July 8, 2025 • 11 mins
When we first met Demeny Pollitt, the founder of Girlington Garage in Vermont, she was extricating her mom as her business partner and hiring more mechanics. On this episode, she faces new personnel challenges - and new opportunities - as she continues to run her successful, woman-focused garage despite the odds.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to On the Job. I'm Avery Thompson and
on today's episode, we're headed up to Vermont, or should
I say back up to Vermont to check in with
an old friend from a previous season.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I am Demenie Pollet, and I am still the owner
of Gurlington Garage.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
It's been two years now, correct.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I guess, so, yeah, it's a lot longer than I thought.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So let's get into it to see how the last
couple of years have treated Demenie Pollitt and her team
at Garlington Garage. When Demanie Pollet was last on On
the Job, she was an open book about her highs
and lows of pursuing a career in the automotive repair
business after working for years as a social worker.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's nearly impossible to take your own emotions out of it.
Everyone knows what it's like when their car breaks down
and when they have this painfully expensive bill that they
have to pay if they're going to get their car back.
Everyone knows how that feels.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
One of the things that really stuck with me from
our previous conversation was a strain working with her mom
had on their relationship.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Being partners with my mom owning a business destroyed our
relationship one hundred percent. When we were still working together,
we would be in our office and we would just
constantly be yelling at each other.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So with her mother now retired from the business, I
wanted to start by asking Demoni how things were going
between them.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's better. It's much better. It's not like it was
before we work together. I don't think it ever will be.
But she's living nearby again, and we have dinner together
every Thursday night, and she is trying really, really hard
to build our relationship up again. And I am accepting that.
(01:54):
I'm not trying as hard as she is, but I'm
not angry anymore the way that I was. So things
are much better.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
One thing I love about talking with Demanie is her
honesty and transparency, and Demanie founded Gurlington Garage on those
same principles, offering her customers honest, straightforward car repairs, no gimmicks,
no tricks, no lies, and it's proved a successful business model.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah it has grown. I think I have at least
one more, if not two more employees than I had before,
and so yeah it has.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Girlington Garage has even become something of an icon in
the community.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
People often come in just to buy a sweatshirt or
a T shirt for someone, but I don't think we
actually make any money off of it.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It's just fun.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So someone that founded their business on trust and transparency,
it came as such a surprise to me when Demani
started describing those qualities as her shortcomings.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
One of my greatest feelings is that if you look
at me and tell me something, I will believe you
whatever it is. I just believe that people are telling
me the truth always.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But it turns out there's a reason because not too
long after the last time we spoke, Demini discovered that
one of her employees, an employee she really valued at
the time, had been well, this isn't a true crime podcast,
so I'll just say negatively impacting the business financially.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And then I sat her down. She told me she
really cared about me, and she was really sorry, and
I told her I didn't trust her anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And while there's never a good time for an employee
to act out of line, it came at an especially
trying one for Demine.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I was in the middle of a really deep depression
and I don't know if I talked to you about this.
But I get migraines and they had gotten really bad.
I was probably getting them twenty five times a month,
so I mean almost every and so when I discovered this,
I just didn't think I could go back to running
(04:06):
the business on my own with.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That feeling incapable of taking the reins, Demani tried to
make it work with that employee, all in the name
of keeping the business going, of upholding her obligation to
her customers and the community.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
She served to have someone who could do the majority
of the day to day stuff and I could deal
with the financial stuff. I could handle that, and a
lot of that I could do from home if I
needed to, and it would still allow me to try
and get better.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
But that arrangement didn't last long because as Demanie started
spending more time in the shop again, she started to
learn that this same employee had created a very unhealthy
work environment. And that's when Demanie knew she had to
draw the line.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I just didn't want to hurt anyone else, and it
was for me to deal with. It wasn't for anyone
else to worry about or deal with.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
That is quite the dramatic update. I wasn't expecting that.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I know I wasn't either, But don't worry, folks, It's
not all doom and gloom on this episode of On
the Job.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So when we come back from the break, we'll hear
how Deminie Polytt gets her garage all fixed up and
running like new. We're back with Demanie Pollett of Gurlington Garage, who,
as we heard, for the sake of her business, had
no other choice but to let go of a key employee,
(05:36):
even if doing so meant that she'd have to spend
much more time at the shop in spite of some
real challenging health problems. I know it was often painful
for Demoni to get into the shop. Once she was there,
it didn't take long for her to realize that she'd
made the right decision.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And my tech came to me and he said, I
know that things are really hard for you right now,
but your presence here is really important. It really matters,
and we really need you here. And I hated that.
