The Next Generation of Technicians - S1E2 is now on your favorite podcast app!

Want to be a guest on Overhauled? - https://www.shopdiesellaptops.com/pages/podcast-guests

Welcome to Overhauled with host Melissa Petersmann, The Diesel Queen. Discussing diesel technicians, trucks, labor shortages, and many more interesting topics. In a style that only The Diesel Queen can bring. Raw and unfiltered. Bringing rock-n-roll into the shop and into your life.

Melissa is joined today by Ilsa, a high school student interested in becoming a technician. Asking questions about the industry, what it is like to be a diesel mechanic, and what it is like for a female to join the industry.

As always, thank you for watching and listening!

Transcript for The Next Generation of Technicians - S1E2

Melissa Petersmann:

Hey guys, it's The Diesel Queen. Welcome to my Overhauled podcast. I have to make an apology to you guys. My first few podcasts were a little screwed up. Long story short, it had to be cropped down a little bit because I am technologically challenged, back to how I am a heavy equipment mechanic, not a professional YouTuber or a podcaster, so please bear with my fuck-ups and enjoy these podcasts. Again, I apologize. I'm heavy equipment mechanic trying to make podcasts, so bear with me. Hey guys, welcome to episode two of Overhauled with The Diesel Queen aka Melissa Petersmann, partnering with Diesel Laptops to be able to bring you this season of podcasts. Today, I am here with a young lady who hasn't even graduated high school yet, but she is very driven to be a diesel mechanic.

She has got some incredible questions and questions that I believe a lot of my young viewers have as well. These are very similar to a lot of questions I get all the time on social media, so I'm so excited to be able to bring you guys this episode, specifically to be able to answer hopefully a lot of the questions of young diesel mechanics, especially women that are wanting to enter the industry, not just for women though, a lot of these questions apply to anybody who wants to enter the industry. So let's get it. This is The Diesel Queen on the Overhauled podcast. This is episode two, and with me today I have a young lady that I have actually spoken to in person when I worked at a shop in Wyoming. She is wanting to become a diesel mechanic and I thought she would be perfect for this podcast because she has a lot of great questions that I think a lot of other people have too. Why don't you introduce yourself?

Ilsa:

I'm Ilsa and like you said, I got to meet you last year. I just am really interested in diesel mechanics. I've been into mechanicing my whole life, but it's always been gas and small engines. I want to go bigger and I'm in high school right now so I'm going to try and take some classes to be able to do that. I'm going to try and go to a trade school and work as a diesel mechanic and then just see where that path takes me.

Melissa Petersmann:

Do you have a specific brand or type of machinery or what do you want to do? Do you want to do light-duty diesel or semis or equipment? What's your goal there as far as your career?

Ilsa:

I was really thinking heavy-duty diesel, especially after I met you and saw the shop. That was the atmosphere I want to work in. Trucks would be-

Melissa Petersmann:

The heavy equipment?

Ilsa:

Oh yeah, trucks would be cool, but whenever I think of diesel trucks it makes me think of my older brother and how I would have to deal with a bunch of teenage boys and I'm not really down with that. So I'll probably want to work on heavier equipment and maybe semis, but probably stick with belly scrapers, graders, stuff like that.

Melissa Petersmann:

That's a smart choice. That's where a lot of the money is. That's where a lot of the money is. Tell me a little bit about your background, and because I get asked this all the time, so it's your turn to get tortured with this question.

Ilsa:

Okay.

Melissa Petersmann:

What got you into this? What entices you or attracts you to this industry?

Ilsa:

A couple of things. Definitely, my grandpa is one of them. He was always a heavy equipment operator but he could never work on anything, so he was like Mr. Maintenance is what we called him, but I'm going to try and live up his legacy because he was super cool. He knew how to run everything that had a bucket, tracks, wheels, anything, he's just going to work on it so I'm going to be able to work on it and run it, hopefully. He passed away a couple years ago, so like I said, just to-

Melissa Petersmann:

I'm sorry to hear that.

Ilsa:

... live that on. It's all right. Also, I'm attracted to the feminine going into more masculine fields. We talked about this when we were together that there's just not enough women in these fields and it interests me anyway, so I might as well just go for it and hopefully, lead the way for somebody else, inspire somebody else. I just hope to make it have more women in this field because it's such a cool field, and I don't want people of any type to be excluded from it. It's so cool. I love to wrench on everything.

