Pros
Everyone I worked with at CubeSmart was very nice, intelligent and hard working. Even the senior leadership were nice and approachable. The culture pre-Covid was unique and fun, almost like a tech start-up kind of feel...without the 70 hour work weeks, though it definitely has suffered post-pandemic. Health and retirement benefits are about average with a decent but antiquated PTO policy, though that's been improved over the years through more attention and empowerment of Human Resources. Advancement from within is possible, though with some caveats. The self-storage industry is resilient and seems to do well regardless of macroeconomic factors, and CubeSmart benefiits from this. The senior leaders run the company well from a financial management perspective. Diversity and inclusion are good and have improved dramatically over the years. It's overall a good place to work, especially to start a career, but not without some really ugly warts.
Cons
The company grew very rapidly over the last 10 years, and the senior leaders are a mainly the same people that ran it 10 years ago. That continuity is nice but I'm not sure those leaders, and the many second level leaders who were promoted, are all capable of handling of running a much larger company. They still micromanage everything like they did when the company was small. There's very little high level strategic leadership. Their success has led to a certain level of arrogance, making them blind or indifferent to problems certain problems. They could definitely benefit from some new blood from outside the industry in senior leadership. The systems needed to keep pace are insufficient because they try to do everything in house without enough money, people or resources needed to support that. Pay below the executive level is uncompetitive, leading to being short staffed across the company, from the stores, to the call center, to IT, and most other departments to some degree as well. This had led to burnout among good people who are working hard for substandard pay, so they're leaving in droves. Meanwhile the senior execs are paid extraordinarily well and seem either unwilling to admit fault, or just don't see it. Not sure which it is, nor which is worse. Dissent is not tolerated. There's some politics like anywhere, but favorites definitely tend to get promoted beyond their capabilities. All this has led to a feeling that leadership either just doesn't know what they're doing, or maybe they do but they just don't care despite their lip-service to culture and genuine care. In the end, we all know it's about dollars, but leadership and longterm success are enhanced by doing more than just capably managing the finances quarter to quarter.