Namaste Through Milkshake Day – Keeping the Balance

Katie is an account manager at C&C Complete Services. Prior to entering into the contractor world, she spent 15 years managing community associations. Katie is also an active member on the Quorum Editorial Committee.

Namaste through Milkshake Day Keeping the Balance Keeping the Balance

When I first started working in community association management, there were cell phones, but that’s all they were…phones. And the phones ran off minutes and after your minutes were up, it cost extra. The world of convenient communication didn’t exist (yet). This meant that when I closed shop and headed

home at 5:30PM, I was done until the next morning. Unfortunately, those days are over, and managers get the live feed from owners 24/7. The technological advances in cell phones make it possible for managers to be reachable all day, every day – sick, asleep, grocery shopping, on a beach, etc. And, even if you as the manager try not

to look at e-mails over the weekend, you feel you have no choice.

So, what now? How can we keep great managers from burning out? First and foremost, everyone is different and has a different family life and different needs.

Only you as individual manager know what is best for you and your family. If you can make managing a property or a portfolio work, then that is total Rockstar status! But if not, there is absolutely no shame in bettering your life for what works for you. At the end of the day, if you’re not happy, it will eventually show and that doesn’t help anyone.

For those in Rockstar status, we may need to rediscover your work/life balance. It is certainly not easy being a community manager and when you have a company that acknowledges that and tries to alleviate the load, it shows they are looking out for your well-being and that’s a great feeling. When you are gone for the day, try putting your out of office on, noting the office hours, the emergency protocol and that you will be happy to get back within 24 hours. This sets the expectation and should hopefully make you as the manager feel better about not checking e-mails or worse, answering them, until you get back to the office. Family time is family time and you don’t get that back.

Evening board meetings can take time away from family. Those are part of the job, but you can time your agendas or ask the board members for comments and questions regarding the board packet, prior to the board meeting (to try and get them to read it). During homeowner open forum, announce that everyone has three minutes to speak and then once open forum is closed, those still in attendance are there to observe, not participate. Board training is also a must – so board members can learn how to run successful meetings.

Outside of board meetings, don’t be afraid to say no…or instead of no, offer an alternative. If I had a vendor or a board member who wanted to meet me at o’ dark thirty, I’d offer a time that worked better for me.

If you’re a portfolio manager, at the end of every year, try to schedule your next fiscal board meetings for when it works for you. You may have those three that are set in stone, but for the others, go through the calendar and pre-populate the dates for the year so you’re not going to four meetings a week. That will burn you out VERY quickly!

As stated earlier, being a community manager is tough and often thankless. You can experience the worst of people and the worst of situations. What often helped me, was taking a break from the work, at work. Company picnics or company holiday events are great ways for everyone to step back and relax. Around Thanksgiving the whole office literally went outside and bowled a frozen turkey! I would try to plan events with vendors or try to get all of the other portfolios to go out to lunch or happy hour every once in a while. I also had a habit of turning a desk drawer into the communal candy drawer, where coworkers could go in and grab some much-needed sugar. Sugar makes everything better!

Now, I’m an extrovert, therefore I’m better when I’m around my co-workers, so little things like Milkshake Day on the first warm day of the year were important for me to balance out the stresses of the job. For the introverts, at home I work on jigsaw puzzles to keep the anxiety down. I know others who use the adult coloring books. Things don’t have to be THAT bad, if you find what you can do to make it even a little bit better. It’s so important to keep good managers and I sincerely hope this gives some hope and helps those struggling to get the balance back. Everyone deserves a Milkshake Day!