Received a call yesterday from a manager for another glass co. telling me that one of my installers was doing a pretty high volume of side jobs. He would even drive the company van and use the materials that I stock for him. Has enyone else experienced this?

Do you think it is really happening or is this other owner just trying to get you to fire the guy so he can hire him.

Also, if he is doing alot of side jobs, what may the circumstances be, are you not paying him enough or is he just greedy. Maybe he is doing crap(lowball, old vehicle) work that wouldn't go into a regular shop anyway, and you probably wouldn't want it to either.

He was paid over 60k last year. You may be right about the old vehicles, although I don't think I need to pay for urethane, primer, etc.

If he IS using the materials you bought, it is theft. I had a co-worker do the same thing. Our boss told him he wouldn't can him on the spot if he paid for all the materials he had used.($900 or so) If he is a dependable hard working installer, I would consider a harsh reprimand, good installers a hard to find.

are you sure life isn't to short to spend it with people you can't trust?

i guess it goes back to my days in the service, there is nothing lower than a thief. maybe it's time for a blanket party, ha ha.


i just hate having people who know you are dependent upon them, and them taking advantage of you. i am getting to the mindset, where i would work an extra 40 hours a week, and hire people you can trust.

I will be in business 20 years this aug. For all those years employees have come and gone. Three months ago I decided to finallly let go an employee who had been with me 11 years. It was hard only for the fact that you think you can never replace them. (I have a partner who actually does installs and therefore had a little sense of cushion.) But this employee had become so jaded, he hated his job and thought he wasn't paid enough and was miserable to me his fellow employees and the customers I just had to let him go. three weeks after that I lost two employees on the same day while I was away on vacation. One for theft and the other just refused to do a run my partner asked him to pick up. Guess what still in business picked up [trainee and another installer who has worked in the field for years. I am doing just fine. And everyone is happy that the three are gone. I guess the moral is if you work hard you'll figure a way to get it done. ( I'm not really sure if that is a moral or not, but I feel pretty good right now.) If it's true let him go.

Shop owner, where you located? I've done this for twelve years and if you're paying 60k then by God I'm am there with bells on. That guy is a loser and should be horsewhipped and then fired. Then hire me. Holy crap 60k!! Please hire me!!

just wondering how many cars your installer do a day. are you paying them by hour or by car. what area your shop. i don't no any installer that get paid that much.

An option is to fit a GPS vehicle mangement system to your mobile service vehicles. You can pin point where they are at any point of the day via the internet. Gives the exact address where they are, how long they are there for. Tells you if they are doing excessive speeds in the company vehicle. Also can be reveiwed at the end of day.

Good staff are happy with it, as it helps with overall efficiency. But if you fit it without staff knowing, be prepared for things that might shock you, even from some guys you have treated so well.

If an employee is moolighting at your acconts, they should be fired. Fire them as fast as you can before they get a van, go into business and take accounts with them.

Sad to say this is common in our area. The bigger problem is that they have us between a rock & a hard place. The available techs to replace these guys are nil. It didn't help that some glass suppliers here were selling to the techs direct. We can't win.

If he is stealing, chances are It will happen again the only question is when. If he makes that kind of money, he either has a spending problem or he's just a thief.

The gps idea is a good one. If your installers are using Nextel, just add the gps tracking to your plan and you can track the vans on the internet.

Billybubba

Drop me an email

autoglassrep@gmail.com

You tech is out moonlighting and you come here for advice? How long have you been in business? I would let him come back to the shop and pee in his scrub bucket.. and be like how you like them apples!

Actually after some thought, Where is your guy getting this glass that he is doing the side jobs with??? Perhaps a person at a distributor is selling him glass out the back door? You might have a bigger problem than your installer out burning your gas, and thane. He might be stealing glass from your distributor via one of there employee's I would DEFINETLY check into this. I had a guy in here today talking about how this is a more common practice than you think.. Which is really sad, when you try to take a stress back to somone these days all you here is about how much "Shrink" they have. And here your out running a legit business. And if a distributor is selling to one of your employees direct and they know its your employee that is just dirty and i would if i were you find out who that sales persons boss is that set up there account and have a nice kind talk with them about how do they make a practice of setting up accounts for your employees.

