Maintenance and engineering managers have faced a seemingly endless array of challenges in the last 14 months related to adapting facilities and leading their team through evolving demands created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While overseeing upgrades of HVAC systems, entryways, and office spaces, managers also have had to hone their skills as communicators. They’ve answered questions from parents, building occupants, and front-line technicians worried about healthy indoor spaces, and they’ve had long discussions with facility executives struggling to ensure the viability of their organizations' bottom lines.
It’s beyond a full plate, and by all accounts, managers have handled the challenges well. In the process, two things have become apparent.
First, even though the role of buildings in people’s lives is evolving due to the pandemic, the general public now understands that buildings have a tremendous impact on modern life. Second, maintenance and engineering management is far more than just a job. It is a profession — one that has a great deal to say about the way buildings will evolve to meet the needs of people who work in and visit them.
The situation presents managers with a golden opportunity to reinforce the emergence of their profession as a vital component of successful businesses. Once regarded as a “necessary evil” in organizations and treated as outsiders and afterthoughts in discussions and decisions, managers have more than earned a seat at any table where the topic is the future of facilities and organizations.
