So, Janelle and I were fired from our job today.
I have to say, I'm really relieved. We've been considering quitting for a few months now and, to our employer's credit, we've received a much better severance deal this way than if we had quit. Thankfully, it wasn't entirely a surprise and we were prepared for it. We've already found potential new jobs and a new place to live and we don't have to go to work until we start our new jobs.
There are plenty of reasons why they may have fired us. We weren't told exactly why we were fired, but we have our suspicions. Most recently being things that occurred during the September first move-out, move-in rush.
Unrelated funny story: I was doing a move-in inspection with a new tenant and his father. The father was particularly picky and wanted to make sure everything worked and was okay. So he turned the oven all the way on and stuck his hand inside. "This doesn't work," he said. I was like, "What?" And reached down to stick my hand in and see for myself. As I reached for the lower oven element, my arm brushed along the upper 'broil' element. I jerked my arm away with a sharp, "Ow!" as I felt my skin burn. "Um, I think it's set to broil," I told the father.
Anyways, here are some of the things that may or may not have led to the termination of our employment:
Most recently, I was doing a move-in inspection in an apartment that had been recently cleaned and saw a cockroach behind the refrigerator. This was the second or third apartment I had seen a cockroach in. The tenants may or may not have seen it, and if they did see it, I'm not entirely sure they knew what it was but I wrote on their inspection form that there was a cockroach in the apartment. When our manager learned of this, she was furious that I had essentially told the tenants that they had cockroaches in their apartment and told me to never do that again. This upset Janelle who confronted our manager and asked her if we were expected to lie to our tenants. Our manager refused to speak to Janelle, and all three of us went home upset. (As a side note, if I was moving into an apartment and there was a cockroach there I would want it to go onto my inspection report because that would serve as proof that the cockroaches were there before I moved in so that my landlord could not justifiably pass the cost of removing the cockroaches to me. If my superintendent put it on the inspection report, I would be grateful to him or her, feeling confident that they intended to take care of the problem.) The next day, Janelle apologized to our manager for speaking out of turn, but was ignored. Our manager gave Janelle and I the 'silent treatment' for the next two days before having us fired.
Another incident that upset our manager: I did a move-out inspection in one of our apartments. It was obvious that the tenants had worked hard to clean the apartment, but they had missed certain things. For example, the stove required some cleaning, and a few other things weren't in perfect condition. Our company's standards require that a tenant pay for the cleaning of the apartment, if any is required, out of their damage deposit, which amounts to half a month's rent. I charged $10 for cleaning the oven and that was it. Later, our manager called me back to the apartment and picked out all the things that were dirty, telling me that the charge of $10 was ridiculously low and that I should have charged more and she had me clean the apartment thoroughly. I believe that I should have and could have charged more for the cleaning of the apartment. I also believe that my manager was right to make me clean the apartment. Nevertheless, I still believe that $10 is a not unreasonable amount to charge for the cleaning of that particular apartment. We, as superintendents were paid to clean apartments at a rate of $25 per apartment if the cleaning charges applied amounted to $25 or more. If the charges were lower, we got nothing, but still had to clean the apartments. So, what it costs our company to clean the apartment is pretty much $25, I might add another $10 to cover the cost of cleaning supplies but $10 in cleaning supplies per apartment is a very generous estimate. So, in my defense, $10 is about one third of what the company would pay to clean even the most dirty apartment. This apartment was far less than one third as dirty as the dirtiest apartment I'd cleaned for $25. Therefore, I maintain that my charge of $10 was reasonable. I also believe that the usual amounts our company charged tenants--and here is a quick breakdown of costs from our company's guidelines: full clean of the stove = $65; partial clean = $35; full clean of the fridge = $35; garbage removal = $25 minimum; and so on, so immediately you can see that the charges against the tenant outweigh the actual cost of cleaning the apartment and that while we were telling the tenants that we were taking their money (and it is their money, being held in trust by the company) to cover the cost of cleaning the apartment, most of the money was actually going into the company's pocket--this is theft, plain and simple.
One apartment that we cleaned was so dirty that our co-workers, Joy and Jane each spent two hours removing garbage, our maintenance man, Henry spent four hours removing garbage, and Janelle and I spent eight hours each removing garbage and cleaning the apartment. Joy and Jane got nothing, Henry got nothing, Janelle got nothing, and I was paid the $25 that the company promised me for cleaning the apartment. This, I have no problem with; the company told me what it would pay me and paid me that much. I do believe, however, that the others would be right in feeling cheated by this deal, because they received nothing. What I do have a problem with is that the company pocketed the very large amount of money that was left of the damage deposit, letting the tenant believe that it was supposed to cover the cost of cleaning the apartment.
Furthermore, when we were hired, we were told that we would not have to clean apartments at all and that our responsibilities were restricted to the maintenance and cleanliness of the building. This was one of the reasons why we accepted the job. Not having to clean apartments, that's pretty attractive. Well, that didn't last a very long time. Nevertheless, new recruits are still being told that they don't have to clean apartments. What a nasty surprise on your first day of work.
