Empathy. It’s a noun. It means to have the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
I was raised a military brat and then married/divorced into it. So I have a bit of gypsy blood in me. In the way that I’m accustomed to moving every few years. It’s part of who I am. And it’s a part of what makes me good at this job. It provides me the ability to empathize with those moving into our community.
Moving is hard. But if I thought that I had empathy before, I assure you, now, I have a whole different level of it. When I was young, it was our entire family moving, two parents, two kids. When I was married, it was two adults and one child.
As many of you know, I’m moving to Georgia soon. For anyone who has read my bio on here, I’m a single mother of two boys. So now it’s a move and one adult and two kids. Wow. Talk about hard.
Between changing move dates due to certificate of occupancy, out of anyone’s control; there’s the typical move responsibilities: notices to landlord and utility companies, registering two kids for school/preschool, scheduling movers, scheduling sitters for a futuristic weekend work day. Some of this requires out of state juggling with out of state requirements of school districts. And a lot of this, in recent days, has required a lot of rescheduling. Now mind you, I haven’t even mentioned work in all of this because luckily, I’m transferring with the same company. Can you imagine if work was just one more item on the list to balance???
While I may have had empathy before, it’s reached an entire new level of really going above and beyond for our prospects and new residents to ensure their transition is as seamless and as easy as possible. That, within the realm of our jobs, we provide them with the answers they need to make it as easy as possible for them.
Because, in the midst of all of this, I’ve changed move dates with the movers twice and potentially a third time is coming. They’ve been kind and gracious. I’ve had to email my landlord on numerous occasions to explain the situation with tenants scheduled to be in my house by the 23rd. Utility companies have been kind….despite accidentally turning the satellite off THIS Thursday vs NEXT Thursday….you can’t win them all.
Moving is HARD. Moving out of state is harder. Doing it as a single mom feels impossible. But thankfully, I have the support of friends, family, and even co-workers to make this easy.
While remembering we are providing them a home, also remember the process behind it. They choose to call us home because of our ability to build a relationship with them during their apartment search…..remind yourself that after the decision has been made, they have to do a million things to get to the point of laying their head down in their new home…..be an easy part of that. Have a bit of empathy.
pithypropertymanager 