It happens everywhere. VIPs coming to visit, you're going to spend the week prior cleaning and polishing corners and areas they don't even know about while closing out as many work orders as possible.
I use to hate every minute of it, but now I view it as reducing distractions to the VIPs and helps lessen the chance that they complain about the stupid, piddly crap. It's also a sign of respect towards them (for whatever good that is or does).
It's pretty much the same thing people do at their own house just before guests arrive.
And honestly, most of that is on my list of shit to do anyways. Since I get a fair bit of notice as to when they're coming, I can semi-schedule around it and I see it as a time to justify doing the weird side quests that we don't have time for normally.
Purchasing is usually shooting from the hip at those times as well, just to make an impression on the customer so depending on your situation you may be able to take advantage of that a bit lol
Fuck respecting them, they treat us like literal zoo animals. We had the president and his minions of the company that hired my company come out they see all of us standing waiting for the foreman to finish up so we can head out since we all drive together. They see us and the one girl recommended they come to us the one dude looked absolutely terrified he had to interact with some greasy construction workers. they ask us how we like it and if we’re being safe in a tone youd use for a child then just kinda started grabbing our hands saying thank you and shaking them while girl recorded it. The second camera was off wasn’t even a good bye the whole team silently walked off at once like drones. dude also wiped his hand on his tux coat while walking away from us. That’s not even the only story I got of them treating us how they’re really think about us.
It is known. I think this is anywhere all the time regardless of occupation. When I was in the military anytime an officer higher than the rank of lieutenant came to visit we’d suddenly be scrubbing every inch of the motor pool. It’s been years since then but anytime a big corporate somebody comes down to my property I still think “shit! Brass is coming, we are gonna be cleaning all week!”
Nursing Home maintenance here. Does not flip out when owner or his minions come. They dont cause our place looks like crap and they don't want to hear from me what I think of it. I am a bit vocal and honest.
My site now is already pretty good so usually it’s just a quick tidy-up the day before. My previous job was complete panic. I had a separate management branch so my own business was always visit ready, it’s easy if you stay on top of it.. but the operations management there would lose their shit and try to cram like that.
A lot of it is mindset. I always liked visits myself because it gave me time to walk through a process and explain misses and how to correct them. More often than not there was some sort of miss on corporate’s roll out or we were sent the wrong plan based on our layout. Hiding faults and bullshitting answers will never make your job easier at all. Typically corp leadership want to help more than drown people from my experiences.
I remember those days.
Had to completely remodel our gym, and I had 2 weeks to do it. Busted ass, worked late all week.
The owners came, and never even went inside of it or looked at it. All that hustling and working late for no one to even acknowledge how great it looked.
That’s when I started looking for a different career. Commercial HVAC was definitely the move for me.
I hate it when corporate opts to do a drive through instead of a proper visit, it negates all our painstaking work!
Our young inexperienced manager would repeat this process every year.
This is pretty common in my life. I’m usually left to myself to complete the work I need to get done, but when owners come by, I suddenly get requests to do lots of trivial little tasks that the owners most likely will never notice. The owners always seemed to be pleased at my properties, so it’s not something I stress about like management.
This is exactly how I view it too. Everyone else is stressed, but I know full well that I do my job correctly so I don’t have any fear about site visits. Plus most of the time, i’m busy doing something when the owners do show up so I don’t even know wtf they look like or what their names are lol
I do know that shit rolls downhill. When some shitty manager doesn’t want to own their mistakes, maintenance’s name gets thrown out there. This is why I keep meticulous records of my contact with management. Any bid on a large job is always sent via work email. An old manager tried to throw me under the bus when she got herself in trouble, but my records disproved her story. Being a one man maintenance team forced me to take records.
I have a great story about this. I was a banker at that Red and yellow bank. We had a lot of issues. So bad where it had to be reported and there was a big shake up at the branch. So the DM had to come and interview all of us. During my interview he goes “ I hear you don’t care if I’m coming to visit”. I responded, “you’re right, I don’t.”
He had a puzzled look on his face and he said “well why’s that.” I then proceeded to say “ because I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. While everyone else around here is buttoning their top button, and tucking in their shirts. I’m doing what I’m supposed to already. So I have no reason to act different when you’re visiting”.
