The worst work week ever - Monday

Last week was the worst work week! The corporate office that I work for owns many apartment communities, including one that's about an hour and a half north of where I live. I was asked to go up there and be the manager for a week and it was just awful!
This is the same property they asked me to manage and I told them no!

Since my friend Wendy lives close to the property (about 50 miles) I decided to stay with her and drive to work and back everyday versus staying in the model apartment with no TV and no one I know in the area, and then having to hide my belongings every day for daily tours! I don't think so!

I left soon after the super bowl half time show on Sunday, February 3rd and listened to the remainder of the show on my way up to Wendy's house. She lives a little over an hour away, but a snow storm decided to come through on my way up, so I was going about 40 miles or so the whole way... I was pretty stressed because I couldn't see the road and I was driving by the reflector lights on the right side of the road, driving on the bumpy vibrating things on the side of the road and a prayer.

Just a little side note... I usually get 9 hours of sleep or so at night (bed at 11 and wake at 8). And work is a 3-minute walk, on a slow day.

Monday, February 4, 2008:
Got up at 6:30 a.m. and on the road at 7 a.m.
Made it into work a little after 8 a.m. and dove right in!
The actors who make up the stage are: Leasing agents - Madam P (has worked there over 10 years) and Madam B (has worked there almost 6 years).
From the maintenance/housekeeping section there is Madam F who completes work orders; Sir J as maintenance; Sir C - the painter; and Sir A - the cleaner.

Right off the bat I had to tell Sir A to cut back on his personal cell phone use. Then, Sir J, came into my office and started telling me this story... basically, there was an apartment that had roaches (GROSS!) and the people moved out of it and the maintenance thought that they could just bomb the place and they'd go away! Yeah, they'd go away. Away to another apartment! So, obviously, when another person moved into that same apartment, the little critters came back and it just so happened that the city inspectors were coming with the fire marshal and some other professionals that coming Thursday to inspect that building! And that building only! So, I got on the phone to see when the pest company could come out and take care of it, but they told me that we owed them $180 before they'd step foot on our property. So, after many calls back and forth, I got my corporate office to cut a check and mail it out, overnight, to the pest company so they can come out asap!

This same day, I had to call contractors to get bids on yearly contracts for the water heaters and boilers and then take them on a tour to all the buildings (they have 5 buildings). Only one company actually came out while I was there. Then later on in the afternoon, someone came into the office and Madam P and Madam B told me that there was another person there for a bid. So, I thought he was a boiler/water heater bid guy and took him right down to the boiler room and was showing him around when I realized he looked as confused as I and then said that he was there to bid on the smoke alarms and not the boilers! Of course I was embarrassed!
I then took him upstairs to the office so I could get keys for a studio, one-bedroom, and a two-bedroom. Sir J was up there and being more familiar to the property, he helped me get apartment keys and then me and the bidder man headed downstairs to the first apartment.
I tried all six keys and was about to give up when finally, the door opened, and resident asked us if we needed help with anything! What! I was so embarrassed! We needed to see three EMPTY apartments! And this Sir J gave me the wrong keys and it was awful! Thankfully the lady was nice, but the bidder man told me that I was pretty red! He was very nice though and helped me knock on all the other apartment doors, just in case!

End scene.

Four more days to go...