Condo Media - April 2014 - 30

COVER STORY
COLUMN NAME
made combating burnout and boosting
manager morale a priority. A "Committee for Team Optimism" consisting of a
portfolio manager, an administrative assistant, a receptionist, and an accounts
payable staffer is responsible for suggesting creative ideas for improving the
office atmosphere and keeping morale
up, Mandino explains. The committee's proposals have included wine and
cheese parties for employees, familyoriented outings (a baseball game and
an evening at the symphony among
them), and a "get moving" competition, in which employee teams strapped
on pedometers and competed to see
who could log the most miles.
Some of the ideas are "a little silly,"
Mandino admits. For example, they
encouraged employees to wear team
jerseys the Friday before a big game for
one of the Boston teams. But the goals
are serious. "We're trying to make the
office a safe haven" from the pressures
managers and other employees face day
to day, she explains.
One widely recognized source of
stress for managers is the night meetings
they have to attend. "It's what managers
complain about most," Mandino says,
making it a major target of burnout
mitigation efforts. Dartmouth encourages boards to hold early morning meetings, which are not only appreciated by
managers but also more efficient, she
says. "People have to get to work, so
everyone gets down to business quickly"
without the delays and distractions common in evening sessions.
Dartmouth also tries to insert contract language limiting the hours managers are expected to work and charging for time logged beyond that. If
there are extra charges, Mandino says,
"that money goes to our managers."
I&I, the California management
company, discourages evening meetings
by offering price concessions to associations willing to meet during the day
instead. "We also make it clear to new
clients that our contract is for meetings
that start no later than 6 p.m. and last
no longer than 90 minutes," Imfeld
says. "If they want to meet longer or
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Condo Media * April 2014

later or on weekends, we can do that,
but our fee will be higher."

The Wrong Targets

Brawley thinks the focus on night
meetings as a strategy for reducing
stress, while well-intentioned, is misguided. For her, at least, night meetings are no big deal. "If everything
goes as planned, if the preparation and
communication are there, and if board
members have a clear discussion of the
issues and make intelligent decisions,
night meetings can be fabulous," she
says. "Sometimes they are the most
energizing thing I do all week."
Brawley also questions the long-term
value of most "feel-good" moraleboosting efforts. "Managers don't need
more pizza parties, casual Fridays, or
manager appreciation ceremonies," she
says. They need a manageable workload
and a corporate structure that understands their needs and provides the
support they require.
Those are bigger, more complicated
targets, to be sure, but many companies are taking aim at them. At I&I,
for example, every manager has an
administrative assistant, Imfeld says.
While few companies match that effort,
many try to provide extra assistance to
managers when they need it.
"We want managers to let us know
if they are feeling overwhelmed," says
Wells, of Greater Boston Properties.
But managers who express those concerns get more than a sympathetic ear,
she emphasizes. "We work as a team.
If managers need help, we try to do
something to relieve their stress."
That may mean providing more
administrative help or asking another
manager with a lighter load to pitch in
for a while. "We don't just leave them
out in left field," Wells says.
Dartmouth similarly encourages an atmosphere where people help each other,
Mandino says. "When someone has a
problem, people drop what they're doing
and help. We think that is pretty unique."
It's also expected: "We make it clear to
employees that we work as a team."
One aim of the "get moving" com-

petition she described earlier was to
build team spirit within the company.
"Maintenance staff, portfolio managers, and administrators - people who
might not have known each other"
formed the teams, Mandino explains,
creating the personal connections that
can facilitate collaboration and support.
The team spirit Mandino and Wells
describe is laudable and necessary,
Brawley agrees. But in her experience,
it is also rare. Many managers are reluctant to ask for help, even if it is theoretically available, she says, because: "If
you delegate, you have to be able to
delegate with confidence. You have to
know that the person to whom you are
handing off a task will be as concerned
about doing it well as you are."
All too often, Brawley has found, the
report she needed was buried on the
desk of someone who didn't have time
to work on it and didn't share her sense
of urgency about getting it done.

Shared Vision Needed

What is needed and too often lacking in many management companies,
Brawley suggests, is a shared corporate
mission, recognizing that providing
quality service to clients isn't just the
manager's responsibility but a shared
goal to which everyone contributes.
First Realty uses a monthly staff
training program to foster that broader
view, teaching employees about other
areas of the company so they can see
where they fit into "the big picture"
and understand more clearly how what
they do or don't do affects others. "It
builds a sense of caring and concern,"
Abel says, which may translate into
stronger support for managers.
Reliable assistance can go some distance toward relieving manager stress,
Brawley agrees. Having senior managers who listen and respond to managers' concerns can also help. One of her
former bosses, who was not at all sympathetic to her complaint about having
too many properties in her portfolio,
was responsive when she described a
personality conflict that made it impossible for her to work effectively with a

Condo Media - April 2014

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