1 hour ago, Gunny said:

Life is full of surprises, and usually when you least expect it.  I had updated my resume on a recruiting site.  Suddenly I am a hot commodity and have had 9 employers express interest in contacting me about a job.  Spoke with one today, would be a bit of a drive for me but I did like the 3 weeks of vacation and complete health insurance premium coverage.  While I was not looking to change work, I gotta admit MORE than 1 week of vacation a year would be nice.  

 

What still amazes me is that 10 1/2 hour days still seem to be the norm in the automotive industry.  I have no desire to work 50+ hours a week, and said as much to the employer I spoke with today.  To me 8 hours a day is enough, and I made it clear I have a disability which will be addressed, even if I need to work only 4 days a week. 

 

Next up, will the pay be on par with TODAY's standards or these 25 years ago, this is best we can offer deals.   

Pray things work out for the best Gunny. Good independent automotive techs are hard to come by everywhere. Don't rush your decision...look at all the options before making a move...never know what counter-offer your current manager might make. Of course if they do now, my question was why did it take me leaving for you to do that. Good luck!

I'll also wish you the best on the quest, and echo everything Dave said.

Best of luck, Gunny. 

@GunnyIt's an employee market right now.  With your experience you should be able to find what you are looking for.

 

I always told my employers....that the day this job ceases to be fun to do....I'm gone.   One place didn't believe me...until I didn't come back from my 2 week vacation (aka..2 wk notice)except to drop off my uniforms..."See ya!"

 

 

When a job starts to cause weekly Migraines....time to leave.

 

One job...to get a raise, you had to quit...and then they would give you a raise to come back....

it's just a job, something I do to earn money so i can live under a roof, wear clean clothes, and eat so i don't starve.

 

i work, you pay me.  simple transaction.  let's not complicate it with false talk of "family", i have a family, they love me no matter what, and I can't get fired from them.

18 hours ago, Gunny said:

Life is full of surprises, and usually when you least expect it.  I had updated my resume on a recruiting site.  Suddenly I am a hot commodity and have had 9 employers express interest in contacting me about a job.  Spoke with one today, would be a bit of a drive for me but I did like the 3 weeks of vacation and complete health insurance premium coverage.  While I was not looking to change work, I gotta admit MORE than 1 week of vacation a year would be nice.  

 

What still amazes me is that 10 1/2 hour days still seem to be the norm in the automotive industry.  I have no desire to work 50+ hours a week, and said as much to the employer I spoke with today.  To me 8 hours a day is enough, and I made it clear I have a disability which will be addressed, even if I need to work only 4 days a week. 

 

Next up, will the pay be on par with TODAY's standards or these 25 years ago, this is best we can offer deals.   

"The Great Resignation."

 

18 hours ago, Gunny said:

Life is full of surprises, and usually when you least expect it.  I had updated my resume on a recruiting site.  Suddenly I am a hot commodity and have had 9 employers express interest in contacting me about a job.  Spoke with one today, would be a bit of a drive for me but I did like the 3 weeks of vacation and complete health insurance premium coverage.  While I was not looking to change work, I gotta admit MORE than 1 week of vacation a year would be nice.  

 

What still amazes me is that 10 1/2 hour days still seem to be the norm in the automotive industry.  I have no desire to work 50+ hours a week, and said as much to the employer I spoke with today.  To me 8 hours a day is enough, and I made it clear I have a disability which will be addressed, even if I need to work only 4 days a week. 

 

Next up, will the pay be on par with TODAY's standards or these 25 years ago, this is best we can offer deals.   

"The Great Resignation."

 

18 hours ago, Gunny said:

Life is full of surprises, and usually when you least expect it.  I had updated my resume on a recruiting site.  Suddenly I am a hot commodity and have had 9 employers express interest in contacting me about a job.  Spoke with one today, would be a bit of a drive for me but I did like the 3 weeks of vacation and complete health insurance premium coverage.  While I was not looking to change work, I gotta admit MORE than 1 week of vacation a year would be nice.  

 

Sounds pretty flipping awesome Gunny, hard to turn that down.

 

When I was a pup, I was talking with a sweet lady who was retiring  I asked her why she was going so soon.  I clearly remember her answer - "I've always felt I should leave a party while I'm still having fun".  She retired at her peak, rather than hanging on into decline.  I kept that in mind when it was my time to leave the "party."

21 hours ago, Gunny said:

Life is full of surprises, and usually when you least expect it.  I had updated my resume on a recruiting site.  Suddenly I am a hot commodity and have had 9 employers express interest in contacting me about a job.  Spoke with one today, would be a bit of a drive for me but I did like the 3 weeks of vacation and complete health insurance premium coverage.  While I was not looking to change work, I gotta admit MORE than 1 week of vacation a year would be nice.  

 

What still amazes me is that 10 1/2 hour days still seem to be the norm in the automotive industry.  I have no desire to work 50+ hours a week, and said as much to the employer I spoke with today.  To me 8 hours a day is enough, and I made it clear I have a disability which will be addressed, even if I need to work only 4 days a week. 

 

Next up, will the pay be on par with TODAY's standards or these 25 years ago, this is best we can offer deals.   

 

before i let them expire, I had Professional Engineering licenses in MD and FL, and in the last 13 years, no one has contacted me to see if I wanted to do engineering again.  and yet, you read about the great engineering shortage.  go figure.

