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I will add to this, because I think it is very important in many regards and I cannot agree more with your post.

Imagine, if you will, a maintenance tech calling you from your workplace, at midnight of all hours, complaining, screaming and yelling about something that could of been taken care of while you were home laying on your couch all day watching TV.
With that in mind, imagine you having to get out of bed, half asleep, jumping into your car in the dead of winter and rushing back to your job that you left only 6 hours ago, to "fix" what ailed this person.
Imagine now arriving back at your workplace only to find that this "emergency" was nothing more than user error, plain stupidity and complete laziness on his/her part. You hold back your anger, your feelings of being awaken in the middle of the night to oblige this boligerant person and try to appease and please this person beyond the normal scope of customer service. After all, years and years of your patience has been tried. You have seen the most abusive, most lazy, most skillfully and gainfully drunken unemployed tenants to date, but yet through it all, you swallowed your pride, bit your tongue and were never rewarded for it. In fact, you feel that you have been penalized if anything. You cannot plan anything due to the fact you are on call. Your holidays are nothing more than a standby solution waiting by a pager and a phone while your family celebrates without you. The amount of relationships with the opposite sex have exasporated quickly and easily due to those same issues, as well as broken promises that were made before you realized the next "emergency" crossed in your pager's view during a quiet dinner out on the town.

But yet, it still is not enough. This person decides that early in the morning, they are going to complain to management about your "attitude" while you fixed this non emergency item at an hour that was actually an inconvenience to you. After all, most people actually change their own lightbulbs, but not this person. They are "owed" and "entitled" to your services because they pay rent. That means that they basically own you and rent their apartment. This also means that eventhough you may think you have a life, you really do not. You are nothing more than a pawn between the office and tenant, especially when rent is due. You notice quite frequently the rise and influx of work orders and emergency calls that take place when the office and tenant are battling over who really owes who, and they wont pay unless this or that is fixed. In their world, they believe that a broken piece of wall trim that was broken by themselves, is justifiable means to skip paying rent. It is the companies view that you fix this item so there is no controversy and not charge them for breaking this item so skillfully. This will usually resolve the situation right up until the next month's rent is due, and of course, something else happens to "break".

You try your best during the normal work hours, during the normal work week, to do as many maintenance requests as you can. In fact, you are way above average in this regard, and you feel that your work is appreciated. As time goes on, you realize this is nothing more than a falicy of good faith. You see that the only real time somebody wants to talk to you, is when they need something fixed. You see and view some residents at times, as ungrateful because they have this beautiful living space in which they gladly destroy within days and then complain about their living conditions. You are accused every now and then by one of these same residents of taking something or leaving something open, when the reality is it is their kids, friends, or 1 of the other 5 people they handed unauthorized keys to.

These same people, without any forethought to your hard work, character or reputation, spread those same falicies around your own workplace, causing mistrust by all. The fact that you have never had a mark on your record, nor the fact you have cleared every known privacy robbing background test just to obtain this job is never mentioned. Years without instance or accusation, and now your career hangs in the balance. Just like normal media, when the truth is finally discovered, long after your reputation has taken a toll and you had absolutely NOTHING to do with any instance of accusations, you are merely forced now to still service this same person's apartment against your will without so much as an apology from the accuser. This by any tactical measure by this same resident, could be a set up to even more serious accusations later in time whenever they feel. You feel defeated, you feel unappreciated, and worse of all, you feel abused.

You now go home, to a place that you pay rent for from the same company you work for at the same rate of rent that everybody else does, and you wonder to yourself if it is even worth it in the end? You look back at the failed marriage. You look back at the failed relationships with significant others. You look back at all the failed friendships and the overall sense you are alone and will die alone in this job simply because your time is everybody else's. They are entitled to your life and your time right?

You want to eat at 6:00? Forget it. You need to get your ass over here and fix my garbage disposal NOW, eventhough I was home all day playing video games. You can eat later. In fact, I may just call again at around 10:00 because all of a sudden, my toilet is backed up with all sorts of things I know I should not be trying to flush.

In the end, the reason we do this job is because once in a great while, there are a few residents that make it all worth while. They are usually the ones who smile and say thank you! They are the ones who even during the most severe inconveniences to them, still ask you to come over "whenever you get the time".
They demand nothing and ask politely. They are not owed anything but our kind service and respect. They wave at you while leaving the property or offer to help when they see you may need some. They know you by name and not by your page number, and they always make you feel that the asshole to nice people ratio, will someday come in full alignment with the moon and the stars.

In the end, all I can say to this blatant maintenance bashing of many here, is if you dont like it, move. You dont own a rental unit nor the people who work there. Your rights are clearly stipulated on the lease you ignored to read before you signed and if you honestly feel violated, call the police or set up your own surveillance methods using a video camera, web cam on a computer, or just common and small tests such as taping your door, putting a paper clip in the door...etc..

When and if you ever buy a home, you may just appreciate or realize the importance of maintenance of your former rental complex. You will realize that calling ANYBODYto fix anything past normal business hours, will get you charged double. Calling ANYBODY to fix something on a holiday, is going to get you in triple digits per hour real fast.
You will then realize not only the cost of these repairs, but the cost of the parts and or complete appliance replacement. My guess is, the drunken fist holes in your doors will cease to occur. I am quite positive that flushing tampons and potatoes down your toilet will immediately cease after the first plumbing bill you get. I am pretty sure, that if your air conditioning quits on a 60 degree day, you wont be so fast to call a HVAC tech out at 9:00 p.m. to have it fixed. And..more than likely, your pool (if you can even afford one) is going to look like shit compared to the one you constantly complained about here.

There are bad people in this world regardless of the job or profession. Yes, there are bad maintenance and bad management companies out there, but you cannot group maintenance personnel as one, just like maintenance personnel try not to do with residents.

In the end, treat others how you would like to be treated, and we will all get along just fine.