This tire shop basically has 3 tiers of workers:
Lube tech: do oil changes & tires, other basic stuff
Alignment tech: all previous + alignments
Mechanic: all previous + brake and suspension work
I was hired 7 months ago as a basic lube tech, and for the first 2 months I was just doing oil changes and tires. We had 3 alignment techs at the time.
Within the first 2 months, 2 of them were transferred to other stores, leaving only 1 left. One day, she was busy doing some not-alignment thing, and everyone was rushing her because a customer was in queue for an alignment and getting impatient (as customers do).
So I made the mistake of stepping in and doing it myself. I had no idea what I was doing, but the alignment tech was being attacked from all angles and I figured I'd help her out. I put the car on the alignment rack, and simply followed the prompts on the computer, and was able to set it up, do the alignment, and successfully get the car out to the customer, by just winging it using only knowledge I'd gained from watching the other techs do them.
At that moment, all the managers unanimously decided that I was qualified to do alignments now, and with the snap of fingers I suddenly had double the work load. I thought: “great! I've been promoted to alignment tech! That's a $1.50/hr raise!” (I'll take what I can get)
Thing is, that car I did happened to be a really easy one, and there's all sorts of vehicles out there with super complicated steering stuff, AND on 2012+ vehicles you usually have to realign the radar sensors for lane-keep-assist and adaptive-cruise-control, which I obviously had 0 experience with. But I continued simply following the prompts on the computer and occasionally asking the last alignment tech questions if I got stuck.
They never gave me a raise, and they never sent someone to train me. So for 5 months now I've been doing alignments I shouldn't be, while complaining every single time I have to do one that I need to be paid and trained for this. When the only real alignment tech obviously has her days off, I was the one they made do them instead, they did not either hire someone actually qualified nor ever train me.
Last week, she had a freak accident with an impact gun; a socket flew off and hit her in the mouth, and busted out 2 of her front teeth. So she's been gone for a week and I'm the only one that “can do” alignments.
Yesterday, a Honda sedan came in, and for whatever reason I could not properly align the steering wheel to the front wheels. It steered straight, but the steering wheel was crooked, and there was nobody left I could ask for help. It was 10 minutes to close, and the only thing I could do was give up. Obviously, the customer comes back 5 minutes later, and complains to the manager that his steering wheel isn't straight.
Manager turns around and gets all mad at me, and I snapped. “Hey that sounds like something I could've fixed if ANYONE HAD TRAINED ME TO DO ALIGNMENTS!!!” So I pull the car back on the rack, set everything up, try aligning it again, go on a test drive this time (which we're also not allowed to do which is stupid) and the steering wheel still isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than it was. So I bring the car back out to the customer 25 minutes after close, he asks “All good now?” and I say to him, right in front of my manager, “well, it's not perfect, it's alot better than it was, but should be alright for someone who was never trained on how to do alignments.” and swiftly walked away. I could hear both their mouths drop wide open.
The customer is clearly thinking: “what… he doesn't know how to do alignments… and he just aligned my car…?” My manager is clearly thinking: “He just openly admitted to the customer our morally questionable business practices…”
Next morning (today), immediately after I clock in, the manager tells me I am no longer allowed to do alignments (like that's a bad thing). To quote him “ONE thing you NEVER do, is TELL THE CUSTOMER you weren't trained on alignments.” and I said “I don't lie to people. It's the truth I was never trained, you're lucky I didn't tell him I'm not paid for it either.”
Manager: “Well you gotta think, this poor guy is now driving around all stressed that you screwed something up- “
I interrupted: “ɪ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴄᴀʀᴇ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴜsᴛᴏᴍᴇʀ. I come here to fix cars, get paid, and go home. It is not my job to satisfy the wet dream of some no-name corporate smuck in his air conditioned office across the country. Fire my ass. How will I ever find another tire shop to work at??”
And that was it. So in the end, nobody accomplished anything and there were no winners. Now they have to find someone to do alignments and I finally go back to my base workload. They're now probably looking for a reason to fire me. But you guys inspired me and I appreciate it