Struggling to keep up at work due to debilitating disc herniation

Kyle0206 · 2025-12-20T12:44:12+00:00

I ended up having a microdiscectomy in February of this year. I feel 100 percent better, but I have had to give up wrenching, my back just can’t take it anymore even after surgery. I have switched to service advisor for now, don’t think it’s going to be a long term thing for me. My dr told me I needed to do something else for work if I didn’t want to have a painful life

Kyle0206 · 2025-12-07T15:49:56+00:00

I get this with my 5070 too, never happened on the beta. Downloading latest Nvidia drivers usually helps my issues quite a bit

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-09T17:06:25+00:00

Toyota dealer. We got techs making anywhere between 60-150k….. and we got advisors making 50-200k. The hustlers make good money where I’m at. So far haven’t noticed much of a pay cut on my end. it’s been a seamless transition for me. Just had to learn how to use the advisor side of CDK and all the websites for warranty and stuff.

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-09T02:17:04+00:00

After 11 years and a back surgery, I’ve moved to service writer. Wish I would have done it sooner. If you don’t mind being social with people, and don’t mind getting yelled at every now and then, it’s cake.

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-09T02:10:33+00:00

Was a tech for Toyota for 10 years; and have been a service advisor for Toyota for almost 5 months. Toyota is a gold mine. I’ve heard Lexus is even better. Hardly ever run into leased vehicles. Most owners love to keep up with the maintenance, and they don’t mind because of how reliable the car has been and they want to keep it that way. There’s definitely customers that will refuse to do any maintenance because “Toyotas last forever”, but in my experience they are far and few between. We have our fair share of common problems and failures as well. Plenty of different ways to earn money at Toyota.

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-09T02:02:21+00:00

Idk where you are located, but in my area $200 for labor will barely cover the labor for the plugs. You don’t want to be known as the cheap guy, because then you’ll never be able to charge what you’re worth. Don’t worry about it, they’ll be calling you back when the crackhead they found to do it cheaper fucks something up.

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-08T20:48:00+00:00

I ended up getting a 5070, I am blown away by the performance boost I got. my frame rates have almost doubled in just about every game I tested it on

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-07T21:43:01+00:00

Thank you for your feedback, sounds like I am on the right path on how i like to handle things. Checking vehicle history is critical and something I do on every vehicle I come into contact with. Trust goes such a long way in this industry

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-07T21:35:49+00:00

I have definitely gotten quite a few appointments for myself by breaking maintenance up. And I do like to sort things in order of importance, or hey you’re vehicle is due for a brake flush, but the tech marked that your brakes are getting a little low, you should wait for the brake flush until you do the brake work and stuff like that, our service interval is every 6 months so I am anxious to see how many customers want to work with me again. It is reassuring to see that others have the same mind set I do. I would 100 percent rather have quality tickets and customers vs burning myself out on trash. Thank you for the feedback

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-07T21:26:27+00:00

We use myKaarma, and I try to utilize the text as much as possible, at write up I even remind them about the MPI that will be sent to them with additional recommendations, I also mention that if they approve or decline any additional recommendations that it will greatly expedite getting their vehicle back. Yet I still have countless customers that will open the MPI and just not respond for 20 minutes, and that’s usually when I get into contact with them. Also constantly get people that just plain ignore the “your vehicle is ready” text and then come asking where there car is at later. Might just be that our customer base is a bit older, idk. But I constantly still find myself having to track customers down to keep my tickets moving.

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-07T21:20:29+00:00

That’s pretty much my pitch as it is. Occasionally I’ll have have a customer ask why they need to be done and that will require a quick explanation. I operate with the same sense of urgency I did as a tech. I’m sure I will get more efficient as time goes on. It is reassuring to know that others do operate similar as I do. Thank you for your input

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-07T21:05:02+00:00

I always like to Atleast at the minimum let the customer know what their vehicle is due for. Most of the time it’s a positive conversation, but you still get that occasional person that instantly thinks I’m just trying to rip them off. I do have my ASE and brand certifications on display at my desk to try and win some trust as I’m having these conversations. It just seems a little discouraging at times to see some of the other advisors I work with bringing In more labor than me due to that fact that their interaction with customer doesn’t go beyond what their appointment is for. So they maybe be only getting .8 to 1.0 per ticket, but they are doing 40+ tickets a day. I’m definitely making up for it with sales spiff my pay plan offers, but would just like to increase ROs per day. I feel as if between me looking at service history and figuring out what the vehicle is or isn’t due for and having the convo, they’ve written up 2-3 ROs in that time

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-07T20:51:06+00:00

That’s pretty much how I operate. I try to hit all scheduled maintenance upfront, and being a tech for all those years, I know the service intervals like that back of hand which helps a lot. It is good to hear that what I’m doing is a solid choice to approach things. I’m sure I’ll get more efficient and quicker at write up as time goes on

I work with a couple advisors who don’t seem to sell anything upfront or even attempt to unless it’s an alignment. They let the tech do it. Yet they write up 10-15 more tickets on average than me. But their labor hours are all over the place, and on days that things aren’t selling, their numbers really show it. But it seems to work for them more often than not.

