Good Post!
A little chemo for the cancer.

Why is it that all the negative post by ex-Safelite installers? Half claim they were starving because they were not given enough work and half claim they were overworked by given too many jobs. What is the "just right" amount"? Is it not true, that with Safelite's pay program, the more work you do, the bigger your paycheck? I would think that if your doing 10 - 12 jobs a day, you're makeing a pretty stout paycheck? Not a bad thing in these economic times.

No, I do not work for Safelite, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express a while back.

When its slow they send you home early,only the chosen one's will get the work and hours.When its busy they keep the gifted ones at a comfortable pace and the others will be worked like a run away slave.

The right amount of work should be based on factory replacement time or a recognized labor guide.Then account for drive time(65,55 mph highway.25 mph local city roads) and all the extras they want to do for the customer.Don't forget about breaks and lunch time,By law you are entitled to it.

12 jobs a day = $384.00 optimium
12 jobs 8 hr-.5hr lunch and 2 x .15 min breaks- 1.5 hr drive time - 1.0 hr NPS(vacuum,clean all
windows,answer all questions)
leaves you about 4.5 hrs actual installation time for 12 jobs x 6 days a week= 144 jobs how would your body feel?Is it worth the pay check then?gross would be 2304.00 before tax thou.Makes you think?Not me,I would be dead in the matter of a month.

I know a few people in the Belron family, fact a few of them are part of my family.

Fact Safelite is how my family got into this biz to begin with. I have about 8 family members that used to work for them. 1 that is now a DM.( the one everyone likes, except for R.H.)


Out of those 8, 5 hated working for them . So its all in who you talk to . Of course most of them worked for Safelite in the 80's & 90's when LS inc. owned them.

I have been told it all depends on the market your in.

For me, it's a matter of practicing what they preach. If they did, they'd be an awesome company. What they're missing is an understanding that the standards they set take time. To do what they want done with the area that we have to cover, no one should be sent out with more than 5 or 6 a day, but instead they send us out with between 7 and 13 and threaten to fire us is we don't do them by the standards. It's a physical impossibility to complete 7 jobs in a day when you have 5 hours just in drive time. That leaves you about 3 or 4 hours to install 7 to 13 windshields, clean all the glass and vacuum out the car.

Hoss,
5 hours drive time????Man you gotz a ride and half and then some...lol...Glad we are in a Metro area.Our furthest time travel is 30 min out in every direction.When we get into a city we get lucky sometime and have multiple customer in close proximity to each other...Some of the rural routes sux....

AHAG

Well I can say that the Northeast region SUX.Safelite university has taught me well.I still have some very good friends that works there from past acquisitions.Our company is made up from the Big S.People that didnt agree where the company was headed at the time.So we decided to make our own way.Some talented people,what a waste on what they go thru.

Does Safelite pay by NAGS hours or per part?

Per Part.If they paid by Nags hours you wood really see the haks come out the woodworks.the original pay plan did include a nags hour formula.But not strickly by nags hours...

I did the math on my drive time the other day.

25 mins to job 1
1 1/2 hours to job 2
1 1/4 hours to job 3
45 mins to job 4
45 mins to job 5
1 hour back to shop to pick up add on part
45 mins to job 6

Thats just the drive times. When I spoke with my dispatcher this afternoon, I asked him (just between him and I) why I was being stratled with 8 jobs a day when they (Safelite) knows that I can only do 6 a day especially when the shop I'm working at is an hour from my house and my route has been the opposite direction of home. He told me it was management that was overriding him and pushing the excessive work. If I did everything on my schedule, I'd be getting home at about 9 or 10 everynight. Combine that with having to get up at 5 to make the drive in every morning and the mandatory 6 day week every other week and, well, you figure it out. I'm not actively looking, but I'm open to inquiries.

