I hired a female mechanic and my business is suffering from lack of work. Although she is a very good mechanic

Question

My wife even says that I have disgraced myself by hiring her and the customers just don't seem to wan't a woman to work on their cars. Is this the last line of work women can't break through. I ask before if anyone on here would let a woman work on their car and the response was 100% positive. But in the real world it just isn't that way. What if it really was your car and a girl was really fixing it. How would you feel. Please be honest.

Hey Naru, I never said she was new, and by the way where can I get a crystal ball like the one you have. The kind that lets you see a question differently than it was written. That crystal ball you have might be just what I need for my business. I am hoping time will help.

Hey Click, Not charging book time is punishing a mechanic for getting good at his job. You could have a much less experienced mechanic do it in the book time so that way it would be a fair price in your mind.

Answer 1

I own a bussiness myself! I am a women, I know what you are talking about. No matter what people think it the appearence of your employees and your bussiness has alot to do with it. Now if you ahve a small town "where everyone knows everyone" it is probably looked down upon "why do they have a women doing that?" Now if you are in a big city and they are not going to you, it is not because of her, for some it may be but majority of the time it isn't. Best way to find out, is if you get the customer address send out "customer service feedback forms" and just mark them by numbers so you know which customer said what. That way also if you make it an option to put the name on there and they want to say "bad stuff" they can and they thing that you don't know who it is. This is also a good way to find out what things you really need to improve and such!!!

Answer 2

It would please me as long as her price was fair and she charged honestly for her time. I think it's great a woman would be interested in this field, but am surprised she persevered with it.

But there's got to be a reason for going to her in the first place: either convenience or savings in cost. At the first sign of inexperience, I'd go elsewhere for something difficult, reserving basic maintenance for her, and the harder jobs for a more experienced and expensive mechanic. This would obtain regardless of gender:

I wish you well. I had someone work on my car yesterday, a mechanic at a local gas station. I was so grateful for his fair price and hard work on a very dirty job. For the most part your business is honest, but I detest the practice of charging by the book (published time values for each job) when a good mechanic can complete these jobs commonly in less than half the listed time. Be honest and I should think people will bring your female mechanic business, and have a story to tell their friends ("Hey, guess who worked on my car today.")

Answer 3

I'm not going to use the line "anything a man can do a woman can do better" nor am I going to say "it's a mans' job"....
The reality is, we as humans associate various jobs with a certain type of person. When you think back to the 50's, for example, you think of men in the office wearing suits and ties and women at home cleaning house and cooking. When you think of a mechanic you think of a man, just like when you think of restaurant staff you generally think of females being there to serve you.
The problem is nobody wants to accept the changes that have taken place over the last 20 years. Now, I'm not saying I am any better than anybody else, I am 27 and when I think of a mechanic I think of a man; why? Because you always hear the stereotype of women knowing nothing about cars (I am one of those women, in all honesty, I had to get my dad to show me where the oil goes into a car cause i thought you needed a small funnel to put it in where the dipstick goes... for all those laughing at that, no I am not blonde!)
Women can be qualified mechanics but they will always get looked at as not being as good as a man because it's just one of those jobs that you associate with men. Like nurses, you associate with women. I know some male nurses and they're great at their job, don't get me wrong, but some people still think like they're in the 50's, even if it's before their time.

I would personally be proud to have a woman work on my car. If she has the know-how then all the power to her. I applaud you for hiring a woman, it's something that I don't think a lot of people would do. I personally think your wife is wrong to say that you have disgraced yourself for hiring her and I think that shows how narrow minded she can be when it comes to equality and workmanship/rights. She could be a stay at home mom and people would assume she is where she is "supposed to be" or she could be a surgeon and people could assume she's taking on a "mans job", but if she's happy doing what she is doing for work, loves going to work and is qualified, what should stand in her way?? The answer is nothing.
People work at jobs they hate for years and I think that's partly because of society and how it views jobs. ohhh you're a woman, you can't be a mechanic, you're supposed to be all prim and proper and not want to get dirty or you must be a lesbian and assuming the male role.... F***That!! Be happy with who you are, what you do, and who you're with and if society has an issue with you, I say flip them the bird, smile, and continue doing what you love.

That's just my opinion but (tooting my own horn for a minute) I think I'm right.
Congrats on standing out from society and hiring somebody who isn't well known for working in that industry. She is lucky to have you as a boss. =)

Answer 4

If the mechanic is skilled, and does a good job at a fair price, I wouldn't care if it was a martian working on my car.

Answer 5

The female employee doesnt have anything to do with you not having customers. You need to invest more money into advertising. If she is skilled like you said it shouldnt make a difference. People dont get their cars worked on every month, and if she is new then you're lacking new customers not old ones.

Answer 6

I honeslty wouldn't care, (unless its a small town place, and looks like a chop shop, in that case i wouldn't let anyone work on it) you hired her, so obviously she must have enough qualifications to do so. That's it, that's all.