Spring Cleaning

SPRING! Where have you been?! We have missed you.
Every year when spring gets here, I get the itchy urge to purge stuff. Today, I spring-cleaned my job and left Avis after almost 7 months of enduring some of the most torturous days I've ever encountered.
#1. I am not a salesman. I do not have the personality to bullshit my way through a transaction and hope my customer doesn't catch on to my tactics.
#2. I did not get paid to take verbal abuse. I have never met so many snobs in my entire life. It's just a rental car, people. It is not that serious.
#3. It was extremely difficult for me to take direction from managers that I had a hand in training....and that are nearly a decade my junior.
 #4. I became amazed at how much gall people had to be able to look me in the eye and tell me a bold-faced lie. Empty promises are abundant at Avis.
#5. How much value do you place in your employees to force them to work asinine hours, including holidays? Sure, the travel industry is a 24-hour business, but even the pilots go home on Christmas. Jeebus.

However, while I could go on making a list of the absolutely absurd facets of this job, I will transition to some of the good that came from it. I have met some incredible people. There were a few delightful customers that trickled in, but unfortunately, they became fewer and farther between.

I will also miss most of my co-workers...I made friends there. While I will be able to stay in touch with them all (thanks to modern technology), it will surely not be the same. We spend 75% of our lives at work and with the people in it, so naturally, we become this sort of weird, functionally dysfunctional family. We've laughed together, yelled at each other, cried together, cussed each other out...we've been through a lot together. Nothing will take the place of the personal connections I have gained.

I'm in a much happier, more stable place. I am making new friends and learning a new job at Carmax, but I finally have inner peace. I am finally in a place where recognition and encouragement are abounding, and I will never run out of cars.

I feel good (na na na na na na na)....work-life balance is an awesome thing. I can sleep like a normal person (no more 5 a.m. shifts!) and I will get an occasional weekend off. I can spend time with my ever-growing family, who continually support me despite my constant indecision and soul-searching. I can rely on a more stable income to save up for Phil's arrival (scheduled for next summer.) Life is just way more gooder....now if I can only get this house spring-cleaned....