Property Maintenance – One Foot On The Ladder

• It was 8am on a dull, gray Monday morning, and Kenneth was reporting to his first day of work at his new job as an apartments maintenance assistant. He spent most of the morning shadowing a man by the name of Bill, who had been working full time at this particular complex of 160 units for 16 years. Bill would be retiring soon, and Kenneth knew this was his opportunity to learn the skills necessary and eventually advance to Bills position as the lead apartments maintenance person. At least that was his intention. Of course there were other members of the apartments maintenance crew that he would have to compete with, but he had always been an optimist. Bill was a witty man, full of laughter, and always ready with a joke. He told Kenneth straight up that it was not easy work. There was always something to be done, and the days were full. Kenneth had always been a hard worker, and good with his hands. He had spent his childhood working with his Dad, who owned a machine repair shop, and Kenneth grew up tinkering with, taking apart and eventually successfully rebuilding everything from lawnmowers and weed eaters to air conditioning units. He was a handy guy, and he knew that he could hold his own here at the complex. What he had not realized, however, was the breadth and scope of the work that he would be doing with Bill. During the early morning hours, Bill and Kenneth worked together to make ready an empty unit that was in line to be occupied at the end of the week. After checking all of the light fixtures, and repairing one that had some loose wiring, they went through and checked all of the appliances. Bill was surprised and pleased when Kenneth took apart a non functioning garbage disposal and fixed the problem. Kid, you are gonna do just fine, he said with a chuckle. Once that was completed, they went around checking all of the windows to make sure the latches were secure, the screens were intact and the fit was tight. They checked the plumbing and patched some nail holes. Bill told Kenneth that tomorrow, they would paint the unit and lay the new carpet, which would be an all day affair. By the end of the week, the unit would be sparkling new again. Kenneth was tired, but he felt good. He had no idea that an apartments maintenance crew had so many responsibilities. And as he soon learned, there were more to come. After a lunch that seemed way too short, they were back at it. They ran a couple of tickets, one for a sliding glass door that had broken off its track, and another for an air conditioning unit that had stopped working. They laid tile in a bathroom in another empty unit that Kenneth had been working on, and walked the grounds at the end of the day looking for repairs to make. Kenneth had been given the run down of all of the duties of the apartments maintenance crew, and he was astonished at just how much there was to do. Walking out to his truck at the end of his first long, hard day, he felt a sense of accomplishment at all of the things that he had done that day. He knew that his Dad would have been proud of him. His muscles ached, his legs were tired and he was ready for supper. He would hit it again first thing tomorrow morning. No more staying up until 2am playing video games, he mused. He was sound asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but it was a satisfying feeling. He knew that he would not be the assistant apartments maintenance person for long. He had one foot on the ladder and he was on his way up. Boat Storage in Brooklyn Tron Jordheim , director of operation at PhoneSmart ( a subsidiary of StorageMart ) will be interviewed by Syndicated News on 7/23/2008 6:00 PM. The topics of discussion will include Self Storage , Secret Shopping , property management , Self Storage Advertising and Self Storage Marketing .

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

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