Melissa Petersmann:

As you know, going off of that women in the industry thing, you're a small girl, just like I was. I weighed 115 pounds when I started in this industry, soaking wet 115 pounds. that's something that I believe you and I talked about is you don't have to be the big, burly guy in the shop to work on equipment. I commend you for diving head first into this industry because that's what I did. I wrenched with some of my friends, and my dad was a logger so I got to be around all the equipment and I just dove head first, head fucking first into this and prayed it was going to work. I commend you for that because it takes a lot of bravery to do that, especially at your age because there's a lot of people your age that don't even know what they want to do with their life. So the fact that you've got a direction, that's pretty cool. What trade school are you thinking about going to, and what is your expectation of that trade school? What do you think you're going to get out of it?

Ilsa:

I have two 'cause you put WyoTech in my head. I was pretty set on going to the John Deere Diesel School in Nebraska. That's where my brother's going, and I've been talking to him about it a little bit and he likes it. Some of his dad's coworkers have gone there, really liked it. You put WyoTech in my head and I'm not really sure, I can't decide on which one, but that's a little far down the road.

Melissa Petersmann:

Well, do you want to work on Deere? Is that your [inaudible 00:07:01]

Ilsa:

I don't know. I think Caltech-

Melissa Petersmann:

... 'cause WyoTech a heavy equipment course now?

Ilsa:

Yeah, I'm not really biased to any brand right now. Deere would be probably the ideal to work on from what we talked about when I was there, but I'm really not that particular about anything. I'm leaning towards the school [inaudible 00:07:25] Alaska, but we'll see. I don't know. I've got two years before I'm even out of high school.

Melissa Petersmann:

I think I mentioned this to you when you were in Wyoming with me, but I'm just going to mention it again for the people listening that there is, and this is not just John Deere, I speak of John Deere because I worked for them and I know them. I'm familiar with how they do things, but there's a lot of companies and brands on heavy equipment that will pay you to go to school. They will sponsor you, they will pay you to go to school and then John Deere has an incentive program and an apprenticeship program where you will actually get a starter set of tools for free as long as obviously there's a contract where you're stuck to that dealership for a couple years or if you leave you have to give the tools back.

But shit, for starting out, that's a pretty decent deal. WyoTech used to offer, I don't know if they still do, 50% off tools and then they run a credit loan to help get people started. We talked about this briefly, and I wanted to save some of this for this podcast. What is some of your hesitations or fears or questions that you have about entering the industry? This doesn't have to necessarily pertain to just being a girl. Any question that you have or worries or concerns that you would like to address?

Ilsa:

Definitely being small, just physically small in the industry, 'cause we talked about if you need to move something, you need a lift or you need a guy to come help you most of the time, and I already struggle with that. My dad is in the shop with me most of the time so him or one of his meathead guys will come help me, but I try and do everything on my own what I can. For most of my stuff I can, which is nice, but that's small engines versus heavy equipment diesel, so definitely being small is one of my worries. I like to learn a lot but I'm nervous about failing with life, everything in general, so I want to be good at everything the first time and that's not going to happen.

Melissa Petersmann:

I'm the same way.

Ilsa:

Yeah-

Melissa Petersmann:

I was the same way.

Ilsa:

So I need to learn how to fail and be okay with it. That's probably going to be my biggest struggle above everything else is just not being perfect at everything; just like, failure, struggle, stuff like that's going to put me down for a little bit. That's why I asked you the motivation question because if you get beat down so many times it's going to be hard to stay motivated.

Melissa Petersmann:

Yeah. I'm going to address both of those questions because I fucking love those questions. So the first question is being small. A lot of people, especially when they start on automotive, which I did too. I was just like you, I started working on pickups and that's where ... My dad had equipment but I never actually got my hands dirty in it. Automotive is hard because the parts are small, but people think that heavy equipment is going to be harder 'cause the parts are bigger, but in reality, it's easier a lot of times because the big 250-pound muscle guy in the shop's not lifting most of this shit. You're going to use a crane or some kind of lifting device, most dealerships are very big about safety and not trying to break your back lifting something, so there is a lot of tools and resources for that. A lot of times if you have to ask for help lifting something in the shop, there's a 98% chance that the guy next to you would've had to ask for help too. It's-

Ilsa:

That's true. That's true.

