Teenage Audi mechanic committed suicide after bullying

[berlintaxi]

Jinx said:

Vaud said:

Nanook said:

Why would an apprentice be washing the service managers car on company time? If an apprentice refuses to do part of their actual job, there's disciplinary action that can be taken.

If the gaffer wants his car washed, he can do it himself. Straightforward.

Absolutely. Tasks should be part of the job/role description. They aren't "cheap labour" to do anything and everything.

Perhaps because it is actually a dealership car and spends a lot of time on the forecourt so needs to be kept clean?

What is someone who is employed to learn the intricacies of fixing cars going to learn from washing one?

[Disastrous]

bobbo89 said:

I've got a 16 year old apprentice at the moment and it is sometimes difficult keeping them busy for a full shift!

You should nailgun his hands to his feet and force him to drink a funnel of oil or something, then smash him about a bit. It's all good bants when you're on the tools and will toughen him up. Who does he think he is, the cocky 16 year old know-it-all? A few phone directories to the ribs will teach him a lesson and knock the rough edges off him, on the tools, on the tools, in't it?

/WinstonWolf

[hyphen]

V8Matthew said:

Nah mate! He just needed toughening up, it comes with time when you're on the tools. You can't be a Jessie when you're on the tools, being on the tools means you have to be able to take a bit of banter on the tools.

Quite. It is just like being in the army innit. No man left behind, no brake pad left unchanged...

[Digga]

hyphen said:

V8Matthew said:

Nah mate! He just needed toughening up, it comes with time when you're on the tools. You can't be a Jessie when you're on the tools, being on the tools means you have to be able to take a bit of banter on the tools.

Quite. It is just like being in the army innit. No man left behind, no brake pad left unchanged...

No alloy wheel nut not torqued-up to some preposterously high and random torque setting so no mortal on earth could ever undo it with a torque wrench, let alone the wrench from the car's tool kit.

[AshBurrows]

V8Matthew said:

Nah mate! He just needed toughening up, it comes with time when you're on the tools. You can't be a Jessie when you're on the tools, being on the tools means you have to be able to take a bit of banter on the tools. When I was on the tools and we got a new lad on the tools we had some right on the tools based banter which involved me pushing him under a moving bus. The soft bugger died! Still, what do you expect - he'd not been on the tools 5 minutes.

lol

[bobbo89]

Disastrous said:

You should nailgun his hands to his feet and force him to drink a funnel of oil or something, then smash him about a bit. It's all good bants when you're on the tools and will toughen him up. Who does he think he is, the cocky 16 year old know-it-all? A few phone directories to the ribs will teach him a lesson and knock the rough edges off him, on the tools, on the tools, in't it?

/WinstonWolf

I'm white collar so the furthest I've gone is jabbing the brakes when the little bugger falls asleep in the car!

[WinstonWolf]

Disastrous said:

bobbo89 said:

I've got a 16 year old apprentice at the moment and it is sometimes difficult keeping them busy for a full shift!

You should nailgun his hands to his feet and force him to drink a funnel of oil or something, then smash him about a bit. It's all good bants when you're on the tools and will toughen him up. Who does he think he is, the cocky 16 year old know-it-all? A few phone directories to the ribs will teach him a lesson and knock the rough edges off him, on the tools, on the tools, in't it?

/WinstonWolf

Nailgun is a *little* harsh, just put a broom through his overall sleeves, job done...

[crofty1984]

V8Matthew said:

Nah mate! He just needed toughening up, it comes with time when you're on the tools. You can't be a Jessie when you're on the tools, being on the tools means you have to be able to take a bit of banter on the tools. When I was on the tools and we got a new lad on the tools we had some right on the tools based banter which involved me pushing him under a moving bus. The soft bugger died! Still, what do you expect - he'd not been on the tools 5 minutes.

I laughed so hard at that I nearly dropped the tools I was on.

Awful thing to happen to someone. Poor lad. I know back in t'day my uncle was having a hard time at his job and was terrified of telling his dad (my grandad) that he wanted to leave his job. Finally got the courage up and my grandad told him "no problem son, just leave". Sound advice.

[Disastrous]

bobbo89 said:

Disastrous said:

You should nailgun his hands to his feet and force him to drink a funnel of oil or something, then smash him about a bit. It's all good bants when you're on the tools and will toughen him up. Who does he think he is, the cocky 16 year old know-it-all? A few phone directories to the ribs will teach him a lesson and knock the rough edges off him, on the tools, on the tools, in't it?

