Did you know that every time you return a leased vehicle, you can learn a lot about physics, philosophy, psychology and even classical studies? No? Neither did we. But we learned just that from a story sent to us by one of our warriors on the returns front.

It starts with Einstein’s discovery that everything is relative. By the way, Einstein only postulated the theory of relativity as it applies to physics—relativism was already popular in philosophy in ancient times. The precise meaning of relativity can be explained very neatly using the example of our lease return.

A lessor sent us a final statement with an email that read something like this: “Hello Mr. X, before you have a heart attack, let’s talk about the car up front. What does the appraisal look like? Our expert estimates 9,457 euros.” From our employee’s point of view, that was relatively high. He judged the compensation amount to be 3,982.40 euros, less than half as much. As we said, everything is relative. One company sets the threshold for tread depth on the tires at 2 mm, while another uses the legal minimum tread depth of 1.6 mm. One sees “damage” to the seats, the other sees “typical wear.” One sees damage as “professionally” repaired only if there were witnesses as he or his team installed the part themselves. The other sees the damage as remedied if it has been repaired. Everything is relative, depending on your perspective. In our case, there are two perspectives: Do you want to maximize your profit? Or do you want to build a fair relationship in the interests of your customer?

At the same time, we learn something from the realm of psychology: When returning a leased vehicle, a gasp cannot be suppressed even after prior warning in an email. Even if our minds try to remain reasonable, our reptilian brains switch to fight mode when we are treated unfairly. This is a good thing because it has helped us survive the course of evolution. And fortunately, since we are no longer constantly threatened with death these days – and especially not by our otherwise quite harmonious fleet management – this clear response from the body now helps keep us from being exploited.

And finally, we learn from the field of classics that the wisdom of the old fables of antiquity still applies in its original form today, despite digitization, agility and restructuring: When two people quarrel, a third rejoices. Because in this example, a third appraiser must now be called in, who will certainly also earn good money. And the lessee, who should actually be king, will have to pay.

So, if you still have a generalist degree on your bucket list, consider working in the leasing department of a fleet management company. You will learn as much as in your liberal arts program, plus earn money and help prevent customers from having a heart attack when their leases end.