Melissa Petersmann:

There are extremes. I have watched a male technician use a crane for a 10- pound water pump, but-

Ilsa:

I would've laughed, I'm not going to lie, I would've laughed.

Melissa Petersmann:

I did, I did, I did, but it's a shock atmosphere, so you give him shit for it for a week, right? then-

Ilsa:

Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

... you move on to the next fuck-up that somebody did to give him support. The being small thing you don't have to worry about. I was 115 pounds when I started in this industry, and I weigh 132 pounds now. But does it help being a little bit stronger now that I've put on some muscle a little, but honestly, still the 99% of the shit that I struggled with before, I struggle with now and I use cranes or lifting devices, whatever.

Ilsa:

Yeah. We have a small in shop engine hoist and I use that for a lot of things. So I use that and dad, like I said, is almost always with me and he's got a lot more muscle than I have. I'm already working out to try and get that muscle because I'm struggling. So we're going to try and make that better for myself.

Melissa Petersmann:

Yeah. If you're trying to gain muscle, just eat.

Ilsa:

Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

Eat. Eat. Eat. If you're-

Ilsa:

Like you said, I'm probably 100 pounds soaking wet and I'm 5'3" on my permit, but [inaudible 00:13:13]

Melissa Petersmann:

You're going to be a hard gainer, you're going to be a hard gainer just like me, so you're going to have to work out three days a week if you really actually want to gain muscle and then just fucking carb load.

Ilsa:

Yeah, that's what I do.

Melissa Petersmann:

Your second question was about being scared of failing, and I love this question because I was the exact same way. I wanted to be good at everything. I wanted to be the best I could be, and when I fucked something up, it was the end of the world. I fucked up quite a bit my first few years in this industry, and I tell everybody this, "Nobody is God's gift to the planet. Everybody starts out somewhere. You learn from your mistakes." The first year-and-a-half you're going to question your life choices because it's going to seem like it's not going to be this way, but it's going to feel like everything you touch, you fuck up.

That's okay because the only mistakes that are truly mistakes are ones you don't learn from. Everybody learns from mistakes. That's how you learn as a mechanic is you fuck it up and then you don't do that again. I was really hard on myself. I actually had my first boss, which he's actually going to be on this podcast later in the month, my first boss used to tell me when I fucked up, he would come up to me and he'd be like, "You know what, Melissa? I would scold you and get mad at you and try to punish you for this, but you are harder on your fucking self than I'm going to be. So I'm just going to let you beat yourself up." it sounds like that's probably going to be you-

Ilsa:

Yeah, for sure.

Melissa Petersmann:

... for the first few years, and it's fine. Trust me [inaudible 00:15:14] you'll be fine. Yeah, you'll be fine. About year three is when you finally start to bridge that gap and cross over that line of, "I know what I'm doing most of the time. I understand how the systems work. I understand the diagnostic procedures/ I understand how to use the software and I understand ... " This was always the rule that I was taught with asking for help is you exhaust all your resources before you ask for help. So that means you look at the machine, you look at the computer, you read the theory of operation, you try to run the diagnostic procedures on the computer, but, my dog, if it takes with asking for help with lifting things or especially if you're taking something apart or you need help lining up pins in an excavator, if it takes 15 minutes with help or two hours without help, what's better for the customer at that point, because they're paying you-

Ilsa:

With help-

Melissa Petersmann:

... by the hour? Exactly.

Ilsa:

With help, obviously, and that's wasting less of your time.

Melissa Petersmann:

Exactly. Trust me, you're going to feel like this for the first couple years, is when you have someone what we call babysitting you where they're like, you have to have help with every single little thing that you're doing, which trust me, you're not going to like this, but sometimes you will need that in the first few years especially. But that's where you get put with somebody that's designed to train you. They're made to train you. They're there to train you, and usually don't worry about customers getting charged too much or whatever the case may be or ruining somebody else's job time when you start in the industry, 'cause usually if the shop is set up correctly, they will put your extra time and that other tech's time on training, so it doesn't affect anybody's proficiency. So it creates a good environment to where you can feel like you can ask for help, and you're going to need it. You're probably going to be like me where you're going to struggle for a lot until you ask for help, but that's okay. That's how you learn, too.

Ilsa:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get babysat though, constantly right now, so-

Melissa Petersmann:

Well yeah, everybody-

Ilsa:

... it's good struggle for a little bit.

