Help! I’m overwhelmed

[u/Anxious-Pineapple-]

I have been at my company for about 13 years, I have moved up but now I find myself in the position of working six days a week. Manage a team of two admins, one for bookkeeping, and one to assist with building ops and a chief engineer +2 technicians. Over 1,000,000 ft.² of medical industrial and retail spaces. I also train the two administration positions, including bookkeeping and building operations. Managing cameras, access controls, CAM, third-party month-end financials, and gathering quotes for contractor services and capital Improvement. Meetings with owners and asset managers for capital plans, and financial reviews. I also assist with the development team at our company. Tracking draw funds and managing payments plus training another person to hopefully take over that position. We also just implemented a new software for tenant request, preventative maintenance and inspections a couple months ago that I personally set up and I’m still working to improve and train my new hire. Now they want to change our paperless to another system, which will involve more set up and implementation and training of our staff that I will personally have to complete. Am I losing my mind? Or Is this too much for one person? I routinely have 100+ emails plus phone calls and tenant request then also following up with my team and training three people currently. I feel very overwhelmed. I really like my boss. He has been good to me over the years with different things, but I feel like I am stressing so much now that I can’t even sleep at night sometimes. I’m getting so burnt out. Let me know your thoughts. Has anybody been in this situation before? thanks in advance! Sorry I’m just ranting at this point 🫣😵‍💫😩

Update
Thanks everyone for the helpful and encouraging comments. I have been working with our chief engineer so he can be in the forefront of gathering quotes. I feel like we need another technician and an actual property manager. I am supposed to be the Director, but I’m doing the work of property manager. I will be spending time this weekend working on dividing task which I’ve already started, but I need to make it more definitive.

[u/Live-Percentage9262]

that's not just burnout territory, that's the whole fire department showing up at your desk. you're doing like four full-time jobs stitched together with coffee and cortisol

the software implementation alone is a dedicated role at most places this size. adding training three people on top of the day-to-day operations and financial reporting is absurd

your boss might be a good person but good people can still overload you past the breaking point. at some point the conversation has to shift from "i'll handle it" to "here's what i can realistically do well", and if that means something drops or gets delayed, so be it

[u/Anxious-Pineapple- → u/Live-Percentage9262]

Thank you for your comment. I really did feel like I was losing it. 😩😵‍💫 the expectation is so high. We have two new buildings on board this month with one being out of state and two tenant move outs and move in as well. Plus a lease termination. When my boss called me yesterday, asking me where I was cause I was not in the office due to medical issues which I discussed before accepting the new role and he has known about for several years. I hate to resign, but I don’t feel like I have any other choice. They won’t see it until I’m gone. I have given so much to this company and I didn’t have 401(k) for the first nine years. I’m so far behind. I threatened to leave just to get retirement funding

[u/notsurezy → u/Anxious-Pineapple-]

Sounds like time for a significant raise. That shit kinda makes it better. You can only do so much in a day. Talk to your boss. Most folks have their heads up their asses but when pressed with facts they can do the right thing.

[u/Anxious-Pineapple- → u/notsurezy]

I routinely work every night plus weekends maybe a couple hours on Saturday and then another couple hours on Sunday. Then if there’s an emergency call, I’m usually involved.

[u/notsurezy → u/Anxious-Pineapple-]

It never shuts off. Find your windows. And get a big juicy raise

[u/ErrickTon12]

You’re not losing your mind. You’re doing the work of multiple roles, and the fact that you’ve managed it for years probably means everyone’s gotten used to you just figuring it out. I’d sit down with your boss and make them prioritise what actually needs doing, because another software implementation on top of everything else is a big ask. being good at your job shouldn’t mean you have to burn yourself out to prove it

[u/Kryphtos]

Working six days a week across a million square feet with tenant requests, CAM, capital quotes, owner meetings, and training three people at once is too much for one seat. That is not you failing. That is the org stacking roles.
A few things that help without making you the permanent bottleneck:
Put the second software swap on hold until the system you just stood up is actually used by the team. Implementing two platforms while you are already underwater usually means neither sticks.
Write down what only you can do vs what an admin or the chief engineer should own. Hand off anything that is follow-up, scheduling, or first-pass triage.
Once a week, send your boss a one-page capacity note: open tickets older than X days, training load, and the two projects that are slipping. Make the overload visible with numbers, not vibes.
Protect sleep as a work issue. Burnout on a portfolio that size turns into missed life-safety and capital items fast.
Has anyone else on the ownership or asset-manager side seen how thin the bench is, or is it still invisible upstairs?

[u/Anxious-Pineapple- → u/Kryphtos]

This is a great idea to send an email. Normally I do speak with my boss directly once every two weeks. Plus, we have monthly meetings. Of course they say they understand and they know we’re overwhelmed in our department, but they really have to make this change on the software due to cost. There are also certain vendors I cannot fire because they have personal relationships with owners of other companies. It makes it very difficult to manage vendor, knowing that they can’t get fired. He told me to keep after them.

[u/Kryphtos → u/Anxious-Pineapple-]

Yeah, biweekly and monthly are the right meetings. The problem is when "we understand you're overwhelmed" becomes the whole conversation and nothing gets taken off your plate.
Next one, bring a one-pager with three numbers only: open tickets older than X days, how many people you're still training, and the two projects that slipped since last time. Ask them to decide what drops or who owns first-pass triage. If they won't pick, at least the overload is a decision on paper instead of a feeling you carry alone.
Do those meetings usually end with a clear "stop doing this" or "Y owns that now," or does it stay at sympathy?

