We’ve always known that apartment community employees were essential…but since mid-March of this year, that word has taken on a whole new meaning. Frontline apartment community teams are working harder than ever, under incredibly challenging circumstances, to support stressed-out residents. Community teams are faced with a lot of new and stressful challenges. For example:
- Many team members have been ordered to work from home…which they most likely weren’t set up to do, and maybe don’t have a great setting to do so effectively. Some are balancing their laptop on their laundry hamper while managing calls from residents, all the while “shushing” the toddler who’s underfoot.
- Those who are working on-site are faced with challenging new life-safety issues and have adapted to new risk management protocols that would have seemed like science fiction just six months ago. How quickly our world changed!
- In the earliest days of our quarantine, we heard numerous heroic stories of apartment community teams stepping up to make sure their residents had enough food and reaching out to food pantries for help for desperate situations. Many hustled to get needed supplies to residents, like toilet paper and eggs. Welcome to 2020; you’re now in the personal shopping business.
- With community residents home ALL. THE. TIME. thanks to quarantine and new work from home arrangements, they’re a lot needier than ever before! The calls and service requests are non-stop.
- Community teams have also become entertainers for their residents, trying hard to keep them happy and engaged while they’re trapped in their homes. We’ve heard of patio dance parties and management team parades, not to mention all sorts of online activities to keep residents busy and spirits up.
- And then there’s the stress and strain of so many residents having lost jobs and income and struggling to pay their rent…or just refusing to pay because of rent strikes and eviction freezes.
In short, our apartment onsite teams are going through A LOT!
That’s why we are delighted to hear that the National Apartment Association has declared August 12, 2020 as the official inaugural Apartment Onsite Teams Day (#APTeamsDay) as a way to recognize those who have worked tirelessly to keep apartment operations moving, residents happy, and prospects signing leases throughout the pandemic. This initiative was spearheaded by Apartments.com and has been embraced by management companies, suppliers, and apartment associations from coast to coast. Many will be celebrating their on-site teams with catered breakfast or lunch, food trucks, sweet treats, gift card giveaways, and other festivities.
For our own celebration, we partnered with our good friends at Multifamily Insiders to shine a spotlight on some hard-working frontline teams. We’ll be celebrating Apartment Onsite Teams Day on our social channels on August 12th, and we invite you to join us for some fun storytelling and great giveaways. Take a look at this awesome custom t-shirt we’ve printed just for the occasion. Wouldn’t it look great on you? Join us for a chance to win!
Apartment Onsite Teams, you deserve a national holiday to call your own. Thank you for all that you do!
