Not Cut Out

This is not a repo story, but it is from my days in car rental. It was a very unfortunate situation oh, that was totally preventable.

At this stage in my car rental journey, I was a manager of a location. As the manager, I had gained a reputation among all of the local branches. If they had a trainee that just wasn't cutting muster, they would send that training to me. Within 90 days, that trainee would be shaped up or shipped out. Nevertheless, I never fired a single person. When they shipped out, they did so of their own accord.

I started all new and rehab trainees with a specific training program - just to make sure they understood the purpose and processes of car rental. Just about every single trainee learned how to fill in the gaps in their car rental knowledge with that training program. Now some figured out the car rental just wasn't for them, and they left the company soon thereafter. Of the ones who stayed, almost all of them became much better employees after undergoing the training.

One trainee stood out. And not in a good way. She just never quite figured out the systems and the processes. Her sales numbers were abysmal - and this was the only time that a trainee under my watch could ever say that. My trainees sold well. Except for her.

The car rental company had specific processes and procedures for normal day-to-day operation. Most trainees caught on to these within a week or two. This trainee in specific, never did catch on. Even after 3 months she still was unsure of what to do in just about every daily operation.

The first time she got written up for failing to follow proper procedure was epic. Very nearly rented a customer a car that belonged to a competitor. Yes, she picked up the car of a competitor at the airport, drove it to our branch, and very nearly rented it to somebody. All the while, she complained that she could not find that unit in the system. When I went to look at the key chain it became clear why that unit was not in the system - it belonged to another company!

The second time she got written up for failing to follow proper procedure was even more bizarre. The office was located inside of a body shop, and it was a Friday afternoon. The Body Shop Lobby was full of body shop customers. Similarly, our lobby was full of rental customers. She came in with the keys to a freshly washed car, and shouted out to me for verification the combination to the safe! At this point in time, she had worked there over three months and had gotten in that safe multiple times per day every day of those three months. Without making a scene I asked her to meet me in the other room, and I wrote her up.

The following week I had to have the talk with her about how I felt rental was not really in her future. She was a nice enough person, but she just didn't get it.