As title states, this is a shop etiquette opinion for those of you who work in the automotive field... or those of you with an opinion.

I work at a fairly large dealership, and I have a co worker who I've become somewhat decent friends with. We gave each other a key to our tool boxes (exactly the same one) and said, "go ahead, borrow whatever you need." My co worker would let himself in, borrowing basic items like extensions, torque wrenches, magnetic pick up tools. I guess he wasn't into the "borrow it twice" rule or something like that. Basically if you borrow it more than twice, you should consider getting your own. When I let myself into his box, I borrow larger scale items like pullers, camshaft gear holders.

One day, he lets himself into my toolbox to let another one of our co workers borrow an item of mine without even telling me. It was when I was putting tools away to go home I had found out that I was missing something and asked him. So he says, "oh yeah, I let (guys name) here borrow it." So, I took my key back from him.

Who was in the "Wrong" here?

 

You cannot lend out someone else's tools without asking, it's just common courtesy. You giving him permission does not mean he has permission to give it to someone else, they need to ask you directly. I probably wouldn't flip out about it, but he was definitely in the wrong.

As far as the borrow it twice rule, I would say that depends on timeframe, if it's months apart, I wouldn't think much of it, if it's twice in a week I would think you're probably going to want to get your own.

Even still, for me, I would never give anyone a key to my toolbox.

Jeff

 

I think he's in the wrong. He shouldn't be letting others borrow ying items without letting you know FIRST! You did right taking your key back.

 

Baby powder your right hand and air it out across his left check lol ... he's in the wrong. But it could be an unfortunate eye opener that trust still needs to be earned not granted. At least everything is accounted for could of been worst.

 

so have y'all become "Facebook Unofficial"/broke up yet?

 

yeah.. whats up. you and I could get together

 

I'm down to be the rebound

 

He's wrong, and goodness I didn't realize CL was becoming a match making site now too

 

Why doesn't your co-worker have the tools he needs? At many dealerships, mechanics/technicians are not provided tools by management, but are expected to supply their own. Is your co-worker simply not willing to pay what it takes to get the tools he needs to start out in that business? If so, perhaps he should start looking for another line of work. You paid for your tools, and have a right to have access to them when you need them without your tool-drawer ending up being the service-bay's raid-box.

 

agreed

 

Borrowing privileges are not transitive. Your colleague was in the wrong.

 

he was wrong but I think you may have over reacted a little. Just tell him that nobody is allowed to use your tools other than him. If it happens again then I would take then key. Now there is tension at work and thats no fun. Did he apologize? Or is he playing like you are over reacting ?

 

Same etiquette should be applied to your neighbors

 

He has his own tools, but not a lot. I find it a little ironic that he buys a larger tool box when he still had a lot of empty drawers in his smaller box. Now we have the same box, but he has a ton of space to fill. Even things like torque wrenches he would borrow almost daily, but still doesn't buy one. Now we just don't share tools to each other anymore, which is okay with me because I didn't borrow much from him.

He didn't really apologize. All he said was, "Ill give you back your key so we don't have this problem again." There's no tension at work, we're still friends. We just don't go into each others boxes anymore