Look UP
This week I visited a workplace I hadn’t set foot in for a long time. Returning to a site where you once had responsibility is always a strange experience, especially when your role was to care for every detail of the building, the people, and the guest experience.
In my previous position as a Building Maintenance Manager in a “5‑star” establishment, I lived and breathed the look and feel of every public area. The standard wasn’t just something we aimed for; it was something my team and I protected with genuine pride. We didn’t have unlimited budgets, but we had ownership, responsibility, and a commitment to leaving the place better than we found it.
So going back was… daunting.
Was the current management keeping the standard?
Were the details still cared for?
I have a simple test I’ve always used to understand whether budgets are stretched or management is disengaged:
Look up.
You can tell a lot by what you see above eye level.
This time, what I saw was disappointing cobwebs, peeling paint, dirty AC vents, trip hazards, rubble in garden beds. The kind of small things that don’t require big budgets or major projects, just an eye for detail and pride in the environment.
These things matter. They always have.
Because great asset management and great workplace culture share the same foundations:
🔹 Ownership
🔹 Pride
🔹 Care
🔹 Accountability
🔹 The belief that your work is part of your legacy
No matter where you work, a mine site, a hotel, an office, a public venue, you are empowered every day to leave something behind that reflects your standards.
A safe, compliant, industry‑leading environment doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when people don’t just show up for work… they show up with purpose.
My challenge to everyone reading this:
Look up.
What story is your workplace telling?
Are the details cared for, or are people just turning up?
Your legacy is in the little things as much as the big ones.
