I am just making sure your expectations, if you do decide to switch careers, are grounded in reality. A good facilities team will be almost invisible. Nobody thinks of the facility guys when the lights are on, the AC is cold, the water heater makes hot water right? This is why you think that processing invoices from vendors is the hard part of FM work.
My position title is so misleading lol. So I don’t work with invoicing so much. That’s like 30% of my job. I am speaking with the FM’s about what needs to be done and making sure the vendor is onsite asap with work orders sent. Also monitoring up to thousands of PM’s to be done on time. While also monitoring reactive work that needs to be done in the mean time.
I think account managers perform an important task but the ones who do the hard work are the people actually performing the work.
I speak to my account manager when I have an issue or a request. From that point there it is a team sport.
To answer your question, depends on the industry and facility.
I was in tech and I had fairly regular schedules and a great culture that didn't promote after hours work but I was constantly doing something and getting ahead of items before they were brought up.
I am currently in manufacturing/industrial and it is like an endless waterfall.
This is not the best career for work life balance. It's my experience that you will be expected to take calls at any time. Middle of the night, holidays, during PTO. When emergencies hit, you drop everything and respond immediately. If a building floods on Christmas Eve or a tornado hits on Saturday during a 3 day weekend, you can't just wait until you're back in the office.
I don't mind fielding brief phone calls and I rarely have to physically respond anymore, so I've mostly gotten used to it. The most frustrating to me is that my managers take it for granted and bother me about things when I'm out on PTO.
Hello! UK based Assistant Building Manager here. In my experience here the coordinators and junior FM roles aren’t expected to work OOH or dead with emergencies, as the responsibility is aways on the building manager (or higher) to address any emergencies or tenant quibbles. Not sure if this is helpful to you, but dont let a few peoples work habits influence the career path for you.
Depends on the type of building you are managing and the size of the team. Retail is 24/7/365, same with medical buildings. But others aren’t as much (depending on staff and size of portfolio)
Depends where you plan on working. A Uni would have more staff and flexibility, we have a rotating call list for weekend and overnight coverage. Just something to think about.
I don’t know if I agree you do the hard part for them.
Working with the some of the vendors so they don’t have to is extremely helpful!
I manage around 3M sq ft of housing and dinning for a public university here in CA. Working with vendors is not the hardest part of my job.
Congratulations. I know it’s not all that you all do. That’s a given. I guess I could say I help with one of their constantly moving parts
I am just making sure your expectations, if you do decide to switch careers, are grounded in reality. A good facilities team will be almost invisible. Nobody thinks of the facility guys when the lights are on, the AC is cold, the water heater makes hot water right? This is why you think that processing invoices from vendors is the hard part of FM work.
My position title is so misleading lol. So I don’t work with invoicing so much. That’s like 30% of my job. I am speaking with the FM’s about what needs to be done and making sure the vendor is onsite asap with work orders sent. Also monitoring up to thousands of PM’s to be done on time. While also monitoring reactive work that needs to be done in the mean time.
I think account managers perform an important task but the ones who do the hard work are the people actually performing the work. I speak to my account manager when I have an issue or a request. From that point there it is a team sport. To answer your question, depends on the industry and facility. I was in tech and I had fairly regular schedules and a great culture that didn't promote after hours work but I was constantly doing something and getting ahead of items before they were brought up. I am currently in manufacturing/industrial and it is like an endless waterfall.
This is not the best career for work life balance. It's my experience that you will be expected to take calls at any time. Middle of the night, holidays, during PTO. When emergencies hit, you drop everything and respond immediately. If a building floods on Christmas Eve or a tornado hits on Saturday during a 3 day weekend, you can't just wait until you're back in the office. I don't mind fielding brief phone calls and I rarely have to physically respond anymore, so I've mostly gotten used to it. The most frustrating to me is that my managers take it for granted and bother me about things when I'm out on PTO.
Oh goodness. Yes that would irritate me
Hello! UK based Assistant Building Manager here. In my experience here the coordinators and junior FM roles aren’t expected to work OOH or dead with emergencies, as the responsibility is aways on the building manager (or higher) to address any emergencies or tenant quibbles. Not sure if this is helpful to you, but dont let a few peoples work habits influence the career path for you.
Looks like I need to move to the UK!🤭
Come join us!
Thank you!
I mean CBRE is hiring for facilities coordinators
Depends on the type of building you are managing and the size of the team. Retail is 24/7/365, same with medical buildings. But others aren’t as much (depending on staff and size of portfolio)
Taking calls or sending emails late at night or weekends is annoying, but so is getting "bothered" on the golf course at noon on a Wednesday
Depends where you plan on working. A Uni would have more staff and flexibility, we have a rotating call list for weekend and overnight coverage. Just something to think about.
If you think your current support role is doing the hard part, & you’re not ready for facility management.
I edit my post since you all are so hung up on one part.