HOMESTEAD GROWTH STORIES: With Michelle Bukey

2010 I was laid off from a freight forwarding company and started waiting tables at a pizza shop 3 nights a week. At the time, my friend was the Community Manager at Orchard Grove and was getting the property prepared for the Ben Franklin Event. Her maintenance person had been in an auto accident and couldn’t work. So, she asked me if I would be willing to help her, as a contract laborer. I remember her telling me it would be a lot of outside work, painting, pulling weeds, cleaning up the grounds etc. I was just happy to have the extra income and was willing to do whatever she needed. That was the start of my Groundskeeper career. I then started helping her in the office, and filled in for her when she went on vacation. Then I would be asked to fill in when other Community Managers scheduled time off. This started my career as a Floating Leasing Consultant. Then my BIG break came in June of 2011 when an Assistant Manager position opened up at Shaker Square Apartments. I would be hired on as a full-time employee of Homestead America. I was happy to take the position and finally have full time benefits! I was able to end my part time job at the pizza shop and focus all my attention on my new career! 

In May of 2012 Homestead had just started branching off into student housing. With Homestead America growing, an accounts payable position at the Home Office was created. When I saw the job announcement, I thought to myself - wow that is something I would love to do. I called our regional manager, Cheryl, and talked to her about the opportunity. She was very surprised, to say the lease, that I would even be interested in a payables position. She was very supportive and told me to submit my resume and see what happens. I had an interview the following week with the accounting team, Marcia and Amy. I was promoted to Accounts Payable Clerk June of 2012. I learned a lot and was very happy in this new payables position. 

One afternoon Laura F. and Marcia (my supervisor) came into my office and wanted to talk to me. I thought uh oh what did I do, am I in trouble!?! I was very nervous, only to find out that Laura was requesting that I change positions and join her in creating an Operations team. August of 2013, I became the Operations Administrator. As much as I loved working in Payables this was a great change for me. The experiences I had working onsite with all of our teams; leasing, maintenance, and vendors, helped me in this operations role. 

Throughout the next 4 years I maintained the operations position for both multi-family and student housing. We experienced so much growth that it was vital we split the operations role for the different departments. In 2017 we focused my role strictly as Operations Administrator for the multi-family side of the business. 

2019 the HR & Payroll Administrator position became available. After much thought and consideration, I requested that I be a candidate for the role. June of 2019, I took on the role of HR & Payroll Administrator. Here we are February of 2021 with a promotion to Payroll & HRIS Manager. I love working in the Payroll and HR department and still being connected to our onsite teams. 

I am very grateful for all of the opportunities that Homestead Companies has presented me. I am thankful for the leaders who have listened to me and my needs and have helped paved the way for my growing career. I am grateful for the experiences working at the site level. I feel that has given me an understanding and compassion for our onsite teams. 

I have done every job to the best of my abilities. I take pride and ownership of everything that I do, from picking up trash and painting at a property to employee relations and running payroll at the Home Office