I’m 37 been in the trade for 7 years in dealerships of 3 different makes, Maserati/Alfa, CDJRF and Volvo. same dealership tech exploiting bullshit at all 3. Corporate chains, franchise chains and one salary position (no benefits) in commercial fleet maintenance shop. I hate it. Long hours, working days off, stress of flag, moving toolboxes between jobs, extraordinary tool costs. I like electronic controls and computerization diag and generally the technical aspects of the work itself but the environment and employers and never ending financial catch-up game are sucking the life out of me. Nor do I want to be a self-employed mobile mechanic as working on broke peoples shitboxes in their driveways sucks even more.
What are the other options?
In my experience it takes about a year at a new shop for me to train the office staff not to try and make me do free work. Yeah I know you’re sick of hearing me ask about labor, either fire me or pay me to do my job.
Exactly what happened last week, they fired me. If I go back to work in identical position I’ll only bring home 3-400$ more per week than my UI benefit. Think I’ll ride it out practice wage negotiation in interviews instead of settling for the first offer.