In addition to that, our manager could argue that I was slothful in performing my duties at this job. Two complaints that I know she had were that I didn't work as fast as my co-worker, Joy. Also, she complained that I often "disappeared" on what she assumed to be extra long breaks. To these complaints, I can say that I know I didn't work as fast as Joy, but I was thorough and the work I performed was generally good quality work. I took pride in my work and made sure that I gave it my best and it showed. As for my disappearances, I have three defenses, firstly, I did most of my work in areas where my manager could not easily see me. She would try to keep tabs on us by watching the security cameras. However, there are no security cameras in the hallways and stairwells. So, the most time-consuming tasks, including vacuuming the hallways and sweeping and mopping the three thirteen-flight stairwells, occurred off-camera and for the hours I spent cleaning in those areas, I was invisible to my manager. As for the extra long breaks, I took my lead from my immediate supervisor, Joy who treated the job as a 24 hour job, which it was. We worked around the clock. Certain things had to be cleaned daily and we cleaned them regularly but most other things we worked on throughout the day without a real schedule. Our manager wanted it to be an eight hours a day job, with us working during the hours she was present in the building. But we often ended up working as late as seven or eight o'clock in the evening and on some occasions, we had to get up during the night and work for several hours because of some sort of emergency; and this additional work, we felt, went largely ignored by our manager. So, yes, I did take the occasional extra break or added an hour or half hour to my lunch but I generally made sure that my day's work was completed, which is the important thing. Also, my immediate supervisor took a lot of the same breaks as I did, (like I said, I took my lead from her) but our manager never--to my knowledge--confronted her about it, just me. Which seems a little unfair.
I could go on with some personal complaints about the job, but I think I've already gone on too long about this. I don't intend to sound grouchy or sound as though I'm complaining about my job, and about being fired, I'm not. It was a good job while it lasted. I gained plenty of experience and I'm happy I did it. Whatever reasons I was fired for, I don't really care. Our life is going to change now and I'm happy and excited about that.
I have to say, I'm really relieved. We've been considering quitting for a few months now and, to our employer's credit, we've received a much better severance deal this way than if we had quit. Thankfully, it wasn't entirely a surprise and we were prepared for it. We've already found potential new jobs and a new place to live and we don't have to go to work until we start our new jobs.
There are plenty of reasons why they may have fired us. We weren't told exactly why we were fired, but we have our suspicions. Most recently being things that occurred during the September first move-out, move-in rush.
Unrelated funny story: I was doing a move-in inspection with a new tenant and his father. The father was particularly picky and wanted to make sure everything worked and was okay. So he turned the oven all the way on and stuck his hand inside. "This doesn't work," he said. I was like, "What?" And reached down to stick my hand in and see for myself. As I reached for the lower oven element, my arm brushed along the upper 'broil' element. I jerked my arm away with a sharp, "Ow!" as I felt my skin burn. "Um, I think it's set to broil," I told the father.
Anyways, here are some of the things that may or may not have led to the termination of our employment:
Most recently, I was doing a move-in inspection in an apartment that had been recently cleaned and saw a cockroach behind the refrigerator. This was the second or third apartment I had seen a cockroach in. The tenants may or may not have seen it, and if they did see it, I'm not entirely sure they knew what it was but I wrote on their inspection form that there was a cockroach in the apartment. When our manager learned of this, she was furious that I had essentially told the tenants that they had cockroaches in their apartment and told me to never do that again. This upset Janelle who confronted our manager and asked her if we were expected to lie to our tenants. Our manager refused to speak to Janelle, and all three of us went home upset. (As a side note, if I was moving into an apartment and there was a cockroach there I would want it to go onto my inspection report because that would serve as proof that the cockroaches were there before I moved in so that my landlord could not justifiably pass the cost of removing the cockroaches to me. If my superintendent put it on the inspection report, I would be grateful to him or her, feeling confident that they intended to take care of the problem.) The next day, Janelle apologized to our manager for speaking out of turn, but was ignored. Our manager gave Janelle and I the 'silent treatment' for the next two days before having us fired.
