Seeking Heavy Equip Techs - Where to look?

92U 3406 said: Not all the young guys are useless. I'd say a quarter of them actually have some common sense and ability to problem solve logically. A lot of them just can't seem to figure out how to think and work efficiently. Click to expand... Seems those were never taught starting at Home, and now Will Not try to learn, evade evade evade.

I’m seeing shops adapting & learning how to get by with less Techs. With fleets, preventative maintenance is going out the window. It’s just emergency repairs and do the minimum to get back on the road. And farming out work to shops that are also under-staffed. Two or three week wait to get a minor repair done.

Hard to charge $150-200/hour for idiots.

The Service Advisors around Ancorage do a great job of keeping a straight face. I couldn’t ethically do it. I’d be like, Yes Mr. Customer, my idiots in the shop spent eight hours milking that inop headlamp. Oh, and at one point, another fella clocked in on the action. That will be two thousand dollars please. The greasy handprints are free. Sorry, they also lost the keys, do you have an extra?

There are 21 year old mechanics working on airliners right now. Im genX and was 20 when I started working on 727s etc for Continental in 1987 but these new kids dont think like regular people.

davo727 said: There are 21 year old mechanics working on airliners right now. Im genX and was 20 when I started working on 727s etc for Continental in 1987 but these new kids dont think like regular people. Click to expand... Do they understand "when it absolutely, positively has to be done right. No excuses" ? There is no "back button".....

Truck Shop said: An item I was told about from dealer parts manager that I hadn't heard of, knew nothing about. He used it to describe a new hire called--{The Gen Z Stare}, just a steady blank gaze. Click to expand... You have hard workers in every generation but the screen time addiction has taken a hard toll on Gen Z You try to teach them something and they just stare at you zoned out They don’t retain anything. Every day it’s like they got a new brain Give them technical literature related to their issue and they turn illiterate. They want the info spoon fed to them a thousand times. Critical thinking is GONE They can’t communicate effectively, and forget professional communication. They can use a phone fairly well but an actual computer is as mysterious to them as to an 80 year old grandma trying to log in to Facebook You can’t tell me these traits weren’t intentionally planted by the school system either. I can’t get many of them to do a PDI correctly much less actual work correctly. And then there are the ones that come into the industry because daddy who was a mechanic told them to. These tend to be arrogant as hell and equally or less skilled than the others but think they are owed the world while they can’t fix a sandwhich.

DDoug said: Do they understand "when it absolutely, positively has to be done right. No excuses" ? There is no "back button"..... Click to expand... Probably not.

JD955SC said: You can’t tell me these traits weren’t intentionally planted by the school system either. Click to expand... There's a little bit more to it----life at home with few demands.

davo727 said: There are 21 year old mechanics working on airliners right now. Im genX and was 20 when I started working on 727s etc for Continental in 1987 but these new kids dont think like regular people. Click to expand... We've got a guy in his very early 20's like that. We stuck him in a truck to see what he could do and he's been doing fantastic. But like I said a few posts up, for every young guy like that we seem to get 2 or 3 that are adequate and a handful that I wouldn't let put air in a wheelbarrow tire.

I have a few guys working under/with me. 31, 18 and 17. I’m still teaching them to pickup after themselves. The lesson I started on day 1 with them was to think before you did something. Maybe as simple as what will save me some steps? Or if I remove this part will a bigger part fall on me? I’ve taught them some simple fundamentals along the way but I’m still teaching critical thinking. Paying attention to parts as you disassemble something. Not only how it goes together but looking for worn or broken stuff etc. The biggest hurdle I have is when tasked with something they’ve done before it’s like a contest to see how fast they can do it. With that mindset stuff will get overlooked every time. They are making progress. We’ve done some jobs enough they can handle them with little oversight. I do go back after them and check simple things with the thought that if those were covered perhaps the important stuff was too. Our schools aren’t doing them any favors. I’ve had to have classes on freakin tape measures. When I got a measurement of 96 and five lines……from a guy with a sticker on his welding hood that says bada$$ pipe fitter. That was a big facepalm moment.

