Follow up to the funny story.

As a follow-up to the previous post, I must share some of the antics of the old boss, Mark.

Remember, this was in 1998 and 1999. I was fresh out of college. I was working at a major Rent-to-Own chain.

I was first hired at one of the two locations in Jackson, TN. The manager there was hard, bur fair. Mark was the "Executive Assistant Manager." He rarely did much. Myself and another Account Manager did all of the collections and most of the deliveries and repos. There was an "I/O Manager" (Inside/Outside assistant manager), who backed up on collection, delivery, and repo assignments. The Branch Manager there did much of the selling and setting of the assignments.

Mark would yell a lot at me. Mostly "reminding" me to do things I was in the middle of doing. He would call out "Stay Focused" and "Call that Route" a lot. I'm still not sure why. I was usually calling the Route when he said that... and I've always been a very focused worker.

One day, Mark got promoted to be manager of the other store across town. I was thrilled. Things went well for a month or two, until the Manager got promoted, too, and another manager took his place. I got along well with the new manager, but he did not hold on to his people as tightly as the previous manager did. He would let them get promoted or moved more easily.

As luck would have it, I was moved to Mark's branch shortly thereafter. When that happened, I began an earnest career search. I had to, as I knew Mark would probably fire me.

Why did I think he was going to fire me?

I don't think he liked me. He wrote me up three times. And I'd like to share why:

1) At the first Office, he wrote me up for failing to bring in a VCR that had been returned earlier. He couldn't account for it, and it had been left in my truck.
I deserved that one.

2) He wrote me up for "not using a calculator" when marking price tags for VCR's to be put on the display floor. They were all new, and all the same brand. I had used a calculator on the first, and copied the work on the second through the fifth.
I don't think I deserved that one.

3) He wrote me up for coming in second in the standings for "Account Manager of the Week." I'd come in first for 11 straight weeks, had another good week (with numbers that would have won every other week), but one guy in a nearby town had a breakout week. Oh, by the way, I came in First the final week, too.
I did not deserve that one, either. Fortunately, I would, that day, get the offer from Enterprise.

Those are the only times in my life I've been disciplined in the work place, that I can remember. I'll accept the first one. The others are bogus, to be sure.