Melissa Petersmann:

The problem is when you're 40 and getting babysat by somebody else, that's the problem. I'm not saying 40 just started in the industry, I'm saying, "I've been in the field for 30 years and so I still have to have somebody babysit me," that's where the problem is. If you need help and you need advice, and I don't think you're going to have to worry about the getting babysat thing because I don't think you're going to allow that whether you need it or not. Is there anything that I didn't cover or anything that you wanted to expand on out of those questions?

Ilsa:

I want to talk about a couple of weeks ago when I asked you about how do you keep motivation? I would love to go over that.

Melissa Petersmann:

Okay. Yes. Yes. You did already ask me that too, and I had a brain fart.

Ilsa:

Okay.

Melissa Petersmann:

How do you keep motivation? For me, personally, I prided myself very much on the industry that I picked. I prided myself on wanting to be the best mechanic that I could be, so it does get hard sometimes when you're like, "I don't know if I made the right choice. I suck at life. I'm fucking everything up. What do I do?" The best thing you can do is just keep showing up and keep being a good employee and keep trying. Most of these employers, especially when you're just starting out, they don't care if you fuck shit up. They know you're going to fuck shit up. Obviously you're going to be like me and you're going to beat yourself up over it anyways, but all they want out of you is for you to show up and to try.

As long as you're showing up and you're trying, you'll make it, and you will go far with that because even just that showing up and trying and putting in an effort is rare. If you're beaten down to the point where you're like, "Man, I don't know if this is the right choice. I'm messing stuff up," just remember that is as long as you're trying and you're showing up, that's what matters. If your employer does not value those things, well then they can go search the sea of live bodies and try to find somebody else your age that actually wants to show up to work, and good luck with that. In your generation, you are in a generation right now that is worse than mine, believe it or not, and-

Ilsa:

Yeah, I know, don't worry.

Melissa Petersmann:

But you have the ability to prove all these people wrong. You might fuck shit up and you might be losing motivation, but just remember that you are one of the very, very few people in your generation and you're a female, and you are still showing up and you are still trying. That will go very far, especially with the problem of there are not enough mechanics for this industry right now, so I think you'll be fine. Obviously if you are having problems you can always call me and be like, "Melissa, I fucked up. How do I stop fucking up?" [inaudible 00:21:25] I'm just going to tell you, "Learn from it and don't do it again."

Ilsa:

Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

Like I said, mistakes are only mistakes if you do it again. Story time, you want to hear some of my fuck-ups? This might make you feel better.

Ilsa:

Yes, I'd love to.

Melissa Petersmann:

Okay. Here's another thing that I'm going to entwine with these stories is the expectation that you should have when you enter the industry. It doesn't matter if you go to tech school. It does not matter if you rebuild engines in tech school. Obviously tech school gets you into a level one position, not an apprentice position, but you will not be rebuilding engines straight out of the gate. You will not be doing big jobs straight out of the gate. You might be assisting other technicians with those jobs, but you will not be doing them. Your first solid year is probably going to be services, PDIs, which are pre-delivery inspections for new machines, which is a great way to learn machines, batteries, things like that, that's going to be the majority of your work. You will fuck that up too, don't worry. The first excavator I did a service on, I forgot to vent the tank. On the top, there's a little push button that vents the air pressure out of the tank, I forgot to do that.

I was crawling up underneath the excavator and I had this little 55-gallon drum cut into a little tote, which was not near big enough for the amount of oil in this hydraulic tank. I did not know that at the time. I pulled the plug out, there's two plugs, there's one facing down and one facing up, or at my face. The one facing at my face seemed a lot easier to remove at the time. So I'm all proud of myself because I found a shortcut. I'm all proud of myself. So while I'm over there undoing this fitting, the second it got loose from those last threads, I got a face full of hydraulic oil, instantly; drenched me head to toe and filled up the bucket I had immediately. I'm over there with the fucking hydraulic plug trying to put it back in as it's spraying in my face and my boss walks up, as I'm in the middle of getting drenched in oil, trying to put the plug back in the tank. That was fun. I also forgot to put metal caps into brake lines on a loader.

