Jeffrey Ibbitson

Let’s be honest, not many of us grew up dreaming of becoming a facility or asset manager. You rarely hear a child say, “When I grow up, I want to manage aging infrastructure, negotiate service contracts and explain why the roof cannot wait another year.” Most of us found our way here through another route. We started in the trades, operations, property management, environmental services, engineering, administration or in my case, a chef. Someone noticed that we could solve problems,...

A building has walls, a roof, mechanical systems, electrical systems, plumbing and people who expect everything to work. On paper, facility management looks transferable. A boiler is still a boiler. A leaking roof still needs to be repaired. Preventive maintenance, capital planning, vendor management and life safety matter everywhere. After working across corporate offices, social housing, retail, hospitality and health care, I have learned that no two buildings operate the same way. The...

No Judgment- But when did you last talk to your night shift about anything other than an issue? It is an uncomfortable question. When did you last visit your building at night without responding to an emergency, investigating a complaint or following up on something that went wrong? For many facility managers, the honest answer is: not recently. That is understandable. Most meetings, projects, inspections and contractor visits happen during the day. By the time the night shift arrives, many...