View From The Trenches

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” —Mark Twain

I think anyone who has been in the installation end of the auto glass business for at least 10 years hears their bodies saying it does matter—a lot. Over cold beers (or warm milk for others), it is not uncommon for glass techs to share war wounds and to play the “What Hurts” game, which is the medical version of “Can You Top This?”

In many cases, you do not need a course in Human Anatomy to participate. Oftentimes, just pointing a crooked finger to the affected body part is often enough to validate to others just what area has chronic pain. The harder part is to have the other players turn their heads enough to view your choice for acclamation. Many older techs rely on a pain management system. For some the drug of choice may be Aleve. For others, it may be Budweiser, Coors or Jack Daniels.

Simply put, installing auto glass takes a toll on the body over time. Anyone who says otherwise is probably a district manager or higher up the corporate food chain where memory failure, ignorance or indifference prevails.

The more glass you’ve installed, generally speaking, the more it hurts. It could be your fingers, your back, the elbows, shoulders or your neck. Words that we all have used to describe our various physical conditions are: cramp, crick, laceration, pang, spasm, soreness, throb and twitch. Those are just some of the gentle ones that can be applied.

Let me take the time to remind those young techs who are pumping out the numbers day after day. Invulnerability ended with Superman. You will wear out.

First Point of Proof: Many of the “old geezers” cut their teeth doing rubber-set cars, trucks and vans. They were easy. Today’s vehicles require much more physical exertion. If we walk and move like a tin man in monsoon season now, how will today’s pups be moving after putting in three decades of installs?

Second Point of Proof: Can you say “repetitive injury?” How many cold knife pulls does a tech do in a day? Let’s count the minutes in an hour; you have a power glass removal tool vibrating in your hands. Tired of using your head as a support mechanism?

Third Point of Proof: Pay plans have become more production-oriented and installation numbers have become the yardstick for success. More pressure exists to install more units per day, per week, per year.

We are gladiators of sorts. We go to battle every day in a way and it’s impossible to escape the collective dings and dents that we inflict upon ourselves. What we do is physical. We pull, lift, plunge, lean, bump and carry. Over time it takes a toll on our bodies and no one escapes.

Retired NFL running back Eric Dickerson used to be chided for wearing every available piece of protective equipment and yet he was not spared the physical ravages of playing professional football. How many of us even wear sun block to protect against skin cancer?

Windshields have gotten bigger and heavier with more awkward sets than ever before. Some auto manufacturers seem to be testing the limits of minimal urethane application along with raw-edge designs that defy a carefree attitude of removal for many techs. Gone are the days of push-out VW bugs or Chevy pick-up lites. If a tech doesn’t miss those good old days, he must be too young or just suffering from vapor-induced dementia.

That’s another issue—chemical exposure—that we didn’t necessarily face years ago to the extent that techs do today. Primers, cleaners and in fact the urethane itself aren’t materials touted as being risk-free. I guess someday there will be a study made to be filed away that will at least verify or discount the fact that what we breathe in or make contact with, in the nature of our business presents a serious long-term health hazard. From this cynical perspective, that outcome will depend on whom or what company funded the study.

What’s more annoying—a neck that only has a 20 percent range of motion or a non-functioning liver? A set of hands that can hold but no longer can play a guitar, or a fragile back that can’t pick up or hold a baby? These are realities for techs that put in decades of time in our trade. To paraphrase a famous aphorism, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It just makes you ache a wee bit more.

I remember as a child asking my mother what sausage was made from and her immediate reply was “You don’t want to know.”

Another educational flashback, in grammar school: you are taught in Civics class how a bill becomes law. There is a picture of a piece of paper being dropped into a box, a debate of the bill, voting by the legislators and the signing of the bill by the President. Nowhere does it show the bags of money being handed over by lobbyists as campaign contributions that are designed to influence voting or even the fact that some bills are actually created by that invisible force. If you never believed that before, just check out what is going on when it comes to “health care reform.”

I certainly agree that this country has to change its attitudes about health care and how to pay for it. The system has been broken for a few decades and something has to be done to fix things. With layoffs and closures, millions of honest, hard-working people are losing benefits and are being charged exorbitant prices under COBRA to maintain some basic coverages.

Ask any small businessman who has group medical coverage that covers himself and his employees if his premiums have remained level for any period of time.

