In my years at this company as a road service tech. I have developed the reputation for being a straight shooter and calling it like it is. Honest 8 hours work for 8 hours pay and my co-workers have known me for this good work ethic. Well over a year ago I posted a help wanted topic in the technicall portion of this site and got some good feed back and fixed the problem I had. Today I was at a customer and got a call from my dispatcher to come to the office no matter what I was doing. I knew this was not good but could not figure it out for the life of me.
Once at the office went straight to the service managers office, did not pass GO or nothing. My dispatcher did not even know what was going on as we walked to the office. This whole conversation now lasted maybe two minutes so bear with me. The head guy ask me a few questions and I said yes to them as it was all true, got nothing to hide, and told me got an email from his boss, the president of the company, with a copy of my post. Well turns out my asking for help in a public forum where the competion could read this is a HUGE mistake and I dont need to devulge company interest. I never once slandered my company in anyways, shape or form but asked a simple question on my own time using my resources. Once I told him I used my own time and resources that was the end of the conversation and was asked to leave.
Am I in the wrong for what I have done or is the company wrong for what they have done? Nothing was writen down today that we had this meeting so could I treat it as it never happened? There is nothing in the employee manual that says I cant do what I did.
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Dear friend
u need not to be emotional.
As per my understanding u should have routed your queues thru proper channel, so that worth of people involved in the loop can be tested.
Regards
and the "little advice"I would offer is that, on the Internet, you don't actually get "answers" you get "_opinions_ of what may be an answer" that may be correct, (or not).
ymmv
Sometimes you have to look outside the box to get a job done, the internet is one stop place to get answers, I'd rather get have the job get done even if its with a little advice
tomas you have learned one of the most important lessons, which generally takes that long. keep your head down do your job. I hear so many people complaining about their jobs now days and all I can say is I am glad to have one. I have been in this industry for over 25 years and find the more people complain the shorter time they last. They may get a new job but they still complain.
Thanks guys for all your input. I have just been keeping my head down and just doing my job, nothing more and nothing less, seems like I am off the radar now. Turns out the management has been working in the industry for 25 plus years and promoted from within. I have no problem with that but they have no formal management training (college prep or continuing education course) what so ever. Buisness is diffferent these days than 25 years ago but it is not my company. Where I work is really not that bad, pays better than the competition, and is slowly becoming of a solution base company.
As a field service / workshop supervisor I know that we don't always have the information we need to complete a job. I think you done the right thing getting the information and looking after your customer. Your boss should look at the reasons why you did not have access to the information you required in the first place and as a company president he should be asking questions of his managers as to why they have not supplied the relevant information to enable you to work safely and informed on the job they have dispatched to you. Well done to you for forward thinking.
I've been in sales and service management positions in the material handling and construction equipment business for more than 30 years with a dozen of those years as a field service manager. If you worked for me, I would have been very disappointed if you had not sourced help from others. Forums were designed for people to interact and seek opinions and help from others in an anonymous format.
If your management can't identify that, they need to take the "Using the internet 101" course all over again. And to sit there and believe that asking a technical question even remotely exposes incompetence - then they may want to retake "Business 101" as well.
A company is only as good as its employees and the key to "repeat" business is treating and charging your customer fairly. Customers hire a dealership service department because they're looking for an answer to their problem. If your dealership can't give them the answer they're looking for, they'll find another source faster than you can say "Cat-in-the-hat". Taking the initiative to find an answer to a problem to get your company's customer up and running again should have garnered an "Employee of the month" citation. I think that your judgment was prudent and probably contributed to making a happy customer.
It's no secret that good technicians that are knowledgeable, have a good work ethic and possess initiative are worth their weight in gold. If I were you, I would not let this incident erode my work ethic. If your dealership can't identify the value in your actions, others will. Good luck to you!
Howard, is your company hiring?
What goes on in the minds of management sometimes boggles the mind. I used to work for another company as a technician. One time I was at a customer doing a routine pm service when I noticed that the truck had no middle speed. It was a resistor truck and one of the tabs had broken off the resistor. The customer told me to go ahead and repair it. I removed the resistor and cleaned it up. It was a monel type resistor and I just happened to be beside a welding shop so I walked in and asked them to spot weld the tab back on. cost..$10.00 cash. I re-installed the resistor and charged the customer $20.00 for the repair plus my labour.
Well the next day when I handed in my work orders I was called into the managers office for a reprimand. In the office was the manager , the service manager and the parts person. I was told that if I ever did that again I would be fired. They said I just cost them $300.00 since that is what the profit was in a new resistor. The resistor was a non servicable part according to them and should have been replaced. They also did not give me back my $10.00.
To make a long story short I do not work for that company anymore. My current employer loves the fact that I am creative and innovative and put the customers interests first. I have been with my new employer for the last 26 years. You just have to put your principals first.
HG
The quality of life is very important for me and I willingly will renounce of some money (but not too many) if I will found a good company.I think that If you are a very good technician, there will be a lot of companies that are searching for you.....
Now there is a man who cares about his job and the customer. He works an honest 8 hrs and gets the job done. There are not enough people like him.Too bad the manager in charge has lots of time to waste surfing the net looking for anything negative. That manager shows no respect for his most valuable asset, his technician.
Mr. Tomas, Keep doing what you do best. It's not your fault you work for pencil pushing web surfing suit!
Sometimes the situation you are in (realtively small market size by comparison to others) can prevent you from considering some of the options suggested. You still need to work to support your family & pay bills. Certainly, if you move on (go out on your own or to another company, etc) not all customers will follow for various reasons. There are customers who deal with your company for the their total needs and will stay with your company - long time relationship, service repairs, parts, rentals, allied equipment, new eqipment, used equipment, etc. Going out on your own takes some working captial to buy parts, creat an invoice & wait to get paid. Being your own boss is a nice thing but it also brings on a new set of issues things like liability insurance, busness lisence, service wehicle & equpment, tools to outfit it etc.
Unless there is more to the story I'd say you work for very shallow employer, your better off moving on! By the way if your as good with customers as you say your customers will move along with you!
I agree with nick13. Customers always stay comfortable with a trusted person and not the company.
It's not the industry in all just that specific company that is spiraling out of control.
I am now in commercial food service equipment field, great company, great people a year and a half out of work finally led to something good.
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