One of the hot buttons in Chicago’s luxury rental market is a business or office support center where residents can use computers and other equipment. But there’s a lot more to these facilities than machines. Like everything else, it takes human hands and a human mind to run the show.
That’s where Kay Tatum comes in. For the last four months, she’s served as manager of the ParkShore Executive Services Center, located in the 56-story ParkShore apartment building at 195 N. Harbor Drive.
She may have to worry about keeping up with the latest computer software, but commuting’s a snap. She lives in the building and hops an elevator to the first floor, rather than a bus across town.
“It’s wonderful,” says Tatum. “Because I live in the building, I have the luxury of sleeping a little later and avoiding the bad weather. And when it’s lunchtime, I can go right upstairs to my apartment.”
The business day starts for Tatum at 9 a.m. on weekdays and officially runs until 6 p.m., when the center closes. (On Saturday, the hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Tatum’s office is no simple desk and chair. Residents have the use of a fully equipped business center where they can pay varying fees to use different types of office equipment or have secretarial services performed for them.
In a green-carpeted workroom with a view of the John Hancock and North Pier, residents can sit in gray swivel chairs at full-sized desks and work with IBM 486 computers (or an IBM electric typewriter) and IBM laser printers; copy, collate and staple documents; have use of a paper shredder, document binder and fax machine, and a variety of office supplies including staplers, scissors, pens and pencils and paper clips. Residents also have access to a number of software packages including WordPerfect, Lotus, Pagemaker, Prodigy, Harvard Graphics.
An office extension
“We’re an extension of people’s offices, and to some degree their homes,” says Tatum. “People can leave their suits and ties at home, throw on their slippers, not have to go outside in bad weather, and pretty much do whatever they do at the office. Even if people work at home and have their own equipment, they often come down and use our equipment. Residents even end up doing business with each other because there’s a lot of exchange of informa- tion that goes on.”
As manager of the center, Tatum often arranges for residents to have use of a conference room complete with a table that seats 10, an overhead projector, television and VCR, blackboard, and four wall clocks indicating Tokyo, London, New York and San Francisco time.
A large portion of Tatum’s time is spent at her own individual work station outside the residents’ workroom, where she works on tasks that harried residents would rather have someone else do. “I’ve helped with everything from students’ school papers to desktop-publishing ministers’ Sunday sermons,” says Tatum, who frequently arrives at the center in the morning to find last-minute projects shoved under the door.
“I do straight typing and the fancier stuff such as graphs,” she adds. “And I’m kind of the 911 for our business people here. I can still be working on a business presentation 15 minutes before it has to be delivered.”
And even though the center is normally open only a specified number of hours, residents can arrange for Tatum’s services any time of day or night.
Software advice
One of the most challenging aspects of Tatum’s job is learning new software packages and advising residents on their use. “Learning new software applications on a continuous basis so that I can provide support to the residents is something that I want to do and something that I’m expected to do,” says Tatum.
Another challenging and rewarding aspect of Tatum’s job is not knowing what each day will bring. “That’s one of the things I like most about my job, the fact that I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get to work in the morning and that I don’t do the same thing every day,” says Tatum. “During the week of Christmas, I anticipated a slow week, but I shipped Christmas presents all over the world and saw enough of UPS to last a lifetime.”
What happens when Tatum needs to take a break or wakes up ill one morning and can’t report to work? Who assumes her duties? “Being the only person here, I don’t get out of the office too much,” she says. “But occasionally we’ll hire a temporary, and I have 24-hour access to a systems engineer who helps with our computers.”
To be good at this type of job requires a variety of skills, Tatum notes. “You have to know a little bit about everything as far as administra- tion and management goes, and of course, you have to have computer skills. And you must have good people skills-giving advice on software applications, collecting money for services-which I like to think I have. There are 500 units in the building, so there’s at least 500 different people who live here, everyone from entrepreneurs, athletes and political figures to grandmas shipping presents for Christmas.”