I still hate it, but I know he's right.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Demoni had found herself in a tricky spot one I
think a lot of business owners get into when the
business they started continues demanding more of their time and
attention than they want to keep giving it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
It's like my only thing. I don't have kids, it
is my only thing, and so I think there's a
part of me that doesn't want to let it die.
I could live on disability, I really could. And my
house is almost paid off, and I don't spend much
(06:50):
money anyway because I don't do anything. I have migraines.
I just hang out at home all the time, so
I could, And I think that there is a part
of me that just doesn't want to let it die.
I care about it, even though I don't really want
to be a part of it. I don't want to
see it, and I want it to keep going.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I've had some relationships like that.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Ye yes, yes, it's a dad relationship. You're totally right.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So what do you do to keep going? After nearly
sixteen years of criming along and retirement a mere speck
on the horizon. Well, for Demini, she treated it like
the cars in our shop. Assess the problem and come
up with a solution.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
We pull every car in first name in the morning
and we do the evaluation on each car, and then
we call the customer and we go through the evaluation,
we say, here's everything that we found, so you decide
what happens from that point on, but you're able to
make an informed decision.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Taking that same approach to her own business, Demenie evaluated
Gurlington Garage and realized that in her absence, the morale
of her team had been severely damaged by that one
bad apple.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Every single person came to me and said, I'm so
glad that you did that. I was looking for another job,
all of my employees. I was about to lose everyone,
and I had no idea, like, not even a hint.
I really didn't know.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So to remedy that, Demani started having weekly one on
one meetings with her employees.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
What do these meetings look like? Are they coming into
your office? Are you sipping coffee?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah? Sometimes it depends on what time of day. I
have a tech who usually comes in at luxury, brings
his luncheon and eats with me. But they come into
my office to close the doors. I asked them how
they're doing, how their week has been, and then I
asked them to tell me something good since the last
time we met. Something that has been a struggle or
(09:00):
a hurdle that they had to get over something that
really didn't go well, and then ask them tell me
something that they learned or it's something that they're proud of,
and it takes fifteen minutes. They're really not long meetings.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
As we learned the first time we spoke with Demani.
Prior to going into auto mechanics school, she was a
social worker helping people in need. So these meetings in
a way feel like a healthy blending of her passions.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
The meeting is often about their personal stuff, and I
think that's really valuable, knowing what's going on in their lives,
knowing how that's their lives are affecting their work.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
And as anyone who's ever held a job knows, the
more of ourselves were able to bring into our work,
the more fulfilling that work becomes.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I love talking to them, hearing about how they're doing,
working through whatever struggles they're having, and coming up with
goals for the future. I don't know, I always leave
those meetings feeling really good. I really like that. It's
a really nice part of my day.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So will Demanie might have resisted coming back into the
shop these days. Her own relationship with the business is improving, and.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It was good to get back in touch with the
business and really be a part of things again.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And staff morale has definitely improved since Demni's returned and
instituted those weekly meetings, so much so that one of
her service advisors recently approached her about potentially taking over
the business someday.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
In the time that she's sort of been working into
the role of a service manager, she has decided that
she really wants to eventually buy the business, which probably
won't happen for another fifteen years, but it's what she's
working towards. And yeah, just talking about business ownership and
(10:57):
management and yeah, are progressing slowly, but they feel stable
for the first time in about it year and a half,
which is lovely.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And while Demanie would love to pass the business off
sooner rather than later, she's accepted that it can't be rushed.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I think that I'm going to be there full time,
probably at least for another year, if not longer, and
in maybe about fifteen years, I'll be ready to transfer
the business to them if they are still interested in
taking it over, and then I will retire.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
But until that day comes, Demenie Pollitt is keeping her
hands firmly on the wheel.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
It's rolling along and it can't be stopped. It is
a stable, sturdy business that's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
For on the job, I'm Avery Thompson.
