In Coronado, there is one job where the employees are expected to know everything. And that’s not an understatement. Nope, it’s not being a Coronado police officer. It’s being a doorperson at Coronado Shores Condominiums.
Having been a resident there for a couple of years, in two different buildings, I know the most important job of a doorperson in my mind is to make all of the residents feel like a rockstars. Every single day. At least when I arrived on my first day that’s what I thought since that’s how I felt. In reality though, while it is their job to make the residents feel special, that’s just the superficial part of their job.
I stopped by and chatted with a couple of the door people at the Shores to ask if they would share all that their job really is about. Sherry Brown
has been a doorperson at The Shores since January 2000. She started at La Playa and then moved over to Las Palmas in 2007, which is where I met her when I moved to Las Palmas in 2010. When I arrived from the airport to my never before seen condo, Sherry greeted me at the door with a big smile and, “You must be Chris Kelly, your friend is expecting you. Up the stairs to the elevator to the second floor, turn left to the end of the hall on the left.” She made me feel like a rockstar! That day and every day I lived there. But that is just the tip of the iceberg of their responsibilities. The door people really are in charge of most everything that goes on in the buildings.
Contrary to what one may think, the door people are employed by each of the 10 buildings’ homeowners associations (each tower is incorporated and is governed by its own condo association). So the door people are not interconnected under one employer; they are employed by the board of a tower. Daniel, the head door person who also has the title of assistant manager at Las Palmas, has been there for over 30 years. There is a very low turnover in their positions. At Las Palmas there are three full-time positions and the rest of the hours are covered by staffing through Infinity Services.
As for the job duties, they are the same at all of the buildings even though they may have different protocols. The door people often are someone’s first impression of the property and they take that seriously. The basic job duties include opening the door for residents and guests (which also requires a call to the resident to notify them they have a guest), answering phones for the building, and accepting packages delivered for the residents. Sherry tells me that this has become a really big part of their job with so many deliveries due to online shopping. Once a package is received, it’s logged into a book and a call is made to the resident while the package is held in a closet in the lobby until the resident can retrieve it. They are also responsible for handing out and collecting keys for the units when there is work to be done by maintenance or outside contractors, including housekeepers, which many of the residents employee. With 145-150 units in each building, that’s a lot to keep track of.
Sherry told me the most memorable thing that has happened during her employment was the massive power outage caused by something wrong with a power grid in Arizona in 2011. I remember that day well. I went down to the lobby concerned about the many elderly residents and helped the staff go door to door to make certain everyone was okay. It began as something scary and ended with neighbors who were strangers grilling dinner with one another at the pool area by flashlight.
Head doorperson at El Mirador, Rafael Estrada
, was working with Infinity Services at El Encanto when he was recruited to El Mirador’s premier position. He has been a doorperson for 10 years now; but before he was working for the staffing company, Rafael, a native of San Diego, worked in construction to support his family. When the economy tanked and his job was eliminated he had to find something different. He says this work is much easier on his back than the pain he endured with construction work. He has set numerous organizational systems in place to make the lobby of his building run smoothly.
While I was speaking with Rafael, another doorperson, Rebecca, stopped by to pick up keys as she also has a cleaning business on her off days. I had also lived in this tower over five years ago but she remembered me and welcomed me with a hug and a memory of the day my daughter, who was four years old, had walked into the pond at the entry of the door. It was a good laugh and nice to be remembered. This is what they do. Make people feel special and take good care of their homes.
