high on power.

I know I have officially been a property manager in name for at least 6 months now, but until today I haven't really felt I deserved this title. More like it was bestowed upon me much like "slut" and "bitch" kind of worked their way into my classification by others. I have no control over this and therefore I take no responsibility for any of it and neither confirm nor deny their accuracy.

Today, I got a call from a tenant in one of our buildings bitching about the dirty windows at the property. I promptly forwarded the message on to my boss, who usually handles this kind of stuff. Much to my surprise and dismay, he asked ME to look into finding a quality window washing service. My first instinct was to run over to the Home Depot and contract out some cheap Mexican labor using my fluent high school Spanish, but oh no, my boss wanted them to be licensed. Shit. I scoured Craigslist and came up with four possible contractors and with a nice flick of the wrist, deposited this carefully laid out list on the cluttered desk of my boss. Then I pranced back to my desk and prayed he would leave me alone. But that was not to be. He actually had the nerve to ask me to call these companies up and "use my judgment" as to who might be a good fit. Now mind you, I have not once been to this new building they purchased, and only had a vague idea as to the specs that any decent contractor might want to know. I told you, the title of property manager is complete and utter fluff, since I have yet to manage anything and actually know nothing about the property I am supposedly overseeing. I didn't even know how many stories it was. I normally don't mind looking like an idiot but let me tell you, there is not much I have experienced that is more excruciating than attempting to get a professional estimate for window washing at a building you didn't even know had windows.

However, after a couple of warm up calls, I started to learn the info I was lacking, and began to get the hang of this whole management business. I started sounding more professional -- and dare I say sexy? -- on what we expected and even started trying to bargain with these people. The result is that I am getting 5 estimates on service to a 30-thousand square foot building, and I now know a little more about the property I manage. I've even seen pictures of it.

So why am I high on power? Because late this afternoon as the return calls started coming in, I noticed that people began competing for my business. Competing for me! Now what's better than grown men fighting over the chance to labor for me, I ask you? Ok maybe it's not that extreme but nothing can knock me off this high horse for the time being.