September 2018
One person’s emergency is another person’s inconvenience.
Condo directors and managers are confronted with many challenges that may include physical equipment failures, legal concerns, financial issues, resident concerns, health and safety, and staffing issues. Each is likely to be considered an emergency to someone.
Not all claimed emergencies are true emergencies.
Emergencies may be claimed to push certain concerns to the top of a priority list. Too many “emergencies” prevents a condominium manager from focusing on the business of condominium building management.
More “emergencies” means unmanageable hours for the manager. Maintaining an unmanageable number of work hours and stress over an extended period of time leads to health problems, lack of effectiveness and poor decisions.
One way to identify true emergencies is to apply a “blood, flood or fire” test. Any issue that involves blood, flood or fire should be treated as an emergency by managers and directors unless proven to be otherwise. These are situations where a condominium manager should be contacted regardless of the day or hour.
All other matters can likely wait until the next business day.
