FALCONCAST: Building Blocks

On today’s episode of FalconCast, our hosts Max Eisenhaure and Matthew Baier interview Fitchburg State University student Marcus Phan and find out about the Building Manager job at FSU.  From his daily duties to kicking people out, and improving himself, Marcus gives us a look into what it means to be a Building Manager.

Marcus Phan (He/Him) is a junior student at Fitchburg State University studying film and on his way to breaking into the industry.  Currently, he works as a Building Manager at Hammond Hall, the campus epicenter for student activity.

Thanks for listening to FalconCast!

This episode was produced by Matt Baier, Max Eisenhaure, and Jackson Texeira as a part of the Spring 2023 Podcasting class at Fitchburg State University.

Episode transcript available here. 

Click here to learn more about Perseverantia.  Join us for programming updates on Instagram.  Or reach out with ideas or suggestions at podcasts@fitchburgstate.edu.

Transcript

FalconCast (S1, Ep2): “Building Blocks”

(Electronic music starts)

MARCUS: (Cold Open montage)

I like the building manager position. I'm constantly on my feet. …

It's good to have a building manager around so I can kick them out… 

And kicking people out’s honestly my favorite thing to do…. 

I really don’t believe in that, if you put one hundred percent into everything, you’ll have no energy for anything else.

MATTHEW: In this episode, we'll be delving into the world of college building management, exploring the aspects of the job, and learning more about the skills and qualities needed to succeed in this challenging role. So join us for an engaging conversation with our special guest and building manager, Marcus Phan, as we follow him through his average shift. This episode is called: Building Blocks.

(Electronic music fades)

MATTHEW: Welcome to this podcast. My name is Matthew Baier and my co-host.

MAX: Hello. My name is Max Eisenhaure.

MATTHEW: And we are joined with a very special guest over here, the one and only, the person who has been working as a building manager longer than I know. Mainly because you're the only building manager I know. So what's your name and where do you come from?

MARCUS: My name is Marcus Phan. I am from Quincy, Massachusetts. I am in my third year here at Fitchburg State and I'm a film video major. I’ve been Hammond Campus building manager for well over a year now. I manage all the events. I just, you know, keep the building running. I'm the only one who keeps, you know, everything in order for the building.

They're just, like, my main responsibilities. The building manager thing isn't really related to what I want to do as my career, but this is something to get by while I'm at school, it's real close.

MATTHEW: So since I know that there are on campus jobs that do have to do with film, like, for example, there's the front desk attendant in front of, like, the film hallway. Why did you decide to choose the Hammond building manager instead of one of the other positions?

MARCUS: So what I found is that a lot of those jobs, like work study in general, tends to just be like glorified desk jobs. I just, I can't do that. I need to be able to keep my mind occupied, my body occupied. So like the building manager position is like you really get the most to do out of any job on campus.

And I mean, for some people, that's not great. Some people want to be, you know, paid the same amount to do less. But you don't realize how crappy that is until you have literally nothing to do. And I've worked jobs like that. I worked in the game room in Hammond, too. And there are some days where like, there's literally nothing to do. You slowly lose your mind. It's... I just wanted something a little different.

MATTHEW: I know that I'm one of the perks and like, the game room was that you can turn on your own music and do all of that. What are some of, like, the special perks of the building manager? 

MARCUS: Yeah. So with work study, you don't really get benefits like that, you know, like, no, like union benefits don't really get like any of that, but you get the paid the same as everybody else. But I guess like my own perks is like since I manage the events, I tend to just get whatever they have there. Usually if there's an event like Build-A-Bear thing, I can, you know, hop in and take a bear and they don't really question it or like there was a-  it's Black History Month right now.

So like there is a soul food and bonnets event where like, you know, people showed up in bonnets and, you know, and like they had just like a bunch of soul food out, like cornbread, chicken legs, you know, all that stuff. Like I can usually grab a plate. Or during Diwali they had some really good food and I was able to steal plate like that.

And I mean, there's also like, you know, the social benefits too. You get to interact with a lot of people. I find that pretty fulfilling.

MATTHEW: So what's like the general cast of characters that you see on like, you know, like a daily basis?

