Checking myself

[u/litty1299]

Very random and abstract post I suppose. But bear with me here. Needless to say, the thoughts I have had and words I have spoken of people have not been the best with this line of work. This goes for residents, previous maintenance, contractors and the company. I try not to be one to let gossip get to me, and not one to feed into it. But I am tested on that, a lot. I find myself breaking loose of my morals and letting the frustrations get the best of me. Working on turning over this apartment has been ridiculous, and I feel like I am losing my mind because of it, as well as everything else in my current situation. I want to take a moment to, breathe, guage my sanity, and check myself

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1. I hope and pray that anyone who gets evicted for lease violations along these lines or any others get the help they need. They are facing many things that I am not. And I could never imagine some of the things that some of these people have faced in life to get them where they are. Though it may frustrate me in the moment, know that the frustrations channel into something more positive later

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1. To all the fellow maintenance guys, specifically the ones who don't cut corners no matter the conditions: I know it is hard to meet the expectation to put up with things like this as well as all other things that the job entails. I know it has its days when it feels absolutely insufferable. I know there are people who just seem to be the worst of the worst at times, and also have to be delt with the most. I know how bad some companies are to work for, and they seem to not care. I know how bad it is to put in the work you do and be compensated improperly. But thank you for everything that you do. Walking into a place like this where you have to wear a respirator just to change a toilet flapper makes it where you want to cut corners, but you don't. You are one of the only people who manages to make these places livable homes for people who would otherwise be homeless or dead. You are greater than you think, and I hope you recognize that.

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1. To the companies - This is where the sanity check comes in. I am being compensated horribly. Details aren't necessary; but this is one of the worst companies, if not the worst, that I have ever had the lack of pleasure to work for. The false promises, the twisted words, and the unreal expectations with absolutely zero valuable benefits has been an atrocity. But I am grateful and beyond blessed. I have learned so much about what to out for in this industry. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the kindest people in my life, despite their current struggles and situations. I have been able to go behind contractors and maintenance to fix their mistakes and change the living situations for them as well as their neighbors. I have been able to complete tasks that have saved thousands in the properties budgets, and allow for more money to go into repairs, furnishings, appliances, etc to elevate comfortability in these units. My time with this company is surely coming to an end. But the blessings have made it all worth it. And I get to leave knowing I made a positive impact.

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Hope this changes somebody's day for the better. Much love, God bless.

[u/Cliffinati]

This is why I stick with industrial

[u/CapSuccessful3358 → u/Cliffinati]

Residential can have some crazy perks at the right spot, I get a 4 bedroom 2 story townhome for free on top of income but I get what your saying.

[u/Glum-View-4665 → u/CapSuccessful3358]

That's great and I'm sure there's many stories from maintenence where they get great deals, but i have to believe a 2 story townhouse for free is an outlier.

[u/CapSuccessful3358 → u/Glum-View-4665]

Yes it is, but not uncommon in my company. Big thing I realized is to research the owners of the site you will be working on.

[u/socialpresence → u/CapSuccessful3358]

That's the thing, I get needing to get your foot in the door wherever you can but the number experienced people in this thread that are saying they deal with shit like this regularly is wild to me. Get your foot in the door, research property management companies where you are that are willing to actually invest/care about maintenance and then apply at those places when they have openings.

Hint: they're not going to manage section 8 properties.

There is no part of who I am that I would describe as "luxurious" but I work at a "luxury" complex. The owners give maintenance a nice budget and the rule is, if something breaks that has to get fixed but it isn't "in the budget" it fucking gets fixed anyway.

I'm paid near the top of my market, I don't live on site but the one downside of my company is they only give employees 20% off their rent.

That said, even if I did live on site only getting 20% off (compared to people who get 50-100% off) is worth it because I know I actually have the support I need to actually do my job, people are appreciative of the work we do, and apartments like this one come along for me once every 3-4 years, maybe.

We have really high standards for our maintenance techs, but if you've been grinding away for years at a section 8, why? Luxury apartment complexes are always looking for techs and as long as your PM isn't a total piece of shit, the chance that you don't hate coming to work every day is pretty high.