When Ayda\u00a0Melo-Taveras needs a reminder about just how much she\u2019s capable of achieving, she recalls a specific childhood memory: her first day of kindergarten.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I can remember seeing myself and looking back with my little book bag, just ready to go, ready to learn,\u201d she says. \u201cEvery day after that was just so exciting. I always go back to that when I have a challenging moment. I say, \u2018I was so little and had no clue what I was getting myself into, but I was ready.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s not surprising that this \u201cready to go, ready to learn\u201d mentality has aided the 33-year-old Melo-Taveras during her role as WeWork\u2019s regional director of facilities, where she must react quickly to unexpected dilemmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m putting out fires all day,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Melo-Taveras leads a team of about 18 people in New York alone, with other teammates scattered across the globe. She oversees everything related to facilities from a maintenance standpoint: all the various repairs and upkeep infrastructure-wise, including electrical, plumbing, and heating and air conditioning.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a broken chair or a leak coming from the floor above, she\u2019s on it. If a two-person company is evolving into a 10-person company and they need a larger office to accommodate everyone, she\u2019ll be there to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day is a challenge,\u201d says Melo-Taveras. \u201cBecause every day, it\u2019s different things. And that\u2019s what makes it fun. I come in here with a set of priorities, and they change every day, every second. It\u2019s kind of an innate quality that I just go with the flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she was a child, Melo-Taveras remembers dreaming of becoming an architect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always used to draw houses,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was my thing. Not dolls, not families. It was just houses.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says her father was extremely proud of her aspirations, telling anyone who would listen that his only child was going to be an architect.<\/p>\n
Melo-Taveras\u2019 father recently joined the WeWork team. But when she and her father started working together, he didn\u2019t see his daughter\u2014who has an architectural degree in construction management from New York Institute of Technology\u2014designing any plans, or doing the sort of work that\u2019s typically associated with an architect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI brought him into WeWork so he could understand that what you think of when you think of what an architect is\u2014or contractor, or an engineer, or whatever\u2014has changed so much throughout the years, that at this point, you wear many hats,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have to be a person manager and a character manager. You have to be an architect and a construction person. It\u2019s all of that, and I think WeWork provides that. I wanted him to really see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost three years ago, Melo-Taveras joined WeWork as an assistant construction project manager, where she was the third employee on the construction team. She remembers that many new locations were in the pipeline, and that the people building them were the same people managing and maintaining them. The company was growing fast, so this system wasn\u2019t going to work for much longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed sometime to manage the facilities end of it,\u201d she says of her switch from construction to operations.<\/p>\n
The experience that reigns supreme for Melo-Taveras is working with her field staff\u2014the workers who built the very first WeWork spaces\u2014many of whom share her Dominican heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw them like my dad: trying to go for a dream,\u201d she says, \u201cand being in a company that typically you don\u2019t see these guys working in, and having the benefits, and being cared for. I want to make sure they\u2019re cared for, and we see their hard work, and make them grow. And sometimes, I can come off a bit stern, but I say, \u2018Hey, guys. This is not where it ends. You\u2019re learning here to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photo credit: Lauren Kallen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Ayda\u00a0Melo-Taveras needs a reminder about just how much she\u2019s capable of achieving, she recalls a specific childhood memory: her first day of kindergarten. \u201cRight now, I can remember seeing myself and looking back with my little book bag, just ready to go, ready to learn,\u201d she says. \u201cEvery day after that was just so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":893,"featured_media":15311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43903,43912],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-employee-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n