Question (not rhetorical): Is there anything better than the smell of coffee in the morning?
I guess tea drinkers might claim the smell of their steeping leaves has the same effect, but I am not so easily swayed. I’m no scientist, but I think the morning coffee smell is your nose’s way of alerting your body that the day has begun, and it is filled with possibility (as long as you drink that coffee first, that is.)
This, among many other reasons, is why when I start my day as the community manager for THRIVE | Coworking in Greenville, SC, the first thing I do is start the coffee. The beginning of my day has a consistent, dependable rhythm: I fire up the coffee, turn on my favorite playlist (often heavily saturated with John Mayer), make sure snacks are stocked, cut lemons and limes for the fruit water, unload the dishwasher, and take my morning walk around the space.
I walk past Micah and know he will already be immersed in whatever is in front of him. I play this game with myself where I see if I can go by slowly enough to get him to look up. (Have you seen people trying to get a reaction from those guards with the fuzzy hats in London? It’s like that.)
I take a spin through the space and get to say good morning to people as they are starting their day. It means a lot to me to know that on one of these morning walks maybe I’ve had the opportunity to uplift someone who had a bad start to the morning. Or that my morning hello is a part of their morning routine, too.
So, What Do You Do?
I often have people ask me what I do in my role as community manager. Such a simple question … that sometimes stumps me. The truth is there are a lot of different answers. I could start by talking about the physical task of managing the space, the part of me that sometimes feels half soccer-mom, half student-housing Resident Advisor. When leaving for a recent work retreat, I jokingly instructed one of my members not to burn down the place while I was gone and was met back with a playful “Whatever you say, mom.”
There is a lot of power to be had in being the procurer of the yummy snacks and sodas, the caller and coordinator of repair people, the keeper of the keys for the beer fridge, and the organizer of member events. What always surprises me is the amount of gratitude these tasks are often met with. What do you mean “thank you?” I am just doing my job! Whatever exactly that may be.
The day-to-day situations that come up in a coworking space filled with individuals from different walks of life, in different industries, are sometimes confounding, and very often amusing. As a community manager, my role is to embrace these moments with insight, problem-solving skills, and a fully-intact sense of humor.
For Marianna, THRIVE’s community manager in Gainesville, GA, this looked like reasoning with an individual who was shocked to find she would not be able to bring her pet duck (yes, you read that correctly) into the coworking space. With her tool belt of CM skills, Marianna was able to hear this woman’s frustration, while still protecting the experience of all our other members.
This truly is the job of the community manager: Finding ways to protect and honor both the individual and communal experience all at once. Sometimes this means using our charm to mediate between members. Deadra in our Holly Springs location was met with this challenge when a conflict ensued between two coworking members over the sound of a text notification.
A member who insisted on keeping their phone notification on, even when approached by another member requesting it be silenced, ended up sparking a full-out war. In retaliation, an office member decided to open up his door and turn up his music just a little louder. These are the exact moments a community manager is born for. By intervening, listening and assessing, Deadra was able to come to a solution that pleased all sides. In the end, white flags were waved, fences were mended, and peace returned to the land.
From Counselor to Sales Manager
Oftentimes what will surprise me the most as a community manager is how much of their lives people will share with me. Front-desk therapist is one of my favorite roles I have the privilege of taking on. In the day-to-day of work and life, I get to be a completely neutral presence in the lives of my members.
Sometimes I can tell when someone has something they need to vent about by the way they’ll linger slightly longer by my desk. “Here I am! Vent to me! I don’t know your good-for-nothing boyfriend, and whether or not it’s all his fault doesn’t matter, because I am just here to listen.” This is the part of my job that always pops up unexpectedly, and I often pause everything I am working on to attend to it. When it comes to people, the idea of a deadline is a little different.
“Office Sales” is how Patrick, the THRIVE community manager in Asheville, NC, describes his position to those who know nothing of it. Walking around, showing off the space, it’s easy for me to feel like the ruler of the castle. Welcome to my kingdom! It may have taken a whole team of people to carefully curate this space, but I am the one here so I will gladly take all the admiration. But some days I have given my tour so many times that things start to blur together.
Who was wondering about our policy on hairless cats? And who wanted to know if they could lease out an office for half of its original price? At times I feel a few cosmetic surgeries and one Nick Cannon baby away from Selling Sunset, going back and forth between two potential buyers vying for the same office.
This is one of many parts of my job that constantly keeps me on my toes, as often people will pop in eager and excited for a tour. Right then! At that moment! Regardless of what you’re doing! In a newly opened space, being ready to give your best tour to date at any and every moment is very important because you never know how that could change the trajectory of your space.
Welcome to … The Love Boat?
“I’m a cruise director … kind of like Julie McCoy on The Love Boat.” That’s what Storm, our Community Manager in Alpharetta, GA, says. I am not too proud to admit my Gen Z-self had to look up this character, but upon further research, the comparison is spot on.
Just like a cruise director tries to keep their passengers active and engaged, the job of a community manager is to help people forget that today is just another day in the office. Because, truthfully, it’s not! Each day is full of new possibilities, new faces, and new events, and it’s our job to remind people of that in the space we curate. We also want to make sure our members find like-minded individuals to enjoy their time on our metaphorical cruise ship.
The only way to accomplish this is by knowing our members and creating those inroads. Oh, you both love shuffleboard? Have you considered being best friends forever? Planning yummy member breakfasts, delicious — and often themed — happy hours, and office lunches makes up a big piece of this community manager pie (not a literal pie, that’s a little too Sweeney Todd).
Whether the job of the day is assessing contraband that came in through the mail, telling a pet owner they may need to bathe their furry friend before bringing them back to the space, explaining to members that the snacks are for everyone, cleaning up a spill on aisle five, or just being a shoulder for someone to cry on, one thing about the job of a community manager is it is never boring.
It is a lot of things — some days inspiring, some days mind-boggling, some days infuriating, but never (ever) boring. The sentimentalist in me knows that really my job is to know that everyone has a heavier load than what meets the eye and to lighten it in any way I can. And the best part is that my members have — without even knowing it — returned this favor to me through their gratitude, their humanity, their humor, and their kindness. Who wouldn’t want that gig?
