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Alex Stathos
If a goal of the Diversity Council is to help build bridges to other cultures, then Alex Stathos came to the Council with a head start. As the Property Manager at 929 House in Boston, his residents come from all over the world, drawn by the property’s location between Harvard and MIT. “A big part of my day is getting people who’ve come from overseas comfortable,” he says. “We deal with all different cultures through the course of the day, and we try to make everyone feel welcome.”
That sounds like a pretty tall order, but Alex says making people comfortable is taking care of “a lot of little things. For instance, in some Asian cultures it’s an insult to hand something over using only one hand, so we make sure to use both hands. You learn everyday, and it’s different with everyone.”
Still, Alex has found one thing works well across every culture. “You have to come off as honest and truthful. You need to show genuineness and a willingness to go above and beyond to help them.”
Alex had some good training working with different cultures before his current assignment – his previous position was as the concierge at the West End during their massive reconstruction process. “I was the liaison for the residents during the construction work, which we thought might be a disaster. Instead, we stayed 95% occupied.”
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