Pros
As you work, you’ll learn skills in machinery, electronics, management, and overall work ethic. The pay was generous and above average for the same position elsewhere. Raises will happen regularly, about every 3 months or less if your perceived performance is excellent. The people on site are usually good to work with.
Cons
Blatant favoritism/nepotism/double standards, especially with friends and family of the former owner. The former owner’s sons got away with things that normally they would fire others for. Additionally, my wife was turned away from having a job there to “reduce workplace conflict.” Makes sense to me. What didn’t make sense was why the owner’s son’s girlfriend got to work there for two months alongside him. The general manager was the owner-at-the-time’s best friend and got preferential treatment. He had disliked me nearly from the very beginning, and actively and verbally discouraged the owner from promoting me despite my positive performance reviews and raises. If he found someone he could potentially train and promote over me, that person would get special treatment and training from him. The owner knew all of this and literally told me to “suck it up and focus on my work.” I was promised monthly bonuses and health benefits once I got into assistant management, yet the bonus was less than half of what they promised for two months, for no apparent reason, and benefits are non existent. When I asked about it, I was given the runaround and excuses. If you get into salary, they take that opportunity to work you like a dog. My boss (manager) was forced to work 70 hours a week for months with zero extra compensation, and they raised the expectations of assistant managers from 40 to 45 hours a week with no change in salary. The income for assistant manager and manager is above average, but still in NO WAY reflects what you’re responsible for on a daily basis. Most people working that hard see numbers in the 60k - 70k range. The regular employees are paid pretty fairly. They have a “carrot on a stick” mentality with people they see as ambitious, constantly dangling your promotion in front of you to get you motivated, even if you’re already performing the duties of the position in the first place. It took a year and a half before they were in a business position that forced their hand, and gave me the promotion. Then it was back to doing the same thing with the site manager promotion. There’s a weird imbalance of how much they train you vs how much you’re expected to know. I was constantly told that I would get official car wash training, but it never happened, even 3 years after I had started. Then the general managers would come by and wonder why me or my team didn’t understand something relatively important. I’ll never forget when my co worker asked the owner what type of liquid coolant we use so he could buy some, and his reply was “I don’t know. Figure it out.” They’re constantly understaffed, to the point where someone simply taking a sick day would force someone else to come in on their off day, or have someone already there work a 12-13 hour shift. I didn’t take many sick days because I’m usually healthy, but the national average is 11 per year, and they would get upset about someone having 8. Unacceptable. Finally, we recently had a hurricane blow through Florida. Everybody was being told by safety officials to stay indoors and stay sheltered on one particular day. Nearly every shop, school, and government building was closed, but not Waters! They made us come in with 50mph winds and constant rain, putting our team in danger just to work outside and eventually wash a grand total of 12 cars when it finally died down that night. Revenue shouldn’t outweigh safety. All they had to do was close down for the day and reopen in the morning, but that was somehow unjustifiable with state wide emergencies. Overall, not the worst job I’ve ever had. There were good moments and good people that came and went. But the people at the very top will exploit you and demoralize you for everything you’re worth.
