Last Friday I finally quit a job I was looking to leave for about a month and a half and finally lined something up. The only problem was that my new job started yesterday and they only sent me an offer one week prior, meaning all I could do was give one week notice. All seemed fine and dandy until after I quit, when the owner of the apartment complex I worked at (who I didn’t even work for, the management company who is based out of Las Vegas was my actual employer) called me today out of the blue to tell me how unprofessional I am for giving less than two weeks notice, how he’ll never be able to give me a good reference (even though I never asked for one from him), and that the city I live in is too small to burn bridges when I’m leaving the property management industry and moving into an entirely different industry.
The real reason they’re mad I left is because the site manager pushed most duties of site manager onto me, so I had almost all the responsibilities of being a site manager of an apartment complex but none on the actual authority, as well as the fact that she doesn’t have a license (which is illegal in Montana), and he even acknowledged that he knows that she doesn’t have a license and tried to defend her saying “she’s still working towards getting the license,” even though 8 months prior when I started there it was the same story, she was “working” towards getting it, but she’s “afraid of getting taking the test,” when all it takes is taking the pre-licensing course and then taking the test, but she doesn’t want to take 5 days off of work to be able to take the course (40 hour pre-licensing course) and if she doesn’t do that she can’t take the test to get the license. I also found out she intentionally ignored emails from the other licensed property managers that worked at a sister property asked for me to join them for continuing education courses which are required to maintain a license. I didn’t actually find this out until my last day, which solidified my decision to leave as well as confirmed my theory she was intentionally holding me back.
I could go on and on about how she’s by far the laziest and most immature manager I’ve ever had the misfortune of working with, but all I’ll say is: for the owner of the complex to call me and chew me out for leaving AFTER I quit the job proves that the office has to already be turning into a dumpster fire because she didn’t realize how much I did on a day to day basis until after I left, as well as proving I definitely left an incredibly toxic workplace and dodged a bullet.
If you live or plan to live in Billings, MT, avoid luxury apartment complexes like the plague. I’m a licensed manager and was floored by how many illegal things the regional / site manager was doing and getting away with.