[FanIn80]

Imagine being a highly rated young mechanic who's up for a job at a one of the 32 best garages on the planet. As a life-long mechanic, you've specialzed and exceled at working on expensive, high tech, supercar engines. Ferraris, McLarens, Porsches... you've even become quite good at the pinacle of engine work, which is racecars. F1, Formula, etc. I mean, you still need a few more years working on Maranellos and 911s before you'll be ready for full time duty with the F1 team, but you're well on your way...

And then you land a job with one of those 32 garages, the one in Calgary Alberta, and they tell you on day one that you won't be working on racecar or even supercar engines. Instead, you'll be working on roadcar and maybe even lawnmower engines instead... actually, strike that... they don't want to bump any of their current engine mechanics at all to make room for you, so instead you'll be fixing brakes and changing tires on 4-door Honda Civics and K-Cars. Unless, of course, we need you doing oil changes on lanwmowers.

Don't worry though, because once in a while we'll get you rotating tires and changing air filters on a couple of Ferraris when one of our top-six mehcanics is hurt or whatever. Never on engines though. We'll rotate one of those guys over to work on engines and then you'll take their spot.

Oh hey, also in about four or five years, we're going to ask you what you want to work on and then make you feel like you've got that job... but then, right before you're about to start working on a Porsche engine, at the begining of that year's busy season, we'll tell you we're just gonna keep you doing brake changes on Civics instead.


I mean, hey... maybe this really good engine guy sucks at changing brakes and rotating tires. Maybe he knows how a McLaren works, but can't figure out an Oldsmobile. Maybe lanmower oil filters are absolutely beyond his grasp.


...orrrr maybe he's frustrated and can't understand how he ended up standing here, whacking his thumb with a wrench while trying to get this friggin brake drum loose on this stupid AMC Pacer and for the love of God, I'm literally staring at a U bolt that's almost rusted all the way through, and why won't this latest manager of this shop we've got now belive me when I tell him the leaf spring on this thing is gonna fall off on the customer's way home... four years ago, I was working on Ferrari engines and literally killing it... what happened? ... like, all I did was get picked to work at this shop... I wasn't even allowed to say no or even choose a different shop...