My Typical Day: Before/After

I've been out of this hellhole for awhile now and life has never been better!!! I found this posted on another section of this site and felt it perfectly summed up everything. I post this just as a reminder to those on the fence about quitting... There is life after (EE) Enterprise and it is a good one!



"I was thinking about this last night, the differences between a typical day now and a typical day when I worked at enterprise.

6:00AM
Enterprise: Wake up, shower, shave.
Now: Still Sleeping

7:15AM
Enterprise: Arrive at office, have 2-3 customers waiting outside
Now: Still Sleeping

7:45AM
Enterprise: After dealing with customers, head to dealerships
Now: Wake up, shower, and shave

9:00AM
Enterprise: Get yelled at by BMW customer because his loaner car is a cobalt
Now: Arrive at work

12:00PM:
Enterprise: Rent cars to people in a hurry taking their lunch breaks
Now: Take a lunch break

2:30PM
Enterprise: Take a lunch break(maybe)
Now: Attend staff meetings(not held after hours starting at 7pm)

3:30PM
Enterprise: Call customers to tell them insurance company has declined their claim.
Now: Call client, talk is business related but friendly.

5:00PM
Enterprise: Take non-qualifying renter back to house\dealership\bustop
Now: Leave the office

6:15PM
Enterprise: Help out customers who "just made it in"
Now: Finish up workout at gym, or run at track

6:30PM
Enterprise: Take one more trip to dealership to pickup\drop off cars
Now: Eat dinner

7:30PM
Enterprise: Eat dinner, normally alone(family has already eaten)
Now: Relax

9:00PM
Enterprise: Exhausted, fall asleep
Now: Either go out with friends or just cont. to relax around the house.


It's amazing how much life changes once you leave ERAC. This doesn't even account for special cirumstances which warranted us to be in the office extra early or extra late, such as repos, corporate customers, or other situations."

AMEN---I can co-sign that there IS life after ECRAP and you can get paid more than $11 per hour!!!

All those headaches go away, Sunday evenings aren't dreadful, and Monday morning are lovely. Your suits stay in good shape and your heels still have the heel on it!!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

AMEN---I can co-sign that there IS life after ECRAP and you can get paid more than $11 per hour!!!

All those headaches go away, Sunday evenings aren't dreadful, and Monday morning are lovely. Your suits stay in good shape and your heels still have the heel on it!!

and you have more energy for sex

Been erac-free for almost a year now and couldn't agree more. So happy to get my normal life back :)

Wow, I have been away from ERAC for just about a year now. It is just amazing how true the before and after thing is. I left as a manager to take a better job. Have any of my fellow EE managers been promoted to area manager within the last year?

As soon as you make the switch to a normal job with regular hours, less stress, nice pay, and less brainwashing, you will wonder how the hell you put up with all of the BS erac gives you.

To my former/current area R friends... if at all possible, get out asap and enjoy some of the summer while you look for a nicer life/job. It is WORTH it!

Originally Posted by Its-A-PDM-Thang

Wow, I have been away from ERAC for just about a year now. It is just amazing how true the before and after thing is. I left as a manager to take a better job. Have any of my fellow EE managers been promoted to area manager within the last year?

As soon as you make the switch to a normal job with regular hours, less stress, nice pay, and less brainwashing, you will wonder how the hell you put up with all of the BS erac gives you.

To my former/current area R friends... if at all possible, get out asap and enjoy some of the summer while you look for a nicer life/job. It is WORTH it!

Could I have your initials?

For me...i wake up at 7am, leave the house at 8am. I can come in between 8:30 and 9am.

I chit chat with the co-workers, grab breakfast in the company cafeteria that is similar to a mall food court, go to my desk and start doing real work around 9:30am.

At 12 or 1 ( MY CHOICE) I go to lunch for an hour. I have a few choices, the cafeteria that has every type of made to order menu I could ever want. Or i could walk down the street to the mall, or i could go outside where they company is grilling food for its employees. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Around 4:30 I begin to pack up and go home!!!!

Now you're prob. thinking...that day doesn't even add up to an 8hr day. You're right...it doesn't. When you're salaried and do not deal with customers, the clock in NON-EXISTENT! Just get your work done and then go home- SMILING!

P.S. Cleaning my company's bathroom isn't on the list! When i think about how they used to make us clean the bathrooms and the bay area, I wanna kick myself. How was i such a fool for 2 1/2 years :( Thank goodness I'm outta ERAC Prison. My new checks actually represent that I did in fact go to college. Leaving work at 4:30 is B-E-A-U-T-F-U-L!!!!!!!

I'm about to head out for a night at the bar with a bunch of friends. For a second there I had to see if I had to come home early because I may have to work Saturday morning. Oh, wait! Of course I don't! Because I no longer work at that retail store! Levaing ERAC is the greatest thing that will ever happen to you. It may seem like a hard task, but once you leave you will never regret it.