Welcome back to On the Job. I'm Avery Thompson and
on today's episode, we're headed up to Vermont, or should
I say back up to Vermont to check in with
an old friend from a previous season.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I am Demenie Pollet, and I am still the owner
of Gurlington Garage.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
It's been two years now, correct.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I guess, so, yeah, it's a lot longer than I thought.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So let's get into it to see how the last
couple of years have treated Demenie Pollitt and her team
at Garlington Garage. When Demanie Pollet was last on On
the Job, she was an open book about her highs
and lows of pursuing a career in the automotive repair
business after working for years as a social worker.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's nearly impossible to take your own emotions out of it.
Everyone knows what it's like when their car breaks down
and when they have this painfully expensive bill that they
have to pay if they're going to get their car back.
Everyone knows how that feels.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
One of the things that really stuck with me from
our previous conversation was a strain working with her mom
had on their relationship.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Being partners with my mom owning a business destroyed our
relationship one hundred percent. When we were still working together,
we would be in our office and we would just
constantly be yelling at each other.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So with her mother now retired from the business, I
wanted to start by asking Demoni how things were going
between them.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's better. It's much better. It's not like it was
before we work together. I don't think it ever will be.
But she's living nearby again, and we have dinner together
every Thursday night, and she is trying really, really hard
to build our relationship up again. And I am accepting that.
(01:54):
I'm not trying as hard as she is, but I'm
not angry anymore the way that I was. So things
are much better.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
One thing I love about talking with Demanie is her
honesty and transparency, and Demanie founded Gurlington Garage on those
same principles, offering her customers honest, straightforward car repairs, no gimmicks,
no tricks, no lies, and it's proved a successful business model.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah it has grown. I think I have at least
one more, if not two more employees than I had before,
and so yeah it has.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Girlington Garage has even become something of an icon in
the community.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
People often come in just to buy a sweatshirt or
a T shirt for someone, but I don't think we
actually make any money off of it.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It's just fun.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So someone that founded their business on trust and transparency,
it came as such a surprise to me when Demani
started describing those qualities as her shortcomings.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
One of my greatest feelings is that if you look
at me and tell me something, I will believe you
whatever it is. I just believe that people are telling
me the truth always.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But it turns out there's a reason because not too
long after the last time we spoke, Demini discovered that
one of her employees, an employee she really valued at
the time, had been well, this isn't a true crime podcast,
so I'll just say negatively impacting the business financially.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And then I sat her down. She told me she
really cared about me, and she was really sorry, and
I told her I didn't trust her anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And while there's never a good time for an employee
to act out of line, it came at an especially
trying one for Demine.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I was in the middle of a really deep depression
and I don't know if I talked to you about this.
But I get migraines and they had gotten really bad.
I was probably getting them twenty five times a month,
so I mean almost every and so when I discovered this,
I just didn't think I could go back to running
(04:06):
the business on my own with.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That feeling incapable of taking the reins, Demani tried to
make it work with that employee, all in the name
of keeping the business going, of upholding her obligation to
her customers and the community.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
She served to have someone who could do the majority
of the day to day stuff and I could deal
with the financial stuff. I could handle that, and a
lot of that I could do from home if I
needed to, and it would still allow me to try
and get better.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
But that arrangement didn't last long because as Demanie started
spending more time in the shop again, she started to
learn that this same employee had created a very unhealthy
work environment. And that's when Demanie knew she had to
draw the line.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I just didn't want to hurt anyone else, and it
was for me to deal with. It wasn't for anyone
else to worry about or deal with.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
That is quite the dramatic update. I wasn't expecting that.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I know I wasn't either, But don't worry, folks, It's
not all doom and gloom on this episode of On
the Job.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So when we come back from the break, we'll hear
how Deminie Polytt gets her garage all fixed up and
running like new. We're back with Demanie Pollett of Gurlington Garage, who,
as we heard, for the sake of her business, had
no other choice but to let go of a key employee,
(05:36):
even if doing so meant that she'd have to spend
much more time at the shop in spite of some
real challenging health problems. I know it was often painful
for Demoni to get into the shop. Once she was there,
it didn't take long for her to realize that she'd
made the right decision.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And my tech came to me and he said, I
know that things are really hard for you right now,
but your presence here is really important. It really matters,
and we really need you here. And I hated that.