Long story short, I woke up there. I came in after the weekend with 18 bags of floor dry sitting on my toolbox. You know why? Because my little plastic caps came out and drained the entire hydraulic tank onto the floor. It was a lake. It covered my entire bay floor, went all the way outside and all the way to the fence. My boss had to come in on the weekend, found it and dumped floor dry on the stuff outside and then put all the shit on my ... I spent three hours cleaning that. So that's some of my fuck-ups. I also have done the first couple of years, I had an excavator I was putting a breaker on and it had a mechanical coupler. You're going to learn this if you work in the equipment industry. It is a rarity on large excavators, have a manual coupler. This one had that. It had some seas problems, but at the moment, my focus was getting new hoses built for it because sales can be cheap sometimes and we were trying to make it work.

This was $1,000 worth of new hoses, by the way. I put the new hoses on this excavator, and it took a week to get these hoses in. I had completely fucking forgot about the coupler, completely fucking forgot about it, but the breaker's hooked on it, it's just not locked. So I dried this, I'm all proud of myself. I got my hoses on. I topped off hydraulical, I'm all proud of myself. I walked its excavator over to the test area where we have little pieces of metal that you can run the breaker on. Well, the second that hit straight up and down, I dropped that fricking breaker off the top of the excavator, ripped all the $1,000 worth of hoses off that machine and it was spraying oil everywhere.

It was gushing oil out of the auxiliary lines in front of the salesman and a customer, by the way. Those are just three examples of hundreds. So trust me, when you start in the industry and you're fucking shit up, I promise you I've probably fucked it up too. If you call me and you're like, "I just put an axle back together and the lock washer for the bolt to the finals is sitting on the table," I'm going to be like, "Yep, did that. I've done that." I've been the mechanic that gets all proud of myself and I assemble something and I'm like, "Oh my God, this was so easy, this was so nice. I'm a rockstar," and then the part is sitting on the table and I have to completely disassemble it again. We've all been there and you're going to get given shit because it's a shop. Everybody, everybody shit talks, but just make sure you give it back to them.

Ilsa:

Oh, yeah. I got that going for me already. We're good. [inaudible 00:26:42] I had one more question for you, though.

Melissa Petersmann:

What?

Ilsa:

I had one more question for you, though.

Melissa Petersmann:

Yeah, go for it. We're all questions, so there is no time limit on this, so go for it.

Ilsa:

We talked, I think it was when I was with you, you had said, "Oh, I'm fine with being a shop princess versus an infield mechanic," and I want to talk to you about that, 'cause I think what I want to do is be in shop for the first while, while I'm messing things up and then I want to do some infield stuff because that interests me a lot and working directly with the people interests me.

Melissa Petersmann:

That is my personal desires. I love the shop because A, you and I both know how winters are out there.

Ilsa:

Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

We are not joking when we're like, "Oh yeah, it's negative 40 wind chill outside and everything is gelled and nothing will start." I prefer not to deal with that. I'm going to be straight up honest with you. I don't mind field work in the summers. Every location I've ever worked has me doing some form of load some shit into the back the parts truck and go look at this. I did some field calls with other field mechanics because in Wyoming. If you have 18 hours worth of services to do in one day you send another mechanic with that field truck when it's four hours away so you don't have to make two trips. I've done that, and I don't mind it. I don't mind it when it's good weather, but I prefer the shop because you're not going to do engine rebuilds in the field.

Ilsa:

Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

If you're lucky, you get to pull the engine, take it back to the shop, rebuild it and then bring it back. That doesn't usually happen. You're probably not going to be doing axles, engines, any big major work usually, just for the fact that a lot of these components are very important and they're very susceptible to damage from dirt, especially internal engine work, you can't have dirt getting in anything. I don't even like to use floor dry. When I have an engine apart, it doesn't matter what I'm doing. If it is outside of the machine, oil pans off whatever, timing covers off, I do not use flory. I might use pig mats but if I don't have pig mats, I will let that oil sit on the floor until I'm completely done with the job before I put floor dry on it 'cause I don't want the dust getting inside my engine.

The same concept goes to working on something in the field. You know how Wyoming especially is and Colorado, it's dusty in the summer times and it's just not effective and it's not cost effective to do large jobs in the field. That is part of the reason why I chose to stay in the shop and I use shop princess or shop queen just because you know how many times I've gotten shit for that and they're like, "You just got to be a shop princess." I'm like, "Yep. Damn right I do. I'm fine with that. You're out there suffering. I'm going to be in here doing engine work."

Ilsa:

I'm on the same page about this, buddy. Wow.

Melissa Petersmann:

Yeah.