MARCUS: So yeah, there's a, there's  the people I work with, there's people at the info desk, there's my bosses, there's Hank Parkinson, who works in the Office of Student Development. And of course, there's the people that need my help running the event. They tend to approach me. And then there's occasionally, there's a troublemaker that I need to address. And I mean, those are pretty rare, but often - but not too often, I don't think. But yeah, those are just like the people I tend to run into.

MAX: Now I know you'd mention that obviously sometimes there are some troublemakers that you need to address. Have you ever had to kick anyone out of the building?

MARCUS: Oh, yeah, all the time.

MAX: What was that experience?

MARCUS: Yeah, I've had a, it's-  so I usually work closing shifts and that's when I have to kick people out and like, the reason why I work them is honestly because I love kicking people out. It's great. It really, like, it really makes my day. But yeah, it's like there's sometimes, you know, this isn't the best, like, safest city in the world.

Sometimes there are homeless people who like to wander in and you have to kindly ask them to leave. And they're usually compliant, but there are occasionally, there are times where people just don't want to leave for whatever reason. And we have to call UPD, (University Police Department) like, they have to escort them out. We give them, like, as many tries as we can to try to get them to leave.

And we haven't had any large destructive property or anything like that. But there are peculiar people who like to, you know, hang around. There are people who like Naruto run up and down the halls. You know, there's-  there's some people who like to ride scooters indoors for some reason. But I mean, like most of my interactions are positive. I made a lot of positive connections here. And just like being a building manager.

MAX: And you mentioned that you usually work the night shift - what does a typical shift look like for you? Do you just clock in? Do you have anything that you start by doing or is it just kind of, like, wherever the night takes you?

MARCUS: We usually have to do rounds as a building manager. So when we do rounds, we have to check every room, make sure there's no tech out. People like to leave HDMI cords out and those are expensive. So we got to make sure those go back to the media closet. If there's an event, we have to check in with whoever is running the event and we, like, make sure they have everything they need.

Make sure the event is running smoothly and once I'm done with that, it's just checking the rooms and making sure any room that's done is locked and also just making sure that, you know, nobody's misbehaving even though we're all adults. You'd be surprised how many people need to be talked to,still.

MAX: And I guess it's really interesting to me, since you work the closing shifts, are you the last one out?

MARCUS: Yeah, I'm always the last one out. You have to make sure everybody in the bistro is gone. You have to make sure everybody in the library is gone. And sometimes people just, again, don't want to leave and like, the building's actually supposed to close at 11:30 - so you think I’d leave at 11:30, but sometimes, you end up leaving, like, 11:45 or midnight or - I remember there was one night during Dwali and they, I guess, they really loved the party and they didn't leave until 1 a.m. one night.

MAX: That's interesting. Yeah.

If it's okay, I wanted to cycle back to the game room a little bit. First of all, as that person who would come in and play pool, I want to thank you. And secondly, you had mentioned that you worked at the game room and now you're building manager. How did you come across that raise in position?

MARCUS: Yeah. I mean, I was, I was at the game room for about two semesters. And, you know, I didn't really mind the job for a bit, but it was, again, there was like nothing to do. And then I think the lead building manager at the time, Liam Foley, came up to me as if I wanted to. And I was, I was pretty hesitant at first, but I mean, you know, I knew that I couldn't just stay in there for the rest of, you know, confined to just four tiny walls for the rest of my college experience.

I feel like I wasn't going to really grow from that. And I mean, the way I see jobs is growth opportunities. So, you know, if there's nothing to gain from a job anymore and I've already learned everything I needed from that job, there wasn't anything else I could learn from it. And so I, you know, I saw this new position as an opportunity to grow, probably like, build skills I don't already have.

So, yeah, I took, I took the job and yeah, I don't really regret it. I mean, I like my coworkers. I get pretty decent hours. There's been, you know, bumps up and down. But like, that's pretty normal with all jobs.

MAX: For sure. And you had mentioned that like with the game room, you had already learned everything you had to. With this specific job. Have you learned any useful skills so far and do you still think that there's stuff that you would like to learn or have yet to learn?