When we were "trained" by Safelite, the trainer told us directly that the new standard would be 5.5 jobs per day. We were then sent out with 7-9 jobs each. WTH? Plus, we were told that we'd have to do all of their steps, or face being fired. I personally like that they're trying to standardize the process, because let's face it, too many hacks out there. BUT, if you want us to do the process exactly by the book, how could anyone, with any amount of glass intelligence, expect any installer to install more than 6 jobs in an 8 hour day without: 1. skipping a step or two. 2. speeding and either getting a ticket or getting into an accident. or 3. get hurt? And what if you run into rust? That adds on 1/2 hour or so. I had a manager telling us we needed to just get the work done, we'll deal with the warranties later, AND, when he was actually replacing a ws in shop, I saw a small amount of rust on the pw when walking by. When we were talking(Myself, him, and a third installer), he explained how he was able to install the shield in about 40 minutes. When I said because you obviously didn't fix the rust, he stumbled on his words, coming up with "I didn't see any rust". Come on, I saw it from 10 feet, and you didn't see it from 10 inches? And it's not regional. Do you honestly think that the uppers don't know how bad it is to have one guy installing 8-10 jobs a day, everyday? Forget about the money, it's just not safe for anybody involved. I did move on, for less money, and it was so worth it. But I was lucky. Belron is slowly cornering the installer market, and that's just bad news. Show some concern, and reward loyalty. A guy working there 1 day gets paid as much as a guy that's been busting his hump for the company for many years.

That's a very true point. I've watched the very managers that tell us to follow all the steps "stuffing" shields in the shop. We had this "conference call" the other day because some of us had lower nps scores. When they went over mine, 7 out of 8 gave me excellent and 1 gave me good on appearance, professionalism, and I believe timeliness or quality of work. The only thing they got me on was that I wasn't vacuuming the cars and wipe down the windows. My point made to the trainer (I wish I knew who it was so I could talk to him in depth without management present) was that my work is good and that's got to count for something. It seems to me, at least from this session, that they care for about appearance than quality of work.

When I gave 2 weeks notice that I would be leaving safelite (as they consider company policy) I was told to report to my CTU so that I could talk with my tech manager about why I would be leaving. I was honest and direct about why I was leaving. My concerns were low pay, The company enforcing what tools I could and couldn't use, and the fact that the company wanted techs to go above and beyond glass installation for "customer delight". I attempted to tell him that vaccuming, cleaning windows I wasn't working on, and trying to convince people to fill out surveys had little to do with performing a good installation. I was told how good of an installer I was, told a good word would be put in for me when reviews came around for a raise, and shown the new tools they want us to use- tools that are productive but would slow us down considerably. I've seen many techs in the market I was in, and I know that I was easily the best, job in and job out, and the managers I worked for knew it. But at S, managers dont get your raises. There were former D/T guys making $5 more per hour and all I got was a S manager's word? The shop that I left has been musical chairs since. They're stance on raises is that they dont negotiate with terrorists. I'm sure we all know how valuable they're word is... I also heard around that I have a major attitude problem. If you raise questions or concerns, you become a marked man, having a bad attitude and are likely considered a problem, and you dont want to be looked at like that over there. Someone else said it earlier in this thread and I will agree- If you don't like it there, now is the time to go, people are hiring, and if you're good, you can prove yourself and be valuable to anyone.

Its funny when the other set on NPS for the company stated that their people feel that they are under paid and that management will be sinking in millions to do a study if that is true and then maybe revised the PPP.Over 65% of the people at safelite feel this way.like the way the also have people are neutral and some have detractors.If they grade you by NPS a customer being neutral is not a good thing when you need to WOW the customer.Lets see then WOW their employee's.Since the one of the safelite value's is "Our associate is are most valueable resource"

Let's not forget that one of the questions they ask the customer is about the installers knowledge. Seriously? How many of your customers even know what the cowl is, let alone can judge you on the entire process? The people making a lot of these rules are suits, with little or no knowledge on what it's like to be an installer. You should have to make the customer happy, even explain certain parts of the job if need be, but most customers just want their glass replaced and us to leave. And then our jobs are in their hands? That's plain ignorant.

Honestly, I like it when the customer isn't there and just says to leave the receipt and lock it up. Makes my day easier.

They sure know how to keep the bonus program down. Them surveys. Biggest thing right now is the vaccuming the vehcile and washing the window. Some customer are not even around when this process is done but you tell them and they still put a no and then th tech is talked to by the manager or GM abou his or her duties to the customer. But when it is done and the survy come back says you didnt what are you to do then.

