with situations like this? All caused by management FUBARs and SNAFUs. Invoice like hell to soften the pain!

Well-where I work the owner thinks/acts like a Vegas crap shooter, constantly rolling the dice, gambling
till it bites him in the ass. Three weeks ago 485 rolls into the shop, driver telling me he has to add a gallon
of coolant every other day. I check it over I tell dispatch I believe it has a problem with egr cooler. Owner
rolls the dice-keep running it. Last Friday it pressurized real good like-also took the radiator out. Two states
away and no cooler available in the nation.
So I removed the one from a wreck setting in bull pen. But now he gets to add another $2,500 in radiator and
labor to something that could have been far less.
When people have too much money flowing or it's too easy to get, bad decisions are way more likely.
Less money-people get tight with the pocket book-and think things through.

 

[DMiller]

Old Pete I hauled grain with is in a slow spiral to dead, were using Schaefer Engine Oil products, had a sampling system take a sample thru dipstick tube send to some odd lab, would let the owner know if could go longer. Buy got to 30K oil changes, not even swapping a filter, engine is pretty well toasted now with severe blowby, suspect cam or rocker rollers bad as a floating miss. I may sample and test thru Cat, will be using OEM Filters and Rotella until I am done with the KW. If not tested will not exceed 20K on miles.

 

[Vetech63]

It's time for me to figure out how to work smarter and not harder. The longer days and hours are just wearing me out too much...........and I just can't do everything and have any chance of keeping up. I am not even able to keep up with things at home, so I know it has reached that point. Time to swallow some of my pride and start dishing out some of this to my local dealers, as bad as I hate to. I feel like this pace, doing all of this myself, is just going to put me in an early grave. I'm not getting near enough rest at 60 years old and it is affecting my concentration. I'm going to learn how to do some directing here and there..............hopefully it will take some of the load off of me.

I will come back and update this as I go along. Wish me luck.

 

[terex herder]

Repeat after me "I can do anything, I can't do everything".

 

[DMiller]

Repeat after me "I can do anything, I can't do everything".

Have started doing that here, age is not our friend!!

 

[Truck Shop]

Everyone on here needs to remember--that no one is going to remember what you
have accomplished in good work in the past. No gold stars or trophies, no pats on
the back, no giant monetary rewards. Just another {I need it now and how fast can
you do it}. Everything you do is just another phone call to them, happy as hell they
made their problem yours.
Yes it's work but sometimes a person just has to realize, money isn't everything.
If your too busted up physically and stressed out mentally your not doing your body
any favors. Money isn't going to fix that.

Park your a$$ for awhile Vetech you've earned it the hard way. That company is a
septic tank, always will be. Don't worry about them take care of your self first.

 

[John C.]

Just remember that some exec upstairs is bragging on how smart they were to start using your services. Also remember that when you stop doing things for them that the same exec will be blaming you for any and all the problems they are having. Do what you can. Don't worry about what you can't.

Good Luck!

 

[kshansen]

Things like this are why I retired the day I hit 65! Every year the upper levels of the company got less interested in doing things right.

Just this last summer my last boss with the company, several years younger than me just up and quit. He had been told for several years they were going to be getting him an assistant to help with the work load, never happened. When he first hired on a couple decades back he was going to be the primary crane operator for the state for the company.

Then they talked him into taking the job of boss at the quarry. Well now that he quit he has been hired by a local crane outfit, probably like Crane Operator runs. He's back to what he likes to do and running better equipment than what this multi-nation corporation has and no responsibility other than making a safe pick and moving on to next project. Actually doing a good amount of crane work for the company he used to be a boss at!

 

[ianjoub]

I will come back and update this as I go along. Wish me luck.

Good luck!

Maybe ask the owner one more time to assign that motivated lube tech guy to you full time?

 

[hosspuller]

I found most management execs like to have choices to make. Instead of just farming out work, present a couple of choices, example: Assign lube guy full time to you; hire on someone else; farm out work to dealer, etc. Then list "YOUR" preferences in order. Likely a win -win as the owner seems to trust you.

In other words, bring a solution to the problem...

