Does your maintenance supervisor complete actual work orders or does he/she just delegate them all?

Does your maintenance supervisor complete actual work orders or does he/she just delegate them all?
Our large property (600+ units) is way behind on work orders dating back to 60 days or more due to a number of emergency calls over the summer and being short staffed. Typically, we are rarely behind.
I realize there are a number of administrative duties the Supervisor will perform taking away from regular work orders but we really need to put a dent in these work orders and getting every available person to help would be great.
What do you think?

All hands on deck. Regardless of the title.

100%! Just jumping in to say that. A lot of a large building maintenance supervisors job is admin. There is no reason the office staff cannot lean in on these tasks.

There's not enough info here to answer your question, but it sounds like you don't trust them. Being short handed and overwhelmed saps your motivation and an office employee telling them how maintenance works, instead of exhibiting leadership and helping is counterproductive.

My supervisor does work orders

Look at all the easiest work orders ie: replace air filter, new key made, weatherstripping and etc. maybe you and the office staff could help them out and make it happen. The maintenance guys are overwhelmed with the work they already have.

Ummm. He needs to get his hands dirty. One team

My BEST supervisor was on 400 units in FTW, TX. He elected to be the one to do the maint part of the make ready units (he knew he wouldn’t have callbacks after move ins) One of the office staff was responsible to order the painters and carpet cleaners. This way he could help the guys when they were stumped or behind. He had a meeting every morning with his team. They knew their job for the day and always knew where he was. The mgr at this site would not allow the office staff to radio any of the maint other than for fire, flood or blood. The supervisor would check into the office mid morning and again mid afternoon. The office would help by going to units w/upset residents, they knew how to make keys and they clearly knew they were a team! After a year this team had all work orders completed within 24 hours. Every member of that team was trained and ready for their own supervisor positions.

Brenda Summers Borino absolutely.. have everyone work where they're strongest, and then build the missing or diminished skills over time

All supervisors are “working supervisors “.. we do what needs to be done! As a property manager, I my job doesn’t stop at admin duties.. would jump in and lease or clean grounds if that is what the team needed. 1000 percent the same for a maintenance supervisor.. lead by example

I'm a maintenance supervisor and I have always done work orders in between doing my dutys

Ours always helps out...

The property manager should ask the maintenance supervisor to develop a plan, with timeline, to catch up on work orders and then the two of them sit down to discuss it.

I'm a multi-site supervisor and I'm the 1st to paint, do work orders, handle emergency situations, goes on emegency on-call, schedules all carpets cleans and replacements, scheldules the cleaners, inspectors if needed, ordering all parts, making sure mutiple sites are fully stocked, all maintenance personnel know what they have to do daily and letting the mangers know also what maintenence is doing daily. I update the make ready boards evey Monday and Friday to account for leases / notices to vacate over the weekend and throughout the week. TRUST Me you must lead by example or other maintenance personnel which are leaned on heavily will not reach their full potential. If the boss doesnt give 100% no way you can expect or assume they will give 100%.
We also do all turns in house with full paints and maintenance with high turn over rate and high work order rate. The supervisor should be a mentor or they are just acting the part instead of fulfilling the part as a Leader.

I've been a supervisor for the past 23 years. I do just as many, if not more work orders than my tech does. GIT-R-DONE!

I feel you’re running the ship and just need to have an honest conversation with empathy with your lead. Dig into what tools could help them to achieve at least a 50% close out of work orders each day…people, teams need iPads, golf carts, are work order descriptions not clear when entering, etc ~ this isn’t about titles, it’s about what I call pivoting and moving but it’s all in how you present it.
Being reassuring that you want to help and achieve the goals if it means going to bat for them and getting them the extra tools speaks volumes to them. I’ve been a manager of a 500 unit property with an outside team of 5 and it never seemed to be enough man power so we had to figure out systems to get the flow right. It won’t happen over night but as long as they feel you’re trying to support them as the captain it will happen. Feel free to message me to help ping some ideas together, you’re not alone. You got this!

Our Service Manager (386 units) does most of the service requests. We've got a 3 man team; one for service requests, one for turns, and one for both wherever he is most needed. Contacted day porter for grounds.

Idc who you are, that's some bs.. if the supervisor doesn't get in and get dirty, then a that work falls on the next tech and that's not fair to do at all.. if i can do 2-3 turns per week and 8-15 wo's per day, that supervisor has 0 excuse.. the only way a person should have that title is bcuz they've clearly demonstrated that they have the skills and abilities to do the job.. anyone can sit behind a computer and call vendors.. on that note, we shouldn't have to come in behind these vendors and fix the stuff they were hired to do.. be the example of what you expect..

It's a working position in my book.

All our Maintenance Leads do whatever is needed, turns, grounds, work orders

They are working supervisors, just like the PM. If we have to tour a prospect or handle a move in because it is busy, that is what a working manager does.

I feel that leaders should lead by example…it’s time for him to get his hands dirty and help out. As a manager of about 12 years I have cleaned apartments, I have picked up trash, I have watered flowers, shoveled snow, emptied pet stations….and so on.

If they arent already jumping in to help get them done and they are behind this much im going to make the assumption the MS is the problem in this scenario.

Sounds like it’s time for the PM to go through the work orders and assign them to the appropriate team members. I also hope that someone from the office has been communicating with these residents to apologize for the delay and inconvenience. Being short staffed isn’t a viable excuse.

All hands on deck regardless of title!!! I am a property manager, we have been short staffed so I have been scheduling punches, doing work orders & having on call, etc. Team work makes dream work!

I’m working in 155 units, I’m a supervisor and I’m by my self, trash, work orders make ready. Set vendors. Well I do everything by my self. The funny part is. RPM she just wrote me up, stating that I’m not doing my job, it’s funny I’m the only person doing the job. By my self. She keep saying if I’m a fit for the job, or do I know what is my job performance, I had been there for 2 months, no residents complained about me. But RPM and PM and assistant manager. Keep pushing me out. And they don’t compensate me for being on call, they send me home when I get my 40 hr. If I get 4 emergency call. I don’t get no overtime. This company is call Berkshire.