 What's up everyone? Tate down here. Welcome back to another video. Today I'm going to be talking about my time working at Canadian Tire. Now in the past years ago, I have talked on the channel about different stories and different things that happen at Canadian Tire, but not about my overall experience working at Canadian Tire. I worked there for about five years in the automotive departments, starting out on the parts counter and then working my way to the service counter and then even into the shop. I'm going to be talking about a little bit of everything in this video about my time at Canadian Tire, so let's get started. So when I started at Canadian Tire, I was actually through a program in my area called Job Zone where they help young people get jobs. So I ended up applying to that and they accepted me. I did go for kind of these couple classes, which to me were boring. It was how to structure your resume and how to prep for an interview and just basic stuff that anybody that is starting out and starting to get in the workforce does need to do. So I did do it and at the end of it, they actually help you not only find a job, but they are the ones that are paying you for your job and you get paid the minimum wage at the time, which I believe it was $11.25 when I started there here in Ontario, Canada. So it was great, especially getting my first job and I started in the summer. So they were paying me weekly, giving me a check and I just had to go to the bank and cash my checks. So what I had to do when I started was I was actually full-time. I started in the summer just the day after Canada Day so I wasn't able to enjoy Canada Day with my friends or family because the next day I had to work first thing in the morning. So I worked five days a week every week up until September and I earned some pretty great money through Job Zone. Now the one reason that it was very interesting was because Job Zone are the ones that was paying me, not Canadian Tires. Whenever I started, of course, Canadian Tires is going to have me on because they're not paying me for the first two months of work. Of course they're going to have that and at the end it's up to the company whether or not they want to keep you since I was a good worker that did decide to keep me. Now I did start at student memo wage, which I can't remember what that was at the time, but since I was starting back in school, that means that they had to have my hours back to what a student was, which was about 15 to 20 hours per week. Most of the time I worked Monday to Friday, it could be anywhere between four to eights or five to eights and then on the weekend it's usually a full eight hour shift or once in a while just covering a lunch and then I would go home. So I started out just as the parts advisor working the parts counter and working most of the retail side and it was interesting. I learned a lot. Learning the computers did take some time just because there's a lot of things you have to learn and since at the time I was loving automotive in school, it helped me prep for the job, but I did learn a lot of what I know about vehicles working at Canadian Tire. Now after a while, once I graduated high school, the boss did come to me and ask me if I did want full time because one of the other parts people were leaving, they were going to Napa Auto Parts, so there was a full-time position there and I did gladly take that and now from that point on I was working 40 hours a week and I had a set schedule so I was off every other weekend. I was usually Monday to Friday except for the weekend that I worked and it was great. I absolutely loved it. There were certain holidays to get off and it was awesome. Only thing was dealing with certain bosses. So my time at Canadian Tire the five years, I had three bosses. The first one's the one that hired me which is by far the best. He was always proactive, always helping the community and always really friendly and easy to talk to. The next boss came and he was a little bit to himself. Shai didn't want to really socialize with the employees and most of the time instead of being on the floor getting things done he was up in his office. Now at the time we had that boss we kind of bashed him for sitting up in his office all day but behind the scenes he was getting a lot done. He was ordering stuff, doing a lot of stuff for us internally that a lot of us just didn't know about and then the last boss which was the worst boss came and again he was proactive on the floor but what the problem was he brought a lot of people with him from his previous store because whenever the owners move into a new location they can take people from the previous store that's willing to move and bring them to the new store and he brought two no three managers and one of which was the automotive manager. So whenever he came in he started off we were friendly in that then eventually he just did not like me because I at the end of my time at Canadian Tire did not put up with shit. I did not want to work every weekends and that's what they were forcing me to do. I was before they even came I started working the service counter. I was being the service advisor so I was helping customers when they brought their vehicles in. I was helping the mechanics get ordered what needs to be done for their vehicle explaining everything to the customer dealing with the cash dealing with all of the stuff that a service advisor does I was dealing with. So the other service advisor worked one weekend I worked the next and we just rotated so it helped and it meshed perfect with my schedule. Then whenever the service manager came the new owner came brought the service manager I should have said then my hours changed he started me have me do all of the work he didn't do any work he was just have the name of manager but he wasn't managing he wasn't really doing anything and it just literally made me miserable. So I was there about a year up to the point that I quit with the new owner with this manager in place and my last six months I was there they actually had my hours cut from 40 hours a week down to 15 hours a week and somebody that's just fresh out of high school can't survive on that low income that's incredibly low income I was financially stressed I was ready to quit I was ready to give up luckily that is the time that I decided to pursue security took the scooter