Ilsa:

I don't know, 'cause my situation right now is we do plowing. We do small engines, we do the occasional fix-and -lip car situation thing. So I do a lot more out in the field stuff with plowing. A permanent temporary fix is usually what happens, and I enjoy that a lot. But like you said, the below 40 degree windshield and in the cold, I don't do well. I've got body fat percentage of eight so I just wear my full Carhartt's hoodie, long johns, the whole nine yards. It usually gets me by, but it's pretty tough all day so I don't know. [inaudible 00:30:56] it would be nice.

Melissa Petersmann:

Most shops that I've worked at, if it is really super cold, they try not to send field mechanics out that is completely dependent on the shop you work in, though. Some shops don't care and will just send you out anyways. You are a lot like me where you have no insulation at all.

Ilsa:

Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

Cold is something I've always struggled with, too. So in the summer though, honestly, if you choose a field mechanic route in the summer, spring and fall and the summer, you're going to love it because it is nice to be out there. I've got a sick ass picture from one of the field calls I did on an excavator when I worked for a Haunted that's got the whole ... You know what the sunset look like there.

Ilsa:

Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

It's got the sunsets with the service truck and the excavator, I loved it. It was a great day. It was one of my favorite calls I've ever done. There's two types of mechanics. There's mechanics that are made for the shop and there's mechanics that are made for the field, and whatever path you choose to take is fine. There is no right answer to that. It's whatever you enjoy best. If you start doing shop work and you want to stay in the shop, great. If you want to get out in the field, I get that, go for it. Especially when it's nice, I want to get the fuck out of the shop, too. So it's whatever you choose to do will be fine. The nice thing about this industry is there are people everywhere screaming to hire you.

Ilsa:

Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

If you're stuck in a truck and you want to be in the shop, there's a shop down the road that will hire you yesterday. If you want to get in a truck and whoever you're working for won't let you get in a truck, which you're probably never going to run into because there's going to be a mechanic shortage in all positions of pretty much every shop you work in, but hypothetically speaking, there's a shop down the road that will more than happily hire you in a truck. So whatever you choose, try it, go for it. Try it, see how it works for you. I've known a lot of field mechanics that are really fucking good mechanics. I've known field mechanics that absolutely love it and they avoid the shop the plague, so it's completely up to you.

Ilsa:

I like a mix of both, for sure. Oh, I have one more question though, for more the other audience than me.

Melissa Petersmann:

Okay.

Ilsa:

Because we talked about it, but I think it's important for viewers, especially younger girls to realize is we talked about it pretty in depth about if there is a shop that's hiring, they will probably hire you because they need to either fill a gap of gender, whatever. There's also a shop that'll hire you for your skills. You told me some really great advice about "Don't get hired because you fill a gender gap, get hired because of your skills."

Melissa Petersmann:

Yes.

Ilsa:

I think that's going to be something that a lot of upcoming mechanics have to think about because now that shops are really realizing that we're having these gaps, we need to-

Melissa Petersmann:

You can keep talking, you're good.

Ilsa:

We need to-

Melissa Petersmann:

I'm recording you.

Ilsa:

We need to realize that there's going to be more hires because you fill a gap rather than you're good at what you do unless you're really good at what you do. So be the best at what you do is my best advice for that, but I know you had some other things you wanted to say about that.

Melissa Petersmann:

I told you that story because that had actually happened to me at one point in time where, I have no proof that I was actually hired as the wage gap, but I had the story that I'm going to try to tell as long as my camera doesn't shut off. I had a boss at one point in time that I'm not going to name names, not going to name companies, but I got hired on in the shop. I had a few capstones, about three years of experience, so it made sense. I felt like it made sense for them to hire me. They hired me on. I felt really great about it for about a year. Then I get pulled into my boss's office and he's like, "I need to ask you something." I'm like, "Okay, what's that?" He's like, "Well, I have a female applicant," 'cause we were trying to hire a combine mechanic. I'm like, "Okay, and what's your point?"

He was like, "Well, I stalked her on social media," which bosses do that, by the way. This is not just if you're a girl, bosses will stalk your social medias, just saying. They want to know who they're hiring, so just be careful with that. He's like, "Well, she seems legit or whatever," and I'm like, "Okay, but why am I getting included in this conversation?" He's like, "Well, she's a girl." I'm like, "I still don't understand why I'm getting included in this." I'm like, "What other applicants do you have?" He's like, "Well, I have one that's a guy that has no tools. This girl's straight out of trade school, or we had this guy in Indiana that wants to move out here who has three years of experience working on combines."

