#multipurpose space

a medium-sized country utility room with a side-by-side washer and dryer, an undermount sink, raised-panel cabinets, distressed cabinets, gray walls, and a single wall of porcelain tile.

The shift changed – it’s 11 pm just past my husband's bedtime.  He is snoring away. The shift changed and the freezer alarm is going off. Working in a food plant, it is important to maintain temperatures on food that was prepared that day.  But no one on this shift has a key to check the actual status.  Since the freezer and the temperature in the freezer is a security issue, it is located behind a locked door and only a few people have the key.  They don’t seem to need keys for conference rooms, bathrooms, or meeting spaces.  Just the freezer.

 My husband is one of the people with the keys. Exhausted after a full day he crawled out of bed and went to the plant.  There is nothing wrong with the freezer. There is something wrong with the alarm. Yes, a day in the life of a facility manager/plant engineer.  

The Ideal Facility Manager

"An ideal facility manager must have Aristotle's logic and Solomon's wisdom, a priest's discretion and a gambler's poker face, a lawyer's shrewdness and a marketing director's charm, a gladiator's guts, a marathon runner's perseverance and a sprinter's speed, a leatherneck's toughness and a dancer's agility, lots of good luck and 30 hours per day."  -  Unknown Source

Interesting comment about 30 hour a day.  Facility management is a full time plus  job. It is more than 40 hours a day. There are midnight calls when the police call to say an alarm went off, an intruder may be at the building, meet them there; early am calls due to shift changes and no one has the key to open the back utility door or turn on the HVAC and the most demanding are mid-day panics for environments that are too cold or too hot.

The midnight call was the most interesting. Who calls at midnight unless it is a true emergency? It was a true emergency, it was the police.  They called and requested we meet them at the building. The alarm went off.  Screaming through my mind is the vision of burglars running out of the building with our precious computer equipment. And then the harrowing thought; what if I am there first? Shouldn’t the cops just go there, nab the person and call us later? Who will be there first?  Are we closer? What do we do if we are first? We arrived; not first. The police were waiting, the alarm was ringing, and no windows were broken.  

Our intruder? A mouse  - Small steps can make a big impression.