 

truth be told, unless it was a pile of money, i'd pass on any offer anyway.  i'm quite happy with our current situation.

2 hours ago, DAB said:

truth be told, unless it was a pile of money, i'd pass on any offer anyway.

 

I have few things I would REQUIRE to change jobs.  Meeting my magic number for income, minimum 2 weeks vacation, immediately or within 6 months, PAID holidays without having to work on my day off because we are closed that holiday.  And lastly, how about a 40 hour work week?  Not 5 days a week, 10 1/2 hour days.  

 

Having been approached before I have serious doubts about getting just a couple of those needs met. Never mind all 4.  But who leaves a job for less pay, benefits, and more hours.  Okay other than retirement.  As much as you hear these shop managers scream, they need help, you would be amazed how they suddenly ho and hum around when someone walks through the door they cannot cow tow into submission with a lowball take it or leave it offer.

Good luck with the search Gunny. 

How about moving?  My normal go-to guy is or has retired and has a shop available.  Client base likely goes with it

 ... I don't know who, but Somebody invited yhpruM to the party. 

 

Started out Tuesday morning with trying to chisel out concrete around the pipes in the sides of the two stairs by hand. 

Went and rented Bosch 35lb Hammer Drill and three different chisels at about 1:00PM. 

Busted out 8" thick poured concrete around pipes both sides of first stairs creating a big enough opening to pull rubble fill, and sand out enough to work pipe out. (Which had about a 6" off-set in it.) Figured out why and eleminated the off-set by enlarging the left side opening a bit which put us in a straight line to the second set of stairs. Busted through 8" thick poured concrete on the right side of the second stairs and didn't find as much rubble and could see the pipe go through something about the other side of the stairs. So we go into the boiler room and bust out a concrete block and a half and see another about 2' off-set that we couldn't see from the opposite side.  This was at 9:30PM, and we called it a day.

 

Wednesday 5:30AM "Yours Truly" gives neighbor a wake up call.

6:00AM neighbor says lets see what we've got to do so I can get the drill back.

"Your's Truly" decides to investigate why can I see that off-set from one side but not the other? 

So I get right down on the floor in the boiler room and with the flashlight take a better look at what's going on here. 

 Let's see now, I see a wall about 4' across from where I'm at, now I get a look up and instead of what I'm expecting to see (bottom of stairs) there's nothing as far up as I could see through a 8" high by 24" hole right at the floor.   ...  ... .

Neighbor comes into boiler room with "What's Up?" to which I reply take a look through the whole and tell me what you don't see. So he's down on the floor and says "I see an off-set that ends before a wall. I told him look up and tell me what you see. He's like what do you mean? I don't see anything. I said that's what I mean, where's the bottom side of the stairs? He's like I don't get what you mean.

 

I then said we've got 2 more walls to go through the wall you're seeing is the wall that is the other side of the stairs. 

 

So we bust a big enough opening through the boiler room cinder block wall to crawl through and find about a 4 1/2' X 10 foot room that's below the third set of stairs that go upstairs. So then the real fun began, that remaining wall turned out to be two together, one layer cinder block the other 8" thick poured concrete. We both took about 5 minute rotations running the drill.

The drill was supposed to be back when the rental place opened at 7:00AM to get it at the cheapest rate.

We got it back about an hour after they opened at a little before 8:00AM. 

I've dealt with this Mom/Pop rental place for 50 years, and "Nubs" only asked "Did you get it?"

We replied Yep, and the neighbor said cool thing is we found a "Secret Room". 

Grand total just under $30.00 for the rental that got us through all of those walls. 

 

So we get back and get the rest of the old piping removed and installed the new without any problems. 

 

So, we refill the condensate tank and fire up the boiler.

Just start getting heat, and notice a leak by the condensate tank.

Wasn't a very big leak for about 5 more minutes, and all of a sudden  you know who strikes. 

 

The bottom of the condensate tank gave way. 

 

Talk about a bummer

Oh sh&%!

aside from advising young workers to save some of their paycheck for retirement, i'd also highly advise them to also save some money for their "eff off" fund.  that's the fund that you use when you are tired of the BS, but haven't lined up plan B quite yet.  "take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more".

25 minutes ago, DAB said:

aside from advising young workers to save some of their paycheck for retirement, i'd also highly advise them to also save some money for their "eff off" fund.  that's the fund that you use when you are tired of the BS, but haven't lined up plan B quite yet.  "take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more".

 

Odd you mentioned this. Shop foreman started his deny everything routine.  Owner of course says I am in wrong as I have no papers to prove brakes were checked and advised to do.  My counterpoint was he don't either.

 

So got reamed for 10 minutes and of course Shop Foreman had to add his 2cents.  Any corporate job and this is a HR nightmare. 

 

Yeah I stayed at work. And yes the tension between shop foreman and I is thick.  Mentally though, I quit already. And can afford myself some time off. Sure I'll be at work till changeover. Thing is how productive does owner think I will be after this blowout?

 

 

hey boss, you hired me to do a job, if you want to do it, go for it.  see you tomorrow. (walks out).

The minute men fought for our independence. Most of us red blooded American folks maintain that virtue. Go for it, Gunny!