Faces of Facilities: Marcus LaPointe on the Value of Skilled Trades

From combat engineer to custodial manager, Marcus LaPointe has worn many proverbial hats throughout his career. However, he encourages aspiring facility professionals to get their start in the trades—”any trade.” It’s timely advice, given that reports show a grave need for all types of skilled trade workers.

As for LaPointe, he now works as an infrastructure manager for Illinois-based Fermilab, one of the federal government’s national laboratories with a focus on particle physics and accelerator research. According to LaPointe, his overarching responsibility is “making sure the sciences can happen without disruption from building issues.” That includes conducting building inspections for safety and functionality, working with tenant liaisons, and solving a variety of problems. Meetings, regulation compliance, contractor oversight, and scope-of-work writing are a part of the mix as well.

LaPointe has earned an associate’s degree in construction supervision and an MBA in entrepreneurship, and he’s currently pursuing his Facility Management Professional (FMP) certification from IFMA.

To learn more about LaPointe and his take on industry issues, please read the “Faces of Facilities” interview below:

How did you get your start in the field?

I’d say really the industry chose me through career choices. It seemed the best fit. It just happened to be called the facilities management industry. This is the case with most facility industry professionals. I don’t know a single one who has the same background. We are all varied by experience. For instance, I work with individuals, peers, that have experience in aviation, retail, gas and oil, logistics, and education.

All my life, I’ve been in facilities of some form. But here’s my career path:

After I joined the military in the 90s as a combat engineer, we built live-fire houses for special teams training operations, built bridges, and demolished structures. Pretty much, if you needed to get over, through, or around something, then you would call us. We would build it or destroy it depending on the need.

Then I became a commercial diver. This included attending the Divers Institute of Technology in Seattle then working in the Gulf of Mexico and later in Illinois/Indiana. This included learning all areas of underwater construction from welding underwater, to pipe laying and inspection, non-destructive testing, and various construction methods that involve a water component.

Weirdly, some interesting needs arise from being in the diving industry. One job that was extremely interesting was working in a steel mill, as a diver with full gear on, to work on a blast furnace replacing thermostats. This required a diver because the carbon monoxide levels were too high and dangerous for normal working conditions.

Moving from that field, I went into commercial plumbing, joined a plumbing and pipefitting union, and was placed with a company that mainly plumbed high rises, schools, hospitals, and hotels—from the open pit dug out from the foundation to the completed last toilet installed. This was a great experience to see all the trades complete their specific tasks and see what is behind the drywall, so to speak.

During the recession, I was laid off. I transitioned into service plumbing for a school district. After having built new buildings, it was an interesting switch to work with 50- to 75-year-old buildings that were in all sorts of remodeled conditions. This allowed for growth in understanding the traditional building methods like plaster and bomb shelter designs of buildings built in the ’40s and ’50s.

You would think that would be the end. How many careers does someone need? I decided to try a new type of facility maintenance by entering the cleaning industry as a custodial manager. This was a cool shift, as I love clean and organized things. Having spent hours and hours on a swing machine in the Army, it was like seeing an old friend. I couldn’t have asked for a better transition to the industry, as it’s in an evolution currently with a technology shift. Duties included managing teams that stripped and waxed floors, refresh painting of walls, cleaning ceilings, maintaining kitchen to health code standards, and working within maintenance shops and bus hubs. And the major idea is to lower absenteeism and reduce closing due to infection control issues.

Finally, I landed at Fermilab, something I’ve had my eye on for a while now. It has not let me down in the two years I’ve been there. I’ve learned a ton.

Who has been your biggest influence in the industry, and why?

Oh, this is a tough one. I would have to say Dennis Taubery. The man was the best journeyman I ever worked for. He was always challenging me to be the better professional in my trade. As a plumber, he was awesome and was always teaching/mentoring, asking, “That’s a nice job, but can you do that with one less fitting?” He pushed to be more efficient and precise. Most of the time, I could have done it with less fittings, too.

What’s your best mistake, and what did you learn from it?

Ouch, digging up some history here. I was on a 14′ ladder working on a 6″ cast iron waste line, and my boss asked me if I had shut off all the toilets leading to this line. But instead I tried to sneak by and save time and just put a sign on all the fixtures “do not use.” I think you can see where this is headed. Well, I said, “Yeah, we are good. There is a sign on them all,” and it happened about five minutes after that—whooooosh (the sound of a toilet flushing). I had to scramble down the ladder as fast as I could but didn’t quite make it, and dirty toilet water dumped on my head.

Lesson learned: If your boss gives specific instructions, “Please go turn off the toilets before we cut that line,” it means exactly that. Don’t try to cut the corners.

What are some of the biggest facilities management issues at your organization? Are there any unique FM challenges (or benefits) compared to some other organizations?