Junkyard said: and five lines… Click to expand... Coke.

Junkyard said: I have a few guys working under/with me. 31, 18 and 17. I’m still teaching them to pickup after themselves. The lesson I started on day 1 with them was to think before you did something. Maybe as simple as what will save me some steps? Or if I remove this part will a bigger part fall on me? I’ve taught them some simple fundamentals along the way but I’m still teaching critical thinking. Paying attention to parts as you disassemble something. Not only how it goes together but looking for worn or broken stuff etc. The biggest hurdle I have is when tasked with something they’ve done before it’s like a contest to see how fast they can do it. With that mindset stuff will get overlooked every time. They are making progress. We’ve done some jobs enough they can handle them with little oversight. I do go back after them and check simple things with the thought that if those were covered perhaps the important stuff was too. Our schools aren’t doing them any favors. I’ve had to have classes on freakin tape measures. When I got a measurement of 96 and five lines……from a guy with a sticker on his welding hood that says bada$$ pipe fitter. That was a big facepalm moment. Click to expand... I have the exact same problem. These ****ing idiots seem to think their mothers work there. They just leave their **** everywhere. Then I'm the a-holes for telling them to pick it up.

Funny thing about all this--that's what the greatest generation said about boomers, and boomers said about X, it never stops. In the 60's---{Hey Earl you see that long haired good for nothing hippy over there? Lets slam the PBR's and go have some fun and give him a haircut sheep shear style}. Way it was then and not much has changed, won't be long and Z's will be complaining about how stupid and worthless the next generation is.

It’s different this time. The Z’s are hopelessly lost. The females can earn a living with a Onlyfans page, getting by on Medicaid and whatever social services they can receive from their crotch spawn. The guys are living the van life. During my travels around the state this summer, when I do run into an ambitious Z’er, they are likely going to be a H-1B.

Coaldust said: It’s different this time. The Z’s are hopelessly lost. Click to expand... No it isn't---I don't know how many times I heard the same thing years ago, {Worthless youth just laying around smoking pot and making more little hippy's}. Started about this time. *

You might be right. I mean, once the Millennials stopped eating Tide Pods, they got their act together.

Was a HS drop out, got my GED same week at STL Board of Ed offices thirty miles from home. Been hard working since and not really ever stopped. I state that as when watched the three at the dealer remembered where I was out of trade school, still learning but as such was trying to learn, these people try nothing, need as noted spoon fed. Overhauled, actually re-bearinged a Fuller 1110 at 19, first in frame was at 19 on a NTC-290, Freightliners were stupidly cheap built but easy to learn on. IHCs were a PITA. Older gas burners of all makes were tight to work on and work was plentiful where learned as fast as could take it in. Do not see that desire in these kids minds, expect top pay for minimal effort and someone standing behind them telling what to do for every hand move. Doubt many will make it very far before just sitting at home with parents yelling they will not hear as glued to the screen in their paws.

Truck Shop said: No it isn't---I don't know how many times I heard the same thing years ago, {Worthless youth just laying around smoking pot and making more little hippy's}. Started about this time. * Click to expand... yet those of the 60s and 70s awoke to need of Money, that meant being Self Sufficient, had to think for selves. Could still be Hippies, but knew required Funds to do so.

DMiller said: yet those of the 60s and 70s awoke to need of Money, that meant being Self Sufficient, had to think for selves. Could still be Hippies, but knew required Funds to do so. Click to expand... Timothy Leary--{Tune in, turn on, and drop out}, I said before, after denouncing Big Brother, the hippified lost their micro bus, ditched the peace symbol, tie dyed shirts, cut the pony tail, lost the granny dresses, laid off the pot and joined Big Brother---to run Wall Street. Then as those retired, returned to smoking pot setting in the VW Beetle hidden in the four car garage while listening to Lead Zeppelin, Jimmie & Janice.