I'm like, "Okay, so I'm confused as to what the question is. You have a guy that has certifications and experience and worked at a John Deere dealership who is moving out here. What's the question?" I remember telling you this is he told me, he was like, "Well, in our company we are trying to close the gap between how many females we have in here and we want to be more diverse." That just hit a nerve because it does not matter if you are a male or a female, or he/they/them/their, whatever, does not matter. If you have the certifications and you are good at what you do, you should be hired over somebody else that does not. Unless you're just a shitty person and the boss doesn't think they can get along with you, I would understand that.

But in this scenario I told him, I'm like, "I don't understand what the question is, that's not okay." I looked at him and I told him, I'm like, "So is that why you hired me? Was I was a tax write-off for you guys?" I've always had that joke, but this is the first time it's become a reality for me that's making me question your value in me. This is the same company that tried to put my face all over everything, by the way. "Do you value me because I'm a blonde chick in the shop, or do you value me because I have capstones and certifications and I know what I'm doing? For the most part, I'm an okay mechanic." Obviously at that point in time I had proven myself. I got big jobs and he trusted me with work but, "What was the original reason I was hired?" That struck a nerve because I want equality in this industry, and that means equality not only hiring-

Ilsa:

Not quality with boobs, it's just quality.

Melissa Petersmann:

Exactly. That's what people always ask me, and this is a touchy subject to cover is people always ask me, "What about the sexism?" I'm like, "Oh there is, but it's not the sexism you think it is, most of the time. It is not they don't think you can do it because you're a woman. It is not that." Most of the time they think you're God's gift to the planet and you are automatically given a lot more rights, let's say, benefits from being a woman. Honestly, there's not that many shops that will do that, but it's something to keep an eye out for.

If you find yourself in a situation where you really want to work in this shop, but you're getting that feeling of, "Am I just a diversity number for them?" But you want to work there, go for it. Prove to them exactly why you're not just the diversity number. Prove to them that this is why you're not a diversity number. Prove to them that you can hold your own with the guys and you don't have to be treated differently, because it's going to take women in the industry showing that we don't have to be treated differently and we can be treated the same as men. With the exception that we want our own bathrooms, guys.

Ilsa:

Yes, thank you.

Melissa Petersmann:

We want our own bathrooms.

Ilsa:

Thank you.

Melissa Petersmann:

The first I worked in did not have separate bathrooms and that sucked.

Ilsa:

Eww. No, thank you.

Melissa Petersmann:

It wasn't a stall bathroom, so it was just a single like, but still-

Ilsa:

Thanks, no. No,

Melissa Petersmann:

Yeah, no, thanks.

Ilsa:

It stinks. It's insufferable.

Melissa Petersmann:

That's all we want. If a girl mechanic is asking you for anything else besides just a bathroom of her own ... There are some legitimate complaints, and I've seen and heard some cases of there was actual negative sexism. I'm not going to say that's not out there, but people want to hire women mechanics. People want to do that. So the only advice I have to give is I don't necessarily think you can avoid that because you're never going to know. But what you can do is prove through your work and showing up that you were worth hiring even if you were a man. I think that's what I tried to do. I want every single interview I have walked into, I have had to explain to people that I am not going to be a HR nightmare. The way I handle things is, "If I cannot solve it between myself and my boss, I do not need to work here."

Ilsa:

Yep.

Melissa Petersmann:

That's completely up to you on how you handle that. If you are getting harassed and your boss won't fix it, this is how I see it, that does not need to be your boss anymore. But it's also not a reason to not report that if you feel like you are in danger or you feel like this is a problem, a major problem. But I trust that you know line between, "These people are joking and this is just fun, and this is not fun. This is not okay. This is crossing a line." It's okay to have lines and it's okay to have boundaries. I've had my ass slapped before; one time, one time and that guy bought me burritos for a fucking week. There's lines with everything, and set your boundaries, set your lines. If somebody keeps crossing that, if you feel like you have to go to HR, I'm not telling you not to. I'm just telling you my point of view on using HR as a resource.

Your boss should be able to do anything, and I had a scenario that I did not report that to my boss because that problem solved itself because that guy felt so bad about it, and he spent three weeks apologizing to me every morning and bringing me burritos. But there was a scenario that happened when I was at a training, different shop and this guy that I was going to the training with did try to make some moves and, my phone thinks I'm talking to it, did try to make some moves. I'm a strong personality, so I have no problem telling someone to fuck off. If I tell you I did not speak to that man for the rest of the trip, I did not say more than two words unless I absolutely fucking had to. I avoided him like the plague.

