Moldy Apartment, Moldy Attitude

I used to work at a student-living apartment complex. The thing is, even though they are students, they are adults who have signed a lease contract. Probably one of my most notable stories was when my team left me alone at the office on a Friday. It was a rather small complex, so only one person usually worked at the desk while managers gave support from the back. I don’t remember why, but every manager was out except for our general manager, and she had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment as she was pregnant and close to her due date.

Less than thirty minutes after [General Manager] left, an irate mother called on the phone demanding to speak to a manager. I let her know there were no managers on site, but I could help if she let me know the issue. She started ranting.

Mother: “I don’t want your help! You don’t know what you are doing!”

To be fair, when she did disclose the issue, it was way beyond me. However, I was the only one who could tell my manager (and maintenance as maintenance definitely could help in this scenario).

I tried calming her down by letting her know my managers had requested off and my general manager had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment. Honesty and transparency, right?

Mother: “Oh, my God, you are so unprofessional! I don’t want your help at all!”

I was shocked and honestly enraged because I was trying to be honest and transparent with a member of the community, which is what I let her know. I continued pressing for details to relay to my team, but she continued to insult and curse me out.

One of her daughter’s roommates eventually called and let me know the issue, which was mold and definitely an emergency. So, I told maintenance and my poor manager, who was waiting at her obstetrician’s office.

Maintenance worked on handling the issue and started communicating with [General Manager] about how we absolutely had to provide accommodations for this apartment because it wasn’t in code. Understand that the team was handling this; maintenance was working on treating the mold, and [General Manager] was working on getting a hotel within our property budget.

I let [General Manager] know that the mom had cursed me out, called me unprofessional for my transparency, and said she did not want my help; therefore, I did not want to communicate with the mom or daughter directly.

WELL, the daughter and her roommate came down to the office. They started insulting the property and the staff, saying we and the property were the worst, etc. I was getting really agitated because [General Manager] was working hard for them while seven months pregnant and at her obstetrician. I let them know that we were working on a solution for them, but their insults weren’t necessary and we would let them know once a solution was solidified.

At this point, [General Manager] texted me and let me know she had secured hotel reservations for them and she would email them once she was done at her appointment. The daughter of the initial irate mom responded by saying:

Daughter: “We already called code, and they told us to call them back by 5:00 pm if we didn’t have the solution by then, so we are just waiting to call them. I know you can’t handle this, though, so you don’t have to talk to us.”

It was literally 4:59 pm. Her tone was so snide that I couldn’t help myself. I responded in kind:

Me: “We actually have reservations made for you already, but since you and your mom don’t want my help, I am not going to tell you. You can wait until my general manager is out of her appointment and find out. Thanks so much for your patience and understanding, though!” 

Yes, she proceeded to yell and tell me how petty I was, but you know what? You reap what you sow.