I actually used to work at Hertz some years ago before this, and really I don't know why I went back to this company. I was a driver/transporter for them during college so it was a little more “carefree” in the sense that I wasn't cooped up in a run down office getting treated like shit all the time, like all my coworkers in customer service. However I had to resign from that job when my manager wouldn't let me take any time off for final exams. Not even so much as an hour, and yes I even tried to negotiate him down to one hour, for a very important finals week in college. I told him two weeks in advance. And considering I only got paid $8 an hour, it just wasn't worth it to me. My manager was shouting at me and insulting me over the phone, after being dedicated to my job for 3 years and rarely ever taking a sick day. My manager in general would shout at people for even the smallest of mishaps. The area manager called me and was defending my boss and saying “nobody has to quit” etc etc but wouldn't work with me at all to get me any time off. Even if I could have somehow completed all my finals while working my same schedule, the level of disrespect this company showed me was appalling.
Anyway now I'm graduated from college and the job market has been really tough. I recently interviewed with Hertz and they offered me a job fairly quick. It's one of the customer service positions, where you're behind the counter and renting cars, and it pays a little more. I was really hesitant but figured I'd try it out. And yeah, right away this job is trash. I get there and the manager seems really abrasive, and telling us how we'll have to work these insane hours (like 60 hour weeks sometimes, and weekends too yay!). She's telling us that we CAN'T ever call out sick, she NEEDS us there. If we call out sick so much as two times, she's done with us! Another manager started giving an employee all this shit and arguing with her for calling out sick a couple times, within like 20 minutes of me being there. They were so disorganized, they had no idea how to even train me and would just walk away any time I needed help, and even the employees who had been there for years didn't really know what they were doing half the time. They all seemed super miserable and did nothing but complain about their jobs all day. My manager would be like “I'm a cool manager, I just want you all to feel happy coming into work!” but would treat everybody like slaves. And because it was at an airport, they told me that some days we'd have to stay for several extra hours beyond our schedule, if a flight got delayed. And apparently that happens all the time, so you can't even really know when your shift ends. You have to lie to the customers and upsell them on bullshit to keep your job. You can't really leave for lunch and of course they stop paying you during it too.
Overall you're stuck behind this cramped counter for anywhere between 8-12 hours a day and treated like a slave. You are underpaid, overworked, and easily replaceable, the managers act like they own you and control your whole life. And for what?? I'm not even doing anything meaningful or really helping society in any way. All I'm doing is staring at a computer screen and giving out car rentals to disgruntled customers. I gave it a chance but…I just realized that I'm so sick of having jobs like this dude. I've spent my whole working adult life dealing with bullshit companies like this who act like they own me while denying me benefits and might as well be paying me in pennies, and I'm so tired of it.