Sharing the gravy work

[OLDPARTSGUY]

Work at a store where one writer spoon feeds his favorite tech all the pre sold gravy work while other tech on that team busts ass all week to get 40-50+ hours. Sad thing is both techs are A techs. Has Created a great deal of animosity as other techs throughout the shop see this. Man doesnt even get his own come backs. Whats the cure? Not my dept so my hands are tied.

[mhw]

It's called management! Like "Bigfoot", some people think it does not exist but there has been the occasional sighting. The manager needs to address this before it costs the dealership good personnel.

[JOHNV44]

If there are only 2 techs on the team and the service writer has their own hang tags, then one tech gets even number tags and the other tech gets odd number tags. That way, the work gets split 50/50. The other way to go, which would be easier to track, is to split them up by the last digit of the repair order, but that may not work if there are other writers generating repair orders. If the tech that is doing all the gravy work does not see his comebacks, then the manager needs to step up and do his or her job.

[David Cates]

Keep in mind I don't work for a vendor so I have nothing to gain here, but I would suggest at least taking a look at ERO or EIS, etc.., depending which DMS vendor you are on

I have just seen it really work so many times that I am a big believer in it, and it is not as expensive as some might think

Along with many other benefits and productivity gains, the very nature of the product eliminates perceived bias altogether

[jazdale]

Dave
I couldn't agree with you more (in the right environment)

But similar to the threads on CRM failure, good software does not fix weak management.

If this dealer was to buy tech terminal software, they would most likely need to lock the writers out of the dispatching functions.

[pjpeery]

oldpartsguy

don't go by what you see or what you hear go to the office manager and find out what they are making per year .. not per month or per week but over a years time and find the spread .. just because they are both classed as "a" techs .. there can be a world of differance in production .. from this you should be able to determine if someone is feed because his pay will be far and above the others ..

paul

[Old Irish]

Good idea, Paul.

Flat rate mechanics have a funny way of looking at things. They never think in terms any broader than "today".

If "today" was a good day, then the world is rosy. If "today" was a bad day, then "this place sucks and as has always sucked, and it'll never change. Everyone else gets all the gravy......" blah blah blah. Never mind that yesterday he flagged 14 hours......

So, yes, get the facts from payroll.

Another thing I've noticed over the years....really strange, too..... is that the techs who stop for a smoke break every 40 minutes, come in late, go home early, call in sick, spend 45 minutes each morning talking about last night's conquest before they even open their toolbox seem to make less money than the guys who keep their shoulder to the wheel all day long. Pretty weird.

And, amazing but true, these are often the same guys who complain that someone else gets all the gravy.

Sorry, I'm rambling and I shouldn't be painting with such a wide brush . As you can tell I've become a bit jaded over the years

And has anyone ever noticed that a tech will piss and moan like the world is coming to an end if he has to wait 5 minutes at the parts counter.....yet willingly spend 60 minutes chatting with the tool truck guy once a week ?

I better just shut up now. Gawd only knows where this will end

Doug

[This message has been edited by Old Irish (edited 07-07-2005).]