Another incident that upset our manager: I did a move-out inspection in one of our apartments. It was obvious that the tenants had worked hard to clean the apartment, but they had missed certain things. For example, the stove required some cleaning, and a few other things weren't in perfect condition. Our company's standards require that a tenant pay for the cleaning of the apartment, if any is required, out of their damage deposit, which amounts to half a month's rent. I charged $10 for cleaning the oven and that was it. Later, our manager called me back to the apartment and picked out all the things that were dirty, telling me that the charge of $10 was ridiculously low and that I should have charged more and she had me clean the apartment thoroughly. I believe that I should have and could have charged more for the cleaning of the apartment. I also believe that my manager was right to make me clean the apartment. Nevertheless, I still believe that $10 is a not unreasonable amount to charge for the cleaning of that particular apartment. We, as superintendents were paid to clean apartments at a rate of $25 per apartment if the cleaning charges applied amounted to $25 or more. If the charges were lower, we got nothing, but still had to clean the apartments. So, what it costs our company to clean the apartment is pretty much $25, I might add another $10 to cover the cost of cleaning supplies but $10 in cleaning supplies per apartment is a very generous estimate. So, in my defense, $10 is about one third of what the company would pay to clean even the most dirty apartment. This apartment was far less than one third as dirty as the dirtiest apartment I'd cleaned for $25. Therefore, I maintain that my charge of $10 was reasonable. I also believe that the usual amounts our company charged tenants--and here is a quick breakdown of costs from our company's guidelines: full clean of the stove = $65; partial clean = $35; full clean of the fridge = $35; garbage removal = $25 minimum; and so on, so immediately you can see that the charges against the tenant outweigh the actual cost of cleaning the apartment and that while we were telling the tenants that we were taking their money (and it is their money, being held in trust by the company) to cover the cost of cleaning the apartment, most of the money was actually going into the company's pocket--this is theft, plain and simple.
One apartment that we cleaned was so dirty that our co-workers, Joy and Jane each spent two hours removing garbage, our maintenance man, Henry spent four hours removing garbage, and Janelle and I spent eight hours each removing garbage and cleaning the apartment. Joy and Jane got nothing, Henry got nothing, Janelle got nothing, and I was paid the $25 that the company promised me for cleaning the apartment. This, I have no problem with; the company told me what it would pay me and paid me that much. I do believe, however, that the others would be right in feeling cheated by this deal, because they received nothing. What I do have a problem with is that the company pocketed the very large amount of money that was left of the damage deposit, letting the tenant believe that it was supposed to cover the cost of cleaning the apartment.
Furthermore, when we were hired, we were told that we would not have to clean apartments at all and that our responsibilities were restricted to the maintenance and cleanliness of the building. This was one of the reasons why we accepted the job. Not having to clean apartments, that's pretty attractive. Well, that didn't last a very long time. Nevertheless, new recruits are still being told that they don't have to clean apartments. What a nasty surprise on your first day of work.
In addition to that, our manager could argue that I was slothful in performing my duties at this job. Two complaints that I know she had were that I didn't work as fast as my co-worker, Joy. Also, she complained that I often "disappeared" on what she assumed to be extra long breaks. To these complaints, I can say that I know I didn't work as fast as Joy, but I was thorough and the work I performed was generally good quality work. I took pride in my work and made sure that I gave it my best and it showed. As for my disappearances, I have three defenses, firstly, I did most of my work in areas where my manager could not easily see me. She would try to keep tabs on us by watching the security cameras. However, there are no security cameras in the hallways and stairwells. So, the most time-consuming tasks, including vacuuming the hallways and sweeping and mopping the three thirteen-flight stairwells, occurred off-camera and for the hours I spent cleaning in those areas, I was invisible to my manager. As for the extra long breaks, I took my lead from my immediate supervisor, Joy who treated the job as a 24 hour job, which it was. We worked around the clock. Certain things had to be cleaned daily and we cleaned them regularly but most other things we worked on throughout the day without a real schedule. Our manager wanted it to be an eight hours a day job, with us working during the hours she was present in the building. But we often ended up working as late as seven or eight o'clock in the evening and on some occasions, we had to get up during the night and work for several hours because of some sort of emergency; and this additional work, we felt, went largely ignored by our manager. So, yes, I did take the occasional extra break or added an hour or half hour to my lunch but I generally made sure that my day's work was completed, which is the important thing. Also, my immediate supervisor took a lot of the same breaks as I did, (like I said, I took my lead from her) but our manager never--to my knowledge--confronted her about it, just me. Which seems a little unfair.
I could go on with some personal complaints about the job, but I think I've already gone on too long about this. I don't intend to sound grouchy or sound as though I'm complaining about my job, and about being fired, I'm not. It was a good job while it lasted. I gained plenty of experience and I'm happy I did it. Whatever reasons I was fired for, I don't really care. Our life is going to change now and I'm happy and excited about that.
\hello dear \pat;\
ReplyDeletethanks for explaining everything in this blog. dad told me about this while i was driving to sudbury tonight and i wasn't ready to discuss seriously on the phone. you've made this very clear the only thing i'm disapointed about is that you didn't quit before getting fired.
but, i'm glad you are being optimistic about the future and i pray that doors will open. your experience has definetely taught you many of life's lessons. i love you dearly.
Dear Pat,
ReplyDeleteI have to say, that in your circumstances, I am in support of you. I realize that being fired can be a degrading experience, however, after reading your blog, I can appreciate your attitude and believe that you have the right to feel as you do. Seeing we have the same boss, thanks for the "heads up".
I can see that Lord working in your lives and I am excited to see what He will bring into your life.
We love you and support you both.
xoxo