Outside of this cult there is a world of better pay, realistic hours and companies who don't run employees into the ground. You can actually eat lunch at a normal time EVERY day! WOW WOW WOW!!!! No stuffing pizza down my throat for a 3 minute break during an 11 hour day! And business meetings that are actually held during business hours! No coming in an hour early or staying an hour later to discuss how we can improve our erac retail job service or better ways to push DUBBYA on customers. No switching offices every 6 months - and no subtle threats that if you don't take an office that is over an hour from your house you may be passed up for future promotions for not being a team player. Also, when you leave erac you can actually be proud to tell people about your career. You don't have to jazz up the fact that you rent cars for a living.

If you are reading these posts, chances are at some point you have thought about quitting or have been a bit depressed working at ERAC. For the 2 or so years I was there, I hit those walls now and then. Getting out of there has been incredible. I have a nice job and so much more energy! If you have aspirations about doing something else with your life, just go for it and put ERAC behind you, just as many former south Jersey ERACers have done before you. Have confidence in yourself that you will find something that you enjoy to do for a living. You only live once and you are only tredding water at erac. Set yourself free! - S

but GG told me I could make the BIG BUCKS as a branch manager - maybe even $45-$50K a year with only 80 hour weeks.... sounds to good to leave .... where else am I going to find a job this good?

[WalMartisGreat]

It's been well over a year since I left beautiful Enterprise, a company who's right up there with disgusting Wal-Mart with their anti-union rhetoric and abysmal treatment of employees. This post brought back some hellish memories and also reminded me of how much my quality of life has improved since walking away from "chasing the dream."

I ended up at ERAC like most of you. Graduated from college, couldn't find a job in my field, got contacted by ERAC and figured, "what the hell, at least it is a job...for now." Never in my life did I imagine I would be renting (and cleaning!) cars. But there I was. I kept telling myself that eventually I would leave. That this wasn't a career. During those drives to pickup that chipper customer who just had his car rear-ended, I'd daydream about what it would be like to have a job that was related to my field and a job that I could honestly see myself in for years and years -- a career.

Face the facts. Even if you want a career in sales, ERAC is at best a temporary fix. It's money. But as many of you know, due to the work schedule it is incredibly difficult to find time for job hunting. But if you ever want to get out of there and start a real career, you have to suck it up and start making things happen -- some how, some way.

I remember once driving back from a dealership. It was a great day outside. The sun was shinning, plenty of warm weather. And then it just hit me. "What the hell am I doing with my life?" I pulled the car over to the side of the road, turned off the radio and just sat there. I was tired. I was frustrated. I was depressed. I was sick of the the absolute cluster-fuck of shoddy region organization, terrible working conditions for employees, horrible hours and incompetent upper management full of people who rode the wave of the company's (now long gone) solid '90s growth to top positions. It was at this point that I decided to spend every ounce of open time to find a better job. I knew that I had no right to complain if I wasn't at least trying to rectify my situation and get the hell out of there.

It just so happened that our branch just opened up a new satellite office. During my days manning that office by myself, I starting bringing in a laptop and with the help of a nearby wifi signal, I started redoing my resume (spun my ERAC experience and custom "Taylor-ed" (LOL!) it to each different company/job I sent inquiries to) and sent out open cover letters to lots of companies that I spent time researching. I would do this during all my downtime and then continue when I got home. After a week or so I started getting some responses. Even companies I never heard back from when I was job hunting right after college. Then interviews followed. I tried to put interviews on the same day, then just called out sick. For 2 interviews I lied and said I had a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day. Long story short, within 2-3 weeks after that infamous day where I pulled the rental car over to the side of the road and devised my escape, I had a job offer with a great company which I quickly accepted! The only downside was that I couldn't start there for another 6 weeks.

I told absolutely nobody that I would be leaving in 6 weeks. Nobody even knew of my active job hunting. Having a great new job lined up made those last 6 weeks at ERAC a breeze. No CDW? No problem! Looking for an SUV? All out! No corporate accounts or car sale leads? What the fuck did I care!

2 weeks out I dropped the bomb that I was leaving and it felt GREAT! It was one of the few times I had a GENUINE smile on my face at ERAC.

Fast-forward to today. I have a computer science career! I LOVE my job! I work 8 hours a day! No weekends! More free time to spend with my girlfriend, go to the gym, hang out with friends and enjoy life! I make more money! We all get lunch breaks!

Take me advice. GET OUT NOW. Please.The longer you stay the more you'll have to play catch-up when you leave and enter a real career. I regret the year or 2 of my life that I wasted at Enterprise. Don't worry, the ERAC cult will find a new sucker to fill your shoes. Walk away and never look back.

Your better life is waiting!