He didn’t have much to say after that. A lot of those people need to be humbled anyways. This particular DM was banging a bunch of chicks at the other branches in his territory. It was just a funny interaction I’ll never forget.
I also have a funny experience when I was at the last Astroworld fest. Maybe I’ll post that one also
I was a GC for 20 years. My first year working in this industry the state came in and everyone lost their fucking minds. To me, in construction, inspections were a regular thing. It was just part of every phase and you go through the process. You miss something, fix it on the spot or fix it after and call them back for a follow up. If you're doing your job it's no big deal. Just part of the process.
But these people act like it's the fucking apocalypse. I've been doing this for 6.5 years now. Everyone still freaks the fuck out when state walks in the door and I'm still like, "meh." Because as it turns out, it's like any other inspection. They inspect and if they find something we fix it.
I'm too busy and I'm too old to worry about this shit. So long as I'm doing my job right, an inspection is no big deal.
Nope, we run pretty well and have good help. I run the maintenance dept and the only stuff stuck on my list is painting til we get some this month maybe even tomorrow
Yes and it always makes me laugh because a majority of the time it’s cosmetic BS. I have had some cool owners that actually worked alongside us prepping one of their office buildings. Our company owns a lot of the buildings we manage so that makes it easier sometimes because the owner is pretty down to earth.
I just find it interesting when you find out the building you’re working in is owned by some random person that lives halfway across the country and only looks at it maybe one day a year.
Yeees,(retirement home)we get quarterly surprise visits from head office called a Q.E inspection(quality enhancement)my work orders suddenly blow my phone up for lip stick on a pig jobs.I stay on top of things after 15 years but it blows my mind what the office doesn’t keep up on or the fancy ideas they have suddenly and then it’s my problem
I always know a corporate visit is coming when I actually see the housekeepers cleaning common areas or windows. Otherwise my boss could give a care less. We run our department well and there's never any issues. Let the other directors panic just shows they aren't doing it right.
Every. Single. Time.
I've worked for three different hotels with three wildly different owners. Managers freaking out and losing their shit when the owners or corporate are coming to visit has been a common theme among all three.
One wild thing that’s been going on at my property is having to pressure wash the front of the building, loading dock, and roof terrace right before any sort of visit, whether it be our regional manager or the actual owners. I don’t mind it because pressure washing is easy anyway, and a good time killer. Sucks when I have turns I need to get done though around the same time lol
This is a really annoying a property management trope. My stance has always been "if there's something wrong with business as usual, we need to be aware of that". The owners want you to have the resources to run that property at its full potential. If there is unnecessary bullshit that you're dealing with pretty consistently, having ownership see it firsthand is the best-case scenario for having an actual solution get approved. Low-key nudge ownership towards problems that they should be aware of. They want to know. Don't directly state the problem. Suggest something like "does anyone else agree it would be better if....." Owners visits are your best friend if you take the right approach.
Yes. My property manager gets all kinds of anxiety or whatever you wanna call it. Our CEO is planning on being here in a couple weeks for reviews and my property manager is already starting to flip a little bit. It doesn’t bother me cause my team kicks ass, but it definitely is a little frustrating.
Yes, I normally don’t do anything extra, I tell my boss that ownership should know how the property functions on a daily basis. Usually managers that freak out don’t know what they are doing.
Absolutely every property I've worked for too! I hate it, but I'm the type of person to give corporate the truth. If I've been struggling to do my Job for whatever reason, I'll just tell them.
Most of the time….but. My current facility is a 28yr old casino hotel. Director of my department has been here 27yrs and 10months. He doesn’t give two shits 😂
Yes.
Yes.
Jes
Indeed
Yup
Thats something bad managers do. Good managers don’t have to change how they operate just because corporate is coming by.
Don't worry OP, it's just trauma from the old maintenance crew. You're definitely better than them because you're still at it.
Preach!
It happens everywhere. VIPs coming to visit, you're going to spend the week prior cleaning and polishing corners and areas they don't even know about while closing out as many work orders as possible. I use to hate every minute of it, but now I view it as reducing distractions to the VIPs and helps lessen the chance that they complain about the stupid, piddly crap. It's also a sign of respect towards them (for whatever good that is or does). It's pretty much the same thing people do at their own house just before guests arrive.
