A Company with a Lot of Promise - No Potential
Pros
Overall, AMLI has made significant strides in their technology, data systems, and the tools that you have to do your job. Comparative to other multifamily management companies they're exceeding in this category. AMLI's products (communities) are nice, yet nothing that's blowing the competition out of the water (luxury standard I'd say). AMLI does a satisfactory job at the resident experience and ensuring customer service is top notch.
Cons
Elaborating on the ratings below: (1) Career Opportunities: these are almost non-existent, especially in Chicago. The Area Vice President (technically regional manager) has been with the company for over 15+ years, no place for a Community Manager to grow. AMLI has within the last two years significantly cut their on-site staff at their properties (yet fiercely denying "we are not laying off people" but you'd just have to relocate to Texas). They made the promise that their technology and systems would alleviate the amount of work for the on-site teams while saving them time, yet this is the farthest thing from the truth. When they began this cost-savings measure, the on-site teams are overloaded and the resident experience (which I put as a PRO above) has began to significantly suffer. AMLI has began to put profit over people and it has shown and will continue to show as years progress. Cost savings measures can take place elsewhere - such as; senior management salaries/bonuses, senior management in development barely putting in half of a full work week yet raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars. It doesn't make sense. The region has lost almost all of their senior/tenured Community Managers. It's about time they looked at the reason "why". (2) Compensation and Benefits: are severely under-par comparative to the industry. They also are not equitable in their pay based on tenure. Some new managers make the same amount as tenured managers, which not only doesn't make sense but isn't fair. They claim to have a fantastic 20% bonus, yet your supervisor / senior management will find ways to lessen that bonus based on unobtainable metrics and verbatim have stated "a bonus is a goal, not a guarantee" even if you are over achieving and excelling at your job. During the on-site staffing "transition" (lay offs) they did not offer any further forms of compensation to the team members that would remain yet expect them to do more work - this is typical corporate America. The 401k is minimal & it takes you 3 years to become vested. It is not reasonable to expect an employee to build a retirement cushion with this in place. Medical and Dental are standard, nothing special. You do not have any work from home (WFH) flexibility, yet the senior management and your supervisor continually WFH, take care of their personal needs on work time, etc. while you're expected in the office 9am-6pm. No questions asked. (3) Culture and Values: AMLI promotes an AMLI "famli" mantra where employees are family. Personally, I feel that family implies loyalty, and it can be applied toxicly in the workplace. You're devoted and dedicated to your family. You go home to your family which is why you work, in order to provide for them. You want more time with your family, you do not want more time at work. The notion of "AMLI FAMLI" is one that needs to dissolve, especially when the company is not catering and nurturing to their employees, and like most, wants to drive profit as their ultimate goal while not sharing that momentum with the teams and members that make it happen. (4) Diversity & Inclusion: is not a focus or priority for AMLI. National holidays such as Christmas, Easter, etc. are shuttered in the fear that they will "offend". Pride month is something that some communities can celebrate, others can not, with no company initiatives supporting these types of months. Everything is pretty much kept under wraps and the idea is "say nothing is better than saying something". (5) Senior Management: this is where red flags fly all over, Almost all of Senior Management has been with AMLI for many years and are super glued in their seats. There is no movement. This is problematic for many years. The first being that it's a "tight club". No matter how loud you scream, how high your hands can wave, what bells you ring or alarms go off.... it doesn't matter. They know they're senior-ed, they're untouchable, and it causes employees to feel that their voices are not heard and/or what's the point in trying to get your voice heard. At the end of the day, they'll act and do as they please. Secondly, senior management has different "expectations" on them and they do not follow the same employee "handbook" that on-site team members are expected to follow. They can WFH as they please, take time off and vacations exceeding the allowed limits, and again handle their personal matters (such as kids, doctors appointments, etc.) on company time with no fault. It's unfair and the on-site teams see it and feel it. Just because you have a higher title than someone on-site, does not mean you're above them or better than them. Lastly, the hostility and tone of senior management in the Chicago region is unacceptable. Again, which is why almost all senior community managers and team members have left. You can only take so much before you break. Yet, as common theme, nothing will change. (6) Work Life Balance: better than some other companies, but still terrible. They claim that they do not contact while you're out of office or on vacation, but that is far from the truth. You will yield calls after hours, expect to respond and be on-call, and if items are not done during the work day, the expectation is that they get done. Period. Even if you put in over 40hrs for the week, there is no flexibility in spreading your time out or leaving early. There is no autonomy. You will also be expected (required) to travel one week out of the year for a "leadership summit" which is taunted as a "perk and benefit" to the job, yet it is not.
