Day in the Life: A maintenance worker, but also a “Dad”

(Photo: Kasumi Matsumoto)

by Kasumi Matsumoto
edited by Tyler Comeau

One of the maintenance workers was in the freshman dorm working on another fixing order at 9:30 a.m. on November 22nd.

The maintenance worker, Robert Hannings, mainly specialized in electric issues, is trying to find the cause of a broken fan on top of Granite, which they have not been working for months.

Hannings has been working at Franklin Pierce University since 2001, even though he is specialized in electrical issues, he works on other maintenance orders, such as fixing doors, plumbing, and replacing a broken window.

“I thought my job is going to be just an electricity guy, but this job has changed dramatically even in my heart and brain,” Hannings said. “When you share the space with people living there for four years or more, how could you not be close with these people? Or as a dad myself, how can you not sort of be a ‘parent’ or ‘big brother’?” In fact, Hannings has another name, ‘Big Rob’.

When he is walking or driving around the campus during his work, he stops and talks with almost every single student, checking up on them how they are doing. He even passed a newspaper to an athlete student because he checked that she made it on the Monadnock newspaper and actually brought it for her.

He expressed the relationship between the students and him as a “two-way street”. Through his job, he said he could have learned a lot from students as well. “This is a unique place,” said Hannings. “There are so many different students here, confident kids, shy kids, they are all trying to figure out. ”

Big Rob said, “I think my job is to not make them uncomfortable, but to support them and everything I do…They come with this similar expectation. Some know what they wanna do, others have no idea what they wanna do, and that’s okay. That’s what is all about. Then you see the transformation, and that part of my job has made me stay for 20 years. It’s the best part of my job.”