We talked last week in our monthly email blast about heat stress on the Smith Farm animals and on our team members (which doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon!). I wanted to take a moment to talk about other types of stress in the workplace. As recruiters we hear a lot about stress—sometimes it helps us thrive and sometimes it can feel like a pile-on.
While property operations have become more and more sophisticated over the last 10 years, it has also brought new challenges with it. Improved technology has been very welcomed in the property management space, but it in some cases, has also brought additional stressors to our teams. We most often hear about executives looking at these advanced reports, which now give a wealth of insights, followed by a need for action based on the information. This is where the disconnect and added stress can come in, while an action plan is welcomed and needed, it is often delivered with unrealistic timelines and expectations. After speaking with numerous professionals in the industry, we are seeing that two positions, especially, are seeing that stress bar continue to rise: Property Managers and Regional Managers. Based on these conversations we wanted to highlight a few takeaways that could help these roles and combat stress.
Appreciation: The majority of these individuals love their job and cannot imagine being in another field. They actually thrive in a fast paced environment and love working with teams of people who have a common goal, one of the many qualities that make them so great at what they do! What they want is appreciation and understanding. Having their line of command acknowledge their heavy workload and the stressful hours being put in goes a long way. They are usually up for far exceeding goals set and tackling the challenge put forth, they just want some encouragement and appreciation of a job well done.
Deadlines/Streamlined Processes: Deadlines constantly come in from multiple departments. The instructions may be funneled through just one person but the tasks with tight deadlines are being given by many different people, whose own deadlines don’t always align. So much focus has been put on gathering information that there is no time to address and assess what the information is telling us. Or, every item of information gets a “to do” agenda without much thought to what the end goal is. These two positions need someone in their corner to help prioritize and understand their work load. In the end their top priority is still needing to take care of the residents.
Support: People want to be heard and know that their opinion matters. Taking the time to tell your team they have valid points, are being heard, and feedback being discussed, goes a long way. Support also means proactively being a part of the solution instead of just instructing how to handle it, even if it just means communicating that something is in the pipeline. Make sure you are not so far removed from your team’s roles that you are oblivious to what their day-to-day tasks look like and can see their workload from their perspective.
Stress is a funny thing, it works through everyone a little differently. Just the right amount of stress makes some people produce their best work, but just a tad bit more makes them plummet. Take some time to determine what your own stress limits are and what those are of your team. Maybe even talk about it between your team members and ways to address and get ahead of it. While work stress is inevitable it doesn't have to be a crumbling factor.
For our pot belly pigs at the farm, Mort, Lassie, and Hoss know that consecutive 100+ degree days is too much stress! They need water to lounge in, pets from their people, and lots of snacks. Here’s to hoping next month we finally start to see some reprieve from the heat stress.
Peoplezest looks forward to continuing to lighten your stress load through executive placements, strategizing services, career counseling and resume updates.