The data is in: striking a balance between our personal and professional lives is a key component of happiness and general wellbeing. But how does one do that when one’s job is potentially a 24/7 situation?

Take multifamily residential management, for instance. Pipes can burst at any time of the day or night. Boilers can stop working on a Sunday in mid-February. It’s just not a ‘9-to-5’ job. Truthfully, it never was—a fact that was thrown into even sharper relief with COVID and the enormous challenges that it brought to bear on the profession. 

So how do managers stay on top of their professional role, serve their client communities, and avoid burnout? We spoke to some industry veterans for their take on keeping it together. 

When Things Go Sour

Despite their best efforts, more than a few property managers have experienced relationships with boards that have deteriorated to the point of toxicity. 

“We recently parted ways with a client that wanted to see ‘more violations,’” says Christopher R. Berg of Independent Association Managers in Naperville, Illinois. “Personally, I felt that not having unresolved compliance matters was a sign of good management,” Berg continues - but apparently the board president felt differently. “When the president, in an open meeting, took to repeatedly attacking and demeaning me personally while simultaneously patting themselves on the back for their record-low delinquencies, I left with the intention to cancel the contract. Over the next few days, the sting of the emotional abuse faded, and I looked for new ground from which we could work. But soon thereafter, I was greatly relieved to receive a cancellation notice from them.”

Occasionally, it’s the relationship between the board members themselves that can render a situation untenable for a manager. “A nine-member board was plagued with factional infighting, with one in-group representing the younger members and the other, the older ones,” says one veteran manager. “Two entirely different mindsets where everything one group wanted to do, the other adamantly refused—and vice versa. 

“For example, the younger group wanted new amenities, and to embrace the latest technology and services. The older group preferred to add nothing, and keep maintenance charges stable. Whenever the younger group would win a close vote 5-4, and we’d implement whatever their decision was, the losers would get apoplectic, asking, ‘Who told you to do this?!’ or ‘How dare you do that?!’ And we’d have to explain to them the significance of the voting process. We could never make that board happy. We spent so much time at meetings playing referee and dealing with nonsense politics, that the whole atmosphere became unconducive to getting things done. The groups would rally shareholders against one another, write slanderous letters, screaming matches would carry out into the halls... Nothing we did seemed to mitigate any of this.”

Finding Balance

According to the pros, striking a balance between success and challenge–as well as between work and personal life–as a residential community manager is crucial, and may depend on personality as well as intention. In other words, this job may not be for everyone.

“Essentially, an effective work-life balance is an equilibrium between a person’s professional life and personal life,” says Steven Reichert, regional director for FirstService Residential in New Jersey. “It involves the effective management of time, energy, and priorities to ensure that your duties to your job do not overshadow personal life and vice versa.” Otherwise, burnout is likely to happen, which will not serve the community or the manager well.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” says Dan Wollman, CEO of Gumley Haft, a management firm based in New York City. “I worked in accounting and shipping before real estate, so I had very demanding jobs. My personality is suited to this type of work, so it wasn’t a difficult transition for me. I know how to balance the stress. We—my wife and I—raised five kids in addition to working. Admittedly, my schedule did cause some stress in the home, but my wife was in the business, too, so she kind of understood it. She was the CFO of a real estate management company. I just don’t sleep that much.”

It also helps to keep perspective, say the pros. A good first step before battling stress is to identify it at the source. Determining which parts of the job are most anxiety-inducing for an individual can help prepare that manager to handle those challenges as they're presented–as well as to devise ways to preempt and counterbalance them with more relaxing activity.

“A lack of communication, or a lack of owner or board member interest, will sometimes cause the most grief,” says Bryan Cagan, Director of Asset Management at Cagan Management Group, Inc., in Skokie, Illinois. “When owners can't communicate with the board, and need certain things handled, [they] can go on and on–but it might be a topic that the board has addressed ten times over, and [that owner] just didn't care enough to listen during those times. It's actually the boards that meet more regularly and have more participation that amounts to less work for their manager. People assume that it's the opposite, and the ones that you never hear from are the easiest, but they can give you the biggest headaches, because you find yourself working in an unknown environment.”

“Internally, we try to encourage managers to take time off, or exercise—things of that nature,” Cagan continues. “It's hard not to take feedback personally, because oftentimes a unit owner or board member will try to make it such. I try to remind individual property managers that they need to take a step back, and acknowledge that this is work, and it's separate from their personal lives. They shouldn't let this bother them at the end of the day. Most of what leads to stressful environments are not life-threatening, or even as critical as people can make it seem. We deal with a hundred or more decisions each day, and we can scale it–but when a unit owner calls, it's with one issue that's critical to them. You can get 95 out of 100 things right, but it's those other five that everyone judges you by.”

