It's Not Easy Being a Manager

Associate Level Material

Appendix H

When I was working as an Apartment Manager, there were numerous occasions where I was called upon to make difficult decisions. Some were decisions about potential tenants; some were decisions about current tenants. Each decision I had to make would have an impact on individual residents, and the community as a whole. Many of these decisions I had to make on my own, without involving my area manager, since he had numerous other complex’s to attend to. It didn’t take me long to realize that many of these issues would be better resolved by myself, because of local politics. And by local politics I mean within the complex. This is where my Reputation Lens started to come into play. I am skilled at using my own intuition and sensibilities, to solve problems. I can view a situation and more times than not, come to a reasonable conclusion without requiring outside help, or influence. Sometimes it was vitally important, however, to involve a higher authority. For example, do I accept an application from someone who turns out to be a convicted child molester?

This is where my first weakness reared its ugly head; Self-Righteousness. I was at risk of denying this application based solely on this man’s convictions, because I instantly saw myself as a better person, and being in charge of protecting the families in my complex, I wanted nothing to do with this man. It wasn’t as if I wanted to deny him based on his race, or his religious belief, right? Then I realized, it could be construed as bias against a type of sexual orientation, as absurd as it may seem. Many times I would receive “Maintenance Repair Requests”, sometimes four or five at a time, in one day. Depending on the severity of the problem, there were times I could only get to one, maybe two. I had to decide which one was more important. It’s 102 degrees outside, do I fix the plugged garbage disposal for the Hispanic family of 7, or do I fix the air...