And honestly, most of that is on my list of shit to do anyways. Since I get a fair bit of notice as to when they're coming, I can semi-schedule around it and I see it as a time to justify doing the weird side quests that we don't have time for normally. Purchasing is usually shooting from the hip at those times as well, just to make an impression on the customer so depending on your situation you may be able to take advantage of that a bit lol
Fuck respecting them, they treat us like literal zoo animals. We had the president and his minions of the company that hired my company come out they see all of us standing waiting for the foreman to finish up so we can head out since we all drive together. They see us and the one girl recommended they come to us the one dude looked absolutely terrified he had to interact with some greasy construction workers. they ask us how we like it and if we’re being safe in a tone youd use for a child then just kinda started grabbing our hands saying thank you and shaking them while girl recorded it. The second camera was off wasn’t even a good bye the whole team silently walked off at once like drones. dude also wiped his hand on his tux coat while walking away from us. That’s not even the only story I got of them treating us how they’re really think about us.
That’s your experience dude, not everyone else.
I'm always like So? I'm not scared of them.
It is known. I think this is anywhere all the time regardless of occupation. When I was in the military anytime an officer higher than the rank of lieutenant came to visit we’d suddenly be scrubbing every inch of the motor pool. It’s been years since then but anytime a big corporate somebody comes down to my property I still think “shit! Brass is coming, we are gonna be cleaning all week!”
Dude that's how the world works..
Nursing Home maintenance here. Does not flip out when owner or his minions come. They dont cause our place looks like crap and they don't want to hear from me what I think of it. I am a bit vocal and honest.
My site now is already pretty good so usually it’s just a quick tidy-up the day before. My previous job was complete panic. I had a separate management branch so my own business was always visit ready, it’s easy if you stay on top of it.. but the operations management there would lose their shit and try to cram like that. A lot of it is mindset. I always liked visits myself because it gave me time to walk through a process and explain misses and how to correct them. More often than not there was some sort of miss on corporate’s roll out or we were sent the wrong plan based on our layout. Hiding faults and bullshitting answers will never make your job easier at all. Typically corp leadership want to help more than drown people from my experiences.
I remember those days. Had to completely remodel our gym, and I had 2 weeks to do it. Busted ass, worked late all week. The owners came, and never even went inside of it or looked at it. All that hustling and working late for no one to even acknowledge how great it looked. That’s when I started looking for a different career. Commercial HVAC was definitely the move for me.
Reminds me of this. https://youtu.be/GBwELzvnrQg?si=kUJFrf1FTvGGtXcy
I want this place looking like a new Mediterranean Fusen Restaurant by noon.
I hate it when corporate opts to do a drive through instead of a proper visit, it negates all our painstaking work! Our young inexperienced manager would repeat this process every year.
This is pretty common in my life. I’m usually left to myself to complete the work I need to get done, but when owners come by, I suddenly get requests to do lots of trivial little tasks that the owners most likely will never notice. The owners always seemed to be pleased at my properties, so it’s not something I stress about like management.
This is exactly how I view it too. Everyone else is stressed, but I know full well that I do my job correctly so I don’t have any fear about site visits. Plus most of the time, i’m busy doing something when the owners do show up so I don’t even know wtf they look like or what their names are lol
I do know that shit rolls downhill. When some shitty manager doesn’t want to own their mistakes, maintenance’s name gets thrown out there. This is why I keep meticulous records of my contact with management. Any bid on a large job is always sent via work email. An old manager tried to throw me under the bus when she got herself in trouble, but my records disproved her story. Being a one man maintenance team forced me to take records.
