Burnt Out

They say that Strata and Community Management is like the fourth level of government and that new employees to the industry can burn out in as little as two to three years due to the sheer workload and clients alone.

Burnout can affect almost every single person, although some are lucky enough to never experience it or have the tools to work through to the other side.

But how does burnout occur?

I joined the Strata Industry in March 2020, right as COVID-19 was taking its whirlwind trip around the globe. I thought working in the property industry would involve a few emails, answering questions from legislation and meeting a few clients. What I wasn’t prepared for was the overwhelming feelings experienced from all angles, whether this be from owners, contractors, tenants, property managers, or fellow staff. By the end of the first year, the feelings of exhaustion, being pulled all over the place by clients, and high levels of expectations had hit me hard.

By August 2021, I was experiencing severe burnout and needed to advise senior management that I had to reduce my portfolio. This occurred again in February 2022, September 2022 and again in March 2023.

In these moments, all I felt was exhaustion, that I wasn’t good enough for my clients or to perform my job, and like anything I did was always going to be perceived as wrong by my clients and not resolving their problems. Many nights during my time in the industry, I have taken work home with me — not in the physical sense, but a mental one. Burnout for me can be as simple as wanting to sleep longer, not responding to a conversation with colleagues or family, or even wanting to talk to clients.

I am not the only one that has experienced burnout. A small survey conducted, including Body Corporate Managers, Admin Assistants and a major trade and insurance provider, clearly shows that it’s an industry-wide issue. These people all reported being burnt out at least once or twice during their time in the industry, with the only way to resolve it being to take time off or reduce their workload so they could continue to perform their roles. The respondents also all said they thought about leaving the industry even though they were perfectly capable of completing their roles.

I believe that senior management plays a key role in assisting staff to address burnout in the industry, ensuring they have the necessary resources and are supported when they are struggling.

The survey also found that senior management played a role in providing additional training to staff, helping them manage client expectations and assisting in either reducing or managing their workload for a more effective outcome. The survey report also speaks about the benefits of a supportive team, positive work culture and flexibility within a workplace as factors in resolving this issue.

Ongoing increases in natural weather events, delays, increased insurance premiums and excesses continue to put Body Corporate Managers under pressure and stress, increasing workloads and the likelihood of burnout. When dealing with over 1000 clients in one portfolio, burnout can occur not just once but multiple times in a career.

Client expectations can be a big part of the pressure we face, with many strata owners expecting a short turnaround on tasks. Throughout COVID, clients spent significant amounts of time around their homes or investment properties and now want more work done to maintain their properties and want it done in a faster manner. Modern technology makes everyone more available and easily contactable, so clients can be rude or demanding without the need to visit the property or speak to you in person.

In reality, the timeline for many actions can be anywhere from 6-8 weeks, and that may be just information to be sought to commence the next steps. The end result for me as a Manager is to overthink my abilities after just one call from an Owner saying, “You people just take money from us,” or “You’re the Manager. Why can’t you do something about it?”, “I don’t want the work to proceed, why do I have to pay?” and even “I requested a quote at the Annual General Meeting two weeks ago, where are we at?” — to use less profanity-filled examples.

Our clients don’t understand and continue to ignore the fact that although we are employed by them, for us to do our job effectively, we need the clients to be patient, knowledgeable and, most importantly, understand that we also must work effectively for all clients of a corporation and within the time frame the contractors or the situation allows.

Questions that always cross my mind when I experience burnout are “Are you cut out for this?” and “Why can’t I make the clients understand?”. I find myself putting myself down, questioning my abilities and feeling mentally exhausted. You think, what’s the point they aren’t going to understand anyway?

To overcome this issue, does this mean reducing workloads or providing more training to the staff and clients? I don’t believe burnout will ever be resolved as there are always going to be times when a client or even ourselves wreaks havoc on our abilities to perform the role of body corporate managers.

Strategies I have employed to deal with this is to push the ‘stop’ button by taking a break, spending time with the other staff to talk it out or implementing a four-day work week, which I am currently part of a trial for and am already seeing benefits of reduced stress and negative thoughts.

One thing certain from the survey is that although the industry itself relates to clients’ expectations, demands and sometimes threats can be alleviated by a good work culture and supportive team. But what is the right way to take on assistance without passing the burnout to senior management and without dumping the burnout on them? Senior management will play a key role in negating or solving this issue, but how much personal development do we need to go through to overcome this?