I still hate it, but I know he's right.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Demoni had found herself in a tricky spot one I
think a lot of business owners get into when the
business they started continues demanding more of their time and
attention than they want to keep giving it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
It's like my only thing. I don't have kids, it
is my only thing, and so I think there's a
part of me that doesn't want to let it die.
I could live on disability, I really could. And my
house is almost paid off, and I don't spend much
(06:50):
money anyway because I don't do anything. I have migraines.
I just hang out at home all the time, so
I could, And I think that there is a part
of me that just doesn't want to let it die.
I care about it, even though I don't really want
to be a part of it. I don't want to
see it, and I want it to keep going.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I've had some relationships like that.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Ye yes, yes, it's a dad relationship. You're totally right.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So what do you do to keep going? After nearly
sixteen years of criming along and retirement a mere speck
on the horizon. Well, for Demini, she treated it like
the cars in our shop. Assess the problem and come
up with a solution.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
We pull every car in first name in the morning
and we do the evaluation on each car, and then
we call the customer and we go through the evaluation,
we say, here's everything that we found, so you decide
what happens from that point on, but you're able to
make an informed decision.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Taking that same approach to her own business, Demenie evaluated
Gurlington Garage and realized that in her absence, the morale
of her team had been severely damaged by that one
bad apple.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Every single person came to me and said, I'm so
glad that you did that. I was looking for another job,
all of my employees. I was about to lose everyone,
and I had no idea, like, not even a hint.
I really didn't know.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So to remedy that, Demani started having weekly one on
one meetings with her employees.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
What do these meetings look like? Are they coming into
your office? Are you sipping coffee?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah? Sometimes it depends on what time of day. I
have a tech who usually comes in at luxury, brings
his luncheon and eats with me. But they come into
my office to close the doors. I asked them how
they're doing, how their week has been, and then I
asked them to tell me something good since the last
time we met. Something that has been a struggle or
(09:00):
a hurdle that they had to get over something that
really didn't go well, and then ask them tell me
something that they learned or it's something that they're proud of,
and it takes fifteen minutes. They're really not long meetings.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
As we learned the first time we spoke with Demani.
Prior to going into auto mechanics school, she was a
social worker helping people in need. So these meetings in
a way feel like a healthy blending of her passions.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
The meeting is often about their personal stuff, and I
think that's really valuable, knowing what's going on in their lives,
knowing how that's their lives are affecting their work.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
And as anyone who's ever held a job knows, the
more of ourselves were able to bring into our work,
the more fulfilling that work becomes.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I love talking to them, hearing about how they're doing,
working through whatever struggles they're having, and coming up with
goals for the future. I don't know, I always leave
those meetings feeling really good. I really like that. It's
a really nice part of my day.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So will Demanie might have resisted coming back into the
shop these days. Her own relationship with the business is improving, and.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It was good to get back in touch with the
business and really be a part of things again.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And staff morale has definitely improved since Demni's returned and
instituted those weekly meetings, so much so that one of
her service advisors recently approached her about potentially taking over
the business someday.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
In the time that she's sort of been working into
the role of a service manager, she has decided that
she really wants to eventually buy the business, which probably
won't happen for another fifteen years, but it's what she's
working towards. And yeah, just talking about business ownership and
(10:57):
management and yeah, are progressing slowly, but they feel stable
for the first time in about it year and a half,
which is lovely.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And while Demanie would love to pass the business off
sooner rather than later, she's accepted that it can't be rushed.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I think that I'm going to be there full time,
probably at least for another year, if not longer, and
in maybe about fifteen years, I'll be ready to transfer
the business to them if they are still interested in
taking it over, and then I will retire.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
But until that day comes, Demenie Pollitt is keeping her
hands firmly on the wheel.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
It's rolling along and it can't be stopped. It is
a stable, sturdy business that's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
For on the job, I'm Avery Thompson.
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