Yep, they do find their ways to keep you out of the money. Like I said in a previous post, their main focus seems to be on appearance instead of the quality of the installation. Only one of those will help keep them out of court in the event of a shield coming out during a collision. My thought process is that with the amount of work combined with the area that I cover, I have to cut some steps in order to save time. I have the choice of short cutting the installation, speeding to the jobs, and/or skipping the vacuuming and wiping down of the windows. Short cutting the installation method is pretty much unacceptable to me since that'll keep me out of court. I'll drive a bit fast (not enough to get a ticket, but over the speed limit), and skip the vacuuming and windows. Of course that now that my job is on the line for not vacuuming and cleaning windows, I guess I'll just have to keep getting cussed out by customers and having jobs rescheduled because they don't like being told 8-12 by corp and told 6-8pm by the tech. By the way, all that makes the tech look bad even though they don't have any control over it.

Above Quoted by
umm



If you don't like where you work, fix it or move on if you can't or won't. I don't care if you work for B or Joe Mobile. Quit whining and work to fix the problems or just leave. It is absolutely asinine to whine on here about where you work.

There are 8K people that work for S. Despite the sentiment here...the VAST majority of them are glad to be there and work to make it better each day.[/quote]

Previous posting You must work for safelite for stating that.

I love how so many people on here are stating percentages, or using words like "vast majority". Truth is, there are no facts to base those statements on. Just because you know 5 people who work at Safelite, and 3 are happy, that isn't the vast majority. I know a bunch of people at Safelite, and the "vast majority" of them are not happy. You can poll the people you want to get the result you want. And then you supposedly have an exec type person from safelite on here pulling the same ignorant crap, then claiming how much smarter he (or she) is than all the installers on here. The same goes for the people who simply say move on. Really? With as slow as things are, and the limited amount of positions in an area, you think, say, 5 guys can just move on? Even 1 would have trouble finding a job now, at least something with stability. If people want to get on a website and bit@# about something (legitamite) to a bunch of guys that share their profession, then who cares? Maybe we'll all learn something from eachother, and maybe not. But maybe we'll, as a whole, help a fellow installer through some frustration. Quit being holier than thou, because everybody has complaints and problems. Wow, did I go off on a tangent or what? Sorry, just my bit@#.

With regards to the statement that a vast majority of those employed by Safelite are happy, I really can't say even though I work for them. What I do know is that most of the people I know, in the warehouse, installing, or being a csr, are not happy. Not all, but most of the ones I know and that's a very small minority of the entire company. As for moving on to something else, as was stated previously by someone else, it isn't that simple. There are very few jobs out there and especially with companies that are quality oriented. The market just isn't there right now and some of us just really need a forum to vent and get out our frustrations. Luckily, the area I tend to cover is very rural and the only thing I'll disturb by opening up the van windows and screaming are a few cows and swamp toads and bears.

XS,Why haven't you responded yet?Has umm really told the truth?That you are full of crap?Or tell you get professional help?

You are the lucky ones getting professional help, they will help you to use both sides of the brain.
http://www.glassbytes.com/documents/newsSafelite20100326.pdf

I dont need to respond,the current safelite employee's know what the real truth is.No need to brainwash me.I know what the real deal is.You need to rewash them..lol...

everyone I work with complains constantly and breaks every rule Safelite has. including the manager! lol

I typically have six to eight a day scheduled, end up doing half of them,because either the glass is broke or scratched by the warehouse driver or not able to make scheduled appointments because the call center has me going 250 miles in every direction at different times of the day. The place is a he!! hole.

you have to see the clown we got from the training class.feel sorry for the customers when they let him run wild.all you have to is pass a test

You forgot to mention working 5 saterdays in a row. No more then 1 day of in a row for months. Not getting a raise for 5-6 years. And when you its 25 cents. They rather have techs with no experience, cheaper. Place has management that will lie especially at the Waukesha Wisconsin location. Make you work outside when it's 10 degrees out, but then tell you can't keep your van running to stay warm. Not to mention the setting the customer's expectations drill on repairs, and then complain when repairs don't turn out. Endless 6 p.m. meetings that are mandatory, but they're going to buy you a Pizza. The only thing they truly care about this comment cards, and washing the windows and vacuuming. Not quality installations.

the problem was you and that you worked there to long.
move on and get over it.

Digging up posts from 8 years ago. NICE JOB LOSER. Run your business and move on with life. No wonder you were kicked to the curb and they are making BILLIONS. I don’t even work for them and I still recognize your stupidity. Targets hiring.

The Tech,
do you get on other forums and complain about your ex-wife.?
good God man sour grapes is all I see and hear.

move on, move up and for the sake of your sanity just stop unless you have something positive to share with this industry.

You sound like a pi%$ed off ex-wife.

try to sound like a tech who just does great work wherever he lands.