guard course or started messaging the person for the course and the day that I quit is the day that I got accepted into the program and I started doing my scooter course and I ended up getting my scooter license which resulted in me getting my current job right now but it just took all of that pain and suffering for the last year dealing with the new owner that would just yell and scream if you just did a mistake a common mistake something that's so small and didn't affect anything but I was one of the top guys at Canadian Tire work in the service counter I'm not just saying that for breaking rights I literally was because I was the only one in automotive other than the other service advisor which we did rotating days I was the only other one that knew how to do tire warranties I was the only one that knew how to do battery warranties in the system I was the only one that knew how to look up when tires are coming on sale for customers I was the only one that's regulars would come in and see because a lot of the other parts people were students which no offense to them that's where I started but they just don't know as much as I did so I would have people blow past the younger staff and come directly to me so every day I was extremely busy with the service side of things and that resulted in one day me not getting the retail side of things done so they'd have the shelves new inventory come in off the trucks and wheel it out and stay there and one day I didn't get any of it done because I had the phones ringing off the hook I had so many people in the shop I had two mechanics that I was having to get all the parts for and everything I had customers after customer after customer coming in to see me personally about an issue they're having with the vehicle so I wasn't able to go and put the inventory on the shelves I wasn't going to it wasn't able to go and face I wasn't able to do anything the only thing I was able to do at the end of the day was to close my cash count the money and leave I got in so much crap over it there was a manager there the store manager which at first was great but near the end I realized he just kissed ass to get where he is he just always kissed the new owner's ass and he just did not care anymore he just gave me so much crap and I remember we got a huge argument over them switching me three days before my birthday I was supposed to be off that weekend and that was my regular weekend off and then they had to switch with the the manager like oh last minute you have to work your birthday and I'm like no like I have plans I'm out of town I'm not coming in gave me so much heat for it they started literally not liking me because I was standing up for myself which at that point I was ready to leave because if you can't stand up for yourself I don't need to be there it's really miserable when you can't stand up for yourself so I just honestly didn't want any part of it so during my time there I was great I had a lot of regulars I learned a lot I had a lot of people respect me a lot of customers respect me the mechanics respecting me because I knew my stuff I just didn't put up with management really I didn't put up with the new owners give me heck for not putting inventory on the shelves when that's literally not a service advisor's job that was the parts advisor's job parts department was the ones I was supposed to put the stuff on the shelves not me in service so they should have had a student come in to do that when they've seen that I was busy and I was the only one working the whole day different things like that and little things like that just made everything miserable but I did have good times there I did have the other service advisor me and her still friends to this day and we still talk and she did teach me a lot and she is like a second mother to me did I like working at Canadian Tire while I was there absolutely was I good at it hell yeah but there's just little things behind the scene that I just over time developed hatred for it would I work retail again possibly because I do have my own small business right now but would it be something like Canadian Tire probably not would I work automotive again yes I probably would if the pay was rights and the work conditions were rights but would I work at a Canadian Tire automotive department again absolutely not because I know how they treat their employees I know how they treat the rest of the staff and I do know how they treat their customers I had the store manager always bending over for his friends always giving them the best deals but if I try to give a repeat customer a deal for something that's on sale the following week which we were allowed to do I would get so much heat for it like you're not allowed to do that but then he would do it for one of his friends or one of his friends friends or the relative of somebody he knows but I couldn't do it to a repeat customer that's willing to come back time after time after time and just help them out by getting them a good sale so ended up being a lot of small things like that but at the end of the day I'm glad where I'm working now I'm glad that I've come this far and I don't intend on going back to Canadian Tire ever again and honestly if you were to ask me if I recommend working at Canadian Tire for your first job sure but you have to remember it's not for everybody and definitely don't go into Canadian Tire thinking that you're going to be there forever and you're going to have advancements should I have been a store uh a parts supervisor or a parts manager absolutely should I have been a manager of the service department absolutely but I knew late um almost near the five years that I was there that that is never going to happen they don't have any interest in having me in that position and it wasn't even worth pursuing so just if you're going to work at Canadian Tire don't be there for life and uh be there short term because they are going to replace you as quickly as they can whenever they can or do like they did to me and cut your hours ridiculously even though you are hard workers so this is my I guess my time at Canadian Tire um there's probably more I could have said there's probably other stories I could have said but this is all I'm going to say for this video hope you guys enjoyed I'll release the video here and I'll see you guys in the next video please take care peace