SKFbearingsskateboarding

I go to my job to tell my boss I probably can't come in the next day so I can get them replaced, whatever, I really am stupid with cars. I start talking to the resident car guy at my job and he and he asked if he did this or that and said that there's no way he could know the wheel bearing are bad by looking at the back of the rim under the car (he dumbed it down for me)

SKF bearing

I noticed a low quiet grinding sometimes when I press my brakes and am going slow, then it turned to a high pitched squeal, sometimes. Since my job revolves around my car I asked a mechanic to look at it and just tell me what's wrong.

All this to ask, should I follow what the first mechanic said and replace the bearings, do I need new brake pads and call it a day or new rotors? And did the first guy try to screw me?

SKFbearingscatalog

According to him and his uncle both of which are grease monkies on their own said that my brake pads are worn pretty bad even though I just got them replaced like 3 or 4 months ago and had the car for 2 years before that and never changed them.

He got under the car, I explained what I typed earlier and in about 3 to 5 mins he came to the conclusion "your wheel bearings are bad, like, I recommend you not drive this car until you can get them replaced." All without ever hearing the brakes, taking off the tire or even lifting the car.

At this point idk what to do, ive been reading about some of this stuff and it said something about wheel bearings cause brake pads to ware faster but idk if he even saw them or just tried to take advantage of someone who would've gone to shop for blinker fluid if he was told to