Breaking Down Gender Boundaries at Jiffy Lube

In the last century, when I first began my career at Jiffy Lube, my store, and virtually the entire industry, was completely male dominated.  This would have been in 1983.  The “Quick-Lube” industry was in its infancy in those days and you would have been hard pressed to find a female at a Jiffy Lube or any other lube shop across the country.  Not that women were turned away or banned from the industry.  No grand conspiracy here!   Apparently working at a Jiffy Lube “back in the day” just wasn’t that appealing to women.  

But my how the times have changed!  We have female astronauts, soldiers, even bull riders so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that we have women working at Jiffy Lubes.  At New Mexico area Jiffy Lubes, we currently have four outstanding female managers along with several assistant managers, team leaders, customer service advisors, etc.  

Years ago when we first started hiring women as they began to apply to work for us, it seemed

that they had to break the “credibility barrier” with many male customers.  We have literally had male customers tell us “I don’t want a girl working on my car…”  We don’t hear that much anymore thankfully but I have to tell you, many of the women working for us know every bit as much about cars as men do and some a whole lot more.   We appreciate having female team members because I believe it puts female customers at ease.   I think they are just more comfortable around female team members.  And anything that makes our customers more comfortable is a great thing.

As the proud father of four daughters and one son, I can tell you that all of my kids have worked in the business.  Three of my daughters have chosen to work in the office end of the business but one daughter wanted none of that, choosing instead to work in a store.  She learned all the functions and became quite proficient at all of them.  She worked as a “lower bay tech” underneath the car, she worked as an “upper bay tech”, under the hood of a car, she could do the “courtesy tech” position which means vacuuming, washing windows and checking tires. She could do tire rotations and all of the other ancillary services as well.  The really cool thing is she became the “go to” person at high school amongst all her friends when they had car questions.   We know that it is not a job every young woman (or young man) wants but what a great opportunity to learn about cars inside and out and know how to work on them, at least in terms of preventive maintenance.  

I am proud of all my daughters but have just an extra measure of pride and respect for our daughter that chose to work in the shop rather than the office.  And I am immensely proud of the women who have chosen to work for our organization.  Women bring a quality to the quick lube industry that is unrivaled in customer service and attention to detail. They all do a wonderful job and we are lucky to have them. I think Rosie the Riveter would be proud too and if she were alive today I believe she would say “You Go Girl!”