Mismanagement

This has been a bit of a whirlwind week for Brittany and I. She has now worked in the same industry and at the same apartment complex for nearly three years, and has been through two property management companies during this time. On Tuesday of this week, however, she received a call from a good friend of hers who had previously been her manager here at the complex - this manager was taking a new job at a new company, and she had an opening for Brittany. The catch, however, lay in the fact that the job needed her to start on Friday, as the new company was taking over a new property effective that day.

We thought it over for Tuesday and most of Wednesday, and both of us decided that accepting the job would be the best option for her and for our family. She was tired of the old company's archaic record-keeping methods, its inability to do anything fast or process requests in a timely manner, and its hands-off approach to her property except to tell her to show the property to as many as five different prospective buyers per day (the company managed the property for a bank, and due to its being actively marketed for sale, it received very little attention as it was not a priority to maintain a property that would soon be sold to another buyer). She also would be getting paid nearly as much as a leasing agent as she currently was as a property manager, and the opportunities for advancement seemed much more plentiful at the new company. So, with all that in mind, she wrote a simultaneously thankful and apologetic letter of resignation; she thanked the company for the opportunity and for all that she had learned, and she apologized for the very short notice, going on to explain that the job offer necessitated her starting on Friday. She sent it off and later called to speak to one of the main managers about it and to apologize again for the short notice.

The company, however, was supremely unamused.

The manager regaled Brittany as being malicious and unprofessional in her resignation and berated her for even considering leaving so soon. She said that she was appalled that Brittany would have the nerve to do such a thing after everything the company had done for her, including considering her husband for a job, and that she was surprised that the new company would even hire her after not giving two weeks' notice. The tone was very vindictive and bitter, and it left Brittany in tears, shocked at the reaction of the manager.

It was very apparent that no one read past "I resign my position effective at the end of business on Thursday," as Brittany apologized for and explained the reason for the extremely short notice. In regards to my being offered a job, I had submitted a resume and application, but no one had ever said a word to me or replied to my many emails on the matter. If I had even been considered for a job, their followup on the matter was atrocious.

As a final parting shot, Brittany tried to work it out so that we would be able to stay on the property for another month at the full rent amount (we had previously been receiving free rent as a part of her compensation) but the manager would not even entertain the idea. She told Brittany that she was extremely unprofessional and that the company had no reason to help us since she was turning her back on them. She then said that we needed to vacate the premises in 72 hours, which effectively killed our plans to go to Utah for the weekend.

While I can understand the company's irritation at not receiving the usual two weeks' notice, they did not even attempt to understand or empathize with the situation and overreacted like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Brittany could not give two weeks' notice because she simply did not get that kind of notice herself. The unprofessionalism here falls on the old company and its overreaction to the situation. I can only imagine how its employees feel internally knowing that its management force conducts itself in such a manner - I've been through a "motivation through fear and paranoia" sort of company before, and it is not pleasant. Hopefully we're past that now, though.

On to the move. Bring on the future.

Just Deserts

Arizona is an intriguing place. It is one of few places on earth that has the distinction of having barren, scorched wasteland and lush, green forests within an hour's drive of each other, and it is home to some of the world's most spectacular sunsets and night skies. It is certainly not my ideal home, but it still manages to make me grin from time to time.

Asphalt is a substance that, under extreme heat, is able to be spread like ribbons of frosting on an earthen cake. The machines required to manipulate it into streets are large, messy and expensive, but like toothpicks or exacto-knives shaping a cake, certain smaller implements can be used to manipulate it on a smaller scale.

Today, due to a very sore back, I left my bike in an open parking lot in favor of Phoenix's light rail system. Today's high was close to 110 degrees, and without realizing it, I had parked my bike facing west; this gave the steel kickstand a constant solar exposure and heated it up like a knife over an open flame. It also had a similar effect on the pavement, and where the two items met, another familiar maxim played out:




Like a hot knife through butter.




By way of explanation, that knob-like extension (meant to catch with the rider's heel to raise and lower the kickstand) is a little more than two inches from the ground. Warm asphalt + hot kickstand + 550 pounds of pressure = 2 inches of sinkage. Physics is occasionally fun.