Now more than ever, we owe thanks to the tireless professionals who maintain our workplaces and public facilities. What was once a critical but often thankless task has now, in the age of Covid-19, become downright dangerous as well.
If you work in a facility that has been deemed essential, then arguably the most essential of your staff are the professionals who help maintain a sanitary, safe, and functioning facility. In addition to the maintenance team and janitorial staff, facilities managers ensure that all of the above have what they need to get their jobs done, and more. Any facility of sufficient size has planning and management professionals who design and maintain a properly functioning workspace.
From ensuring that ingress points function normally to the flow of traffic in a parking garage, facilities managers are responsible for the aspects of a building that both make it functional and also are almost always overlooked. Facilities managers are also often both the first line of defense and crucial stakeholders in helping to reduce waste in all its forms.
If a facilities manager is doing their job correctly, you will never know it, and that is by design.
Now, due to Covid-19, facilities managers must also not only account for all of the endless functions of a living, breathing space, but also take into account the sanitation and social distancing functions required in the midst of a global pandemic.
That is why I ask you today, on World Facilities Management Day, to join me in celebrating the tireless professionals whose work we so often take for granted, but without whom our productivity and safety would not be possible.
