Archaic, micromanaging, toxic environment
Pros
- Brand recognition. When I told people I worked for Apartments.com they knew what it was - Trauma bonding with my coworkers led to some lasting friendships - Learned what not to look for in future employers
Cons
To sum it up broadly - CoStar doesn't care about people. There's no empathy for their employees as human beings, no flexibility, no understanding, no trust, and absolutely no respect, especially for those in lower positions or folks just starting out in their career. The leadership team has their priorities entirely focused on their own individual wealth and power, with no regard for the thousands of people they employ. I worked for CoStar for a total of about 2.5 years, from 2019 to 2021, so I experienced first-hand how the company handled working from home during Covid, the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020, and their (laughable and still struggling) attempt to bring everyone back into the office full time, full capacity way too soon. To name a few anecdotal examples: - Annual raises were usually about 1% before Covid and no one (besides the CEO and other top leadership) got a raise in 2020 or 2021 despite record-breaking sales and huge profits for the company during those years - Raises are set at one amount for your team and spread out among everyone, so, essentially it's a zero-sum game. In order for you to get a higher raise, your coworker has to lose money from theirs. - Leadership tried to incentivize people to return to the office with a $10,000 prize. Every single $10,000 prize went to a member of the leadership team (i.e. the wealthiest people [read: white men] already at the company) - Performative "allyship" full of random buzz-word events that are designed to appear progressive but in reality don't mean anything. There's a complete lack of policy or culture change in regards to employees of color, womxn, lgbtqia+ folks, etc. - Textbook micromanagement. Hourly employees' timesheets are scrutinized for the slightest (even one minute) instances of leaving early. People are asked to work extra without pay and expected to explain why they're taking time off which I'm pretty sure is illegal. - Directors will send emails to individual contributors asking why their numbers are low that day and demanding that they explain themselves and make up for it - Overall culture of fear and intimidation. They only care about numbers, numbers, numbers. Everyone is disposable - Bare minimum benefits, expensive insurance options, no mental health support, extremely limited time off policy (only 5 sick days and accrued vacation that maxes out at 2 weeks per year) I could go on and on but those are the first ones that come to mind