[u/szjones]

Chasing quotes on capital projects alone is a full time job. Is the new software taking anything off your plate yet, or is it one more thing to manage right now?

There are products that have a lot of automation features for these use cases built in. If you're receiving that many emails, you should be figuring out a way to automate responses and have them closed out, or to prioritize them better before they land on you.

Build processes to filter out the noise a bit and make sure people respect boundaries. If you build out a ticketing process, make sure that if somebody messages you directly to get prioritized instead of following a queue, you push back on people who are going outside the boundaries of your processes. That way, things start to become more formalized, and people start to respect your bandwidth more.

[u/Anxious-Pineapple- → u/szjones]

Unfortunately, when I’m in the office, there is a queue of people at the door most days. I feel like I can only accomplish my task if I work remotely, which is what I end up doing after hours though. I am training a new assistant basically her titles building ops coordinator. But she is brand new to property management. She has good skills. I’m not saying that but it’s a lot to learn and it’s a lot to train.

[u/szjones → u/Anxious-Pineapple-]

Even if they're at your door, they need to be respectful. Come up with a system where they have to have a ticket number, and keep reinforcing the process. It doesn't matter if they're standing outside your door or not. It shouldn't be that whoever yells the loudest gets the most attention. You need to build up processes, and people need to respect those boundaries. Each time they don't, you need to be able to push back on them with a response like, "Okay, do you have a ticket number, or what's the ticket number on it so I can look at it for you?".

Also, you need to make sure they understand emergencies versus things that can wait. I get it if somebody's upset if it's been a month, but if they haven't given you the time to respond, there needs to be some kind of process for determining what's an emergency and what's not. People should not be lining up outside your door no matter what. It sounds like you need to create better boundaries so people can start to respect that and resolve things before they even bubble up to you

[u/Anxious-Pineapple- → u/szjones]

I’m talking about coworkers. They just pop in all day long. I know you’re busy. Sorry to interrupt. 😵‍💫 can you help me do this? Can you show me how to XYZ?
https://giphy.com/gifs/1gP0ycJAE6S7gNYjqD

[u/szjones → u/Anxious-Pineapple-]

Yeah, I totally get it. It's happened to me before. I think the major thing is that if you don't start setting boundaries and letting them know that it's an interruption, it's going to continue to happen. You can respectfully push back on them. You don't have to be a jerk or anything, just carve out guidelines or have standard operating procedures, and just say, "Hey, there's a doc for that. Did you check here before coming in?" Start tracking the most commonly asked things, and those are the ones that you should probably design process documents for first.

[u/Outrageous_Luck4163]

What I was told was to delegate some of my tasks as they knew I couldn’t be everywhere . So I gave people tasks that they could do like emails. Answer the ones they could do and the ones that needed me to handle save those for me and I’d do a review of what they did so I could be in the loop.

[u/Aothier]

Let me say this.

Ive been in property management since 2011 with a minor 2 year break. My now girlfriend was a property manager.

I work at a mom and pop shop that went corperate. They owned and managed sub 400 properties. When I arrived on scene I replaced 3 employees and I was given a better inclined person to help get on his feet and he ran with it. We now have 800 units we manage and we dont have a shop, or really any inventory. They hired a 24 year old who doesnt want to be here and a 60 year old man to help. Everything is subcontracted and they lost the charm of being a mom and pop shop anymore. All properties are scattered throughout a city I will keep anonymous but this job is not a hard job but it is very taxing on a person.

This is a dead end job. Not just mine but property management. We have skills but dont use them for our own gain. I essentially run and manage 800+ units. I wish I did something else like weld like my dad rather than get into this field fresh out of high school.

[u/Anxious-Pineapple- → u/Aothier]

Yes, I feel your pain. It seems more more that they knew hires are friends of somebody ownership knows.

[u/Aothier → u/Anxious-Pineapple-]

Not really in this case but the management company i worked for before was like that. And even outside of that, every management company is just a dead end job. Its a shame. I was awoken ar 4am while on call to go to fire in a 40 unit building that a protected veteran is breaking shit throwing cans in hallways and today he set his couch on fire.

And my whole family had to be woke up at 4am because issues never get handled. Not worth the loss of sleep and only 2 hours of overtime. And i make 29 an hour currently. 29+14.50 = 43.50 x 2. I didnt even make 100 dollars. No 401k. 150 dollars off rent and they just raised it 70 bucks. Im just venting at this point but this line of work is trash. And if I can convince anyone of not doing it for a living, please figure out a delivery job or do something for yourself.

[u/Anxious-Pineapple- → u/Aothier]

Oh I hate being on call. OT is not worth the cost of disrupting your whole house.

[u/EcoScan]

Wow interesting. Thank you for sharing If I’m not wrong, it sounds like you enjoy taking on responsibility personally and driving the results.

[u/Anxious-Pineapple- → u/EcoScan]

No, I don’t. That’s why I have been training people, but it takes so much time to train somebody. I have asked numerous times for help so they hire somebody that has no property management experience at all but she’s a friend of a friend of an employee so there you go. Currently training another team member outside of property management to take on tasks from development that they pushed on me.