Scare Tactics, Deception To Sell CDW

I worked at ERAC for eight months right after college. This was in 1994, so it's been a while.

It was fun to read all the other people who have had similar experiences working for this company. I suppose it really depends on the branch you're at, but mine was definitely a journey into the twilight zone.
I can't say the entire company is like this or that every management trainee (MT) will have a similar experience, but my experience is not one I care to repeat.

I worked at an ERAC office in the small East Texas town of Tyler. Upon graduating college, I thought this was a wonderful opportunity, so I jumped at it. I moved in with my parents and started my life "bleeding green".

During my eight months at ERAC, I personally witnessed numerous instances of racism and age discrimination. I was actually told by an assistant manager not to rent luxury cars to black people. Resumes of qualified 30+ year old workers were trashed immediately. Older workers who applied were openly ridiculed because of their age upon leaving the office. The only person in the office over the age of 30 was the branch manager, who was 33. These are business practices I find vile and unethical, and it made me feel very dirty to see that going on at a company I was supposed to respect.

I could go on about the negative aspects of working at ERAC, but possibly one of the most hideous was management's obsession with CDW. MT's were under constant, crushing pressure to sell CDW. Every day, management would run a report on the running CDW sales, broken down by employee. Those who did not hit the magical number (40%, and I believe 20% on insurance rentals) were publicly chastised and threatened with their job (as if losing a $6/hr.
glorified insurance-sales job would be that great a loss). I personally saw employees using scare tactics and even outright deception to sell CDW (telling customers that they'd be liable for their deductible if rental was damaged. In truth, liability insurance has no deductible.) All the accolades, recognitions, and promotions went to the highest CDW-sellers, regardless of their ability to give good service.

At ERAC, CDW is life.

After enduring 2 months of this soul-destroying place, I was suffering from sleep-loss, depression, high blood pressure, and chest pains (mind you, I was 22 years old). Finally, I made the decision to go back to graduate school. I applied, and was accepted for a graduate teaching position as well as a grant. Looking back, I should not have worked the next five months at ERAC (this was March 1994, and I was scheduled to start school in late August), but I did. Call it my natural tendency for stubbornness over common sense.

I look back on my time at ERAC as a learning experience. We can learn from bad experiences, and if I learned any lesson it was that no job is worth your life. My story has a happy ending, as I returned to graduate school, met the love of my life, and she is now pregnant with our first child. I work as a software developer, and have long since sold my last CDW. Sure, I have still have bad days at work, and my current company is far from perfect, but no job in the eleven years since ERAC could compare to the soul-deadening effect that office had on its people.

M.S.

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