A Day in the Life of a Facilities Team
Following a facilities coordinator through a normal working day.
8 min
Activities: 0 of 2
Facilities management (FM) keeps buildings safe, legal, clean and working so that the people inside can do their jobs. In this course you will learn the main parts of the work, the rules that apply and the simple methods good teams use. A good way to start is to follow one person through one day.
Mariam's day as a facilities coordinator in a city office
- 1
07:30
Building walk
Mariam walks the entrance, lifts, toilets and car park. She notes a flickering light in the lobby and a wet patch under a sink. - 2
08:30
Helpdesk check
She reviews new requests: a cold meeting room, a broken chair, a blocked toilet. She sets a priority for each and sends them to the right person. - 3
10:00
Contractor on site
The fire alarm engineer arrives for the quarterly service. Mariam checks his induction, signs him in and tells reception the alarm may sound briefly. - 4
13:00
Supplier meeting
She meets the cleaning supervisor to review last month's audit scores and agree actions. - 5
15:00
Planning
She updates the compliance register with the fire alarm certificate and books the lift inspection due next month. - 6
17:00
Close the day
She checks the urgent jobs are finished, updates the people who reported them and hands over to the evening security officer.
What the day shows
Mariam's work falls into three groups. Some tasks are reactive: answering faults as they are reported. Some are planned: services and inspections booked in advance. Some are management: checking suppliers, keeping records and planning ahead. A good facilities team protects time for planning and management, because these reduce the number of faults tomorrow.
Notice too that Mariam does very little of the physical work herself. Most work is done by engineers, cleaners, security officers and specialist contractors. Her job is to organise, check and record.
Match each task to its type
- Fixing a blocked toilet reported this morning
- The quarterly fire alarm service
- Reviewing cleaning audit scores with the supplier
Why does Mariam sign in the fire alarm engineer and check his induction?