Laughter never hurt anyone...

Laughter, it makes the world seem better, makes the day go by faster and exercises your stomach muscles...honest...

Working property management, we somehow lack laughter at times. There's reports to do, residents to tend to, new applicants to impress and a boss to please. So how come, laughter, couldn't work to do all of these things...or at least help do them..

There are days when I am buried behind paperwork. Someone on my staff will come into the office and laugh at me. You see, it seems that I stick out my tongue when I am concentrating on paperwork, this in turn makes me laughable. So they are laughing at me, I look up and realize what they are laughing at and I start laughing. This little break in my day, helps me get my paperwork done sooner and more efficient. You can concentrate and work on things so much that you lose track of what you are doing, which leads to mistakes and long days.

Have you ever had a resident come in to your office and ask for something that you just have to say, "huh?" You do property management so of course you have. Has this ever brought out the smile in you? Maybe not while the resident is standing there, but you laugh afterwards. Come on, you can tell me...

I recently had a resident ask (in writing) if he could knock the wall down that was in between his two bedrooms. You see, he didn't want 2 bedrooms, he only wanted one bedroom, but the neither of the bedrooms he had were big enough, but knocking down the wall, would give him the space he needed. (I didn't ask what he needed the space for...I figured I wait for another moment in time for that answer). Of course, I sent him back a note that said, "sorry, but you can't do that." He then sent me another note that said he didn't think I could turn down a reasonable request. I wrote back and said when he requests something reasonable, I will try not to turn it down, but that knocking down entire walls is not a reasonable request. He told the maintenance man that he didn't think he would talk to me until I changed my mind. I guess I had better learn sign language to do his re-certification...

As for laughing with an applicant. You need to make the applicant feel comfortable. And believe it or not, most applicants are scared of you. They don't know you anymore then you know them, but they see you as someone in the position to give them a home, so you scare them. I recently had an applicant you submitted an application with about ten people listed on it as co-applicants. When I called him about his application, I informed him that he could only have 5 people total in the 2-bedroom apartment he was trying to get. He said, "Okay" and then we sat there for a little bit, when I finally informed him that he turned in an application with ten people on it. He said he knew this. I said that I would have to turn him down because there were too many people in his household and would not meet our household occupancy limits. He then told me that he wasn't planning on living with ALL of them, only the first 4 who could pass our credit and criminal criteria. He just listed that many people because he knew his friends were kind of shady people and he wasn't sure which ones would pass these two tests. He went on to say that he figured I could weed out the bad ones and that way he could trust the others. I guess that is one way to figure out who you can share a bathroom with...?

Laughing with your boss is probably the hardest way to laugh. I'm not sure what kind of boss you have, but mine is sort of, I'm boss - you employee. He knows his job, but he doesn't know how to interact otherwise. I like to think I am, not a better boss, but a friendlier boss. I like to work as a team with my staff and not as a me against you. By working WITH my staff, I find that all of us are able to laugh and get along and that makes the day go by much faster. I really don't have one story to share, because my staff makes me laugh a lot and we laugh together just as much, so my advice here would be to find a way to laugh with your staff and AT yourself. There's a reason that people like the show Candid Camera...it helps you realize that none of us are perfect and laughing makes a situation so much easier to deal with.