Joseph Long Assignment Two

The figured world I will be observing is where I work at Honda of Concord. I work in the parts department and sometimes at the body shop also. This is a business that handles retail customers, wholesale customers, phone sales, internal sales (to the technicians), and does a variety of other things. It is not exactly a place people "frequent," although we handle a lot of counter customers over the course of a day they don't stay there very long. There is always a lot of technicians and service writers constantly coming in and out the doors to the shop. Service writers also call back to parts numerous times in a short period when they are working on something and need help or checking up on the status of a part. There really isn't a huge list of rules that must be followed in this discourse community. Being respectful to co-workers, customers, technicians, managers, and any other employees is expected. Being loud and using profanity is highly frowned upon and is a good way to get sent home early. Joking and having fun is allowed as long as work continues to get done and things dont get out of hand. Giving your 110% effort while at work is expected, although it doesn't always happen. Discourses include but are not limited to: import/tuner enthusiasts, workers of the dealership, technicians, people who work on cars as a hobby, and small business owners.

10:00- Tech Michael brings in a basket and sets it down on the table. When parts are pulled, many times we put them in a basket to help techs carry multiple parts out to their bay. 10:01- Donnie is typing away furiously like always as he bills out some parts. He seems to have anger problems and always is pounding on the keyboard. This isn't unusual, his anger is normal to have at work, in fact, without it the department wouldn't seem the same. 10:02- Service writer Larry walks in an yells," YO JOE." The service writers are actors in the discourse community of parts, their job is to sell people services for their cars that include parts when they come to the dealership. Without them we likely would not sell near as many parts. 10:02- Eric walks in to get automatic transmission fluid and says "four quarts and a washer." Eric is one of the workers in the quick lube department. Quick lube does most of the oil changes and minor repairs. 10:03- The phone starts ringing, Tim puts them on hold. 10:04- The parts director Neal says holler if we need him as he heads back to his office. 10:05- Donnie checks his numbers then lays his head down. Checking your numbers is going into a certain function on the computer and putting in your employee number. This displays how much money in parts you have sold so far that day, month, and year. 10:06- Tim is checking his Facebook. 10:06- Donnie gets mad as a service writer calls wanting information about something. He always seems to flip out over minor issues. 10:07- Paul brings in a basket and sets it on the table. I picked it up and threw it back on the rack where we keep them. 10:07- Tim changes to msn.com. Sites such as MSN, Yahoo, Gastongazette, Facebook, and Craigslist are very common to see employees on when they have free time. 10:08- A counter customer comes in and Tim hops up to help. Not only do we have the tech counter to take care of, but we also have the retail counter which is a figured world in itself. 10:09- Donnie continues to complain about something while checking his numbers again. 10:09- Henry Cooper comes in to get some license plate screws and stands around talking. Henry is one of the senior sales representatives who has worked at Honda for over 20 years. 10:10- Jeremy comes in talking about what's for lunch then starts talking about food. On Saturdays since the dealership is so busy, they provide us with lunch. Most of the time we either have Harrisburg Family House, Jimmy Johns, Bojangles, or Pizza of some type. Until lunch is served it is always big talk about what we are going to have and how much people hate what they give us some days. 10:12- Donnie gives out a cargo tray to Jeremy. Jeremy is one of the PDI guys who inspects new cars and puts on the accessories before sending it to the lot to be sold. 10:13- Robert comes in to get a interlock recall. Recalls are a lot of the time what technicians come in to get parts for. 10:13- Daniel calls back to tell me the door was locked outside, it was not. I'm assuming that the customer tried the wrong door.

10:15- An Asian customer came in, I had trouble understanding what he want at first then I figured out that he wanted brake pads so I sold him some. Working the retail counter means dealing with a very diverse crowd of people, this can be challenging because many that come in are hard to understand or dont speak English at all. You don't want to upset a customer or constantly ask them to repeat themselves so you must pay close attention to them. The retail counter is also sometimes referred to as the "cultural corner." 10:19- I heard Donnie say he's going to the bathroom. 10:20- Mark walks by with sun visors in his arms. He is moving them off some of the shelves in the back as we are re arranging and taking out that set of shelves. 10:21- Tim started singing to the song on the radio. If it weren't for the music playing on 99.7 it would be extremely quiet in there sometimes. Music in parts is definitely an artifact. 10:23- Eric came in to get some oil, I got it for him from the back. 10:24- Mark gave Eric a funnel he found in the back and said to take it to quick lube. 10:25- Yellow copies are printing off the printer to be pulled. When a service writer sells a job they do what is called SGing a part. This sends a list of parts and locations over to the parts department where it prints off on a yellow paper. This way we know we need to pull and bill these parts. 10:25- Another counter customer comes in. 10:28- The customer wanted to fill out the form to change his account to tax free cause it was a business, Tim helped him do this while I got him his parts. 10:29- I finished up with the customer, invoicing out his parts, then having him pay. 10:30-45- was all nonstop work phones ringing, techs coming in, and counter customers. I was not able to take notes on what we were doing I was so busy. It isn't uncommon for us to get busy like that where we can't stop, there will be phones ringing off the hook, people on hold, technicians lined up waiting for us to help them, and sometimes even counter customers. 1:15- Donnie is with a customer at the counter trying to do a return. 1:15- Dylan comes in looking for paper for the oil change sticker printer. 1:16- Another dealership called looking for a part. When we or another dealership needs a part that same day we can run a locater and find who shows to have one in inventory. We then call the dealership and buy the part off them, then send a driver to pick it up. 1:17- My part I had picked up arrived I took it to the tech and finished the paperwork on it. 1:18- I copied the paperwork for a warranty airbag and took it to where it went. 1:19- Tim took the part I picked up out to Melvin. 1:20- Tim went and started to help Donnie with the return, they were having trouble crediting back the customers money. 1:21- Mark is sitting on the computer billing out parts. 1:21- I'm pulling yellow copies and billing them, this is an all day thing. 1:22- Eric from express came to get some supplies. 1:22- I billed out the supplies on an internal ticket. 1:23- Corbin came to get a light bulb for a car in express. 1:24- Matt came in and got a oil filter.

