Realistic Character Occupations: Facilities and Maintenance Person

Realistic Character Occupations:

My Experience as a Facilities and Maintenance Person

(at a Fitness Studio)

To win readers over we need to write characters so authentic they feel like real people. How do we do this? By brainstorming a character’s backstory, personality, needs, desires, and their day-to-day world. Lucky for us, one aspect of their daily life is a goldmine of characterization: the type of work they do. 

Think about it: a job can reveal personality, skills, beliefs, fears, desires, and more, which is why Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi created The Occupation Thesaurus, a writing guide that profiles 124 possible careers and the story-worthy information that goes with each. To help with this project, I’m sharing my experience as a Facilities and Maintenance Person below, in case this occupation is a perfect fit for your character!

You can find the full list of Contributed Occupation Profiles and check out The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers at Writers Helping Writers.

 

OCCUPATION: FACILITIES AND MAINTENANCE PERSON (FITNESS STUDIO)

OVERVIEW

In charge of facilities and maintenance, I am responsible for keeping the studio clean, the equipment sanitized, and the equipment in working order. This does involve a lot of cleaning, more so since the outbreak of COVID-19, lifting, and moving of equipment. I have a checklist of things that need to be done on a weekly/monthly/yearly basis, and report to the studio manager and also the studio owner.

NECESSARY TRAINING

I was never interviewed for this job, or even knew it was available. It started when I offered to help the fitness studio owner with cleaning the place while she was on maternity leave with her first child. She gave me a quick run-through of how she cleaned, and then I took over when she had her baby. When she came back, she asked if I would stay to help her out, and because the studio manager liked the way the studio looked. And then when equipment doesn’t work properly, like fans and spin bikes, I take a look at them to see if I can fix them. No training with the equipment, except on how to use it properly when I’m there to work out, and anything I cannot fix requires bringing in someone else for the issue. The position was created for me well after I’d started, and I’ve worked there through renovations and expansion of the studio, another baby for the studio owner, and now COVID-19.

USEFUL SKILLS, TALENTS, OR ABILITIES

DETAIL-ORIENTED, DEXTERITY, EQUANIMITY, GOOD LISTENING SKILLS, HIGH PAIN TOLERANCE, INTUITION, MECHANICALLY INCLINED, MULTITASKING, ORGANIZATION, OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING, STAMINA, STRATEGIC THINKING, STRONG BREATH CONTROL, SUPER STRENGTH

 

SOURCES OF FRICTION

The fitness studio is in an old warehouse where other business also rent space. This provides some of the sources of friction, including...

Firefighters traipsing through the building to do an inspection while trying to clean

People from other businesses needing to use the bathroom while cleaning it

People from other businesses making a mess in the bathroom after it’s been cleaned

Trying to keep the back hallway clean when one of the other businesses does carpentry and leaves wood shavings all over

When fitness instructors leave the front door open after class and non-members walk in to get out of the sun/rain while trying to clean

When members don’t take off their outdoor footwear and walk through the studio after it’s been cleaned

Ribbon from a seasonal decoration getting stuck in a fan

Mirrors all over the studio can make one believe there is someone else in the room when there isn’t

Being looked down on by family and friends for the work one does

Exhaustion and back pain from the workload

Spiders and centipedes that like to visit

Instructors who don’t write their schedule on the calendar and have clients while you’re trying to clean

 

WRITERS SHOULD KNOW…

The studio owner and manager are both very thankful and help out whenever possible, and make sure the studio is stocked with supplies needed. But members and other occupants of the building have varying personalities. The Facilities and Maintenance Person must be able to work with and around them when needed while maintaining the positive attitude the studio wishes to convey to the community. At the end of the day, it can leave a person needing to vent, or simply exhausted from moving, organizing, and cleaning the equipment and the facilities.

 

Have any questions about this job? I’d be happy to answer. Just leave a comment below!