As I was sitting around the outdoor farm table last night - with empty dinner plates and glasses of wine half drunk - it occurred to me that I might have skirted my professional rule of "don't mix business with pleasure." Well, it's someone else's rule, but one that sits in the back of my mind, like a little mosquito, buzzzzing annoyingly, while I wait for it to land and take a little of my blood.
In my scenario, after a few months of getting to know our farm-intern who resides on our property, I realized that we have moved beyond the 9-5 by inviting him to share dinners with our family and are in essense "mixing business with pleasure." It's not the traditional landlord/tenant setup as there is an education/work exchange. So far, so good. While I trust it is an innocuous choice to invite our intern/helper to share in personal time, could it turn sour? I guess any relationship has the potential to fail. Relationships are a Dosey-Doe of respect and friendship and you hope your dancing partner can keep a good rythm.
The Landlord/Property Manager and Tenant is definitely a relationship that needs careful consideration and solid, established boundaries. As Dulcey described in her post in our Rentec Direct blog, maintaining boundaries is crucial to establishing expections for tenants. If you cross the lines back and forth between business and friendship, you jeopardize your position of authority. When it comes time to enforce a late fee or issue a violation notice, the friendship hat is not one you need to be wearing. If you have donned that hat before, it can be confusing for your tenant to realize your "friendship" is swept under the table for the "enforcement officer" role.
If you do decide to mix business and pleasure, be sure you are choosing your friends wisely and that it is very clear how an equitable relationship looks to you both. Tippin back a glass of wine with someone might work in some professional relationships and with others, it's a slippery slope.
Janell is a member of Rentec Direct, a web-based property management software program designed to help streamline the day-to-day operations of landlords and property managers.
Comments(2)