Right now, I’m furious, my wife has been fired by Perry Reid Properties for absolutely no reason other than the regional manager, Rachelle not liking her it seems. The regional manager would not give a reason other than “it’s not going to work out”. Which in my view is a steaming pile of bullshit, clearly there were no complaints about her work, it came down to a personality clash with the regional manager.
Erin was asked to apply for the position of manager at the property, which incidentally is called Chapel Ridge in Haysville by the maintenance technician. So she left her position as assistant manager, which paid a comparable salary to become manager of Chapel Ridge and two weeks later, suddenly she is without a job for no legitimate reason, which in Kansas is fine, no reason required to fire someone!
I personally believe the regional manager got rid of Erin because she showed up her lack of knowledge about Sec. 42 property management. Erin asked a simple question “do corporate generate this form or do we generate it at the property?” and the regional dodged the question multiple times before telling Erin to call corporate. I ask you this, how can a regional have less knowledge than a new manager?
Before Erin even took the job, I had a bad feeling about Perry Reid Properties and I will tell you why. Erin was asked to come to an interview; but instead of calling her like a professional company, they asked the aforementioned maintenance technician to tell Erin that the interview will be taking place at the local corporate office and not the property. And guess what, that message was never delivered. So Erin drove all the way down to Haysville only to have to drive back to downtown Wichita to attend the interview.
Then on week 1, after a discussion with the regional manager on a plan moving forward, in which the regional made it clear that it was “Erin’s property” and agreeing that Chapel Ridge needed some new photography as existing photography is terrible. Erin asked me to look at the property and give a quote for photography of the community, as I am the best property photographer/marketer in this city from what I can see based on the evidence I have seen in the local market, standards are unbelievably low!
After the regional manager threw insult after insult at Erin a couple days later, I had no intention of doing business with Chapel Ridge Apartments or any other Perry Reid property. It’s not like Erin signed a contract with me without getting the go ahead from the regional manager, she was just being pro-active.
Not only that, the regional manager intimated that Erin stole money from the company. Erin was attending a trade show and needed cards for the show. So she went ahead and ordered cards and handed them all out, only for the regional to accuse Erin of taking the money instead of buying the cards.
The regional manager also made reference to not liking friends working together, so why in the hell did she hire Erin as it was no secret that all three had been friends prior to working at the property?
I actually advised Erin to walk out at the end of the previous week and go back to her previous position, but Erin wanted to stick it out even though it was clear her days were numbered at Chapel Ridge.
When Erin was informed about her termination she was training the leasing agent who had been there for months under the previous manager, yet had not been given any training at all in Sec. 42 housing/paperwork, which I have been reliably informed that the regional manager, Rachelle instructed the manager to do. The leasing agent, a friend of ours was calling Erin for advice almost daily before Erin started work at Chapel Ridge when the manager had left for the day after completing her 8 hours. Which could have been avoided if the leasing agent was properly trained, but the regional manager considered the leasing agent to not be intelligent enough to understand Sec. 42 housing rules, hence no training!
You know my biggest annoyance, the person that asked Erin to apply for the position, the maintenance tech was constantly on the phone to the regional talking about Erin behind her back, I don’t know who called who; but this is not acceptable behavior for a so called professional company employee.
Moral of the story, if you have niggling doubts about an employer, don’t take the damn job.
Update [Apr, 25 2015, 13:38]: Now, because of this crap, my wife has spiraled into a circle of depression, she is blaming herself for something beyond her control. All she wants to do is sleep and wallow in her own self pity and worst of all she is talking about quitting property management throwing away 10 years of experience, qualifications and certifications, which is just increasing my anger level.
Update [Apr, 25 2015, 22:29]: I now find out that the regional manager couldn’t wait to call the maintenance tech, who was on vacation to report Erin’s departure, this whole situation stinks of being a personal issue, completely unrelated to Erin’s work performance. It’s just sad that the US allows for companies to treat workers like this. In Europe workers have more protection against this sort of action.
Update [Apr, 27 2015, 20:17]: The regional manager, Rachelle refused to give Erin a reason for dismissal, but was perfectly happy to disclose the reasons to the leasing agent and maintenance tech this morning, very unprofessional and cowardly to boot. So the reason #1 for dismissal were asking for a quote before checking the budget (seriously? it’s a quote, no agreements were made or contracts signed).
Reason #2 was Erin taking the action for a 11 year resident of cleaning their carpet and replacing a faucet, which the regional manager conveniently forgot she had agreed to. The residents had a crumbling sub-floor, which would’ve resulted in the resident having to move and there was no comparable units available on the property, which would’ve meant having to let them out of their lease. Erin’s actions kept them on the property until the end of their lease. It seems to me that Rachelle wanted to spend zero time and/or money on residents and some of the reviews of the property online seem to back that up.
Reason #3 is complete and utter bullshit, hence why I document my every action in Email or signed document, you always have to cover your butt. And reason #1, if it’s company policy to check the budget before getting quotes, which for the life of me I can not figure out why, then that just needed to be explained, rather than a termination of employment. Rachelle is very unprofessional and if this is an example of how Perry Reid operate as a company, God help their residents across their properties.
// End of story for me, Erin is better off out of Chapel Ridge and Perry Reid Properties!