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Thank you for taking the time to share your perspectives, as well as your 5+ years of contributions to Equity Residential. We take allegations like yours very seriously, and we strongly encourage you to further discuss your experience with your local Human Resources team, or if you'd prefer anonymity, please utilize our Call to Action hotline (by phone:800-231-5699 or online CallToActionHotline.com).
We would like to address some concerns that you've expressed, as it sounds like we have a mutual focus and commitment to several of those points.
Equity Residential has demonstrated a long standing responsibility to creating an environment where employees feel heard and valued. Our Equity Values Council (formally known as our Champions of Diversity Council) has been contributing to D&I efforts for well over 15 years, with new members joining annually, offering new ideas and views. In 2018, Equity Residential offered a learning series on Unconscious Biases, and in 2019, we welcomed our new Diversity and Inclusion Director. We continue to elevate the importance of building an inclusive workplace through Listening Sessions, celebrating Heritage months, and book clubs - just to name a few. We encourage individual thoughts and respectful collaboration. And while we may "Share the Knowledge" when it comes to topics that impact our industry - so that our employees are informed on different laws and bills - how each employee processes that information or decides to vote for any law or bill is a private and personal decision.
As you noted, Equity Residential did provide masks to our employees during the pandemic. Additionally, we provided an additional 80 hours of Emergency Sick Leave for full time (nonunion) employees, added additional funds to the Employees 1st Crisis Fund (a fund that further supports employees who may have experienced a hardship as a result of the pandemic), closed down offices as needed, and sent out frequent communication to all employees that offered both updates and resources.
Lastly, we're sorry to hear that our employee apartment discount program doesn't meet your expectations. Equity Residential doesn't require employees to live onsite, so while the apartment discount is an additional perk that we're excited to share with our teams, it's not by any means mandatory that our employees utilize this benefit.
Again, we encourage you to reach out to our HR team to further discuss your feedback. Thank you again for sharing your views.