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It is hard being on the road over 200 nights a year...away from your family, isolated in many ways. It definitely isn't for everyone. This blogs represents the thoughts of just one such person. Read along and find out if the road is for you.
This is my new blogchalk:
United States, Georgia, Gainesville, Unity of Gainesville, English, John, Male, reading, RE Investing. :)
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Saturday, September 07, 2002
For a moment there, I lost it….
Must have been pent up energy or frustration or both. But Thursday night and Friday pretty much put me over the top in terms of emotional frustration. I guess it had been building up over the last week or two.
I think the rubber really started meeting the pavement on Wednesday when the real estate agent from St. Augustine called. I had put in an offer on the house I was most interested in there (St. Augustine, FL) on Saturday. (3 br, approx 2,000 sf with a pool) But it was way (like $20,000) overpriced. When I was visiting in July, my plan was to lay low in the weeds until mid-August. I had delayed putting in the offer then because of Eddie from church wanting to sell me her place and invest in the coffee house, which didn’t work out. Mid-August turned out to be last Saturday when I finally put the offer in.
Wouldn’t you know it that the day I put in my offer, the owner’s husband had to go into the hospital for an emergency! That was issue one. On top of that, not one, but TWO other offers went in on the house with mine on the same day! I had lowball'ed my offer in hopes of negotiating a deal closer to reality in my “alleged” mind, but that strategy went down in flames. After flatly turning down the offer from buyer number one, they did come back with a counter on mine. They knocked $5,000 off on an “as-is” basis. I guess that isn’t the house.
So, that was the start of it. On Thursday, Jim from Da Company emailed me and asked me to talk to the client I am seeing on Monday. No problem I say. I call the customer and tell him he may not remember me, but I was there before. He said he DOES remember me and that is why they asked for me (along with the fact that I am close and he won’t have to pay airfare.) Airfare…there’s the rub in this story. I don’t tell the customer that I have already booked airfare, because the last time I went there, the supposed 3 hour drive turned out to be 5 hours. I call Jim back and tell him the story.
I get a voice mail on my cell about 6:30 that night that they had worked out a deal with the client and had reworked ALL of my travel for the week. Instead of leaving on a 6 PM flight on Friday from New York, I am now fortunate enough to have an 8 PM flight. No thanks needed.
It is then and there that I just lost it. I can’t ever remember being that mad or that frustrated with Da Company. I blast an email to all involved saying quote: “ARE YOU GUYS NUTS???” On top of them changing my flights, they are now costing the company (and ultimately the client’s) $300 MORE in airfare!
My frustration and anger only escalate through the night. I am so upset I literally can’t sleep. Forget about being this upset with Da Company, I don’t remember being this upset in 5 years!
I discharge another email to Lori going over all of my displeasures over my recent travel schedules (having to take connecting flights repeatedly when there are directs, non-upgradeable flights, how the hell she can think about hiring another consultant when so many of the current ones have so many holes in their schedules, how the travel and sales coordinators are free to hand out the consultants “non-company” time, etc.). And I ask her straight up if it their intention to drive me out of Da Company, because it sure is looking like it.
She comes back saying she is truly offended (what else could she say?) about my approach to this matter and that I should have come to her first. (But I had come to her about this 3-4 times in the last few months.) No, they don’t want to lose me, blah, blah, blah!
I could go on about the banter but I am tired of this issue. And maybe of Da Company. As luck would have it, my Monster job agent came in with a job that I applied for immediately.
Tomorrow is another day and hopefully, I will feel better about life than I do today.
posted by John Panico at 7:39 AM
Thursday, September 05, 2002
What does a guy have to do to catch a break?
This entry is for September 2, 2002, but the town I visited was so small that they didn't have local internet access. Hell, they didn't even carry USA Today.
See how road warriors get to spend the end of their holidays? Flying to some place you have to hunt down on the map and don’t blink or you will miss the town when you are driving to it.
I am so upset right now! I can’t remember being this upset! I think that overall, I am one of the most patient people on this earth. I am fairly low maintenance. But maybe lately, I am at the end of my so-called “rope”.
I am at the airport in Atlanta on a trip to hell (aka Texas). I don’t even know the client yet, but the trip that Da Company’s travel agent has me on is on an airline I rarely use, and has an unnecessary layover in Dallas. (I could have flown direct from Atlanta to Austin, but noooo, that is not to be. I wonder what I did to tick her off about me lately?)
Anyhow, since I can’t upgrade, I decide to rent a DVD. I give my credit card to the clerk and she said there is a problem with it. I give her another one without incident, but my guard is now up. I only use one credit card for business and since Da Company pays expenses twice a month, I want the bill paid twice a month. (I know it is anal, but I have worked hard to get my credit the way it is, and I don’t even want to have an implication of a dent in it.). When it was rejected (actually there machine wasn’t working right), I decide to call the number on the back of the card and see what the problem is.
There really isn’t a problem with the card at all. It is not behind and I am not over my credit limit. Except for the fact that it has a $6,000 balance! I go f**king ballistic. Although I still have another $7,000 left on the credit limit, the fact that it has a balance this large indicates that the bill hasn’t been getting paid in the manner I want. At best, it should have $2,000. There was a $500 payment that kept it current, but that is not the point. I talk to Julie about it and she tries to discount the issue.
I am so mad that I tell her I can’t talk to her about it. (I don’t ever remember being this mad.) She tells me we have the money (save the $2,200 the company owes) in the bank. For the life of me, I don’t even want to hear why it hasn’t been paid. She said that she wasn’t sure exactly what expenses Da Company actually paid. This pisses me off even more. What difference does that make? I only use one card for business. This one. In fact, because I eat so little since the surgery six months ago, I have made on average of $400 - $500 EXTRA a month.
Pay the f**king bill. Period. End of story. If there is money left (and there always is), spend it if you want. Just pay the bill twice a month.
I decide that this is the last straw. As much as she hates it, I am getting an online banking account and taking this over. She prides herself on being the “finance” half of the relationship. I have threatened this before and she seemed so hurt that I relented. Too bad. I have been upset by this too many times.
She wonders why we have problems. If you tell me something is important, I will try to move heaven and earth to make it happen. I really only ask for 2 things; a.) pay the credit card bills twice a month and b.) put money into savings monthly. Do those things and everything/anything you want to do and I will acquiesce to your desires.
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