If a property manager goes on vacation, should they still be responsible for their site while gone?

Asking for opinions. I know how I feel. But, I'm curious how the group feels. If a property manager goes on vacation (not out of the country) should they still be responsible for their site while gone?
Example: Your utility bills did not get paid for some reason (you think it's a clerical error on the utility company's end), and you now have common areas without power. This is affecting your residents and they are without hot water for two days.
Do you leave it and do nothing until you return in 2 more days? Do you put it on your regional manager or accountant to deal with? Or do you do your best to assist from where you are? Just curious.

Vacation is vacation. It should have been clarified who would be covering the PM before they left. I feel that should fall upon the Regional Manager in my opinion. As they should be in tune to all of their properties.This is at least how my Regional runs her properties. She’d have no problem coming in if my PM didn’t have coverage or she’d do it remotely if she had other obligations.

How long a vacation we talking? Shutting utilites off doesn’t usually happen for weeks/months. Someone dropped the ball before vacay, but there should be someone as a point person in the absence of a PM.

Ask for help. It's just that simple. Everyone needs a life outside of work. If no one is there to help it's time to start looking for a new job!

Lot of layers here. Mix of pro active duties, whoops, and support systems for time off.PM is responsible and accountable for the location and keeping it in working order for the benefit and enjoyment by residents. Who did PM train and delegate duties, authority responsibility accountability in their absence ? If no one, then it still belongs to PM.If no one is available to delegate, what is the corporate (regional) support network ? Peer PM or regional ?I will be the rude one....Bill was not paid properly by PM. PM didn't have a coverage plan for THEIR community.Enjoy the days off.Take responsibility for the disaster.

Wow seeing this makes me so grateful to be a part of a team where not only is this unlikely to happen but if it did it would be solved without hesitation. It is a team have your teams back!

Regional manager

I was recently out recovering from surgery. I sent in my utilities to accounting before I left and my sister property PMs assisted with entering my other invoices and my regional helped my on site team with other minor issues. Team work makes the dreamwork!

Steph Bosworth just after surgery, with a morphine drip in my arm, they start calling me!

Steph Bosworth Today, home with the flu, at least 6 phone calls and texts. Even had to drag my ass outta bed and go back in!

Megan Goodmundson I have no one else. 114 apartments. I report directly to the owner. No regional.

When I go on vacation, I always have a fellow manager at a sister site available to my team and my team knows to go to them for direction in an instance such as this. Then that manager would handle and/or loop in the regional if necessary. Leave your manager alone while they're on vacation.

I'd do what I can. Went on vacation to Florida one time. First day there and my complex had no heat. I sat on the phone the entire day getting it fixed.

Vacation is just that. However, my Asst will be crosstrained to walk in my shoes and if she cant handle something my Asset Mgr and Accountant has our back!

Obviously, this depends how big your teams are, but I would hope you could reach out to one of your sister site managers before you leave on vacation and ask them to handle your community while you are gone. And then anything they can’t handle, your regional would. We all deserve a break. I try never to call or text my managers when they are out on PTO.

I ask a sister manager to help out while you are gone. If there isn’t anyone except owner and you then it’s the PM.

My team on site would have my back and my Assistant Manager would be cross trained to step in during my absence. I would be a phone call away to answer any questions. My RPM would help handle if necessary.

Mistakes happen, text her or him and let them know and ask if you can do something to help fix it. They can probably tell you what to do or fix it themselves while on vacation.

I would assist if I was able and also loop in my regional.

I've never worked on-site so take this with a grain of salt BUT, vacation means disconnecting and not working. That said, it's up to the employee to check with their boss about who is covering what while they are gone. This should also be communicated well in advance.

Working while still taking time off causes burn out quickly. Leaders should train their staff to run the property smoothly in their absence. I believe your time off is your time off.

You most likely have a team. Enjoy your downtime. Your team will step up, if not, you have a bigger problem that needs to be addressed.

Each of our properties has an assistant manager or competent Leasing consultant to get the ball rolling to determine what needs to be done. If they are new, it would default to the Regional to either handled or guide the Leasing consultant as to what has to be done. No way would our residents EVER be without hot water for 2 days. All staff members should know the chain of command within the office as well as at the corporate level so that they know who they could contact in the off chance the PM isn't available. It shouldn't matter if the PM was out of the country or out mowing his/her lawn. They are ON VACATION and it should be respected UNLESS it is a true emergency (like a fire, tornado, flood, etc)

Overall the property manager is responsible for managing all aspects of the operation of the property so that when they do take time off, the property is set for success. We always have a back up level of support for emergencies whether its another property manager, regional or other operations support person. If the utilities get shut off over the normal course of a vacation it can only mean a few things, a major mistake, mismanagement issue, or an emergency incident. Either way, we would find a solution quickly through the support layers of our company.

We always have someone set up to cover the sites so if they are on vacation they can completely relax and disconnect. We believe in work /life balance.