Doormen-basic responsibilities?

What is your managing agent doing during board meetings? Picking his nose? The chain of command is from board to agent to super to doormen. The board decides how the doormen should present themselves (gloves or not, hats or not, coats or not, stool or not, lounging behind desk or standing at the door, etc.) and tells the agent to write a reminder memo to the staff. The agent has done it before and knows what to do, as long as you know and can articulate what it is you want.

See ... told us what neighborhood s/he is in.

Resident Manager should be adressing, if not then the managing agent followed by the home owner association. If nothing occurs raise the issue yourself with all three essentially in that order and then escalate if no action. If this fails raise the issue at the annual meeting. If nobody responds time for a new board, however this is so basic, I think you will get a response, and may find out that steps are all ready being taken. Sometimes fixing this issue takes time.

And if you are on the board, ask the other parties what steps they are taking. You need to be working together to solve basic problems like this.

I agree with NWT.

The board decided, with the guidance of the managing agent, to take away the stool so now no one sits. (Not very popular) And while cell phones are allowed for emergency contact w/family, the staff is not supposed to stare at it at the expense of being alert on the job. Third reprimand carries a three day suspension without pay. Things have improved, but the staff isn't happy. This is why I wanted to know specifically how this is handled in other white glove buildings because there has to be a happy medium.

How fancy is this "WHITE GLOVE" building?

I can see why the staff isn't happy, you expect the doormen to stand for 7 hours a day? Hope they're all young guys.

What's the 3rd shift doorman supposed to do when virtually no one enters or leaves the building - stand at attention for 7 hours? This sounds worse than the Army. LOL!!

@RealEstateNY: It's a nice pre-war, not sure if I'd call it "fancy". No one is actually wearing white gloves, thank God. This whole thing wasn't handled well and it wasn't for the lack of trying by the board. I believe the management co. /agent have a lot to do with it. No one expected doormen to stand at attention at the door 7hrs a day, but we didn't expect them to sit with their backs to the door yacking away with the second guy standing in the lobby nor did we expect them to look at their phones at the expense of neglecting to open the door when people come through with their hands full. This was a chronic problem with a few people (not all) and it went on for over a year. As I said, there has to be a happy median and that's what we want to work towards. We care about all our staff members and want them to be happy but we also want them to perform according to their job description. Is that too much to ask?

Have your board and managing agent have a discussion with the managing agent at Imperial House (69th St, btw Lex & 3rd), and ask how they manage it. True white-glove building (yes, they wear them), doormen don't have desks to hide behind, and are always available to open doors (or turn the revolving door -- I love that!), and are always alert and ready to spring to action. I've never seen one on a cell phone or distracted. They are pleasant as well, without being too familar. Highly professional. I wish all doormen were like them.

(I don't live there, but have friends who do, and am a frequent visitor)

Thanks Aaron2, we will look into it. I am certainly open to suggestions on how manage things better from people who are actually doing it. A professional, happy staff is all we ever wanted. No more, no less.

Some buildings resolve the doorman issue by installing automatic doors.

Automatic doors are not an option for our type building. Besides, our maintenance is very high, most of it going toward staff salaries & benefits...all in all, our senior doormen are making 80K+. I think for that amount of money, if your job description is DOOR MAN, you better mind the door, is my feeling about it. Is this an unreasonable expectation?

This entire thread is through the lens of privilege.

@fieldschester...I don't understand where you're coming from and how your statement has anything constructive to contribute to the specific issues I've asked help with.

" Besides, our maintenance is very high, most of it going toward staff salaries & benefits"

Maintenance being high is a relative issue, what you think is high might not be to others. If you're living in a co-op I'll be the lion's share of the maintenance goes to RE Taxes.

The issue raised here is this: How to get DOORMEN to perform their jobs professionally, pay attention to the front DOOR and open it when needed. Everything else is tangential.
@RealEstateNY: Our maintenance is high (for a reason) comparatively speaking, factoring in all the things that go into determining what it is. Nothing subjective about it.

So what we've learned is that this isn't a white glove building by any stretch, that the residents / owners are lazy and have let this problem fester, that the managing agent is more powerful than the board, that the board doesn't care about the owners, that the doormen don't do their job (wonder why?), that this has now spiraled into petty vindictiveness (welcome home!), that the maintenance is excessive for no reason beneficial to the owners. So, we know this is on the Upper East Side, but I guess I've now learned, that knowing the neighborhood isn't enough - can we get an exact address so we can avoid?