In this month's Doyenne Discuss, Helen Roberts shares a raw and thought-provoking perspective on the growing issue of abuse faced by property management professionals. From online trolling to personal attacks, she delves into how these behaviours impact individuals, teams, and the wider industry – and why we must take a stand. I have been called scum, an oxygen thief, a moron, a cowboy and even accused of pilfering service charge funds because I dared to drive a nice car. All from customers who think it is acceptable to dehumanise me and attack me for the job that I do. A recent set of online trolling left me feeling upset, deflated, and self-doubting my abilities. Then anger came and I started to look at the bigger picture. In an industry where staff retention and turnover are an issue – how are these outside factors affecting our staff? We work tirelessly to ensure that our induction is spot on and that we train our teams in technical and soft skills that they need to do the job but how do we prepare them for the human aspect and the lack of respect for them as individuals?
In 2022, the property management industry's quit rate reached 25%. The stats tell us that there are seven main factors leading to these decisions – with difficult customers being the second most compelling factor. Our exit interviews are telling of this increasingly difficult position. As a Doyenne Ambassador and someone who has a real passion for raising people through the ranks, I genuinely worry about the industry as a whole and what we are exposing our colleagues to.
Someone recently told me that they were on hold for a call centre and the generic hold message was a narrative on codes of conduct during the call and that abuse would not be tolerated. When did we as a human race have to set our stance for behaviours before we even had the conversation? As a senior leader in our industry, I feel protective over our teams and how much they are being exposed to mental abuse or personal attacks. In the good old days of being a property manager, resident meetings were always tricky and often ended in a good car park cry to release the adrenaline. However, now we have anonymous trolling on social platforms.
We all do great things and sharing the highs and lows of our day should be allowed without the worry of being attacked. We recently had to take the disappointing decision to turn our comments off our platforms to shut down the negativity, this is unfair and has an effect on our engagement rate and possible new business. Why should I have to withdraw from engagement with my industry peers because of an anonymous troll?
We, as an industry, have to call out this behaviour and support our teams by allowing them to step back from these toxic situations. While we may all want to deliver our service from a customer-centric perspective we have to understand and promote that we do not work in the customer service field. Are there times we should be held accountable for our failings? – sure! But should we allow our teams to mentally suffer to increase our bottom line or prevent negative reviews – no!
I’m not sure what the answer is but I do know that this can’t go on. In the same way, as cyberbullying is a real and present danger to the next generation, maybe we as professionals are closer to our teenagers than we think.
Comentários