As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we are highlighting ARS/Rescue Rooter employee, Trina Carpenter. She is the Lease Real Property Manager and works for our corporate office in the legal department. Trina has been with ARS/Rescue Rooter for 12 years and recently won the Corporate Support Award. Let’s meet Trina.
What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
I manage the lease agreements. I answer subpoenas. I work with compliance here within the legal department. Anything that is to support the field basically, legally, I am here to do that.
How long have you been an ARS/Rescue Rooter employee?
I’ve been for 12 years. I started as a temp in 2008, and after that they hired me full time, and I’ve been here ever since.
What does a typical day look like?
A typical day for me would look like, I would come in and log into my computer. First, make sure there are no fires from the day before, make sure I address any issues from the day before, and then tackle assignments that may be coming up. For instance, there are always leases to be renewed or negotiated. There are always critical dates I have to stay on top of as far as subpoenas that need to be answered. So, I’m literally in my computer from the time I log in from the time I log out, answering the requests that come in for me, back to back, from the field.
What is the most fun thing about being in your position?
I would say one of the most fun parts of my job is the opportunity to meet some of the characters out in the field, the branch managers. What we do is not necessarily fun, negotiating leases and dealing with landlord and tenant disputes, but we’ve developed a relationship. I’ve developed relationships with the branch managers and the management part of our team out there in the field, and they are some characters. They show their personality, and we get through this one lease at a time.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your job at ARS/Rescue Rooter?
I would say that the most rewarding aspect of my job is helping the field to find the right terms for a lease for their particular location. Each location has its own special needs, and if you can get the right landlord with the right branch, and the terms match up, and we finally get to a point where everyone is in agreement, and we can close the books on that one, that’s pretty rewarding for me. Just to be able to say, I assist the branch with where they’re going to operate their facilities, where their employees are going to come and go every day and spend 8+ hours a day. I take pride in knowing I helped that come to fruition.
How did you feel winning ARS’s corporate support award at its annual manager’s conference?
Words can hardly express how I felt in winning the corporate support award this past year. I had never been to the awards and did not know there was such an award. So, as I am virtually watching the video on my laptop, sitting in my living room, you know, in my own element, just enjoying the awards ceremony, and when he said “Trina Carpenter,” I had to do a double-take. You would’ve thought it was the Grammy’s. I started crying and boo-hooing. You spend so much time here and you don’t know that your work is appreciated. I know that I take pride in my work, but you don’t know that others appreciate the work that you do. To find out those branch managers, those people in the field, those same people we’ve had to go back and forth with, you know it’s not necessarily fun all the time. Of all the hardworking people who work here in the corporate office, they chose me, over all of those people, it meant the world to me, and it still does.
Where can we find you on a typical weekend?
On the weekends, I love spending time with my grandbaby, Kari. He’ll be two this year, and I just enjoy spending time with him and watching him grow up and see the little things he’s doing as he continues to just discover this world.
Name one surprising thing that people at ARS/Rescue Rooter may not know about you.
I would probably say because of my position being in the legal department, negotiating leases, working with subpoenas, compliance, law, all of that. That people would find it very surprising that I’m actually sorta goof, sorta funny. I like to have a good time, and this is a job, and I love my job, but it’s not who I am. I’m a fun person, and I enjoy laughing.
If you had to live on a deserted island, what three things would you bring?
If I had to live on a deserted island, I would bring my husband, I’m still a newlywed, and we’re still in love, so I would definitely bring him. I think I would bring my grandbaby Kari. My children may be disappointed, but they’re okay. And an endless supply of Oreo cookies. That would be the third thing I bring.
Thank you, Trina, for allowing us a peek inside your ARS/Rescue Rooter Corporate Office workday!
