Property maintenance operative

Briefly explain what you do for a living.

I work as a property maintenance operator in apartment blocks, terraced houses, and business premises. My responsibilities include property maintenance and repairs as well as checking and maintaining yard areas.

How have you ended up in the profession of your choice?

I previously worked as a housekeeper and a truck driver, but during my maternity leave, I started wondering if there was anything else I could do for work. Out of curiosity, I applied for property maintenance studies at a vocational college. I got invited to an interview, which was the push that really made me take interest in this field.

Describe your typical working day or week.

In the mornings, the property management team gather at the workplace, catch up, and go through what needs to be done that day. Before starting my rounds, I grab the master keys for the properties that I was assigned for the day. I usually don’t go into residents’ homes until 9 a.m., so I have time to check things like the condition of the yard areas and lighting fixtures before that.

During the work day, I go to several sites for different kinds of maintenance and repair work. For example, I fix radiator thermostats and locks on doors, adjust heating, and deal with minor plumbing issues. The activity levels in my job vary a lot by day - some days I might end up getting over 25,000 steps.

What kind of work environment or working hours do you have?

I work outdoors and indoors at different properties. As a property maintenance operator, I sometimes have to climb to high places and move around the base floor or the ceiling.

In winter, I work between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. In summer, my working hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., except on Fridays, when I finish at 2 p.m. My working hours can be somewhat flexible. In addition, the work may include on-call shifts if separately agreed.

What kind of competence or qualities are required in the profession?

A property maintenance operator needs to have common sense, initiative, and deduction skills. My task is often to figure out the cause of a problem and come up with a suitable fix. This job also requires technical skills: for example, to solve an issue related to indoor heating, you need to use different measurements and graphs.

Good physical fitness is also useful. This job involves a lot of moving and climbing, and sometimes tasks that require strength.

What is the best thing about your profession?

The best part about my job is how versatile it is, and the fact that I can plan my work pretty independently. A property maintenance operator’s working day involves both encounters with people and independent work.

I like animals, so I love meeting residents’ pets when I’m working. The field is constantly changing, so I’m always learning something new.

What are the downsides of the profession or what seems challenging?

The most challenging aspect is how fast-paced the work is. Especially in winter, there is a ton of work, since snow and slippery conditions mean that we need to take care of the safety of our customers in addition to our other maintenance work. In those times, it is important to be able to assess the urgency of the tasks and prioritise.

What would you tell a person considering the profession of a property maintenance operator?

It is best to study theory thoroughly before actually starting in this job. When I was studying, I just wanted to get to the actual work as soon as possible, but since then it’s become clear how beneficial it would have been if I’d paid a little more attention to the theoretical studies.

It is also important that you are able to ask for advice. You don’t need to know everything, and you learn a lot from more experienced workers.

How do you see the future of your profession?

The field of property maintenance is constantly changing, but I believe that there will be work in the field also in the future. Technical property systems are developing and becoming more complex, which means that property maintenance operators will be required to have increasingly more technical skill. For example, familiarity with geothermal heating systems can be very useful.

I would like to see more women in the field in the future. Many still think that property maintenance is a male-dominated field, but gender has nothing to do with how well you can do this work.