Thanks

Well said guys. Thanks for the advice, especially about peeing in the scrub bucket.

HAHAH Now thats what i call crazy!

JUST A THOUGHT YOU CANT TELL A DIST. WHO THEY CAN AND CANT SELL TO THATS LIKE THEM TELLING YOU YOU CANT DO WORK FOR SOMEONE THEY DONT LIKE THE ONLY WAY IS IF YOU HAVE YOUR EMPLOYEE SIGN A NO COMPETE CLAUSE BEFORE HE COMES TO WORK FOR YOU THE ONLY WAY I WOULD SIGN A NO COMPETE CLAUSE IS IT WOULD HAVE TO BE WAY MORE MONEY AND A SEVERANCE PACKAGE THE ONLY REASON ANYBODY DOES SIDE WORK IS THE ARE NOT MAKING ENOUGH MONEY TO GET BY ON I DO SIDE BUT IT IS EVERYTHING NOBODY ELSE WANTS AND I PAY FOR MY THANE MOST THE TIME ITS USED PARTS SIDES AND BACKLITES NO USED SHIELD I GO PULL THEM MYSELF AND THATS WERE I MAKE THE MONEY ALSO THE WAY I COME ACROSS THIS WORK IS IF I SEE SOMEBODY THAT NEEDS A PIECE AT CANT AFFORD NEW YOU CAN TELL BY THE AMOUNT OF DUCT TAPE ON CAR THE BEST YOU CAN DO IS BE UP FRONT WITH YOUR EMPLOYEE AND FIGURE OUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE THE WORST THING IN BUSINESS IS A UN-HAPPY EMPLOYEE

Worse to have an unhappy EMPLOYER, can always find an unhappy employee.

there is NO excuse for doing side work with out your employer's knowledge. You can rationalize it any way you like, but it's still wrong

BEFORE I BOUGHT MY DAD OUT I WORKED FOR ANOTHER SHOP FOR A WHILE AND WHEN I WALKED OUT THE DOOR AND DONE MY OWN THING THE OTHER COMPANY PICKED UP THE PHONE AND TOLD THE DISTRIBUTORS IN OUR AREA NOT TO SELL GLASS TO US . ALL BUT ONE DISTRIBUTOR LISTENED AND I STILL BUY FROM THEM TODAY,ALL THE OTHERS STILL CALL ON ME AND I SAY " REMEMBER WHEN?" AND TELL THEM TO GET OUT BUT THEY JUST SEND A NEW REP A FEW MONTHS DOWN THE ROAD .
THE OTHER COMPANY EVENTUALLY GOT SHUT DOWN BY THE FEDS FOR A YEAR THEN REOPENED THEN STARTED DOING WINDSHIELDS FOR $75 THAT LASTED FOR ABOUT A MONTH THAN THEY SHUT DOWN FOR GOOD .( I BOUGHT MOST OF THIER EQUIP FROM THE AUCTION THE LANDLORD HAD)

perception is reality..... monitor every aspect of what we do ... if you catch one, prosecute.. its the only way to curtail crooks and thieves amongst us.

A/H so you just walked out on a company you were working for? Or did you put in your 2 week notice.. Nothing makes me more upset, than an employee that does not give me the courtesy of a 2 week notice. Any employee that does that should be put on a do not hire this glass guy . com web site...

A-H / G Hey pal did your former company bounce checks to you? If they did I would have quit also.. People should not be able to get away with that.. Apparently from what I hear in the Midwest its a big probelm.. I just do not understand why people can not manage there money... I suppose there out buying brand new Chevy SSR's and paying that bill before they pay there people.. Hope you go to confession... just do not be bouncing checks to your pastor...

