Thank you, God!
I’m sitting here at work, and out of nowhere, a memory came back to me that had me smiling and laughing. Looking back now, I know it was nobody but You that gave me the strength to make it through almost five years at Whack A Center, also known as Rent A Center.
I started as an Account Manager, not realizing that “Account Manager” really meant delivering furniture. My first week on the truck, I wanted to quit after helping repossess a sectional with a pull-out bed on one end and a recliner on the other. That thing felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. But I was a single mother, and quitting wasn’t an option. I had to keep pushing.
About a month later, I was promoted to I/O Assistant Manager. I probably wasn’t the typical assistant manager because it went against everything I believed in to convince people to rent things they didn’t need. Every customer who signed a rental agreement with me heard the same thing: “If you ever see me at your door, you know you have a problem.”
Most of my customers respected me because they knew if they were honest with me, I’d do everything I could to help them. And I did. If I found out someone’s furniture had been repossessed when they were close to paying it off, I’d sometimes help them out with my own money. They always paid me back. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t company policy, but who’s gonna check me, boo?
The funny part is, even without using the usual pushy sales tactics, I was the number one Sales Manager in the district more than ten times. That taught me you don’t have to compromise your character to be successful.
Toward the end of my time there, the stress started catching up with me. I developed ulcers, and deep down I knew God was telling me it was time to leave. Sometimes we get so comfortable in places we’re no longer meant to be that God has to make the environment uncomfortable enough for us to move. And if we won’t make the change ourselves, He’ll make it for us.
Not long after I came back from my honeymoon, I was fired because of some underhanded mess involving management. Looking back now, I don’t even hold on to that bitterness anymore. That’s what can happen when you’re surrounded by people who don’t have your best interests at heart. I later found out that more than 30 or 40 of my customers returned their merchandise to the store and started renting from Rent-A-Center’s competitors after they learned I had been fired. They knew I wasn’t let go because I wasn’t good at my job. They knew I refused to go along with some of the underhanded practices I witnessed, and their loyalty spoke louder than anything I ever could have said.
But I can honestly say that job gave me some things nobody can ever take away. I met my husband there. I gained a few customers who turned into lifelong friends. And it gave me a level of toughness that still shows up today. When you’ve repossessed furniture on your back and delivered front-load washers and dryers by yourself, can’t nobody tell you nothing.
So today I just want to say thank You, God. Every lesson, every struggle, every blessing, and every closed door was preparing me for where You were taking me next. Thank You for giving me the strength to stand on my principles, even when it came at a cost, because Your plans for my life were always bigger than the job I thought I was supposed to keep. – Orsayor L. Simmons
Thank you for sharing your story! The lessons we learn from places we are meant to stay for a season are what adds to our character. The actions you did to help customers is something I seen in you from the moment we interacted. You have a great spirit and I wish you the best in everything you do.
I can absolutely relate to this. Sometimes, things that I thought were “the worst thing that could happen to me” were actually the best things, as it was the close of a chapter in my life so that I could begin an even better chapter.