Right but if you have 5 mechanics, you'd have 5 stations with full sets of tools, assigned to each person. Give them a key to their cabinets, but when they quit they have to give the key back.
It's literally only because the owners don't want to pay for tools and they have normalized it.
Mechanics/car guys are pretty conservative and chucked. It's the reason i lost interests in cars.
You get paid by the book hour. Brake job says 2hrs. If you get it done in 30mins you get the 2hr pay. It's all rusted to shit and takes 5 hours than you get two. A lot of times the book will underestimate the hours needed so you always get screwed on some jobs. If you are at a stealership as a mechanic, warranty hrs is any where from a 1/4 to 3/4 an book hr. Some brands pay full rate. In Chicago unions won the pay of 1-1.5x book hours due warranty.
The whole career is explotation. But just like anything if you do it enough and are somewhat smart you can make a good living. But the industry blows through young guys.
Also keep in mind that most of these guys are hustle mind set flaunt your toys consumers. So the whole shop is competing for who has the biggest box and the most tools etc etc. One large snap on tool chest starts at several grand and gets to 10 grand really fast. If you see a huge snap on chest like 6-10ft long that's probably 15-30k. And they only come empty. There's also plenty of times where you get assigned a job where you have to buy a tool joist to get that job done.
i was solicited to work for a worker-owned cooperative which was fairly large (multiple states). it was an employee only stock type of situation with full profit sharing. anyway, there was a shitload of equipment a typical employee might need. a big chunk of the work was especially dangerous: everyone got multiple sets of uniforms and multiple sets of safety gear. if anything safety or safety-adjacent ever broke or seemed clunky, it would be replaced with new, no questions asked, no gruff given. the insurance was incredible and it was in the financial interest of the organization to prevent accidents/injuries for fiscal reasons, and for employee morale. it was one of the only ways they could attract educated and trained talent to the organization.
the same was true to an extent to the tools and equipment, which are heinously expensive in this field. the company provided the best tools and replaced them routinely, but if an employee seemed to break tools more often, they would get coached by others about usage / maintenance because the profits were shared, and if a tool broke at the wrong time it's a hazard. if someone was just an unrepentant asshole about equipment or some other kind of anti-collaborative douche, they would quickly be pushed out and have their shares paid out. apparently that was extremely uncommon, because the pay was stupid high and the work culture was collaborative. people stayed with the company for decades before "retiring" to part time consulting/custom hire.
the capitalist profit motive undermines collaborative organization. when all generated value above material costs are returned to labor, it becomes a team. when generated value above material costs and some ultimately arbitrary valuation of labor returns to management&capital, the organizing principle is every man for himself. it's a paradigm shift that is hard to overstate.
I mean one reason is, when they’re communal, they treat them like shit. I know someone who works in a shop and the communal tools are a disaster, shitty assortment of random tools. Whereas they take pride in their own cabinets and try not to lose shit, keep it organized and stuff.
This doesn't happen in my experience (in a machine shop). Sometimes things get broken or misplaced for extended periods of time, but 5S is applied across the shop, most workbenches have semi-standardized foam cut-outs for all the tools, and the tools tend to be kept in good working order for years. It takes a lot of time up-front to organize shit, and periodic maintenance afterward, but when you have what you need where you need it, you get rid of all the shit you don't need, and you use the right tool for the job, shit lasts a lot longer and work is easier.
As long as you don't have super high turnover (indicative of bigger problems), you just need to get everyone invested in it.
The solution to that is pretty simple, everyone gets their own tool cabinet and is responsible for it.
That's how it went in everywhere I have worked and people take care of their stuff because if you don't you are going to need to explain to your tools guy/boss you broke or lost something and then deal with not having the proper tools yourself until the new stuff comes in.
This was all in Europe though but the only reason your tradespeople have to deal with this shit is because employers are too greedy.
deleted by creator
Right but if you have 5 mechanics, you'd have 5 stations with full sets of tools, assigned to each person. Give them a key to their cabinets, but when they quit they have to give the key back.
