That is correct everyone. My ass got shit-canned from being a building manager. Have you heard it's awful?
Let's set the scene:
Late morning. I'm sitting in the office. General Manager enters.
"Hey Mapple. How is everything going?"
"Hey GM. Well, that water pump is still making a weird noise, other than that, everything is normal."
"Okay, anything else?"
"No, that's about it...late payments, you know, the usual. Did you get a chance to talk to the Boss about my two-year raise?"
"Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh, about that. We're going to have to let you go."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You are our best manager. You never make mistakes, but I've gotten one too many calls from tenants saying you make them feel idiots after they get off the phone with you." (Hilarious)
"Well they are idiots. What's the problem?"
"This job has a lot to do with customer service and....blah blah blah"
So this is the bullshit excuse he gave me.
He just became a murmur, as I went over in my head what he could be talking about, and how this affects me.
Then I became angry:
"Can you give me an example, so that I know what to do next time?"
"There have just been too many."
"Can you name one, at least, so I know?"
"I've just heard things..."
"So you aren't giving me an example of an instance? Aren't you supposed to warn me?"
"Well, I could warn you, but I know you. You'll change for maybe a month, and then you'll just continue being who you are: dry and sarcastic..."
So wait, he's firing me for who I am? I mean, I guess you can't really change my general attitude towards a terrible job where the owners and the tenants treat me like shit.
"So, what, do you want me to hang out until you find someone else?"
"We already found someone. She's moving in and starting today."
Some more back and forth went on. I went through stages of disbelief, anger, sadness which lead to uncontrollable crying...it was not a pretty scene.
I later looked on craigslist, and found that he posted my job up on 1st. He waited for me to collect rent, hand out notices, turn in the money and do the dirty work while he was interviewing my replacement, then fire me on the 9th.
I also realized that his excuse he gave me is an outright lie.
The tenants don't have his number, and don't talk to him. They don't give a shit about what the tenants think. All they see them as is $$$.
He's saying I'm condescending to tenants on the phone? It's bullshit because I'm nice as shit to these people (despite me calling them all babies and assholes).
The Reason (to me)
I've been here for over two years. I asked for a raise two months ago, on my two-year anniversary. They kept avoiding me and wouldn't talk about it. I think they realize they can get a manager for cheaper. It's only saving them $400, but the boss is cheap as shit, so it doesn't matter.
Also, the GM hates me. He's this 25 year old skinny kid with a nasally voice who has this job because he's the boss' nephew. On the daily, he wears an oversized button-up and ill-fitted pleated slacks, is lanky and has terrible posture. He looks like an awkward, haunched over teen being forced to dress up to go to a school dance he doesn't want to go to.
This dude probably didn't like me because I treated him as such; in a "I got this. Don't tell me what to do, kid" type of way. It's not the best way to talk to your boss, but whatever, I got everything done and I was the best manager out of all their buildings.
I guess he had enough of my act. To show he was a big man who can fire people at will, he did.
And here I sit in my loft, that I now have to pay for, blogging about it.
What else am I going to blog about on a site called "being a building manager is awful: awfulgig.com"? We'll see.
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To end on a fun note, please go to my Twitter feed @awfulgig (and follow me while you're at it), and you'll find a link to a music video of a particular someone...You're Welcome.