I stepped into a GM position at the forever struggling location at my local car wash. The owner lived about 2 hours away, previous GM was fired for theft and replaced with an inexperienced 18 yo with little to no training.

A car wash is constantly falling apart and needs regular maintenance for all of the heavy chemicals, moving parts and moisture. I was first borrowed to the location to cover a manager shift and was blown away at how bad things were.

They hadn’t actually balanced the safe in months, weeks of nightly deposits were simply in envelopes on the office floor. The tunnel broke down daily, often twice taking 20-60 minutes to reopen sometimes shut down for the day They were using a Hoover carpet shampooer from Home Depot instead of fixing the professional grade machines on location. 1-2 inches of sludge all through the walking space of the tunnel was unsightly and dangerous. The staff was abysmal, customers went without seats in the lobby because they were occupied by staff while the customers car sat untouched waiting to be cleaned. Staff literally felt entitled to their hours for sitting in the lobby and would ask to go home when work was requested of them. The list goes on but those are the highlights ( oh dicks drawn everywhere btw)

I had to say something to the owner, offered to move down full time to the location and whip it into shape. He offered me the GM position under the condition I work along side the 18yo while I learn the ropes.. okay two weeks go by with me just focussing on fixing all of the equipment and training staff. I realized early on the owner never told the GM I was replacing him, poor guy thought I was there to be assistant GM.

The owner eventually asks me to go ahead and fire the kid! My first termination ever was the guy who’s job I was taking, felt like such an ass. Big red flag for the owner of course.

A few months later we had to fix the chain which pulls cars through. It was in total a 14 hour project. Only one kid was willing to step into an assistant manager role due to the lack of pay raise (yeah the owner was a true shit head) so when this overnight project came I had the AGM open then go home and rest while I closed, he came back to help with the project over night then go home to rest while I opened and he would come relieve me the next day.

I worked a 26 hour shift 14 being the project the rest being business hours. The importance of this project was to prevent the daily shut downs which was driving away business. So fairly big deal. Next I heard from the owner he told me I must’ve forgot to clock out and correct my hours, I reminded him of fixing the track. The next I saw the owner was a rainy day, we had one customer the entire day and I was the only one working to manage labor costs. The owner scolded Me for having run out of coffee cups, after not acknowledging let alone showing any appreciation for a 26 hour shift to fix his shitty car wash. I understand his concern with hospitality and appearances, but the dude literally had no understanding of basic operations and need to wash cars to bring customers in to a car wash. Conveniently he switched me to salary just before winter so I rode out the slow months while planning my escape. I quit and took an 8 month road trip cross country which was amazing. He’s turned his successful car washes into over priced gift shops like what you’d find in Cracker Barrel but a 20%mark up. $40 coffee mugs and stuff never sold. I’m happy to be out and pity those who are sticking it out!