If you are a “lone wolf” or only employ perhaps one or two people, you cannot qualify for any sort of group coverage without having to undergo medical underwriting, which in itself may prevent you from qualifying for insurance if you or an employee has any sort of moderate or severe medical condition or history.

As the middle class keeps shrinking, so does its expectation for good medical care. One glaring statistic, 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies are related to medical expenses. Let me remind you that if you have certain health problems, it is the simple basic desire of survival that exists and not something more frivolous than buying a 60-inch HD flat screen.

We, the middle class, are the ones most caught in this conundrum of healthcare. If one is wealthy, no expense usually can be spared in the quest to be healed. If people are poor, the medical care that can be provided is certainly not cutting edge; but at no time are they denied some sort of treatment nor are they financially liable for those public health options. The middle class bears much of the tax expense that public health incurs but we alone are forced to shoulder the costs of our own unpaid health care.

Perhaps the greatest source of disinformation and the single most stumbling block to any sort of real “reform” is our fondly regarded insurance industry. We as glass shop owners and techs should be most aware of any group in America of the miserly and pernicious nature of this group of companies.

Does anyone in the auto glass business actually believe any sort of hype that an insurance company tries to broadcast? Every day we see examples of total self-interest on the part of an industry known for its “fair and reasonable” proclamations. How many short pays or no pays do we run into? How many times a day does an insurer pressure either overtly or implicitly direct a client to the use of a vendor to reduce its claims cost? It is a simple method of operation, minimize risk, manage claims and maximize return on premiums and investments.

We are already hearing the “Big Lie” coming from this sector’s propaganda machine. Buzzwords like “socialism,” “rationing,” “Canadian” and “free choice” are being spewed out from every media corner. If you have a private insurance plan, group or individual, how many readers have the complete choice of doctors and hospitals at this moment? I would bet that almost none of you do. We are shepherded through various medical management plans such as in PPOs and HMOs that tell us where to go and who will apply the “appropriate” treatment.

What do you call Medicare? Why not a universal version of a funded plan by some sort of tax, payroll or sales-based? If we had a base-level, single payer plan, it would work similar to this 35-year-old program. Medicare doesn’t care where you go and if you move or are somewhere in the United States or its territories, you have coverage. Show me an affordable private plan that works that way.

In all the debates on the subject of reform or in any current legislation being considered, there is no mention of the term single payer. Can you guess why? Is it because perhaps a public tax-based form of insurance is unworkable? Unaffordable? Perhaps, but we may never know the true facts because the political reality is that there are several corporate interests whose ox would be gored if the government instituted a basic form of health insurance. In the forefront of that line is the fact that the private insurance companies would certainly lose the cream of their profitability if basic coverage became publicly funded. Ask yourself, if you are a glass shop owner who has Aetna as your insurance carrier and are struggling to keep your group coverage, or trying to pay for your wife’s unpaid treatment expenses for breast cancer, would you harbor any resentment to the fact that their CEO made $23 million in salary and stock options last year?

Medicare certainly is not perfect. There are many expenses that are not covered in full or even at all. There is discontent among providers. In short, it is not a panacea or a cure-all, but it is a safety net that has been proven to work. Since it is government run, unfortunately it is not free of political influence either and that is a huge pitfall in and of itself.

Out of an estimated 305 million Americans, there are over 65 million uninsured Americans according to news sources. With new unemployment claims averaging more than 16,000 a day, that number is sure to rise. Establish a base plan that covers every person at some specific cost that must be paid either by a company or the individual. I could then envision a two- to three-tiered level of supplemental coverages all administered through private insurance that would act as a wraparound based on cost over optional coverages selected. Can we afford it? Can we afford not to? Does anyone care except those who have to bear the financial brunt of paying for the insured, the uninsured and our own uncovered expenses? If actuarial estimates are correct, in the next 20 years, the majority of Americans will be old enough to qualify for Medicare making much of the situation moot except how to pay for a system that the younger minority may be most liable for.

It is the corporate lobbying and the millions being spent on Congress and media spin that is most reprehensible to this writer. It is not just insurers, it is international pharmaceutical companies, hospital chains, and medical equipment makers, the American Medical Association along with the American Bar Association as well, just to name a few that are spending vast amounts of money and influence to pressure politicians to insure that their interests will be served.

