June 23rd, 2021
How to prevent burnout as a Property Manager
Property Management
Property Management
Property Managers are no strangers to large workloads, constantly changing conditions and busy days. While this career can be incredibly rewarding, it’s also known to be notoriously stressful, has high burnout rates and is known for increased staff turnover. This is where PropertyMe comes in, as the leading property management platform in Australia, we are here to make Property Managers’ lives easier. We want Property Managers in for the long run, and our aim is to help you have long, successful and enjoyable careers in the real estate industry.
It’s important to understand what burnout is and how it may be affecting you. Burnout, according to the World Health Organisation, is defined as an occupational stress that has not been managed successfully, it’s often accompanied by physical and emotional exhaustion. Some of the leading causes of burnout are demanding workloads, poor work-life balance and inadequate support and training. When dealing with burnout, you can often feel depleted of all your energy and emotional exhaustion over even the smallest items on the to-do list. An increased mental distance and feeling negative about work or projects that once brought joy is also a common symptom. If you have recently noticed a change in your employees’ general well-being and enthusiasm, or you have noticed a behavior change in yourself, you may be hurtling towards burnout.
There are some small steps that you can take to reduce the chances of developing burnout, these start with small positive changes that won’t leave you feeling completely overwhelmed. When it comes to burnout, recognising and starting the process of change can be the hardest part, so start with one small step at a time. Before anything else, spend time identifying your sources of stress, take the time to create a list of things that are making you feel overwhelmed, whether it be specific tasks or a more general workload. We would also recommend reaching out to your manager or a trusted colleague, letting them know you’re experiencing burnout and that you may need more support during this time. Sometimes simply reaching out and letting someone know you need help, or talking about your feelings can offer relief. Another tip would be to try and find joy outside of the workplace, it’s easy to put aside all the small things when you are feeling overwhelmed but doing these little actions that bring you happiness can make the world of a difference. Whether this be taking 15 minutes to enjoy your breakfast in the sun, spending time with your pets or listening to your favorite feel-good playlist on your commute. Including these mini moments of happiness in your routine can help make the days seem less daunting.
So what causes burnout in Property Managers and how can PropertyMe help? There are a few areas that many Property Managers find especially stressful causing significant being communication as a team, increased workloads and lack of training resources. Let’s break these down and see how PropertyMe helps you tackle these common workplace stressors.
A common stressor for many Property Managers is constantly having to follow up with tenants and owners, having emails all over the place and spending hours finding and following up on different platforms. PropertyMe allows you to have all communication in one place with our internal messaging feature. Take the stress out of your day by accessing templates instead of taking the time out of manually creating responses for each different tenant, owner or tradie. Having clear visibility with communication and ease of access can make the world of a difference reducing finicky workloads. Having a shared inbox also allows other team members to jump in and respond to emails promptly and take the hassle off the shoulders of someone experiencing high workloads.
Another common area that causes stress for Property Managers is having an overwhelming workload. Property Management is full of busy and time-consuming tasks, whether this be entering bill information, spending time chasing arrears and constantly following up on communication on different platforms. Not to mention the millions of small tasks that are peppered through a general day in the life of a Property Manager. All of this adds to an overwhelming workload which can very easily burn out even the most experienced Property Manager. PropertyMe is here to allow you to have your colleagues’ backs. Utilizing mentions means you can jump in on tasks within the portfolio, taking calls and having the ability to pass along important information by tagging colleagues with our mentions feature. Our Task, Templates and Checklists feature also allows for repeatable processes to be saved, instead of the time-consuming and mentally taxing process of creating new documents each time, having already ready options takes one more thing from your list. We pride ourselves on removing the busy work from your workload and allowing you to have a better work-life balance.
Property Managers are often left feeling like they are not equipped with enough training and are not utilizing their chosen software as well as they could be. A way you can help your team feel prepared is by utilizing PropertyMe’s training opportunities. Not only do we offer live training sessions, but we also offer self-paced sessions that help you familiarize yourself with our system on your own time. We also love to ensure you are using PropertyMe to its fullest, we often hold our live lunch and learn with The Loop. Our great hosts Christina and Peter, with the occasional special guests allow you to keep you up to date with all the newest feature releases coming to PropertyMe.
We know that PropertyMe isn’t the only solution to helping your team prevent burnout. We can’t take all the stress out of being a Property Manager but we are constantly working on improving our systems and features to allow you to work in the most efficient ways possible, reducing your busy work and improving your workplace.