/WinstonWolf

I'm white collar so the furthest I've gone is jabbing the brakes when the little bugger falls asleep in the car!

You need to step your torture game up a notch son!

[hyphen]

Jazzy Jag said:

Yipper said:

The motor industry is cringey and dated. Uber-macho posturing is par for the course. From violent workshop pranks to passive-aggressive salesmen and backstabbing white-collars at head office, the culture today remains more 1970s than 21st century.

Yipper is one of the special ones, see the manchester bombing thread and his theories of there being no difference between ISIS and the Italian Mafia.

[fido]

AmitG said:

As other posters have said, the same Neanderthal behaviour goes on in other industries including white collar industries.

I heard similar about dealing floors in the 90s - by the time I started it was mainly name-calling (i didn't get it too bad and it toughened me a bit), sexist but not nasty jokes (whilstling the Sesame Street theme whenever this tall lady walked onto the floor), and silly pranks (e.g. urinating into someone's umbrella when it was left in a stand) - the cases you hear about in the news are a reminder that people wont put up with the sort of bullying exhibited by our tooled-up friends here. Mind you by the mid-2000s there were a lot more female managers due to positive promotion schemes / and they could be just as nasty as their male counterparts. One of my team used to punch her male co-workers but we were too scared to touch her .. well until she tried it on my Neanderthal colleague who gave her a dead arm. :-/

[paulrockliffe]

Having read the thread right through, I think we can summarise as follows; if you're 'on the tools', you need to be bullied and abused to toughen you up so that you can deal with the bullying and abuse.

[Eddie Strohacker]

paulrockliffe said:

Having read the thread right through, I think we can summarise as follows; if you're 'on the tools', you need to be bullied and abused to toughen you up so that you can deal with the bullying and abuse.

I'm on the tools changing my brake pads this weekend, so to prepare, I shall piss in the neighbour's letterbox & weld it shut just to make sure the job is done right.

[Halmyre]

When I'm on the tools I always make sure I inflict pain on myself, that's how tough I am! Bonus points for driving myself to A&E (I have actually done this once, after gashing my thumb on a broken cafetiere, how fking nails is that?!?)

[Vaud]

Halmyre said:

When I'm on the tools I always make sure I inflict pain on myself, that's how tough I am! Bonus points for driving myself to A&E (I have actually done this once, after gashing my thumb on a broken cafetiere, how fking nails is that?!?)

You want to have a word with yourself.

[familyguy1]

OMG words fail me, just read this and so angry.

[dudleybloke]

It's a sad situation but it's wrong to put 100% of the blame on the garage.

[Vaud]

dudleybloke said:

It's a sad situation but it's wrong to put 100% of the blame on the garage.

Sure, but they need to carry their share of the blame.

Hopefully this will also raise the awareness of mental illness in the workplace and make people think twice "I might think this is funny, but what about the recipient"

[bobbo89]

Eddie Strohacker said:

I'm on the tools changing my brake pads this weekend, so to prepare, I shall piss in the neighbour's letterbox & weld it shut just to make sure the job is done right.

You can only do it to others who are on the tools so if your on your own you really need to piss in your own letterbox. Maybe fill your shoes with moly grease the night before just to give it that extra touch of authenticity!

[Countdown]

berlintaxi said:

Jinx said:

Vaud said:

Nanook said:

Why would an apprentice be washing the service managers car on company time? If an apprentice refuses to do part of their actual job, there's disciplinary action that can be taken.

If the gaffer wants his car washed, he can do it himself. Straightforward.

Absolutely. Tasks should be part of the job/role description. They aren't "cheap labour" to do anything and everything.

Perhaps because it is actually a dealership car and spends a lot of time on the forecourt so needs to be kept clean?

What is someone who is employed to learn the intricacies of fixing cars going to learn from washing one?

When you're an apprentice, office junior, or even a PA you're expected to do a lot of things just to help out more senior , especially if you aren't busy. I don't think it's a mickeytake to ask the apprentice to wash the boss's car to be honest. if you work in a garage or dealership. You're probably dressed in overalls, all the washing paraphernalia is there. It's not as if a trainee accountant is being asked to do it.