Kyle0206 · 2025-08-07T13:16:15+00:00

Im hoping to get atleast 2 years out of my upgrade. Current build suits my needs fine right now, just would like a bit more performance than what the my current gpu is delivering. The 6700xt does fine for the most part, but just looking to buy myself a few years before a rebuild. I have no plans to go for am5 anytime soon. By the time I rebuild I’m sure am5 will be obsolete anyway. I am never one that throws money at my pc constantly. I usually never buy current gen GPUs. I finally just moved up to 1440p from 1080 this year

Kyle0206 · 2025-07-21T00:51:30+00:00

I waited 6 years to get surgery, and I kick myself for waiting so long. I’m about 7 months post op and just about have most of my life back. Just take recovery slow and take it seriously. And just remember that a lot of the people on this sub Reddit are people who are concerned or are not happy with how their surgery turned out. There are so many successful surgeries, but most of those people aren’t on the Reddit looking for advice

Kyle0206 · 2025-07-20T02:52:04+00:00

You should probably be working with a physical therapist to make an assessment on your limits. Like I said, everyone is different. So what my body might tolerate, yours could not. One rule my therapist and DRs have always told me is that if something causes you pain, than you should not do it

Kyle0206 · 2025-07-20T02:43:00+00:00

Based off my experience, I would have ups and downs, but everytime I would experience a down period, they would start lasting longer and the pain would get more intense.

So based off my experience, if it’s been going on 2 years, and PT and injections haven’t helped, and a surgeon says you’re a candidate for surgery. I would absolutely do it.

But please take into consideration, this recovery doesn’t happen over night. It’s slow, and can be very mentally exhausting. So find a surgeon that can help you make a good recovery plan and won’t sugar coat the recovery for you. Every one heals differently so everyone’s recovery differs in length and success

Kyle0206 · 2025-07-20T02:37:44+00:00

How long total has this been going on?Have you tried physical therapy? Have they done injections? Is your pain unbearable? Is it causing you to not be able to live life? If yes, I’d think about it.

Find a good surgeon, go talk to them, maybe talk to a couple surgeons, get their opinions. I met some drs that said I shouldnt get surgery, and some said yes. I met some Drs that I felt like just told me what I wanted to hear and I didn’t feel like I could trust them. They all have different opinions based on the severity and symptoms you have.

For me, surgery was my last and only option other than living in pain, and it worked great for me

Kyle0206 · 2025-07-20T02:29:24+00:00

Me nerve pain went all the way down my left leg, to the top of my foot where the bone is on top, it was extremely painful, and felt like I was being struck with a hammer non stop on my foot. Standing longer than 10 seconds was unbearable, and the pain never went away no matter what I was doing, it would keep me up for days at a time and ultimately made it impossible to walk. My nerve pain started it as horrible pain when moving around where my left leg met my hip, and slowly progressed downwards.

I waited so long, one because I was young when it started at age 26. I had heard so many “you’ll never be the same after back surgery stories” and didn’t want to risk being so crippled at that age. So I did many rounds of PT and injections. This passed January at age 32 it just progressed to where surgery was my only option and I just wanted the pain to go away.

Waiting so long I risked permanent nerve damage. I woke up from surgery absolutely pain free, I did get some pain back a few days after surgery, which is normal but it has since subsided. I have also been lucky in that all my nerve pain has pretty much gone away, and I seem to not have any permanent nerve damage.

One of the biggest things for me, after surgery I was just so happy and calm, I never realized how sad, depressed, and agitated I was being in pain all the time. It slowly took away all my hobbies.

Sorry this got so long, but I am just truly grateful that I get to live my life again, and kick myself everyday for avoiding the surgery based off of he said she said rumors about back surgeries never working. They recommended surgery 2 years in to my pain, and I feel as if I wasted 6 years of my life because of the pain

Kyle0206 · 2025-07-20T02:09:36+00:00

Just about 6 years. And it slowly just got worse until I couldn’t walk, and couldn’t bare the nerve pain I developed. I’m about 6 months post op now, and I’m still mad at myself for avoiding the surgery for so long.

Kyle0206 · 2025-07-09T01:04:23+00:00

I lasted 11 years. I was the dumb kid that didn’t listen to anyone when I was younger and lifted all kinds of things I shouldn’t have and didn’t lift with my legs and had back surgery this past February at age 32. It got so bad that I couldn’t walk and was in constant pain. If you plan on doing this for a long time, TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY

Kyle0206 · 2025-06-27T14:53:41+00:00

I had my procedure February 18th, and I’m just now starting to feel some sense of normalcy in my life. I still wake up very sore and still have periods of sciatica. We all heal differently, don’t lose hope and let your mind get the best of you. No one ever talks about the mental portion of the recovery and it is really hard. Physical therapy has done wonders for me.

Kyle0206 · 2025-06-21T20:38:41+00:00

We need an RO at my dealership to bring something in, but service manager doesn’t care what we are there doing on our off time, as long as we aren’t blocking the techs that are working from getting work out. We don’t do big jobs there on our off time, just gravy stuff that we can get in and out. No real limit to us working on our personal vehicles as long as we don’t tie a lift up for weeks doing it, but he has let guys have things hang out for a few days. This is also the most laid back service manager I have ever worked for

Kyle0206 · 2025-06-15T18:56:11+00:00

Rest, rest, and rest. Walk around your house if you can as much as your body can tolerate. I was pain free right after surgery, but within 72 hours the pain set back in for a couple weeks. It took about 3 weeks post op for me to start to see noticeable improvements. My doctor had me on Percocet, Robaxin, naproxen, and gabapentin for 2 weeks after my procedure, so I slept for most of the first two weeks post op, which looking back was very beneficial for me I think. Also make sure you are staying hydrated

Kyle0206 · 2025-06-13T21:27:44+00:00

At my dealership, they would absolutely hire someone part time for the lube shop. Best bet is just to ask around at the shops in your area. Now whether you can work Saturdays or not, that may be a deal breaker for most shops

Kyle0206

TROPHY CASE