PROSTAR - MY WIFE HAD GOTTEN HURT IN A CAR WRECK AND RUSHED TO THE E.R. ALONG WITH MY THREE KIDS MY OLDEST SON (6 AT THE TIME) CALLED MY BOSS CRYING AND TOLD HIM WHAT HAD HAPPEND ,BOSS MAN HANDED ME THE PHONE AND MY SON TOLD ME THAT MOMMY WAS HURT AND SO WAS SISTER AND BROTHER AND THEY NEEDED ME AT THE E.R. RIGHT NOW. SO I TOLD MY BOSS THAN CALLED THE DM AND THEN THE OWNERS WIFE THAN CALLED THE OWNER AND FINALY THE OWNER TOLD ME " NO YOU NEED TO STAY UNTIL YOUR JOB IS DONE YOU GET OFF AT 5:30 " I TOLD THE GUY THAT IT WAS LIFE OR DEATH AND HE SAID " YOUR JOB COMES FIRST ,THAN FAMILY IF YOU LEAVE YOU BETTER NOT EVER COME BACK" SO I LOADED MY BOX INTO MY TRUCK AND WENT TO THE HOSPITAL . THREE MONTHS LATER I STARTED MY OWN COMPANY AND THEN BOUGHT MY DAD OUT AND NOW OWN OVER HALF OF THE OTHER COMPANIES EQUIPMENT AND STOCK .
SO NO I DID NOT LEAVE A NOTICE AND I 'M SHURE THAT ANY OF YOU GUYS WITH A FAMILY WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING . SO IF YOU DONT LIKE ME BECAUSE OF THAT THAN SO BE IT BUT MY FAMILY IS HEALTHEIR (ALL OF THEM) AND WEALTHIER AND HAPPIER BECAUSE I PUT MY FAMILY BEFORE WORK.
I ALSO THINK IF A TECH IS UNHAPPY HE SHOULD CALL ME @ HOME OR ON MY CELL AND WE CAN TALK ABOUT IT . I WILL NOT EXCEPT A 1 OR 2 WEEK NOTICE BECASUE FROM PAST EXPERIENCE ONCE A TECH GIVES HIS NOTICE HIS WORK SUCKS AND IT GIVES HIM TIME TO MAKE OFF WITH MORE OF MY SUPPLIES . SO I GIVE THE TECH HIS LAST WEEKS PAY CHECK ON THE SPOT ALONG W/ ANY OTHER MONEY DUE TO HIM AND I HELP HIM LOAD HIS STUFF AND I RUN DOWN A CHECK LIST TO MAKE SHURE I GET ALL MY STUFF BACK AND I EVEN DRIVE THEM HOME OR TO THE NEW JOB BUT THEY DONT STAY @ MY SHOP AFTER THEY SAY THEY WANT TO GIVE A NOTICE. I ALSO LET MY GUYS LEAVE IF EMERGENCIES OR KIDS CALL FROM SCHOOL SICK BECAUSE IN MY BOOK FAMILY COMES FIRST AND YOU DONT LIVE TO WORK YOU WORK TO LIVE SO PROSTAR WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR WIFE WAS LYING IN THE E.R. DYING?

That Boss was an idiot. You did the right thing. But your post is off the issue of moonlighting. Yours is a different issue.

I used to watch Moonlighting. Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepard. It was an okay show.

SGLASS I REALIZE THAT BUT MY POST WAS A REPLY TO PROSTARS POST.

Sorry StreekyD. I don't think we can directly post copyrighted material in here so I had to take it down but I Googled it and found the link:

Ethics in Moonlighting

Bryan

Here I going on moonlighting!I live about 30 miles from my job and it is hard to get people to travel that distance,the work is always offered to the shop but most of the time it is not worth it for us to travel that distance and if it is worth the trip then we will do it as a shop job. Many times I have left the shop about an hour early to do the job as I look at it as getting paid to drive home so those jobs are always shop jobs! If a friend or close neighbor needs something the shop has the right of refusal! If refused then I will buy the glass from the owner he sets the price and also adds in any extras as in clips or moldings! This is not stealing work from the shop! When at the dealers we do work for many times I have been asked to do something for a tech and I will not bite off the hand that feeds me I contact the owner and get the tech a great price as they are always ,for the most part there to lend a helping had if something comes up and you need an extra set of hands! I have also brought cars in to the shop for the day to do the work.