Thursday, July 16, 2009

My job and its tough days

Here I am, in jeans and a short sleeve shirt wondering why on earth I took a shower this morning. I have spent the last two hours on a commercial shopping center roof in the middle of summer. Now I'm back in the office, my bra is completely soaked through and my curly hair that I straighten every day is curly again and in a pony tail.

Why do I do this? Because I LOVE my job.

I am a commercial real estate shopping center and office building manager. I manage everything from construction, tenant improvements and re-roof projects to financiing, budgeting, landscaping, insuring, evicting, purchasing and selling. You name it, I do it. It's fun because there is never a monotonous day and I'm always forced to learn something new and problem solve. I am one that likes to be challenged.

However, it's days like today that get to me. I had to meet a new roofer, who had never met me (as he clearly discovered later). He played the, "oh, look, it's a dumb blonde card and I can take her in a heartbeat" card, which he later found out, that didn't work. In fact, it made his situation worse - I can tell you, he won't be getting the job for more reasons than just completely overbidding the project and having no clue what he was talking about. My point...you can't judge book by it's cover. Just because I'm a female doesn't mean I don't know about roofing. Anyways, it's just frustrating. Thankfully, I was able to put him in his place because I happened to know a little more about polyurethane foam roofs than he did, and then my boss agreed with me when he heard the story (one of our brokers was with me and was just astounded by the roofer's treatment of me - and the broker is a male too).

Anyways, I just had to vent a little. It's almost like a satisfying, yet not so satisfying day. I felt good that I could put him in his place, but felt awful that I had to justify myself to begin with. This doesn't happen very often these days. Most companies and people in general respect whoever comes their way, but every once in a while, you get the one lame duck!

2 comments:

  1. I am not surprised by the roofers attitude. It's sad but FLA still has it's share of idiot contractors. Kudos to your broker for seeing the guy for what he was and agreeing he shouldn't get the job.

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  2. You are so right and GO GIRL! Yay for you!

    I so hear you on the curly hair that gets straightened daily...me too! Humidity and I aren't friends!!!

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