working girl.
First day of work was actually really great. It was pretty busy, though it ebbed and flowed. I trained with L&T Dawn who was a vivacious black-haired woman who loves to tan (I don’t say this because she was so tan it’s obvious she lives in a tanning booth, but she herself told me she loves to tan and it’s killing her not being able to go the last few months). She can talk a mile a minute and did 15 things at once. I was getting dizzy watching her.
Then Ashley came to relieve her, a girl my age I assume, who works there part time while going to college for elementary education. She claims she’s a Taurus but she seems much too nice to be one, but I said that I don’t really know her so we’ll see.
She giggled at the things I said and seemed very entertained by my anecdotes.
I wasn’t accosted by salesmen, one of the finance managers seemed to be testing my mettle when he said “I’m just a janitor.” and I said the sweater he was wearing said otherwise.
Service guys seem to be full of themselves. No surprise there. They were harassing Ashley to show off in front of me and one asked, “Does she know how mean you are?” to Ashley. I scoffed and said she wasn’t mean, *I’m* mean.
They didn’t know if I had skills or not, but I remembered most of the Reynolds & Reynolds shortcuts and the way of things.
I’ll be in the Nissan building in this little display case of an office. I felt like an animal at the zoo.
Everyone was pleasant to meet and I shook hands firmly. I don’t remember their names.
It took me until the afternoon to get the nerve to pick up the phone. It was like Celine Dion said—It’s all coming back to me now.
I answered with confidence, my phone voice coming back as if it never left, my polite and clear enunciation making me smile inwardly. I’m impressive.
The day passed fairly quickly. Their way of closing up for the night is different than the way I’m used to—and much less work than I had to do. Which is still somehow more complicated.
But the basics are the same, the drawer balanced out (whew!), and the office manager (she wasn’t in because her husband is having surgery) who hired me (over the phone—I did meet her in person back in October) apparently called when I answered and called the office to get them to page Ashley so she could say, “She’s already answering the phones?! SHE’S AWESOME! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!”
Phones don’t scare me—though it was a bit of a “RIP IT OFF LIKE A BANDAID!” sort of thing. There are a lot of extensions, people I don’t know, and two buildings with different makes of cars to sort out. Nissan and then the Euro side (I said I picture a disco ball, club music, and a goat dancing around in there) that sells and services Jaguar, Mercedes and Volvo.
“I need my Volvo serviced,” a woman said and I had to keep my shit together not to laugh hysterically.
I have the mind of a 12 year old boy.
But anyway. Yeah. I impressed the managers with answering the phones. Ashley’s been a cashier there for 5 years and said she was surprised at how much I remembered. At one point a woman said the toilet was running and I went to have a look. I jiggled the handle and got it to stop. Then Ashley had the same problem and was like, “How do I fix it again!?” and it felt funny telling someone I just met a couple hours ago how to fix something.
I missed telling people to “Sign these two copies for me, here’s your receipt and your keys, your car’ll be parked right out front. Have a nice day!” and giving big smiles and being gregarious with strangers.
One of the salesman came up to get a receipt for a check for a locate on a vehicle, I had to create a customer number, and he automatically assumed I wouldn’t know how and told Ashley she would have to help me.
“No I don’t! She knows most of this already!” she retorted.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” I informed him.
“Oh, well, then. Let’s see what you’ve got!”
I made up a customer number, I printed out the receipt and he was like, “Wow! You’re all right! I’ll be saying good things about you!”
When he walked off I asked Ashley (since she had been talking to him as well) if he meant he’d say good things about *me* and she said yeah, to the other sales people. I gasped and said, “No! I want them to think I’m a bitch! I learned my lesson last time—salesmen are assholes and they’d better not fuck with me. I’ll be nice to them, but they can’t tell me what to do.”
I think she was surprised that the new hire wasn’t a total n00b who isn’t wise to the ways of the nefarious car business.
Like I said—this ain’t my first rodeo and Rebekah in 2008 was a simpering do-gooder too naive for her own good.
Rebekah in 2010 has her shit together—or can at least fake it with the big dogs.