Great question(s). When working in any government-funded facilities/infrastructure position, funding is always the major concern. As an industry, we are in the data evolution phase where we are seeing and using years’ worth of data collected from pioneers in our field to help make decisions and sell improvements with data. Typically, 2% of Replacement Plant Value (RPV) has been the start of a basic funding to maintain buildings, and I mean basic level—bare minimum. However, that number often gets diverted to other projects. I’ve found 3% to 4% needs to be the focus to allow for variances in older facilities.

Oh yeah, there are unique benefits for sure. Working in a science lab has the advantage of working towards a greater good/goal. Each building has a specific purpose and is designed to do that focus. The benefit comes from working with the scientist and other professionals to build a building that is both structurally compliant with standards and client-specific enough to achieve the goal. The cookie-cutter approach of schools, condos, and warehouses can get old. Those are more build and repeat, whereas in a science lab environment, extra time needs to go into planning.

What’s your favorite part about working in the industry?

The position is varied enough from organization to organization to find the purpose. For instance, in schools, our goal is to keep the building open, clean, safe, and functional so all teachers can educate our children. With two young kids myself, I took that job personally. With science labs, it’s more about creating an environment to allow the best science to happen in the most efficient way.

The same can be pointed out for each industry, and it all comes down to condition assessments, client needs, compliance with regulations, funding for maintenance and future, and building the vocabulary and relationships to make it happen.

My personal favorite part is strategic planning within larger organizations. I’m talking about facility planning in the 5-10-25-year increments. Structural design is all about the long game of the organization. Pharaohs built the pyramids as strong as they did to last as long as they have for a reason. Some retail organizations only plan to be in a location for 10 years and have built those buildings accordingly.

What changes would you like to see in the FM industry?

Learning the language of business. Within the facility industry, we are most often promoted to management because we are great at what we do technically. A specialist in a field. And then the steep learning curve of people management takes place and people exit the industry. Learning the language of business should be part of a succession plan at every organization. The cool part is these changes have started to happen where companies are seeing the value of hiring a facilities professional instead of leaving decisions about facilities to an accountant or a similar position.

How can company leaders make facilities management a value within their organization?

See the above answer, but in a different frame. The minute your organization enters a commercial space, a line item for at least a fractional facilities person should be considered. The reason is that most facilities professionals are great networkers and have partnerships and tons of resources that can aid in organizational growth. Especially if that person, whether fractional or dedicated, is a past tradesperson and good with data. For instance, understanding end-of-life (EOL) planning is a critical skill in facilities and can be detrimental if the organization didn’t plan on that expenditure when a HVAC unit finally dies. Knowing how to navigate the long lead times of replacements and when to pull the trigger on ordering the unit compared to the critical failure analysis is a key skill that organizations should be using.

Where do you see the industry heading in five years? Are you noticing any major trends?

Yes, the major trend now is data centers. It used to be the construction trades built the building and turned it over to the IT department. However, that is shifting as equipment is evolving past just keeping the space cool; it’s growing into liquid cooling for computing, motion sensing lights, and elevator maintenance as they are getting larger. Plus, city utilities are becoming more of an issue with the larger centers.

The recommendation would be to start learning that specialty, and understand power infrastructures.

What are you most proud of?

I was recently asked (voluntold) to be a part of a task force. In this task force, we are preparing the lab for the LBNF/DUNE experiment to be turned on in 2031/2032. A ton of work has already been done on this project, and the task force is constructed to integrate a facilities/science partnership for the maintenance needs of this large project. For example, we had to outline all the critical components and how they would be integrated in an already dedicated system assigned to other experiments. This needed an exploration of conditions assessments and future wear and tear of the new experiment. It was a ton of work and tons of fun.

Do you have any advice for people entering the profession?

Yes, I suggest starting in the trades. Any trade. For two reasons: to connect with the people who will eventually have to do the work and to understand the time requirements of projects a little better. For instance, I had an architect explain to me that a 4″ cast iron pipe would fit in a 4″ wall. However, 4” cast iron pipe has an outside diameter of 5 ¼”, and if the hub ends up below the ceiling, the outside diameter is like 8”. Until he came out to see for himself, we were at a standstill. We ended up increasing the width of the wall to 6” and put the hub above the ceiling. A facilities manager can navigate these issues from experience.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Facilities management is a cool trade/career. For a person that is naturally curious, this field will fuel you for a lifetime. I didn’t set out to be a facilities manager. My high school career guide never mentioned it, but it should be a choice moving forward. I see schools starting to bring back trade classes, and I think this is a wise move. Trades are an excellent choice in life, and if a professional is looking to grow more, facilities management can be that path.

Are you or a colleague an FM professional interested in being profiled for the “Faces of Facilities” series? Please contact Editor Joe Bebon at [email protected].

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