wherein Liz discusses her new job

[edenfalling]

So, I recently acquired a new job. It is at a rental company office. What does that mean in practical terms?

Well, first off, this company is different from a lot of rental companies (or at least this particular branch of it is), because its sole and entire purpose is to rent apartments to Cornell students. That is it and that is all. And so there are a bunch of peculiarities in the way the leases are structured, because you have to have some really strict guidelines to impose order on a market that A) is deeply chaotic (and prone to catastrophizing), B) has no credit history (except for grad students), and C) has no freaking clue what it's doing at least 67% of the time (for grad students, you can maybe reduce that to 33%. maybe).

(Also, helicopter parents. Holy fuck, you would not believe the helicopter parenting I have encountered in just the past three weeks.)

Anyway, my job responsibilities are: answer phones and either handle the inquiries or transfer the callers to someone higher up; receive and log in tenant packages, send email notifications to tenants, and check out packages when the tenants come to pick them up; receive and process office mail; process rent payments and write up occasional ancillary paperwork; print, scan, and file various documents (both physically and electronically); receive and send various types of email; create work orders at tenant requests; give apartment tours; occasionally go check the parking lots to make sure no unauthorized cars are using our spaces. I also open and close the office and am here alone for an hour at either end of the day (except Saturdays, when I work with the other part-time employee).

There are times when everything is very slow and I wonder why I'm here, and times when everything happens at once and we could really do with five people on staff instead of only two or three. I think most jobs that involve customer service are like that.

Anyway, it pays pretty well for a part-time job and is actually pretty relaxing most of the time... except for the inevitable phone calls from upset helicopter parents. *sigh*

Comments

[redwolf]

Yay! job. But, gah! Helicopter parents. I feel your pain.

[edenfalling]

The depth of helicopter parenting I've seen is just astounding. Seriously, how do you expect your children to learn to be functional adults and solve their own problems if you never let them solve their own problems??? I get that this means letting them fuck up now and then, and that can be painful for both them and you, but playing magic fix-it fairy forever is not a viable path. *headdesk*

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're enjoying your new job. I hope it continues to go well for you.

And yeah...helicopter parents are no fun. We have some at my school that we're currently having to deal with, and it's really frustrating.

[edenfalling]

Thanks!

Sometimes the upset parent calls are totally legit -- the ones whose kids 'forgot' to tell them the price of the apartments for which they've just signed legally binding rental contracts, for example. Others... not so much. There's a large contingent of parents to whom I want to say, "You do realize you're working very hard to make sure your children are helpless and incompetent at solving everyday problems, right? Because that is 100% the effect of what you're doing by rushing in to fix everything for them and aggressively shelter them from the consequences of their own actions." *sigh*