Practicing stress management in the shop

Nov. 1, 2016
Stress among our technicians is having a significant impact on the ability of many shops to hit their sales, profit and production goals.

Under the very best of circumstances, making a living as a technician in the automotive repair industry in the US is a challenging and stressful undertaking. The stress that comes from just trying to correctly diagnose a problem is tough enough, but time constraints, performance-based compensation plans and slow or inaccurate parts deliveries all conspire to make being a tech a very challenging proposition. Though many of the shop owners and service managers I have known over the years would not consider stress in the bays a risk to the viability of their business, the very real truth is that stress among our technicians is having a significant impact on the ability of many shops to hit their sales, profit and production goals and is making the automotive repair industry a less desirable career choice, both for young people looking for a career and for long-term industry veterans disheartened by work environments and conditions that are challenging and thankless. Though many of us might consider it outside our area of responsibility or control, managing the stress in our bays is good for us as owners and managers, good for our business, good for our customers and most importantly, very good for our technicians.

According to Miriam Webster, stress is defined as "a physical, chemical or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation or a state resulting from a stress; especially: one of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium." Dictionary.com provides a more succinct physiological definition by defining stress as “a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.” Needless to say stress is not a good thing and particularly not for our technicians, who even on good days are challenged by difficult diagnostics and the pressures associated with trying to be both thorough and quick. On bad days, you can add our less-than-perfect shop process, shifting customer priorities, wrong parts and constant struggle to be productive. There is no doubt about it — being a technician is a tough undertaking and one that is often made much worse by business practices that relegate quality service to a secondary priority.

Some stress on the job is a fact of life and one that all of us need to accept and learn to deal with, but stress for our technicians is complex in that it comes at them from many directions and in most cases relief is completely out of their control. We as owners and service managers need to do what we can to minimize stress in our bays and give our technicians the opportunity to focus on fixing cars and being productive in that effort. All of this adds to the challenge our technicians face every day, and on the other side of the stress we are manufacturing for them, there is the very real stress of trying to keep our customers’ cars safe and reliable.

A major source of stress is our desire as owners, managers and even service advisors to share the wealth when we are having a bad day or dealing with a tough customer and drawing our technicians into actions and activities they have no need or benefit to be involved in. Examples of this would be pulling a technician off a job to run a customer home or to pick up a part, rather than allowing them to focus on efficiently generating labor hours and diagnosing problems on our customers’ cars. Diagnostics on today's cars are difficult enough without having to stop halfway into a trouble tree to run Mrs. Jones to work or to run by the parts store to pick up that odd little connector we need for that old POS in the third bay. And this is not just interrupting the diagnostic process that is causing stress; having our technicians engaging in any activities that are not generating billable hours takes away from their ability to be productive, efficient and make a living wage. One of the greatest profit challenges facing shops in the US is being productive and often this is caused by, or at least complicated by, using our technicians for activities away from automotive services, repairs or diagnostics. Our technicians are there to generate billed hours for our service operation and everything we do should support that effort. If we have procedures in place that negatively impact the efforts of our technicians, we should change them. If we are doing things that draw our technicians away from production and generating those billable hours, we should stop it. A day in the life of a technician is stressful enough; they should not suffer the added stress of our inability and inefficiency. Do everyone a favor — get out of your technician's way! 

Another very common source of stress for technicians is our practicing mushroom management with them by keeping them in the dark and feeding them small portions of the information they need to do their jobs. We hire and need our technicians because of their technical expertise, not to mention their ability to juggle the shifting demands and priorities we throw at them every day. Given the critical nature of the role our technicians play in our shops every day, it is absolutely amazing that we are so reluctant to talk to them, interact with them or provide them with feedback mechanisms if they had a question, problem or suggestion. From a business perspective, keeping our technicians out of the loop is a mistake and a risk to our viability as a shop, but the unnecessary stress this causes not only impacts sales, productivity and profits but also greatly impacts our ability to hold onto quality technicians. How would you feel, in the midst of providing a critical service, if you were excluded from critical conversations, rarely consulted for input or feedback when critical decisions were being made, and generally ignored? My guess is that you would eventually quit and search for greener pastures where you were respected and appreciated. My other guess is that stress would drive you in that direction.

Fear and the unknown by their very definition produce stress and we as shop owners and service managers need to do our best to reduce it. Having a lack of respect and appreciation for our technicians and the incredible things they do for us produces its own kind of stress and solutions there are a little harder to come by. 

It's 9 o’clock; do you know where the stress level in your shop is? Maybe it is time we checked into that. 

Sponsored Recommendations

ZEUS+: The Cutting-Edge Diagnostic Solution for Smart, Fast, and Efficient Auto Repairs

The new ZEUS+ simplifies your diagnostic process and guides you through the right repair, avoiding unnecessary steps along the way. It gives you the software coverage, processing...

Diagnostic Pre- and Post-scan Reports are Solid Gold for Profitability

The following article highlights the significance of pre-scans and post-scans, particularly with Snap-on scan tools, showcasing their efficiency in diagnosing issues and preventing...

Unlock Precision and Certainty: TRITON-D10 Webinar Training for Advanced Vehicle Diagnostics

The TRITON-D10 lets you dig deep into the systems of a vehicle and evaluate performance with comparative data, systematically eliminating the unnecessary to provide you with only...

APOLLO-D9: Trustworthy Diagnostics for Precision Repairs

The APOLLO-D9 provides the diagnostic information and resources you need to get the job done. No more hunting through forums or endlessly searching to find the right answers. ...

Voice Your Opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Vehicle Service Pros, create an account today!