Call Us the Overcomers

2020 threw many punches our way. Be proud of what you have accomplished and obstacles you have overcome in a year like no other.

By Andrew Hay, CAMEx, CCAM-ND.PM

Remember when you only had to worry about the simple things like special assessments, aging community common areas, and parking issues? 2020 has delivered blow after blow to the entire world and has added a few extra kicks in California.

Yes, you know all the hurdles you’ve faced this year, but have you taken the time to reconcile just how much you have been dealing with, and overcoming in the process? As essential workers we have been fortunate to remain employed throughout the year, but we still take on the challenge of facing the unknown each day and having to learn a new way to manage our communities.

It all started with a new election law (SB 323) that was signed into being with no time to prepare or to implement properly before its effective date. Our industry kicked into high gear and quickly educated ourselves on the new law, and its true effects. Just as we were rolling on getting new rules and inspectors in place, we started to hear grumblings of this virus in China that spread through the population quickly with very little containment and a high mortality rate.

Slowly the virus made it to the U.S. and to California and shortly thereafter the lockdown took place. An immediate lockdown of staff and the communities we manage with very little time to prepare and even less information about what was and wasn’t allowed. Companies had to find a way to operate with all staff from a distance. Supervisors and employees had to learn to communicate without ever being around each other, all while balancing the impacts the shelter-in-place had on our personal lives.

Managers and management companies adjusted quickly, realizing that the communities still had maintenance needs, meetings to conduct, and work to be done. We had to close common area amenities and deal with owners who simply didn’t feel a global pandemic was a good reason to stop them from using the gym, pools, and clubhouses.

Then came implementation of virtual board meetings via Zoom, Google Meet, Goto Meeting, and teleconference lines, which quickly became the norm. Some clients met this with an open mind and gratitude and others feared the technology so we had to become IT experts for their home operating systems to show them that a new way of doing something is still productive and not as scary as they may think.

As clients and community members began to settle into life while sheltering in place, we begin to see an increase in maintenance requests and other complaints. When people are spending 24 hours a day at home seven days a week, they begin to notice things, including their neighbors and their noisy habits. Are people required to wear a mask or not? Are vendors going to service the property? What reduced level of service will they receive? All of these were questions that began to come up in addition to our normal, already full, workdays. Still constant was the expectation of a quick and thorough response. Still consistent were the managers and service providers giving the clients the essential services our industry provides.

As the reality of COVID-19 set in, management companies and service providers lost staff members for days if not weeks at a time while they were in selfquarantine or worse. All the while, valuable staff stepped up and helped cover the client needs.

Even now concerns over riots near and within communities are still a reality. Wildfires continue to rage throughout the state, many of them forcing evacuations of the communities we manage. Smoke that blanketed all of California is starting to lift. Good thing we already have acquired so many different masks during the pandemic.

Many manager members with children even now have to deal with continued distance learning at home and balance that with everything else that demands their time.

It hasn’t been an easy year. No one said it would be. But there is hardly an industry more equipped to handle whatever comes their way than this one. Be proud of what you have accomplished and obstacles you have overcome in 2020. Remember that your peers and industry partners are all going through similar experiences and can be a tremendous resource to aid in the obstacles left to hurdle. We are an essential industry ready to respond at a moment’s notice to whatever is thrown our way with the resources and knowledge to overcome all obstacles.

Andrew Hay, CAMEX, CCAM-ND.PM is Vice President, Management Division of The Helsing Group, Inc.