How does your company handle down time.

[fixthecopier]

What do you do when there is nothing to do? What if any is the company policy. I can usually find something to keep busy on my own. At my shop what you can get away with depends on past performance history. An example would be on Monday I did not have a lot to do, and at the end of the day I had completed 2 toner deliveries. Now I had done other things, research a couple of problems, worked on some stuff at my table, packed a shredder up. Point is I did not have to explain to anyone how I occupied 8 hours. I was thinking of this today while trying to coordinate some machine swaps with our biggest competitor. These guys have gps trackers in the trucks and have to clock out to stop at the bank.While I was waiting for the guy from the other company, I cleaned and detailed my truck, spent about 2 hours waiting on him and then went to the shop. No questions asked as long as I take care of everything in my area. What happens if you run out of work orders? Online training? Crap jobs? Sent home without pay? Are you micro managed?

[Jules Winfield]

The company I used to work for would start firing technicians if any of them started having down time. From what I hear from friends of mine that still work there, that company is in a rapid downward spiral losing customers left and right. I guess my point is this, treat employees well, especially ones that see your customers regularly. Customers can sense how bad a service company is being run by the demeanor of the techs. I don't care how professional a tech thinks he is acting, customers can tell when a tech is miserable.

[atwageman]

Many companies in the service business will fire techs with excessive downtime. Especially with the way the economy is right now for some. The powers to be are trigger happy to reduce head count. If business is slow it makes it easy to trim the fat.

The flip side would be if a tech is taking good care of his territory, then he may have valid down time. Good management will notice the difference between that tech and a slacker.

This thread kind of reminds me of a scenario I saw last year. I saw a tech get the pink slip the day before Christmas. He didn't even have the slightest clue that is was coming. To fire somebody the day before a major holiday is what I would call stone cold, even if the guy outright deserved it.

[fixthecopier]

A former shop tech of ours went to work as a field tech for a medium size service company some years ago. They only had an office with a girl to answer the phone and would mail him his parts. Some days he had no calls, others he may have one or two. Got paid for forty. Too much slack time would make me nervous. I am not shy. I have got a lot of business over the years by walking into rooms uninvited and handing out my card. I bring in a lot of paid work that way because if I am bringing in more money than any body else, I should be one of the last to go if times get tough.

[Shadow1]

We have online training we can do if things get REALLY slack, but usually somebody is busy enough that we can pull calls from annother tech, or double team a few PM's.

[Morlock49]

When we have slack time, I suggest to my techs that we try to clean up the workshop. I get told by my techs to "Hush My Mouth", because you can guarentee that the service phones will start to ring, and the next thing you know its like the floodgates have been opened.