August 2024
As a condo manager I’ve worked with my share of personalities. Misogynistic, Maniacal, Narcissistic, Bullies, Complainers, Social Climbers, Aristocratic… and that doesn’t even capture what we have met head on with boards. But condo managers are not allowed to talk about that.
When Vaughan happened it triggered my own PTSD about a board who didn’t care when a resident was coming after me or the staff. They only cared who was going to pay for legal fees and questioned if it would help if the manager was moved. Never once did they care about me. Not what I was going through, my fear, staff fear, police visits, court stuff… nope. Didn’t care. They couldn’t have cared less that I was terrified. That my personal world was being invaded and frankly, they became as offensive to me as person X who was making my life hell because they knew and evaluated what I was dealing with up against their finances and contractual responsibilities. I was supposed behave each day like I wasn’t scared to be there. It was supposed be business as usual while I was being personally attacked. And this was led by the chair.
We as managers take abuse on many fronts and it’s a risk we take and it’s still never changed how much I love my career, because I do, but what many forget is that we managers are treated as expendable. Some board chairs forget that their whims, their insane demands and secretive manipulative behaviors actually impact a human’s career. Their voluntary position, for which no education is required, gets to decide the contracts and finances of some of the largest assets in the city with zero accountability.
There truly needs to be more education for board members and some sort of accountability metric.
We as managers are the ones who care for, operate, financially manage and maintain mechanical operations on condos, some of which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars and it’s our hard work the profit is made on.
Its time managers are valued. Our salaries stop being low balled. We are supported. We are recognized as being pivotal in the health of a major industry sector.
I’ve been lucky to land at a site where my board understands and supports positive mental health, that they respect the work of a property manager and absolutely value expertise in all areas.
Career wise, I love what I do but that doesn’t mean that reform and dynamic change isn’t necessary. I look forward to seeing how we evolve and seeing an evolution in how boards should be created.
It’s important the industry recognize the abuse managers deal with not just by residents but by boards which hold our careers on the stroke of their pens.
Posted on LinkedIn by a Toronto area Condominium Manager. This post was edited for grammar with no impact on its content. There has been no change to the overall tone.
