Dyani Ramos
Holly Pappas
English 101
May 1, 2016
More Like Family- Ethnography
I consider my job as my second home and my co-workers more like my second family. I work at Equity National and Title Company- 50 Jordan Street, East Providence Rhode Island. I’ve worked here for over three years now. This will be a great place for me to observe considering I’m here at least forty hours a week.
Title companies handle the title work for mortgage companies. We receive an ‘order’ for a property which lists the owners name, and address and then we send an examiner to the local county to gather all the documents recorded on the property. They collect deeds, mortgages, releases, UCC liens (for solar panels) judgments etc. Once we get the search back, it is reviewed by the underwriter to review everything that was reported in the search. Then the file goes to the title officers (my job) and we need to address any issues on title, like a mortgage that was never released at the county or verifying judgments, obtaining payoffs on liens and so much more. We come across new things every day here. My position is a very high paced position which requires a lot of background in the industry to be successful. It’s said that in order to be a good title officer you would need to practice in the role for at least a year to be well rounded. I recently started the position in January although I have been on this team since last March.
The outside of my office is a large brick building with a gigantic ’50’ on the building (for our address). We have a far too modern sign for our brick building- it’s sleek, blue, with a white back-round and the word ‘equity’ in blue. The sign looks like it should be a sign for a large sky scraper in New York. The inside of our office is very large, and bland. We have a total of 99 cubicles- 95 surround 4 team leader cubes. The cubicles are surrounded by personal offices, one for the CEO, another attorney, and yet another for the owner- who is rarely here, sales team, and the accounting manager. Lastly, the one pop of color in the office a small wall which is bright orange in fact is the office for our human resources manager. The wall also has the word ‘equity’ on it in blue. All of the other walls in the office are plain white. Our cubicles are a light shade of olive green, with dark brown wood desks. We all have two 13 inch monitors on our desks. We also have a dark, gloomy, but resourceful supply room, which contains pens, notebooks, highlighters, envelopes etc. Our office has dark grey carpets that look like they haven’t been cleaned in years- because they haven’t. The office has bright, florescent lights which can give me headaches some days.
My team probably has the worst seats in the office. We sit right by the ‘kitchen’ which has no door. Every morning we hear people’s annoying conversations, hear the blenders going for people’s morning shakes meanwhile we’re reading extensive wills, trusts, mortgages etc. People stop in front of our desks to have conversations as they are walking in or leaving for lunch. But the best of all has to be the smells…. In the morning we smell disgusting hard boiled eggs, fish in the afternoon, and every other gross food smell you can think of.
My team has six members ranging from age 22 to 55; myself, Kimberly Z., Liz, Kimberly A, Mindy, and Katie. We get along pretty well for the most part but we are here all day together 40 hours a week so no point in not getting along. I would say we all have different personalities although we also share similarities both inside and outside of work which is beneficial. Kim Z is dare I say- my favorite. She has a very colorful personality. She is positive, kind, caring, and a little sarcastic at the same time. Her desk is filled with funny cat memes that are just as sarcastic as she is. She is loved by all coworkers and our clients. She and I work hand in hand with our ‘select clients’ meaning the more particular, smaller companies that may need more hand holding in the refinance process. Liz is my morning buddy- she works 8 to 4 with me and the rest of the team starts later in the day. Liz and I are only a few years apart and we get along really well because we have a lot of similarities. We enjoy fashion, similar shows, and both have two year old sons. She does not have many decorations on her desk, it’s kept very neat and tidy unlike my desk. My friend Kim A and I have some out of work similarities too. I refer to us as the ‘craft queens’ we both enjoy knitting, baking, and other crafts. Her desk has one sole personal picture of her and her husband the rest of her desk is filled with other work related items. Mindy is the ‘mom’ of the group. She has four children so she has the best mom advice. Liz and I are always questioning her about new things we come across, or worries about our children. Mindy’s desk is kept very professional no personal decorations whatsoever. She does not even have work related things posted. Katie on the other hand like me has her desk filled with pictures, she even decorates for Christmas. Katie can be short tempered at times, or snappy but I do believe she is kind at heart.
This week, the week of February 29th to March 4th has by far been one of the most hectic weeks in my three years in the company. Katie is leaving for surgery and Kim A will be out Friday. Unfortunately because of the importance of the title officer role we as a team need to monitor each other emails when we’re out on vacation days. Meanwhile we are booming and don’t even have time for our own emails.
Typical me on a Monday: “Good Morning girls are you ready for this week?” I ask with a big smile on my face.