It's literally only because the owners don't want to pay for tools and they have normalized it.
Yeah it's called capitalism.
Mechanics/car guys are pretty conservative and chucked. It's the reason i lost interests in cars.
You get paid by the book hour. Brake job says 2hrs. If you get it done in 30mins you get the 2hr pay. It's all rusted to shit and takes 5 hours than you get two. A lot of times the book will underestimate the hours needed so you always get screwed on some jobs. If you are at a stealership as a mechanic, warranty hrs is any where from a 1/4 to 3/4 an book hr. Some brands pay full rate. In Chicago unions won the pay of 1-1.5x book hours due warranty.
The whole career is explotation. But just like anything if you do it enough and are somewhat smart you can make a good living. But the industry blows through young guys.
Also keep in mind that most of these guys are hustle mind set flaunt your toys consumers. So the whole shop is competing for who has the biggest box and the most tools etc etc. One large snap on tool chest starts at several grand and gets to 10 grand really fast. If you see a huge snap on chest like 6-10ft long that's probably 15-30k. And they only come empty. There's also plenty of times where you get assigned a job where you have to buy a tool joist to get that job done.
deleted by creator
i was solicited to work for a worker-owned cooperative which was fairly large (multiple states). it was an employee only stock type of situation with full profit sharing. anyway, there was a shitload of equipment a typical employee might need. a big chunk of the work was especially dangerous: everyone got multiple sets of uniforms and multiple sets of safety gear. if anything safety or safety-adjacent ever broke or seemed clunky, it would be replaced with new, no questions asked, no gruff given. the insurance was incredible and it was in the financial interest of the organization to prevent accidents/injuries for fiscal reasons, and for employee morale. it was one of the only ways they could attract educated and trained talent to the organization.
the same was true to an extent to the tools and equipment, which are heinously expensive in this field. the company provided the best tools and replaced them routinely, but if an employee seemed to break tools more often, they would get coached by others about usage / maintenance because the profits were shared, and if a tool broke at the wrong time it's a hazard. if someone was just an unrepentant asshole about equipment or some other kind of anti-collaborative douche, they would quickly be pushed out and have their shares paid out. apparently that was extremely uncommon, because the pay was stupid high and the work culture was collaborative. people stayed with the company for decades before "retiring" to part time consulting/custom hire.
the capitalist profit motive undermines collaborative organization. when all generated value above material costs are returned to labor, it becomes a team. when generated value above material costs and some ultimately arbitrary valuation of labor returns to management&capital, the organizing principle is every man for himself. it's a paradigm shift that is hard to overstate.
:RIchard-D-Wolff: You love to see when worker co-ops provide the solution :wolff-shining:
deleted by creator
If tools are missing or in bad condition it’s the duty of the employer to purchase new ones.
Sounds like you just had cheap employers who refused to spend adequately on tool expenses
This doesn't happen in my experience (in a machine shop). Sometimes things get broken or misplaced for extended periods of time, but 5S is applied across the shop, most workbenches have semi-standardized foam cut-outs for all the tools, and the tools tend to be kept in good working order for years. It takes a lot of time up-front to organize shit, and periodic maintenance afterward, but when you have what you need where you need it, you get rid of all the shit you don't need, and you use the right tool for the job, shit lasts a lot longer and work is easier.
As long as you don't have super high turnover (indicative of bigger problems), you just need to get everyone invested in it.
deleted by creator
The solution to that is pretty simple, everyone gets their own tool cabinet and is responsible for it.
That's how it went in everywhere I have worked and people take care of their stuff because if you don't you are going to need to explain to your tools guy/boss you broke or lost something and then deal with not having the proper tools yourself until the new stuff comes in.
This was all in Europe though but the only reason your tradespeople have to deal with this shit is because employers are too greedy.