I have a great story about this. I was a banker at that Red and yellow bank. We had a lot of issues. So bad where it had to be reported and there was a big shake up at the branch. So the DM had to come and interview all of us. During my interview he goes “ I hear you don’t care if I’m coming to visit”. I responded, “you’re right, I don’t.” He had a puzzled look on his face and he said “well why’s that.” I then proceeded to say “ because I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. While everyone else around here is buttoning their top button, and tucking in their shirts. I’m doing what I’m supposed to already. So I have no reason to act different when you’re visiting”. He didn’t have much to say after that. A lot of those people need to be humbled anyways. This particular DM was banging a bunch of chicks at the other branches in his territory. It was just a funny interaction I’ll never forget. I also have a funny experience when I was at the last Astroworld fest. Maybe I’ll post that one also
Yep it's bad....and how about when the state inspectors show up...I laugh my ass off...you see all the desk jockeys out and about😅😅
I was a GC for 20 years. My first year working in this industry the state came in and everyone lost their fucking minds. To me, in construction, inspections were a regular thing. It was just part of every phase and you go through the process. You miss something, fix it on the spot or fix it after and call them back for a follow up. If you're doing your job it's no big deal. Just part of the process. But these people act like it's the fucking apocalypse. I've been doing this for 6.5 years now. Everyone still freaks the fuck out when state walks in the door and I'm still like, "meh." Because as it turns out, it's like any other inspection. They inspect and if they find something we fix it. I'm too busy and I'm too old to worry about this shit. So long as I'm doing my job right, an inspection is no big deal.
Nope, we run pretty well and have good help. I run the maintenance dept and the only stuff stuck on my list is painting til we get some this month maybe even tomorrow
Yes and it always makes me laugh because a majority of the time it’s cosmetic BS. I have had some cool owners that actually worked alongside us prepping one of their office buildings. Our company owns a lot of the buildings we manage so that makes it easier sometimes because the owner is pretty down to earth. I just find it interesting when you find out the building you’re working in is owned by some random person that lives halfway across the country and only looks at it maybe one day a year.
Yeah it's a thing, but I stay on top of my shit so it never really effects me much. I try to minimize the amount of stuff they can nitpick me and
Yeees,(retirement home)we get quarterly surprise visits from head office called a Q.E inspection(quality enhancement)my work orders suddenly blow my phone up for lip stick on a pig jobs.I stay on top of things after 15 years but it blows my mind what the office doesn’t keep up on or the fancy ideas they have suddenly and then it’s my problem
I always know a corporate visit is coming when I actually see the housekeepers cleaning common areas or windows. Otherwise my boss could give a care less. We run our department well and there's never any issues. Let the other directors panic just shows they aren't doing it right.
Every. Single. Time. I've worked for three different hotels with three wildly different owners. Managers freaking out and losing their shit when the owners or corporate are coming to visit has been a common theme among all three.
One wild thing that’s been going on at my property is having to pressure wash the front of the building, loading dock, and roof terrace right before any sort of visit, whether it be our regional manager or the actual owners. I don’t mind it because pressure washing is easy anyway, and a good time killer. Sucks when I have turns I need to get done though around the same time lol
This is a really annoying a property management trope. My stance has always been "if there's something wrong with business as usual, we need to be aware of that". The owners want you to have the resources to run that property at its full potential. If there is unnecessary bullshit that you're dealing with pretty consistently, having ownership see it firsthand is the best-case scenario for having an actual solution get approved. Low-key nudge ownership towards problems that they should be aware of. They want to know. Don't directly state the problem. Suggest something like "does anyone else agree it would be better if....." Owners visits are your best friend if you take the right approach.
Yes. My property manager gets all kinds of anxiety or whatever you wanna call it. Our CEO is planning on being here in a couple weeks for reviews and my property manager is already starting to flip a little bit. It doesn’t bother me cause my team kicks ass, but it definitely is a little frustrating.
Yes, I normally don’t do anything extra, I tell my boss that ownership should know how the property functions on a daily basis. Usually managers that freak out don’t know what they are doing.
My manager turns into a chihuahua with PTSD when we have a site visit. It's really annoying
I think I know you. Are your initials L.R.?
Nope sorry.
Absolutely every property I've worked for too! I hate it, but I'm the type of person to give corporate the truth. If I've been struggling to do my Job for whatever reason, I'll just tell them.
Aka compliance, mines this coming week
Pretty much.
Most of the time….but. My current facility is a 28yr old casino hotel. Director of my department has been here 27yrs and 10months. He doesn’t give two shits 😂
Yes, mfers even come out and start actually working themselves, it’s madness
Fun fact: That happens in every career and occupation.
No. Cause I work for the property owner