We haven't been doing it long enough, we don't know the "tricks"
We don't work hard enough.
We don't work smart enough.
We don't get higher prices because our work sucks.
We don't get there early enough.
We don't work late enough.
We don't work enough days.
We just plain suck.
Then you tell us if we complain, You'll get someone else. (that's a lie cause let's face it: if you could hire him you'd already have done it.)
Even if the new tech sucks worse than we did, the meathead will still clear the work order and so we get paid so you still sucks hahaha we did it without you. Looking for work? We need techs....
So what's it take to "make it"?
Well, except for the Bush administration, the rest of the American workforce has accepted 40 hours as the standard work week.
In this little kernel is the golden reason why installation is built (at least in my area) around piecework.
get to the shop at 6 am
Done your last job at 4-6 pm.
work six days. That totals 60-72 hours for a six day week.
I have worked some weeks well into 100 hours. Try it- you will halucinate.
Ok, so take out all of those things that management says you have no right to do on "company" time.
lunch, breaks, waiting for work, driving to the next job, customer no-shows, wrong address, salesperson screwups, and bathroom breaks.
Subtract 10 hours a week for time not spent working? thats a lot of pissing. But we all eat to and from the next job. And I can tie my shoes while waiting at the doorbell. so I'll give you a few hours of goofing off a week.
so a good week is 60 hours, a bad week is 70.
$1000 check
-$60 for gas (mine's closer to $100)
-$57 for insurance required by comcast
-$50 for WHITE truck payment (fair deprieciation of 30-50k miles)
-$20 for tools and equipment not reibursed.
-7% fica tax (a real job pays this for you)
=$743 dollars before taxes.
So if you tell me if I bust my ass for 1000 bucks, you've really only paid me (the contractor) $743. So if you figure that to an hourly wage it comes to:
60 hr week is $9.28 an hour. For a tech with 14yrs experience
70 hr week is $7.43 an hour. for a tech with 14yrs experience
Even if there's an installer out there ( I haven't met him, and I I do get there at 6 am), $1600 a week that's still 13-16 an hour. That's a mid to entry level tech in any other trade.
Why don't you stick this inside the "employee handbook"
