feeling rather depressed please help

Hammyman

aangiexbaby wrote: »

Hi
i know you are feeling low at the moment.
you need to be strong, and always remember that these horrible people should not get away with treating anyone so bad or making anyone feel bad.

Pretty much all apprenticeships are the same. Even hairdressing apprenticeships have a large dose of grief that comes with them.

jobneeded

and to add to that... im not being given the chance to even lift a spanner, and when i do actually do something (which i do know is the right way) im being then told to - actually do it the wrong way!- my training provider (when i was at school) showed me the right and also wrong way, always done it the right way,mercedes said praise over my work (2nd day of work experience i was left to strip down a brand new engine down by myself - only being looked over every 3-4 hours and even then it was only as they were passing,to which nobody said anything,moved on into back street garage's... after being there 2 hours - can you service this? sure... did it - were impressed no complaints... - HGV plant, can you do this? ive broken my wrist... sure no problems - only then was i told"oh right yeah just crimp this pipe,pump this etc etc) (and that was only due to me never even working on or being trained on anything like an hgv). and i come to this place. and well.... its just not right... i dont feel safe, im being pushed around,taking abuse of a physical kind... (sweeping up,taking the jokes etc is one thing abuse is another matter!) abuse in the workplace isnt something that is taken lightley these days...

Hammyman

jobneeded wrote: »

hhmm well yeah after working in other garage on work experience like mercedes benz,back street mot and servicing garages, and also an hgv plant i knew what to expect what i wasnt expecting was"to be told i was a useless Tw*t, being hit over the hand with a pretty heavy torch for not understanding,

That's because it was work experience and the "rules" are different. someone on work experience doesn't cop for the flak because they don't work there and probabyl won't be there more than a day a week or a few weeks at a go. Apprentices OTOH DO get treated like that. And yes, you are a useless tw*t for at least the first year. You may have a CGLI or BTEC but they only teach you the basics. You've little to no experience and that's what counts far more than bits of paper, despite what schools and colleges claim.

For example, your CGLI or BTEC wouldn't tell you what the exact problem was with a Ford Mondeo that only has a heater fan that works on the highest setting. EXPERIENCE tells you that its the thermal fuse that's blown because the pollen filter hasn't been changed in ages so has blocked up causing the fan speed resistor pack that sits in the air feed to overheat. Sure, your CGLI or BTEC would probably equip you with the fault finding techniques and you'd get there eventually but whilst you were still getting your tools out, I'd have fixed it. And that is why you, as a first year apprentice, get the "useless tw*t" comments.

Think yourself lucky. You got a torch - I got shocker bushes which is serious in a Land Rover dealership.

And as to not being given the chance to lift a spanner - I was about 2 months. I got a Rover V8 to strip and rebuild the first day. Means nothing other than its a test to see if you have half a clue. Yes they might teach you differently to how you were taught at college but that doesn't mean it is wrong. Mechanics at college is done in ideal environments usually on cars that've had bits taken off them several times. You don't get the seized nut that's not been undone since it was fitted at the factory 10 years and 100,000 miles ago. A college won't teach you to use a ratchet strap to bring in a front ARB so you can fit the lower suspension arms but I can tell you thats a damned sight easier way to do it than the "College Way". These are all things you know nothing of yet and an apprenticeship teaches and which will set you above someone who hasn't done an apprenticeship.

Pretty much every one of those mechanics where you work will have gone through similar. Ask them.

jobneeded

oh right so then there is an excuse these days for physical abuse in the work place does that come under "apprentice's are excused from the protection law against physical abuse in the work place?" no i think you will find the answer to that is no! - and to add. - just because the heater only works on the FAST setting. dosent neciserrly mean it is a blown fuse. - having 3 mondeo's with the heater only working on the fastest setting - and have been 3 different problems each time. - ok im going to be honest im totally !!!!ed off....

jobneeded

well a torch isnt the only thing. and having a metalastic bush thrown isnt much- 13mm spanner hurts when thats thrown at the back of your head... hhmm any reason as to why im so fooked off?

Savvy_Sue

I do understand that all apprentices are idiots and will be sent for things which don't exist, but this does sound extreme and dangerous, and if you were my son I'd be telling you to raise a grievance if your mentor has a manager, and if he doesn't I'd be suggesting you left PDQ, after talking to ACAS.

Fire_Fox

jobneeded wrote: »

well a torch isnt the only thing. and having a metalastic bush thrown isnt much- 13mm spanner hurts when thats thrown at the back of your head... hhmm any reason as to why im so fooked off?

It's very difficult for anyone to understand what it is like when you keep adding to your story! Have you kept a record of times and dates of the physical stuff?

paulwf

OP this place obviously isn't working out for you so just leave, do it before you have a gap on your CV that is hard to explain. Contacting ACAS etc isn't going to turn the job around.

There has been some good points raised about how "real world" on the job training is completely different to college training. We sent a cycle mechanic on a NVQ course and it was all about checking health and safety posters were displayed, giving them a test to see if they could use a computer and that sort of thing...I don't think they even went near a spanner! Sadly that isn't an exaggeration, it was the biggest waste of time you could imagine and in no way geared up for a working environment. As another poster pointed out to you in the real world garages aren't going to show you fire exits and fire assembly points...you simply leave by the nearest external door and assemble in the yard!

OP you need to get a plan or unfortunately all your jobs are going to be like this one. You infer you left school at 16 and did some sort of GCSE level motor mechanics and haven't worked for the past 2 years...not very appealing to an employer (sorry). My advice would be to either go back to college now whilst you have a wide range of grant assisted options available to you, or get a job - any job - to bring in some money or else ask all your relatives in the motor trade to work with them for free. Why haven't you been training with your relatives for the past 2 years instead of sitting at home waiting for an apprenticeship to come up?

mountainofdebt

OP
Personally, if my son was coming home with stories like yours, I'd be telling him to get out of there asap.

If I wanted to be a mechanic then I would be looking at all the various types of employers that are out there - I could expand but would probably open a can of worms that would take your thread off at a tangent.

Savvy_Sue

paulwf wrote: »

As another poster pointed out to you in the real world garages aren't going to show you fire exits and fire assembly points...you simply leave by the nearest external door and assemble in the yard!

Maybe that's how it is in the real world, but in that case it's an APPALLING breach of the H&S regs - how is someone new supposed to know where the assembly point is - it may well NOT be in 'the yard', especially if 'the yard' has flammable materials in use, as it may well have. Perhaps there's a fire exit which isn't obvious, or goes through someone else's 'yard' - I know in one place I worked we went down a set of stairs I never knew existed (I was only shown after I'd been on my central induction training!)

There are all sorts of hazards in a garage, and if an apprentice 'knows nothing' and presumably has no common sense either, it's in the employer's best interests to make sure someone does a whistle stop tour of the premises saying "This is where we keep the x, if there's a fire you'd want to go the other way" and so on.