How do you like your job?

Tuesday night, I was over at a new client’s condo taking photos and getting a listing signed.  She had expected me to be there for 15 minutes, and I was there for over 90 minutes.  She hadn’t expected the photography portion of the visit to be so lengthy.  With her dinner getting ever colder, and me painstakingly making my way through the home to capture it in its best light, at some point I asked, “How do you like your job?”  I was just making conversation.  It was the sort of question I’m apt to ask while trying to get to know my client just a little bit better.  And she answered something like, “It’s alright.”  She didn’t have glowing praise or harsh criticism, which I interpreted as, It’s a job.  I go to work, do my thing, and most days it isn’t memorable.

The next day, around lunch, she calls me up with the strangest of questions:  “Why did you ask me if I liked my job?  Because the mortgage broker you suggested asked me the same exact question.”  At this point I assured her that the question had no ulterior motive.  There isn’t any special questioning that we are doing given the “mortgage crisis” to qualify only the happy employees for loans/houses.  It really was just a getting to know you question, much like “What hobbies do you enjoy?” and “Do your kids play softball?”

Then I asked her a question, “Are you having a bad day at work?”  And sure enough, one of the partners she works for had treated her poorly that day.  We all have the occassional bad day at work, and we all sometimes don’t like our job.  Let’s hope that today is better than yesterday, but again, I can assure you the “mortgage crisis” hasn’t resulted in a new set of qualifying questions.  Her 780 credit score will due just fine for that.

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