Compartmentalizing

Donna Ciota, a senior community manager with Associa Chicagoland, believes structure is another important component in achieving work/life balance. “I have clearly defined boundaries within my work life,” she says. “I stick to a regular schedule that I try not to disrupt. Every morning, I leave my home at 8:00 a.m. and leave work at 5:00 p.m. I try not to alter these hours. After office hours, I only work as a community manager if there is an emergency at one of the associations I serve.”

Ciota explains further that she works in a hybrid position: “I am an on-site association manager 20 hours a week. The remainder of my week consists of two portfolio associations and numerous associations that are financial oversight only. I segment most of my life between family, work, volunteering, hobbies, and socializing. I apply that same concept to my work life by compartmentalizing the communities I work with. The on-site management community office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday. I work for one specific community only on those days, unless there is an essential item or emergency. Outside those times, within my regular work hours, I work for the other communities.”

Juggling

“It can be very difficult to balance the demands of a constant and often irregular work schedule with the need for more family time,” says Bruno Bartoli, director of management services for Evergreen Management Group located in southern New Hampshire. “It can be particularly challenging for portfolio managers who juggle multiple associations simultaneously.” To ease the strain of serving more than one property—a reality for many managers—Bartoli adds that “it’s imperative that one fully understands the agreement between the management company and the association and the responsibilities outlined therein, to make sure that proper attention is provided while not over–or under-serving–the client.”

Changing Times, Changing Seasons

As is the case with most situations today, technology has changed the face of real estate management. It’s both a blessing and a curse.

“The job is way more demanding today than when I began in the industry,” says Wollman, “because now clients and vendors have 24-hour access. When I started in the business, there weren’t any cell phones. No internet. With the advent of email, text, and cells, my job goes on all the time. Truthfully, email changed everything because it’s 24/7 and in real time. You can send emails from a plane. I go to bed around midnight. The last thing I do is I look at emails, just in case of an emergency. Then, in the morning I’ll look again, first thing, and I’ll have 15 emails which began arriving about 5:00 a.m. Habits are different than they were in the past. When I get on the railroad to my office at 6:00 a.m., I start sending and responding to emails. With the establishment of email as the main way of communicating, there was a change in expectations on everyone’s part. Everyone expects to hear back from you in a reasonable time. The truth is that it can be hard to keep up.”

Bartoli, who works in New Hampshire, lives what he calls ‘a four-season life.’ His work schedule, while always busy, does reflect changes from season to season. “Our busy time of year begins in the spring,” he says, “as we’re able to start exterior work projects. Our outdoor work and construction cycle is limited due to winter weather. Fall is also a busy time due to budget preparations, approvals, and annual and budget meetings. We also must ensure that exterior work is completed before the weather gets too cold. Associations with common pools or outdoor activities are busier then, too. We have a compressed time frame to make sure that they open by Memorial Day, remain functional in the face of ever-increasing regulations, and are closed properly by Labor Day. Regulations in our area make the pool an even bigger expense and time commitment. This can be exacerbated by the increasingly limited number of pool vendors and operators who can service the pool during the season.”

Burnout

With the 24/7 nature of today’s real estate management game, many professionals in the field are in danger of burnout.  

“I go to the gym quite regularly, and practice yoga as well, which has been quite helpful,” adds Cagan. “But [distracting oneself] has become more challenging due to access to email, texts... everything is remotely accessible. You have to make a conscious effort to really disconnect, which can be tough.”

Reichert concurs that burnout is becoming increasingly common for HOA managers. “Management and board members must deal with complex situations, and sometimes with difficult residents. Recent events such as the pandemic, the Surfside condo collapse, and inflation have added even more to their already full plate. The best way to avoid burnout,” he says, “is to deploy effective strategies. Strive to have a ‘deep bench’ of effective leaders, abundant resources, and provide consistent training and education for managers and board members.” 

“Expectations for managers are greater than ever,” says Ciota. “Associations expect more from everyone these days. Taking on too many projects, regardless of size or scope, makes it easy for a manager to become overwhelmed and burn out. I minimize the chances of this by discussing projects and requests with my supervisor to prioritize tasks. Always be truthful and state if you can or cannot handle everything. Set your limits, and stick to them.”

In terms of personality, job success, and potential burnout, Wollman sums it up: “If you’re a person who requires a lot of positive reinforcement, this is probably not the job for you,” he says. “When I interview people, I tell them this. I can count on one hand the number of times a client has called and said what a great job we did. I personally don’t need the reinforcement, but others do. That’s one reason why the level of burnout is very high in this industry. Work/life balance can be difficult. Clients only call when they have a problem. You have to solve problems all day long. You are a problem solver and a facilitator. The facilitator part is the more difficult part, though, because you’re depending on others to complete their task for you to complete yours. When they don’t, it’s your problem and it can be very frustrating.”

For those who thrive on that problem-solving, facilitator role, however—and who prefer every day to be different from the one before—a career in multifamily management may just be a dream job. 

A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for CooperatorNews Chicagoland, and a published novelist. He may be reached at alan@yrinc.com.