Summer2020_SSCWN_web

TRICKS OF THE
Managing
a Manager
Weekends
off
Workdays
only
The 7-bay SS that I’ve just finished renovating came with
a manager when I purchased it. In addition to mine, he
takes care of two other SS washes in our city.
In addition to trash and wash downs, he can make most
repairs and does a great job of monitoring all of the wash
functions for me. He is honest, almost to a fault, no drugs or
alcohol, communicates well and is very reliable. Problem is:
he’s just turned 60 and the 365 day a year grind is starting
to wear him down. I’m starting to see some slacking off and
attitude issues.
He’s typically at my wash 2 hours on weekdays and 2-3
hours on weekend days. He’s doing basically the same time
at the other two washes.
I’ve never had a problem giving him a day off, even
though he rarely asks, but I’m kicking around the idea of
offering him a scheduled day off in the middle of each
week when business is really slow. Either I’ll clean the wash
on that day, or I can pay someone a few bucks to do it. Is
anyone else doing this with their SS helpers? Or is anybody
doing the 7-day-a-week schedule with a week or two of vacation
every year for their helpers?
I’d hate to lose this guy and have to start over with an
unknown, so just wanted to get some ideas from the group.
KLEANRIDE
I’ve been trying to give myself the same sort of
break - fortunately my job has extremely flexible
hours, and I’ve been planning to take Tuesdays
and Wednesdays off. I’ll probably have to hire a
regular clean-up person for the car wash and focus
on repairs and money handling myself. I’ve
been doing the 7-day-a-week schedule thing myself,
and it definitely gets old. MEP001
Wednesday is probably my least busy day on
average. Tuesday is probably second least. That’s
just a gut feeling. GREG PACK
Over the years, the biggest issue was someone
dumping a large object on the weekend, with
no one coming in to haul it away. But since I removed
the dumpster, that problem went away.
At least so far.
...Sort of contrary to other posts, I have someone
who cleans up the wash Mon-Fri and has
weekends off. Weekends with family are very important
to him. And he has a regular job also with
Sat/Sun off.
It works well. The wash holds up surprisingly
well even with the two busiest days having no
one come in. SEQUOIA
We have a guy that spends 1-2 hours each
morning (M-F) at our wash - strictly cleaning,
we do all of our own repairs. My brother and I
alternate each evening and spend an hour there
in the evenings. Our guy has the weekends off,
and again my brother and I alternate the morning
and evening visit(s) (Sat-Sun). If we are out of
town for a weekend, our guy covers for us and we
pay him extra (a bonus, if you will) for doing the
weekends. That seems to work well for us. Gives
him a break (he offered to work 7 days a week,
initially) and he is willing to cover for us a couple
weekends a year because he isn’t burnt out from
doing it 7 days a week. SRR5008
I would give him 2 consecutive days off , like
Tuesday/Wednesday.
However, I’m not sure if you can fix a bad attitude
with a couple days off per week. He may
just be burnt out and you need someone new for
the job. Honesty is great, but keeping proper security
protocols in place is better.
I’m at my wash 6 days/week now. I worked 7
days/week for the first 10 years, then decided I
needed a day to myself. WAXMAN
Our cleanup guy works 4 days a week, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. He gets paid
$19.50 an hour. He cleans the lot, dumps the garbage
cans and hoses out the bays. If there is an
equipment problem he calls. If we want to take
a week off and go on holiday he’s always willing
to take on more hours, he’s 84 years old, but
you’d think he was only 70. We go to the wash
the days that he’s not there, pull the cash, meet
the garbage truck with all the extra garbage and
do whatever repairs that are needed.
...We get dumped on almost every day, there’s
no way we couldn’t go to the car wash every day
and clean up, the household garbage is getting
out of hand since the pandemic started. The car
wash seems to be a transfer site for the dump…
RANDY
I have a father & son that work for me. Father is
a jack of all trades and son (20 yrs old) is just an
extra pair of hands for the dad and he (dad) asked
me if I could do him the favor of allowing him to
work and he has worked out pretty good. Together
they work M-F and the son works weekends
one location and my brother in law steps in at
my other location. I have 10 rental properties as
well and allocate their cost across the washes and
rental properties so it has worked out really well
for me.
Father makes $19/hr. electrician by trade but
knows plumbing, a/c, and welding. Son I pay $10/
hr. because he’s a millennial and well....enough
said haha...
At one location I always get 1 or 2 people approaching
me about helping around the lot for
extra cash and they all seem to be 60+ yrs. old
and I have my doubts if they can handle the grind
of taking out the trash on a daily basis. RFREEMAN
I have 3 part time Attendants. We have an attendant
on duty 8 a.m. till 6 p.m./7 days a week
rain or shine. WELL worth it.. no messes for over
5 minutes! CARWASHBOY
...I pay my 2 guys around $40k/yr & they work
6 days/week 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.(ish). They also
pull in another $15k + in tips!
Like you guys, NO WAY i could be unattended
on the weekend. If I could figure out a way to
stop the dumpers though... SOONERMAJIC
50 • SUMMER 2020