What about us? We are the people that have to bear the brunt of this sort of greed masked under the guise of capitalism and democracy? There is a copious amount of arm-twisting and political favors being called upon in the creation of this veritable Christmas tree of corporate welfare as they forge some sort of compromise that can be labeled “reform.”

Whatever legislation is passed, whatever law is enacted, be very sure that the process to make that bill was something that could hardly be called altruistic to those having to pay for it. Interest groups will have culled, injected and molded the bill to minimize its impact on its members. It is a process that makes making sausage seem artistic at best. How palatable it will become to most Americans is another question all together.

One of the side effects of a declining economy seems to be the loss of personal service. One would think that as a business slows down, there would be an opportunity for a consumer to be treated better. However, the opposite seems to be true. Employees of a firm usually are the first to bear the brunt of a recession because they become subject to layoffs. As a result, the few employees who remain are over worked and don’t perform well.

Last week, I stepped into a national department store to pick up some badly needed shorts. After choosing what I needed, I had to hunt around for several minutes and many more steps to find a checkout center. The line that had formed in front of the two harried clerks somewhat resembled a rock concert ticket line and after experiencing the speed at which the customers were serviced, I definitely felt like I was in such a line. The time it took just to pay for my purchase became a large negative in this shopping experience and one not to be repeated if given the chance.

Things aren’t getting much better at glass distributors. Since I am mobile and have resisted buying a laptop to use for work, I have to call in my orders for glass. In fact, I can also be accused of tying up a distributor’s CSRs time by calling to confirm prices and availability for bidding purposes. From both a local and national scope, I am put on hold more and more immediately after the call is answered. I’ve had waits for as long as five minutes for the CSR to actually return and start to conduct business. Not to pick on distributors any more, but delivery runs have lessened in numbers and lengthened with merged routes as that sector of our industry tries to survive with falling volumes and profits as well.

I understand the economics in both cases but in many ways employees represent the business and in this sort of corporate climate we are in, a company needs to realize that personnel cutbacks are a two-edge sword. They risk the loss of customers as they decrease service.

On the other end of the spectrum comes the never-close option some businesses are using. In San Jose and elsewhere, car dealerships, predominately the major Japanese makes, started staying open on both Saturday and Sunday. If you want your cabin air filter changed at 11 am just after church, I can direct you to the right place. The excuse is that many of the computer engineers and designers that live around here work such diverse hours that it makes economic sense to have what would be idle facilities open to take advantage of these time-starved customers.

Permit me an observation based on my experience with service techs. The good ones rarely work the weekends and, if they do, it’s once a month. That makes getting your transmission or engine rebuilt correctly or even at all problematical.

Rumors are starting to surface that our beloved industry installation leader is considering having Sunday hours in some areas. I wonder if that concept is more based on greed than need. Why add the extra day?

I am and have always been pro-consumer. However I beg to ask the question, when do the techs and CSRs get a chance to rest and perhaps spend time with their families?

I’m an owner and I know times are hard. There have been many 6-day workweeks that I’ve put in over my almost 30-year career. In fact, I have never taken more than four working days off in a row in over 20 years. I can’t recall an era in which many of us are called on to work such a diverse and widespread schedule. In almost every urban area in this country, you can find a glass shop, sometimes many shops, trying to squeeze every possible productive minute out of their facilities. Some do as owner-operators. Some do it with production-oriented employees. What seems to be the rule is that many of these retailers market themselves on quantity and volume.

I’ve learned that the human body and mind can tolerate working long hours and under constant pressure. However, there are finite limits to that state. One can take the finest installation tech and destroy him by burning him out over time. Take a mediocre tech and pile on work and what transpires is usually not very pretty.

What is gained in the long run by being open seven days? It will first take years and some sort of advertising to first establish in the public’s mind one’s hours of operation. Having the right part available for install is another variable, which requires a warehouse, thus more staff or a nearby wrecking yard support for some shops I know that stay open seven days a week. To me it is a game of chance and a dance with the devil in order to try to satisfy a desire to capture every person who may be in need of one’s services. Even in a slow economy, it’s my belief that that particular philosophy is a short-sighted one at best.

A company appears to have two choices: ride your best horses until they drop dead from exhaustion or just trying to fool donkeys into thinking that they can become thoroughbreds. What usually occurs from either outcome is that both kinds end up eventually at the glue factory.