I was so fucking mad at him, but not everybody has a strong personality like me. So I reported that to my boss because not in an attempt to get him in trouble. It was a, "Hey, I handled this and I told him to off, but it's me. Do not send this man with anybody else to training, especially if you have a young lady in here that is an apprentice or new and is scared to say something because she doesn't want to cause problems. Do not send this man with another female to training. That's all I want. I'm not asking him to get in trouble. I'm not asking any of that. I just want you to be aware of the situation so it does not happen to somebody else. I can handle my shit. I will punch them in the fucking face if I need to."

Not everybody's like that, and that's rare. I traveled to trainings with a lot of co-workers and that only happened one time, but I've always made my lines clear. I've always set my boundaries. For the most part, guys are respectful of that. They're going to be respectful of that, especially because you are a young, attractive lady. They're going to be probably scared of you for a little while. It takes guys some time to warm up. They're going to be scared of you. They're going to be scared of an HR nightmare or saying something wrong. But there's nothing wrong with boundaries and setting those boundaries. That is a little off topic from where we were going with the hiring process, but.

Ilsa:

Well, it's still important.

Melissa Petersmann:

It's something that I think a lot of young women need to know too, is there's a difference between being an HR nightmare and reporting it, every little thing that's a problem and trying to get somebody fired just because you don't like them, and "Hey, this is an actual issue. This is a problem, and I've tried to solve it and my methods of solving it have not worked."

Ilsa:

Yeah.

Melissa Petersmann:

My boss actually fired that guy, actually unrelated to that. That was just a nail in the coffin. This particular person showed up to work drunk a lot. He was always working unsafe. He caused a bunch of damage. He drove a dozer through a bay door in the wash bay, failed a drug test, I believe, for that, for alcohol, so he was no star pupil. He was already on his way out. This was just a nail in the coffin. This was hard for me. This was very hard for me because I have never once wanted to be that person that got somebody fired.

I never want to take away somebody's ... which I didn't. If that would've been the only instance with this man, he would not have been fired. That day I came back and I told my boss that from training, he was going to talk to this man and this was going to be his solution. He wasn't even going to take it anywhere besides, "You need to go apologize to Melissa and apologize to her boyfriend," who also worked in that shop at the time. I dated him long before we worked together. Do not date co-workers. That is not a green light to date co-workers.

Ilsa:

That's not a good solution, guys. Please don't do that.

Melissa Petersmann:

Yeah, don't do that. I dated this man long before I worked with him, but my boss was like, "You need to apologize to these two for your actions and we'll call it good. Don't do it again or this is going to be a problem." That same morning, this guy showed up late, showed up drunk, drove a dozer through the ... or what did he do? I think that was the day he drove the dozer through the bay door. He was fired. My boss at the time sat him down and he didn't even get to tell him or bring up the conversation of what happened to me at training.

This man was fired for everything else that he did. My boss was saying, "You're fucking shit up. You're showing up drunk. You don't even work 40 hours a week. What the fuck?" This guy was like, "I don't care. What are you going to do, fire me?" My boss was like, "Yep." I believe that situation was the best way I could handle it, because if I would've gone to HR with that directly, that could've been really bad for him and his future, even though he already fucked up his future himself.

Ilsa:

Yeah, that's him causing him issues in my opinion. But I don't know the guy, we're giving him the benefit of the doubt, but I'm waiting for comments on this podcast and he's going to be like, "I was never like that," and I'm going to [inaudible 00:48:36]

Melissa Petersmann:

Oh, he knew. He knew 'cause he knew what he did, 'cause I am a very strong personality and when something like that happens, I will tell someone exactly how I feel. I will avoid you and loathe you for-

Ilsa:

Yeah, I'm the same way.

Melissa Petersmann:

... the rest of the time.

Ilsa:

If I have a problem with you, you know that I have a problem with you. That's just how it goes.

Melissa Petersmann:

For the most part, I don't really have problems with guys in the shop. I really don't. For the most part, they're respectful, they're nice. They're supportive. They're willing to help. Sometimes you get the guy that's overly willing to help. You're like, "Bro, I got this. Let me struggle here, okay please?"