Facilities management

By Chuck Morris

I believe a career in facilities management is an outstanding choice and one that has all kinds of benefits that go with the job. If you find yourself as a director of facilities, director of operation – or as someone in charge of most everything but without those titles – you already know you have an important job. Your job carries with it a myriad of responsibilities ranging from quite minor duties to others that can, in all likelihood, keep you awake at night.

In most cases you may have very good people working for you as managers of departments looking after a wide range of tasks that their staffs carry out. This does not ease your responsibilities at all, but does make it easier to shift some of that workload onto their shoulders. If they fail or if they succeed, it will still boil down to the fact that it is your responsibility to ensure things go right, and that you can have the work carried out in such fashion that it gets done in a timely fashion and resolves whatever issue it was that caused the work to come up in the first place.

Many facility managers may not have the same workload as their counterparts in other areas of the country. Nevertheless, that work is just as important as those who have heavy workloads they struggle to maintain. Sometimes budget constraints reduce the available manpower to deal with things, causing work to backlog. Other times, the work that comes in is fast and furious and it is easy for others to comprehend that more staff is required to make sure policy is adhered to, or that issues around compliance are dealt with correctly.

You see, facilities management carries a lot of burden. One must know how to multitask – or at least how to use the day in such a way as to know when to deal with the tough jobs and when to deal with the lesser, more mundane tasks and still get them done. Your job could entail caring for one million square feet of floor space or more; that floor space could be spread out over a vast geographical area and require hours of driving, ferries or even flying to get to each locale. With that square footage you are responsible for building construction, physical organization of employee workspaces, fire protection, energy management, risk/ liability identification, and ensuing remedies to mitigate that risk.

You have control of tens of millions of dollars of budgets, operational costcontrol for utilities, compliance with all government policy and local authorities having jurisdiction, health and safety programs and much more. You must have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and have an ability to make good decisions – sometimes on a moment’s notice.

The position requires almost obsessive attention-to-detail, coupled with analytical thinking, flexibility and good problem-solving skills. Knowledge of procurement systems, project management, blueprint reading, electrical and HVAC systems, plumbing systems, managerial accounting, and computer skills are all a must.

Therefore, consider the job to have a heavy and continuous volume of work while maintaining a constant need for tact and diplomacy and while also working with multiple conflicting priorities.

While this can seem a little onerous to some, let it be known that it is the case with this type of job if you look after hundreds of thousands of square feet of facility space. With the public education system, you may deal with added work thrust on you by the board of education or other bodies as appointed by the Ministry of Education or Ministry of Advanced Education from time to time.

Who would want this job? Really! Just thinking about the tasks previously mentioned leaves one wondering where the time will come from to go fishing or just be with family. That time is there – albeit fleeting at first. However, after determining priorities and learning what could wait and how you can block-off time for yourself, you will see where you will fit it in; along with dealing with a greater awareness of the total cost of sustainability, how to increase the need for energy-efficiency, finally complete that emergency and disaster plan (continuity plan), managing infrastructure with new technologies, and searching for new ways of doing business!

Facility management people are a breed of their own and once ensconced in the position for a few years, know exactly how to cope. They know what can be left to do in the morning, after adjusting their “To-do List” as each day does bring with it new challenges and rewards. The job is rewarding in itself and that helps to make the overall view of it so much nicer.

My hat goes off to all facility management personnel for a job well-done. I know what it is like; I sat in that chair. b