I work for a large rent-to-own company and have been working there for about 4 months in the “Account Management” department. It's an entry-level job and I had worked in an appliance store before, so I thought it would be a good fit.
When I first started and did their training program it taught us how to “collect” while being respectful and professional with the customers. It seemed like they had an emphasis on doing whatever we could to work with the customer and help them keep their merchandise so we don't have to repossess. This seemed reasonable to me, if you're late, we will offer to extend/lower payment/etc. I didn't like the idea of being in “collections” in general and felt guilty, but the training made it seem like we are actually going to help people when they fall behind on their payments.
Then training ended and I quickly learned the priority was not on helping the customers but more about hitting quotas. We were required to call all of our customers (to collect payment) multiple times a day starting when they are only 1 day past due. If they fell more than a few days behind we were required to go to their house and knock on their door. Pretty much we were being paid to harass our customers daily until they paid us. So I immediately started looking for another job, but haven't been able to find anything comparable that I'm qualified for.
So I've been sucking it up for months and just doing what I'm told at work. I quickly grew numb to the horrible things my company did and made me do, it became normal for me to have someone cry on the phone to me about how their whole life is falling apart.
Then one day I got sent on a “repo” by boss (This is normal for people that fall 2 weeks+ past due). I arrived at the apartment with my coworker and had the normal conversation with the lady that answered the door (Can you pay? When can you pay? If you can't pay we need to repo the merchandise.) and she seemed indifferent, didn't even really give a shit that we were there. Then she said “Fuck it, just take it, I can't pay for it anyways”. So we asked her to show her where the mattress was, and she let us inside. The apartment looked almost completely empty, there was no furniture other than a few dining chairs and just a TV on the floor with a young boy watching. I immediately felt sick and wanted to leave right away, I couldn't take this woman's bed after seeing this. Me and my co worker exchanged glances and he just shook his head and gestured like “what can you do?”. Then she led us into her kid's room and it was just as bare as the rest of the apartment, just the mattress, a blanket, a few toys, and some scattered clothes. Then I realized that I was about to take her child's bed, I told my coworker I had to run back outside to the truck then walked out immediately.
I called my boss distraught, I explained to her the condition of the apartment and told her I really don't feel good about taking the bed. She said she understood but that it's part of the job and we just need to get it and get out. After going back-and-fourth for a few minutes I finally put my foot down and said “I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do this.”. She got openly aggressive with me and told me that I need just to get it done and she started explaining how we aren't going to hit our “goal” so we can't afford to let a “repo” go. I said no again and she responded with “Fine, go home”.
I didn't have a ride to get anywhere, we were miles away from the office, but I didn't want to go back inside and confront my co-worker so I just walked a few blocks away then got an Uber. Anyways, later that night I get 4 text messages that are just a wall of text, it was my boss telling me how my behavior today was unprofessional and how I don't have what it takes for this job, she told me she wants to fire me but will give me another chance, but if this ever happens again she won't have the same patience. I wanted to tell her to fuck off but I literally can't afford to be without a job right now. I'm still looking for a new job, I'm going to leave as soon as I get something else, but, I just wanted to get this off my chest.
I know this was long, but thank you for hearing me out.