New Old Job

About three weeks ago, my former boss gave me a call to see if I was interested in a position that had reopened with them. I was about to take my first paid vacation as an employee at Rent a Center, and gave them an enthusiastic “Yes!” without giving it a whole lot of consideration at the time of that phone call. My one and a half year raise was only a few weeks away at Rent a Center, and my monthly take home would drop significantly since I wouldn’t be getting paid as much and not working as many overtime hours at the new job. There was a lot to think about while I was on vacation in Las Vegas. I took a few extra days off after we would be getting back from our trip to decompress and get a few things done that I had been meaning to do before we left. Added to that list was a trip to see my former coworkers and fill out all the necessary paperwork to get the ball rolling on the new job since the job at the time was frustrating me.

The hours at Rent a Center were horrible; 9am-7:30pm M-F and 8am-6:30pm on Saturday with Sundays off and Tuesdays off for me as the sales manager. Not only were the hours bad, but dealing with all the lies and excuses from customers for why they can’t make their payment was ridiculous. People would lie straight to your face giving you one excuse and then another two minutes later that completely contradicts the last excuse. The customers have the money too. One lady was already a week past due and wanted to wait until next Friday to make her payment for “personal reasons.” When the account manager told her he couldn’t take that commitment, she hung up on him and called back a minute later to make her payment with a different person. Those customers are crazy! Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time I arrived home from work after a thirty minute commute each way, and didn’t feel like doing anything on Friday and Saturday nights when everybody else was having a good time. I had to get out!

Before the paperwork and approval even went through with the higher powers at the new job, I put in my two weeks notice with Rent a Center. It was a very gutsy move and it turned out to be a little less than two weeks. My first week of work at my new job is over, and I can finally have a life outside of work! I now sell irrigation and landscaping material to contractors who come in everyday to get their supplies for the day. My hours are 7:30am-4pm M-F and 8am-noon every other Saturday with the same commute. This is before the summer when our business really picks up, and I can get an hour or so of overtime each day. Today is the first Saturday I haven’t had to work in a year and a half, and it feels very weird knowing that I have another whole day off tomorrow as well!

I can now blog and do things I have been wanting to do since I worked at there before Rent a Center. My blog has been very neglected the past couple of months, and it’s something that I enjoy doing. One of my buddies and I had partial season tickets to White Sox games before he moved out to Las Vegas and I started working at RAC. I’ve missed out on some of the games so far, but I can at least go to a few this year. Not having the time to go to baseball games was eating at me the past year and a half, and anybody who knows me personally knows I love baseball.

Most importantly, there is now more time to spend with my family, friends, and my girlfriend, who is very excited. More date nights to the movies and quality time spent together is finally a reality. We would go on long bike rides together before RAC, and with the weather starting to get warmer we can now take more of those. It’s funny, but I think the cats are also happier. They’ve been purring and nuzzling me a lot more.

Related posts:

1. Personal Finances – December 2009
2. Fantasy Portfolio – April 3
3. Personal Finances – March 2009
4. Fantasy Portfolio – March 20
5. Personal Finances – Beginning 2009