“ It took me 4 hours to install my first garbage disposal . It should have taken me 30 minutes !”
- Darrin Sullivan
Darrin : I remember one of my first tasks I did , I was so proud of because I was coming from a professional job to a working with your hands kind of job and I installed my first garbage disposal . I called my boss , and said “ listen , I just installed my first garbage disposal ,” and he said , “ Alright ! How did that go , how long did it take ?” I said , “ About 4 hours !” I was so freaking proud of myself . Nobody helped me , and I screwed up a bunch of times before I got it right , but that really caught my attention . So I called my boss and he was like , “ way to go ! It should have taken you about 30 minutes !”
Lannon : Believe it or not , my first day I will never forget , we found a deceased guy in the apartment next to the maintenance shop ! Will never forget that , should have ran then !
Troy : I guess mine was a little while because I did that part time stuff and then I went into the restoration business but my mom was a groundskeeper on a property and she said they were hiring , so I went there and took the maintenance test and passed . So they hired me on and three days later the manager got fired and the maintenance supervisor got fired , so
I was left on a 408 unit place that was built in the early 70 ’ s . They had the old dishwashers where the motors slipped down from the pan from the top , and I had no idea what I was doing . I had never touched any stuff like that . I ended up figuring out all the issues that was wrong with it and replaced the motor , replaced the soap dispenser and I was pretty proud of myself that I figured it all out . It took me most of the day , but nobody was there to show me how to take it apart . It was pretty satisfying knowing that I fixed it . Especially when I didn ’ t know anything about it .
Jeff : We didn ’ t have YouTube back in the day .
Chris : Yeah , back then you just sort of took things apart and hoped for the best !
AAMD : Interesting – I was thinking there would have been four hours of orientation and then meetings for the last four . They just told you to go fix stuff . Go serve your residents .
Chris : I think we all still did orientation to a certain degree but that was back with the TV on the dolly with the VCR and all the tapes were geared towards office personnel and not necessarily toward maintenance . Like , “ don ’ t leave the file cabinet open ” kind of thing .
Lannon : There wasn ’ t as much orientation for me - just on the job training , get your hands dirty , and on the spot lessons .
AAMD : From a maintenance perspective , what was the most useful tool that you had back then that is obsolete today ?
Darrin : Pagers . I remember pagers . Then they evolved to where they could type on them and send you messages through there .
Lannon : The resources weren ’ t on a smartphone , they were from your coworker , things you ’ ve learned and making mistakes and learning how not to do things .
Troy : Maintenance , in a lot of respects , is maintenance , until it ’ s not . The tasks are still similar , but the equipment we are working on is smarter . We have smart boards on our refrigerators or on furnaces and things like that , but maintenance guys are still doing work orders and doing make-readys and stuff like keeping the common areas lit and operational .
Jeff : Today , service is your number one priority . Service and taking care of the residents should always be your priority . I am not so sure that was the case back in the 90 ’ s . When a resident needs something now , the resident should get what they ask for within reason , but back then I don ’ t think it was as much of a priority as it is today .
Troy : I mean it kind of goes into the same thing of how we are now with cell phones . Everything is now on demand . Our bosses expect answers now . Residents are a lot of the same way . They expect us to fix something right the first time we go to a unit , even though we still have to diagnose the problem . We may not have the part or it may be something beyond what we think it is . It is a different world now . Everybody wants everything immediate now .
Chris : I blame the microwave . We went from 20 minutes to boil water to a minute . Instant gratification became the norm and everything happens at a faster pace .
Darrin : We have the guys in the shops now that have the same skill level that www . aamdhq . org FEBRUARY MARCH 2018 • TRENDS | 21