 

[Truck Shop]

Were you hired as a employee or contract repair, your only responsibility was
to do the work correctly-If you have to come up with a solution to the companies
issues---then you need to be the one signing the checks at that company. And the
exec needs to find a job at 7-11.

 

[Welder Dave]

At the end of the day most companies couldn't really care less if you're overloaded with work and stressed out. They just want you doing as much as possible and doing it right. Although this company has a different idea for their operators. Set your own pace and if a job gets done today or has to wait till tomorrow or the next day too bad. That's the way it is. It's different if you're the company owner and trying to build your new business. Then you can put in the long hours. If you have other customers that could keep you reasonably busy it might be time to tell this place that you (absolutely) need a helper to keep all the neglected equipment running. If they say it's not possible tell them you aren't going to bust your a$$ for them anymore. You'll work for 40 hours per week (or a number you're comfortable with) and that's it. If they don't like it, go to your other customers. You've worked too long and too hard for a long time and aren't a kid out of high school anymore. Time to take it a little easier and relax a lot more.

 

[ianjoub]

You'll work for 40 hours per week (or a number you're comfortable with) and that's it. If they don't like it, go to your other customers. You've worked too long and too hard for a long time and aren't a kid out of high school anymore. Time to take it a little easier and relax a lot more.

It sure is hard to turn down that big money though.

 

[Welder Dave]

Not really if you make good money otherwise. It's not worth running yourself into the ground where you're all crippled up and can't enjoy your home life or retirement. If the company doesn't care about their equipment they surely don't care much about the toll it's taking on a mechanic.

 

[DMiller]

Have to add, was in mid 1980s I gave up Independent, Beatings had already taken toll working on my own by myself horrible diet, hours, conditions with little regard to where would end up. Nursing some really nasty Psoriatic Arthritis, also have spinal Osteoarthritis, scars on scars on scars with some skin that will tear open is so thickened and scar tissued. Nerve damage zones, perhaps some mental concerns to go along with all that memorabilia I carry around in there, although can never state a Mechanic is ever in right or sound mind, just look at what we will attack as 'I can Fix That'!!

 

[JD955SC]

Not really if you make good money otherwise. It's not worth running yourself into the ground where you're all crippled up and can't enjoy your home life or retirement. If the company doesn't care about their equipment they surely don't care much about the toll it's taking on a mechanic.

Every mechanic needs a plan to get out of the game by their 50s for their physical health. We’ve got guys in their 60s still wrenching and they all look like death warmed over and to a man want to die to end the pain every day.

Too many seem to paint themselves into a corner financially, getting reliant on that pay that forces them to stay on the tools full time

 

[DMiller]

I still wrench, but on my OWN Junk, still practice what I used to do so can continue to make repairs on this old junk I keep as cannot afford the 1960s style of rotate every two years either paying for a car/truck/farm tractor or paying for maintenance of a car/truck/farm tractor. The consumer is held by the short hairs, paying and paying and paying all the while the media shoves the "You NEED" advertising down our throats, I am pretty well as ready as ever will get for a Class X level 9 solar flare to take out all of the electronic foolishness. Perhaps we need to be back in the Stone age awhile.

 

[Questionable wizard]

Vtech, wish you luck! Hence my post/question near the top of the page. How to achieve the work/life balance?

The ability to be at peace in your mind, ignoring the many projects that need attention, and go home to a life of your own.

Our United State "can do" or "work-aholic" attitude from an early age drives us into the ground. Yes we are over achievers, but we kill ourselves in the process.

I'd like some of the magic potion to achieve the work/life balance.

The first of the year, I graduated from being the lead/only mechanic of a smaller excavating company(25 employees- two dirt crews and three pipe crews), to service manager and lead mechanic. I have a day or so of office time each week now, in addition to wrenching. My retired boss purposely ran the maintenance side short handed, lots of patching to show short term profitability. I have a 21 year old eager apprentice mechanic to keep 40+ machines healthy. The business has been around for 50+ years, but this will be the first in a long time someone with maintenance background oversaw the maintenance side.

The two younger owners have made it clear, they have no interest in hearing the details of repairs. Only, when will it be done, and how much will it cost.