1:25- Donnie is re-boxing the returned part and then taking it and putting it back in inventory. 1:26- Dylan came in to get a power steering feed hose and oil filter. There is a recall on power steering hoses on certain year and model cars so we sell a lot of them. 1:26- Jeremy brought back a set of step rails that he had to take off a new car. He wasnt too pleased that he had to take them back off just as we were annoyed to have to put them back in inventory and un-bill the parts. 1:27- Donnie started talking about how was going to see how it was outside then go to the restroom. He takes probably ten restroom breaks a day, I'm not exactly sure why. 1:28- Tim and Mark are talking about what they are going to do with some of the parts upstairs. We are rearranging many parts from upstairs outside to our new addition to the department. 1:29- Bob came in and was asking for us to check to see if we had a set of brake pads. Bob is one of the service writers. Sometimes they come back to check availability on a part before they try to sell the job to a customer. 1:30- Donnie came back in from outside and headed for the bathroom. 1:31- Tim is playing games on his computer. 1:31- Mark is off pulling a part for one of the salesmen, sometimes salesmen will sell accessories that aren't on the car already to a customer as part of the deal. 1:32- Sam came in to get a power steering hose 1:33- A lady called to ask how much a new key would cost 1:34- A couple techs are in here getting parts and talking about the games 1:35- I had to go pull interlock kits for Chad 1:36- I pulled off a stack of yellow copies and pulled them 1:38- I pulled some fender liner clips for Ryan 1:39- Parts director was leaving 1:39- Blake got a oil filter 1:40- O'reillys called to say the part we called for wont be here till Monday 1:42- Donnie started complaining about how he felt like usual 1:43- Tim went a got a new case of oil filters 1:44- We all got on the topic of yoga pants cause mark read about a recall on yahoo 1:46- I had to run upstairs and get a oil pan 1:47- Everyone is talking about food Tim is surfing the internet 3:20- Blake came in wanting a battery stamp. 3:21- Donnie complained because he was going to have to find one of the salesmen for a we owe. 3:22- Mark is helping a customer on the counter. 3:22- Tim is just staring at the floor. 3:24- Jessica called back to get two tires. 3:25- I had to go pull the tires. 3:30- I just got back from pulling the tires. 3:31- Donnie is whining about people not texting back. 3:32- Mark is talking about phones.

3:33- Donnie and mark are standing around talking. 3:35- Paul came in and said to take inserts off a ticket. 3:36- Jesse is standing filling out a parts requisition. 3:37- Donnie pulled the brake pads. 3:39- Mark is talking about how to play quarters. 3:40- Tim and Jessica came in, Jessica said dont yall work back here. 3:41- Tim showed Jessica a picture on the internet he found that looked like her. 3:42- A customer came in and Donnie went to help. 3:42- Tim's phone rang and he is helping them. 3:43- I went to check with Jesse and make sure he got his tires. 3:44- Donnie talked about how he sold more antifreeze today than he has recently. 3:47- Paul and Ryan came in, Ryan asked me for the wiper inserts that had been SGed. 3:49- Tim is looking at the bracket online. 3:50- It is slow and everyone is looking on the internet.

Interview with Corbin from quick lube Me: Corbin when you come into parts what is the first thing you think? Corbin: I'm sure they're doing their own thing on the computer, but it's usually awkward cause there's three people on the computers who toss around who is going to help me instead of asking me if they can right away. Me: Do you think that parts really does nothing all day, if so why? Corbin: I wouldn't say, "nothing," however I do feel like that from what people tell me the job isn't too bad. Me: You seem to think that parts has it fairly easy, but do you ever come in there when they are completely slammed? Corbin: Yeah, it isn't uncommon for me to come in there and there be a line of people and them be busy. It may not necessarily be fairly physically demanding, like quick lube, but at times it can be quite mentally demanding. I'm sure you really can't judge anyone's job though till you walk in their shoes and do what they do.

Interview with Mark a parts specialist and ex parts manager Me: What role does parts play in the dealership? Mark: We take and service all the departments in the dealership. We take care of the mechanics and their parts, the service department, we take care of all the ordering parts, sales and make sure we have accessories for the cars when they come in so when the sell they have everyting on it the customers want. We take care of our body shop when there's cars up there that are wrecked we make sure we have the parts for them.

Me: Alright, why would people think that parts doesn't do anything? Mark: Cause they think that everything's just there and you're at the counter all day. They just think your there just standing around handing out parts all day, they dont see parts coming in the back and unloading trucks, and checking it in, and putting it up, and answering phones for body orders and how busy we are all day. Me: What are some of the activities and things that go on behind the scenes that make things appear to operate so smoothly, so that people would assume we dont even do anything? Mark: Just having everything coordinated like, having everything for your outside deliveries and all the runs set up for drivers to go out, shelves stocked, have everything in order so that it goes smooth. There's also having to put together stock orders, do perpetual inventory, having to fix all the problems, and just a whole bunch of other stuff.