Mindy ‘Ugh don’t get me started’ her body language is not excited as she also rolls her eyes. I have never met someone who hates Monday’s as much as Mindy.
Liz ‘Monday Mindy is here’ and we all laugh.
Kim Z ‘We are going to do everything we can this week we know it has been so busy we are going to do the best we can.’
Monday goes by without too many issues. Tuesday afternoon Ben (the attorney in the office- who is also my manager’s manager) calls us into his office. We are all afraid. This is the first time since I’ve been on the team that we’ve been called in there.
Ben’s office is tiny. We cram in to close for comfort along with our manager. He lets us know that some roles were going to switch around for the following day because we are expected to receive something like 100 orders. He gives every one their tasks for the next day.
This is Katie’s last day before her time off. She is upset about the task she takes on. She is typically negative. She replies “I don’t know how much I will be able to get done, I have never done that specific task…” etc.
Liz was working from home so I decide to update her in with the changes for the day via email. She replies she was not too shocked something like this would happen considering how crazy it’s been.
As we leave Ben’s office I try and reassure the girls we will make it though by saying ‘Let’s do this’ after I received blank faces like you just wait. Wednesday is not too bad Kim Z and myself are able to keep up, the other girls not so much. I tell KZ ‘It’s not too bad maybe it won’t be so crazy after all’ she laughs sarcastically but also is positive when saying ‘We will see.’
Thursday was extreme. My words were ‘I did NOT think it would be this crazy with the first day Katie gone, I don’t know how we are going to last two weeks.’
Mindy ‘Seriously this is crazy’ throwing her hands in the air.
My manager comes over to the pod ‘How’s it going?’
Kim A speaks for everyone ‘We are all completely drowning’ at least she is honest….. Kim is a very positive and vibrant person but we just had to let her know what to expect for the week. I shook my head vigorously as she said we were completely drowning.
Friday rolls around, I was both afraid and happy it was Friday. Both Katie and Kim A will be out today. We each have to cover both their emails for three hours, as well as our own.
Mindy is silent majority of her time covering because it’s so intense.
We cover by shifts and I am up next. Overwhelmed, I can not help but be sarcastic at this point we are all ‘Well luckily for Kim A and Katie they each have one email meanwhile my own emails are up to 27 unread emails’ and then I laughed to try and make a joke of it.
The whole office is intense it’s month end so every team is crazy trying to get loans approved and scheduled to get to closing so we can help our lenders meet the quota for the month.
Kim Z replies, ‘If we don’t just smile and laugh about it we will be sitting at our desk crying so pick up the phone with a smile on your face’. She always knows the right thing to say at exactly the right time.
Liz ‘I think I need to come in and work overtime tomorrow, if not I will pay for it in the long run it’s so crazy right now.’
The office served us lunch Friday in honor of Employee Appreciation Day- I was unable to get up from my desk because I was covering emails and was too stressed to eat lunch at the time any way.
Me “If I can get a sitter I will come in tomorrow it’s too crazy here I can’t keep pulling more files’
Liz mentioning an inside joke ‘I have a New Jersey file- lets see how many possible judgments’ one minute later ’97 pages of judgments I don’t have time for this!’.
Me “I knew you jinxed yourself this morning when you said the largest one you’ve done was only 30 pages’.
Mindy “I am so tired I am becoming burnt out from all the over time I can not work any more over time my brain is becoming fried I can’t think any more. I’m exhausted”
Liz ‘Can I run reverse credit to clear a judgment?’
Me ‘Yes. Can someone come take a look at a file with me?’
Without hesitation Kim A gets up- I ask
‘Does this look like it’s an expired mortgage?’ She reviews ancient mortgage statute with me ‘Yes’ she replies
NO matter how busy we are we always put aside what we’re doing to help one another. This job can sometimes play mind tricks on you so asking someone else’s opinion happens at least five times an hour. Since title has so many different changes and new things to come across we are always having conversations and working together on things because the goal is to get the file searched, cleared, and closed for the customer. Thankfully most of us don’t see it as a competition. We are all at different points in our careers. I look forward to working with these girls every day. We are all overwhelmed but we make it through with positivity and passion.
The positivity both Kim Z and myself bring to the team help us during tough times. When we begin to be negative the stress seems to trickle down across the girls. Now we are in a better place that everyone is back to work. We have been getting along better because we now have time to work on our own files.
Working together toward one goal helps us be a successful team. Positiveness spreads like wildfire as well as negativeness. As long as we can manage to be positive we will grow more like a family.