04/21/2023
I feel this strongly.
If youāre dating or married to a mechanic and they tell you they are mentally exhausted when they come home from a shift, before you brush it off as whining or an excuse just understand the amount of moving parts they deal with on a daily basis. Not only do our backs, hands and feet hurt, but so do our minds. We exert our minds on diagnosing the most complex of issues that no one else can and some jobs can become such a pain that it ruins our spirit and morale for a whole day or week. Then we use our experience and common sense to quote the job without being unfair to the customer or ourselves. We put together a parts list, price the parts, and check availability only to find 1 or 2 parts are backordered and now the job goes on the back burner and that time and money is lost for that week. We deal with warranty companies and customers letting us know that we arenāt doing our jobs right and are charging too much, as if we donāt have families to feed just like them. We handle just as much paperwork as we do wrenches and if anything gets out of organization, it feels like the whole world is backing up behind us and getting back ahead is an impossible feat. People will tell you to never take work home with you. Theyāll tell you to āleave it at the gate when you leaveā. All of this is not possible for a mechanic. The job requires us to retain an amount of knowledge, experience, training, expertise, and work ethic that most will never experience in their lifetime and that is not something that can just be turned off when we clock out, which is why youāll notice most any mechanic you meet can not relax and sit still for very long outside of work. Thereās always work to be done whether it be at home or on a side job. The stress and workload follow us everywhere we go but itās something most of us have learned to live with and thatās what makes us such a rare and dying breed. If it was easy, everyone would do it! Thank a mechanic next time you see them. Iām lucky enough to be married to a woman that appreciates what I do day in and day out just as I appreciate all that she does. But I feel like we are some of the most important contributors to society but somehow receive some of the least recognition for the headaches we deal with.