MARCUS: Oh, yeah, I've, I mean, with the building manager position, it's like there's a lot of it. It's kind of an AV (Audio Visual) job in a way. It's like you have to learn the ins and outs of laptops. You need to understand how the Wi-Fi works - you work pretty hand in hand with I.T. You have to be able to understand how cables work, how the mics work, you know, all that stuff.

And like the big part is like the social part. I feel like I've really developed my social skills since then. You really learn how to talk to people, how to interact with people, especially if an event goes wrong. You learn how to, you know, problem solve, figure things out. And like, I feel like my social skills have really grown since then.

And it's something, like, if you really want to like, be like, have like, a social job, then I guess like the building managers for you - if you're willing to take the challenges, too.

MATTHEW: Now I know you have mentioned that like, for example, when an event goes wrong, is there a specific moment that you can associate with that or like a specific time that you remember where an event did go wrong and you had to step in order to somehow, like, fix it or make it less destructive?

MARCUS: Oh, yeah. I mean, it's literally just cause the tech doesn't want to work. Like, we run into tech issues all the time. Usually that's from display issues like, you know, projectors and stuff like that. They just don't work. There's always some sound issue that comes up or- combination of both. It's-  you have to usually just let people understand.

That like, “hey, like I can I can try my best to help you out, but if this doesn't work, like just this just keeps not working. This is out of my control.” So, like, usually you can come up with, like, a, like you know, meet them halfway kind of thing. Like, there was somebody who wanted a laptop and projector to, you know, play music or something like that.

It didn't work. So you just end up giving them a speaker instead. And that usually those kinds of things work out. But, you know, it's like it can, it can be challenging sometimes. There are some days where, like, there's three events going on at once. They all require tech. And those three rooms aren't working and then you're just running between them, sweating your ass off, you know?

And in between you're just like cussing out invisible people. It's- it can be really stressful sometimes, but I mean, things always end up working out. And, you know, I am able to really, like, build my problem solving skills through that.

MATTHEW: How many events have you seen going on at the same time that you personally had to deal with on your shift?

MARCUS: It can be up to like four or five and sometimes, they all need tech. There will be there will be pub events. There'll be events in the main lounge. Sometimes there's, like, Gay-Straight Alliance, SGA (Student Government Association), they all have their own needs. And a lot of times, like, they don't always go smoothly. They usually come up to me, say “there's an issue” and like, it's my responsibility to help them out as much as I can.

And I just, you really learn to prioritize your job. Like what-  what's important. Usually we are given a ‘set up’ worksheet with, like, all the times, all- like, everything they need, and you learn their prioritize. Sometimes they ask for things that they didn't ask for ahead of time in the ‘set up’ notes. And you, I literally have to just tell them, “sorry, I can't do that.” You know, I mean, like, you just have to learn to prioritize.

MATTHEW: Since we actually joined you for a shift yesterday and I remember the moment that that printer just, kept printing sheet after sheet after sheet and that just totally caught you off guard. What did those sheets mean? Like, what were they?

MARCUS: Are those were room cards. So every sheet is an, is basically an event or-  not necessarily, not like, a big event, but, you know, like, somebody who will reserve a room for a certain purpose sometimes like I know, like, CACF tends to reserve rooms for like Bible study. SGA will reserve a room for meetings. Gay Straight Alliance or reserve or another room.

And then there will be, like, some holiday event going on. And each one is, is its own event for its own room that needs to be reserved. And then we have to also set up- print out the set up worksheets too, which lays out all the events in front of us and all their needs. So that's what that's what kept printing out last night.

MATTHEW: Do you have any tips to incoming or, even college students now who may want to find an on campus job? Since I know, like, for you personally, you wanted a job that was more fulfilling and wasn't just like, you know, you're locked in a room for like 6 hours a day doing literally nothing but homework. You wanted a job that is fulfilling, that got you connected to the community. 

And so what information would you have for people who are prospective in looking for these types of jobs?

MARCUS: Fitchburg State offers a lot of different options for employment. So like, I mean, at the end of the day, it's about what fits into your schedule because like, you know, so a lot of people, you know, have like different kinds of schedules for their classes and stuff, and that in itself is a full time job. So you're asking people to work a full time job on top of a part time for, for school as well.

