So this is that thing called work

Today marked day one of "official" work at Water Way. I worked the line from 10-3:30 Wednesday.
I have gotten in the habit of staying up late and sleeping in until 10 or so. Up until today, I have not had any real reason to wake up super early. As long as I get collection calls done, it doesn't matter if it is morning or afternoon. So, Tuesday night I was in bed at 12:00, which is early as of late, and after 45 minutes of tossing and turning, I got up and played Guitar Hero for an hour and finally was able to fall asleep. I got up at 7:00 to eat breakfast with Emily and start collection calls at 8:00 so I could walk out the door at 9:30 for work, so I am rolling on 5 hours of sleep and worked a full day. This feeling of being tired from work is all new to me.

The day went pretty fast, it was a sunny day so we were busy. Surprising, Water Way's busiest time is the winter. People are desperate to get the road salt off and sure the heck don't want to brave the cold of cleaning it themselves. So, any day that the sun is out, Water Way is bumping.
But I had a good first day, I learned a lot and realized that people can be really ignorant to those kids working the line. The kids work their butts off on the line for tips and when it gets rolling, they are doing non-stops cars for an hour or so.

Today a gentleman, let's call him Jerk, came in with a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee, not a super expensive car, but a nice car none the less. It is not as nice as half the cars we wash. This Water Way is in a pretty nice part of town and in an expensive business district, so people have money and drive nice cars. And 99% of them are super cool. Any who: Jerk buys a $20 car wash. Keep in mind, all we do for this car wash is: wash, hand dry, vacuum, wheels and wipe down the interior. No Armal All, no detail brush, just the basic wash plus wheels. The car wash is bumping, long lines, 34 degrees outside, these kids are earning their tips. Jerk walks up to his car and throws a fit. Complains about his wheels not being shiny enough, which is fair since he did pay extra. The kid redoes all his wheels and then asks if there is anything else he would like him to do. Jerk says,"don't worry about, I will do it myself, and just so you know I am not going to tip, maybe next time you will learn to get it right the first time." I walked over to try to help (since I am going to be sales, I have khakis and a polo, and look like a manager, and the manager on duty was tied up). I ask, "Sir, what can I do to make this better?" Jerk: "Clean the shit out of my wheels and do a better job next time." Part of me wanted to grab him by the collar and say, "I am a grown ass man, don't talk to me like you are better than me." But, I just smiled and cleaned the wheels. The wheels at this point at already been cleaned twice and where perfect, but I wiped them down again.

The manager has now walked over and Jerk continues to pitch a fit. Points out every single drop of water that was missed, and dirt in his interior (which he did not want us to do, just a wipe down). In the end, the manager had detailed his entire interior, which is a $50 service just because this guy was so ignorant and rude, the manager just wanted to get him off the lot. I was appalled at Jerk. It would be like going to McDonald's and ordering the McRib and getting mad that it is not real Ribs. Duh, you paid $3.00 for it. Water Way is an express car wash. They do a great job on detail work, but when you just order a normal car wash, you can't expect them to get it done in 10 minutes and have every single little piece of dirt picked up and 100% dry. Water his in cracks Jerky.

I really did feel bad for the kid who tried very hard to make Jerk happy and Jerk told him off. Ignorant people really piss me off. I have no problem with someone pointing out a spot we missed, to be honest, that happened a lot today. Every time a car is done, we open the door for the customer and ask if everything looks okay. A lot of the time they will ask if we can wipe this certain spot, and we gladly do and they thank us and drive off. There is a right way to deal with things and Jerk was the total opposite of right. He is one of those people that is such a jerk, that you just do whatever you can to get him out of the store because he will throw such a fit that other customers will see him. I can see Jerk ordering a cheese burger and yelling at the waiter to send it back because it doesn't taste like steak. Jerky.

On a happy note, I did make $53 in tips for 4.5 hours. I didn't even think I would get tips while training. Not a bad gig for high school kids. They can make good money. So, I work Thursday and then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on the line and then off to selling. My 5 days of manually labor will be over!
Man, this is 2 rant blogs in a row, sorry for the anger guys.
For the mean time: Keep on Keeping on....mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr