For years high school-aged students have been pushed to obtain four-year degrees from universities as careers in trades have been negatively viewed as “taking the easy way out” as it doesn’t require traditional schooling. As anyone who has ever worked in the trades knows, that is the exact opposite.
While schooling is optional, learning is mandatory in careers like facilities management. The job rapidly changes from day-to-day, sometimes even hour-to-hour. FacilitiesNet recently asked real life facility managers what was something they never expected to learn while on the job. Here is what they said:
“There are actually two things that stand out to me - I started in retail where I was over several department stores. Went to truck stops when the chain closed and have now been with public libraries for 24 years. The libraries surprised me with having to learn about how to deal bed bugs several years ago and more recently dealing with the homeless population that creates several hurdles to overcome.”
“How wide and vast the realm of facilities truly is. How many facets there are and all the different possibilities of what happens for each one.”
“How to deal with a dead body and human remains. Most of us have had bloodborne pathogen training, but entire bodies can be tricky. Over my 30+ years as a facilities manager I have had suicides, heart attacks, and workplace fatalities. In the most recent case was a suicide by gunshot on our property unrelated to any employees. I received a panicked call after law enforcement, and the coroner removed the body because there was substantial blood and brain tissue still left behind. I was at another location, but my crew knew what to do. Use the red biowaste bag and the bloodborne absorption material and clean it up. Shovel up the contaminated dirt in the bag until the area is clean. The training was there, they just needed to be reminded and given some confidence.”
“There are no days when something does not break, fail, quit, burn, spill or cease to function. Add in human's, who trip, fall, walk into things, drive their vehicles into buildings or parking lot components, and this is a GREAT career!”
“Patience.”
“Dealing with the aftermath of an earthquake.”
“I learned that you should label different circuits when you finally find the panel and breaker that it connects to in order to save you and the electrician time down the road hunting for it if someone before you didn't do a good job of labeling it.”
“I learned that glass is extremely expensive. I learned about different types of spalling. Also learned never to put an exterior window on the other side of a closed wall because if someone throws a rock at it, you may need to pay for a lift to repair it.”
“Mirrors - ensure large mirrors are secured by other means and not just glued to the wall unless you want to come in on a Monday to thousands of shattered pieces because eventually the paint that the mirrors are glued to can separate from the wall itself.”
“Understanding where the HVAC intake and returns are important when office space planning in order to ensure people aren't freezing at some desks and too hot at other desks. It's a good idea to lock HVAC boxes or use a digital system that only property managers can access.”
“Really old toilets can calcify from within and may eventually need to be replaced entirely. Automatic flushers should fit the toilets with perfect specifications, or they will leak and make loud noises that sound like a cat dying.”
“I learned that back-azap will help get rid of dead rodent smell because of the enzymes in it, rats love peanuts and oriental cockroaches love foliage.”
“It's a good idea to practice safety and fire drills even if you have no legal obligation to do so. I could go on and on."
Mackenna Moralez is the managing editor of the facilities market and the host of the Facilities in Focus podcast.
