AvalonBay Communities reviews

Working onsite at communities has taken a toll on moral over the years. The RS leadership constantly makes adjustments to the leasing bonus plan, decreasing pay and incentives, while increasing the workload and reducing staff. Total disregard for "nonessential employees", such a leasing consultants, maintenance technicians, concierges, etc., while working onsite amid the global pandemic crisis as the corporate office employees and POD's work remotely and safely in the comfort of their home constantly pressuring the "nonessential employees" to do more, do better, exceed lease goals, increase NPS scores, increase Google reviews, etc. The pressure is unreal. Leasing team members are doing triple times the work in order to bring home a decent paycheck. There was once a time leasing consultants could make over $2k as a leasing bonus for 14+ leases, but now with all the changes to the bonus plan, they make approximately $45 per lease. Less pay and more work for a measly $45 bucks per lease? Make it, make sense. Community managers receive no proper training and are unskilled in human relations. The company will only promote employees in "workplace cliques." If you are a quiet, intelligent, and a hard worker, you will NOT get promoted. If you are highly extroverted, a know-it-all, and like to dabble in brown-nosing and gossip, then BINGO, you'll get promoted. Employees who have been at the company for years, who apply for a promotion will most likely not get selected. The company will rather hire external employees, choosing to spend more time, energy, and money in training new hires, rather then give a loyal and committed employee a new opportunity and chance at growing within the company - an employee who will most likely end up having to train the new external hire for a position they were perfectly qualified to receive. Demoralizing.

Simply put, no matter how much I do love my job and where I work, I don't make nearly enough to live at any of our Communities, even with a 20% discount, and still have enough money in my budget for expenses for food, utilities, transportation, and to put enough money in my savings account every month (this doesn't even take my student debt into consideration, let alone other expenses). Unfortunately, this describes not only living on my own at one of our communities, but also living with a roommate or possibly even two. My hourly rate is extremely low compared to our competitors (~$18/hour), and while our previous bonus plan provided the opportunity to make at least an additional $2,000 or more per month on average (and that is definitely the lower end of what I've seen for my bonuses), my new "bonus" is likely only going to be $1,000 per month - enough to cover my hourly rate's taxes. Because we are understaffed (no matter how much my manager lets higher-ups know we need another associate at my location), and even if we weren't, for the amount of work I do and the amount of energy I put into my job, as well as the amount of customers that I work with daily (including those that are immeasurably difficult to please), I question almost every day how much longer this path will be feasible for me. Aside from that, we are constantly measured by net promoter scores that are not applicable to the management staff (i.e., "the building could use some work", "the rent is too high", etc.), and when I asked who to provide feedback to about this, I was shot down because "this has been in place for years". Finally, on the days where I work by myself, I find that I work far more than eight hours in a day, to the point of where, for a long time, I consecutively wasn't getting back home while it was still light out. Ultimately, I feel as though I am doing the work of what a supervisor would be doing in another property management company, but in no way am I being paid a comparable amount of money to make the job and the hard work worth it. I don't want to leave AvalonBay at all, but I still often find myself checking for new job postings at other companies that may offer better pay and a better work/life balance and I plan to apply for new positions elsewhere when they open if things do not change soon.