Well after 5 Looooong ass years I finally left my shithole of a work place this past week. after 4.5 years of appalling treatment, terrible pay and even worse hours I'm free and I can actually say I haven't felt this good since I started.
I could've just dropped my notice and said fuck you but after being in this sub for a few months I decided to go out causing as much inconvenience as possible.
For a bit of context before we begin I'm a mechanic by trade. As well as being raised in and around garages I had to do a year in college and a 3 year apprenticeship to get my 3 levels of diplomas required to work in a mainstream garage. Only then the learning really begins as you build your own procedures and routines and a general way of doing things as you're left to your own devices… Until management decides they know more than you… this usually occurs once a week.
Let's begin…
When I first started wages were rather hush hush as the period of employment ranged from 2 years to 45 years so it was expected pay was all over the place between these gaps so we never really spoke about pay. All I really knew is some people were on crap wages others were also crap but 'raped' the bonus system and some people were paid much more than others.
From the first time I spoke to the longstanders crew I was advised to get my qualifications and GTFO but being young and naive I thought the company could be trusted and Id be treated right… Oh how wrong I was.
Being new blood I was trained on the modern computer systems of the dealer and that quickly became my speciality under the master techs supervision initially I then ended up basically running the warranty program of the dealer as I seemed to have a nack for it.
I'd be here for at least 3 hours typing if I covered all the bullshit that occured so I'll summarise that after multiple fruitless HR meetings several run ins and backstabs by managers I outlasted and lastly shit treatment day to day by the GM I was well and truly pissed off.
The final straw so to say was our most recent '''''''payrise'''''' by this point we were all aware we were on similar shitty wage packets however various connections we found out other departments payscales too…
Firstly this cost of living rise… I mean payrise was painted as all about us. They care about us so much they're reducing bonus targets (they didn't), they're putting us all on level salaries (they didn't) and we can work for more qualifications and get more money in line with the level of qualifications (can you guess if that was true?) But most importantly were all getting payrises because they care…
Not because we hadn't had a cost of living rise in 8 years, not because (even after the rise) we trail the annual salaries of our competitors by almost 10k, not because our hours are terrible yet were pushed to give more and definitely not because were treated like shit but still expected to remain loyal.
They did it because they care… Not because techs were leaving dealers so fast they were nearly unable to call themselves a garage chain.
Anyway. As I said we found out the salaries of people from other departments in our building who although do ever so slightly more hours than us do nothing as close to physically demanding as us. Yaknow considering we literally strip and rebuild entire vehicles for a living. Short of welding 'due to safety' there's nothing we don't do in our workshop.
The fucking service desk get paid more than every single one of us AND they're on a bonus system that's so easy to achieve they'd still get it if they didn't turn up. To the tune of 4k+ annually. Also considering the quality of their work in comparison to ours not taking into account they basically refuse to do their job if the slightest hinderance occurs.
So I gathered my ammo and began to lay 'traps'
I scaled my workload alllll the way down. I did the bare minimum to be left alone.
I started calling my superiors on their bullshit and almost fully retracting my 'helpful nature'. They are renowned for back stabbing and bullshitting so I just shut them down and cut them off.
I stacked courses and qualifications. The salary boost that should go in hand with these qualifications I now had would push me right past the service desk salary with ease but I knew damn well they wouldn't honour it so I just made them pay for the courses out of spite really. They wouldn't get use of my newfound knowledge.
My warranty leniance became much much harsher. Any attempt to pass something sketchy off as warranty was denied and logged as not warranty so it couldn't be passed behind my back.
I withdrew all IT support. Being a main dealer we had 4 laptops on the go 3 of which I maintained. So I just didn't. If the laptop stopped functioning for any reason even if it was a simple manual update I would usually carry out I just didn't. That was it. Laptop is out of commission. You best get IT in…
Then I went to the doctors for another health issue and got signed off on stress leave. That wasn't intentional but just made me realise how much healthier I was without the place in my life.
Then lastly my piece de resistance… I waited until the old system of 20 years went offline for good (Monday just gone) and the new system which only me and one other tech had any idea how to use came online (Tuesday) then I gave my notice. Had the doctor sign me off for my period of notice and cited upper managements appalling treatment of staff as reason for leaving subsequently causing HR to launch an investigation into him…
I still remain friends with my colleagues as we were all in the same boat payment and treatment wise and get daily updates on the carnage my leaving has caused.
After 5 years charging customers £120 an hour for work and getting 10% of that per hour and generally being treated like shit I now run my own garage charging £40 per hour, not inflating parts prices 5x over and speaking to my customers like valued human beings… BECAUSE THEY ARE… I've had nothing but glowing reviews and I feel amazing.
Thankyou for showing me how to go out in style R/AntiWork