Collin Barbieri

My job as a porter consists of a range of different things. Typically, on a day-to-day basis, I open up the shop, sweep/mop what's needed, do oil changes on customers' vehicles, take out the trash, run errands for supplies, or really anything else we might need done that no one else can take the time to do. I also check and make sure the shop has all the supplies it may need, and notify my manager if we are low and/or out of anything we need. At any point, the technicians or my managers will tell me to do things as well. whether it's something simple like pulling a car in/out of the shop, taking a car on a test drive to verify repair/or aid in diagnosing a problem. Finishing up a job a technician started but may have had to leave for one reason or another. A lot of times, I am also asked to assist the Technicians in their jobs, whether its doing one side of a cars brakes, or keeping an engine steady as its being pulled out of a car/truck. Its a very jack of all trades job.

This was a more part-time job that I worked with my dad on, as he owns and runs his own business. I worked with him over summers and winters, for the most part, before I got my current job. In the spring/summer time frames, I helped him with laying sod, digging trenches, installing sprinkler systems, laying dirt/mulch/gravel, and spreading it on various types of properties as well. From small garden boxes, to apartment playgrounds. In the Fall/Winter Months, I helped him with sprinkler blowouts to prepare for freezing temperatures. Fall cleanup mostly just consists of raking up a lot leaves and throwing the full tarps into the dump trailer. In the winter, we do what I consider to be the more laborious/exhausting side of the work. snow/ice removal. On good snow years, we frequently stay up working all night, and typically into the next day doing snow removal. Typically I will get out and shovel off the sidewalks, and lay granular ice melt while my dad plows and lays liquid ice melt in the driveways/parking lots.