August – Blog from a Serviced Office Tenant.

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Each month we will be following 2 companies, both sharing their highs and lows and everyday business challenges, as they describe any issues or problems connected to their office any and the choices and solutions they come up with or are presented with.

The companies will remain anonymous as we want an insight into their office situation and not create a branding or P.R. exercise for them. Both are SME’s, in totally different industries where one company has decided to lease their own offices and the second is in a Serviced Office.

This is the post from the Company in a Serviced Office – they will be posting every month. We hope you enjoy the insight……………

Let’s admit it, we have had a much better summer than expected and I hope that the nice feeling we all get from some sunshine has prevailed in your working and personal lives. Life just seems to feel so much better when the sun is out; although the reality of life is that in the background things often don’t always go according to plan. Things go wrong and thus create a diversion of time, effort and the possibility of stress.

Only the other day I was relaxing at home, after another fraught day at the office, when I noticed that the patio sensor light had come on and wouldn’t go off. The whole night went by and my garden was lit up like a football stadium, only (much) smaller. I cannot tell you the amount of hassle I endured in removing the offending item and replacing it. It was either that or having to wait 3 months for an electrician.

So the theme of my blog this month is: ‘things going wrong in the serviced offices’.

Believe me, things definitely do go wrong and with some regularity. The main cause is the simple reality of ‘wear and tear’ where you have a significant number of people constantly using the same kitchen and toilet facilities, the IT server, meeting rooms, heating system, windows, etc. The communal fixtures and fittings come under a certain level of use and abuse and often things go wrong which need repair or replacement.

The rental agreement is set out so that, in addition to the office area, the tenant is provided with certain facilities and thus the maintenance and provision of such facilities are covered by the landlord. The process of repair or renewal will often start where one of our three ladies managing the building will notice a fault or it is brought to their attention. Then, depending on the fault an email will be circulated throughout all the tenants in the building pointing out what has gone wrong and giving instructions if necessary: ‘Please refrain from using the gents toilets on the first floor as repairs are being undertaken…” I think you get the gist.

In cases that have involved the security of the building the reaction time has been very quick and this is of some assurance to any tenant.

In most cases and certainly according to my personal experience most faults and subsequent repairs have gone virtually unnoticed. The ladies call a ‘handyman’ who is usually on-site very quickly to address the problem and resolve it. Job done! It is yet again an example of how the building is allowed to function like a well-oiled machine creating the minimum of disruption to any of the tenants. The arrangement is not unlike any other serviced office, but the point is that the way that action is taken very effectively and efficiently can distinguish a serviced office which is well managed from one that isn’t.

Without wanting to end on a depressing note I’d like to point out that the summer weekends remaining are, shall we say limited, and so I urge you all not to put off that barbeque you were planning or anything else you can do in the garden while the weather is nice. I just hope that you don’t have any problems with a high wattage sensor light running up your electricity bill.

Best wishes until next month.

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