So I would say: really try to figure out your schedule before you decide on a job and don't take more hours than you have to, you know what I mean? Because, like, you already have school, which is a full time job and then you have- and then you have another part time job. And then most- most people don't just work a job.

They're also on top of clubs or like us, who are in the film major, are working on other projects. And that in itself is kind of a job, except that's not paid - yet. But I would say like, you know, don't just work. I would say maybe find a club to, you know, find clubs, find any- find any way to get involved on campus.

Because I found so many people who, you know, end up resenting the school because they find that there's nothing to do. Well, I feel like you're just not looking hard enough, you know what I mean? Like, if you- there's so many options on this campus and this campus is pretty small, but we're very tight knit. So I'd find, I'd just find something to do.

And I guess, like, for- for a job: find something that you're good at and you don't mind the work, you know what I mean? And even if you're not good at it, it's a, like I said, it's a good growth opportunity. Find a job with skills that you're not necessarily good at so that you can and, like- in this, in these four years, while we're here, is the time where we probably grow the most.

Like the person I was in freshman year probably isn't the same person I am now. And I feel like you can say the same for you, but you know, try to find something that will fulfill you and will grow your skills and will be a, probably, a good résumé booster. But I mean, also, like if you're if you were like me a couple of years ago and you were just lazy, just not- I mean, not everybody's going to find the thing that fulfills them. But sometimes people need just something to fill the time and be paid for it.

MAX: Thank you. Thank you. I guess not, really to retread ground, but just to kind of use this as an experience to bounce off of and allow people to hear more about, like, what you go through on a day-to-day basis and potentially assist you. Do you have any potential thoughts, things that you'd like to share with the student body and faculty that you feel like they should know, or maybe things that you feel, like, would enlighten them to your position as building manager?

MARCUS: Yeah, I mean, obviously there is, there's always a person who is, you know, there are people who run these events there. There's- there are people, there's always somebody behind what you do. So because like, there's always, you're always going to encounter human error, you know? I mean, nothing is ever going to be perfect. And I would say just try to understand other people's perspectives, because people tend to shit a lot on, like, a lot of the stuff here.

People always have complaints about housing. I've heard complaints about other building managers, too, but it's like, try to understand the perspective that like, no job is really that easy, you know what I mean? And I mean, there's always somebody who was, like, taking care of the work that you- that you need for, like, an event or something like that. There's, there's always somebody behind it. 

That's what I would say. That's something to think about, at least.

MATTHEW: At least I'm noticing that like for you, it's important to balance, like: work, life, social life, school - It's like, it's important to balance all that, right?

MARCUS: So I would say, my thing was that, is that it goes against what we're all told as we grow up is to put in one hundred percent into everything you do. I really don't believe in that. I believe that like, you know, there's so many parts of life that you end up doing to put effort into that, if you put one hundred percent into everything, you'll be, you'll have no energy for anything else.

If you put one hundred percent into school, then your relationships will, you know, will go down. And then if you put one hundred percent into your relationships, you'll have no academic life, you know, all that stuff. So I would say, you know, again, like it's all- it's about budgeting your energy. So like, you know, if you are a part of a club, put like one twenty percent into that.

If a job, like, thirty percent and then your academics is, obviously, you need to- that's a priority because that is your full time job. So I put, like, a lot of energy into that and then your relationships are the rest. But yeah, I would say to prevent burnout, which a lot of college students experience, I would say: budget your energy.

MATTHEW: Marcus, I want to thank you for your time here. Since not only was this a pretty long podcast here in this recording room, but we also joined you for your entire, what was it, like, 3 hours shift yesterday? So thank you for letting us tag along. Thank you for agreeing to this in general. Yeah. So, I know I literally reached out to you, like, on Snapchat like, “hey, do you want to do this?” - so completely out of the blue.

MARCUS: So yeah, I was supposed to be on Jake Paul's podcast, but that, you know, so it was just.

MATTHEW: Yeah, yeah. This one, we're more famous than them. Okay? Thank you for having your manager sign with us instead.

MARCUS: Yeah, of course. So, like, when am I getting paid?

MATTHEW: Anyways! So that, I believe, is the end of the podcast. Marcus, again, thank you. This is Matthew.

MAX: And Max Eisenhaure. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening. Take care. Have a good one.