Pros
For non-community managers, the training is really great. The training department has tremendous leadership and is constantly looking for areas in which it can improve. There is a drop off at the management level, but for entry level employees, they can't be beat. Their IT department is very helpful to assist in navigating the many programs that you will have to use. They've come up with some great ideas to help streamline those processes. It's helpful to have a partner at the corporate office who can troubleshoot the many technical issues that come up. HR has a recruiting side to it that helps lighten the burden for managers when it comes to hiring. It's nice to have a filter for all those applications that come in instead of being the first point of contact yourself. Saves a lot of time!
Cons
Sequoia Equities did not support our team while we had a team member dying of cancer. In the 9 months where he was slowly dying but still able to work, only one member of the corporate office came by once to talk with him. No one else came by to address it. They didn't care to be involved or help him through his end of life and seemed relived once he couldn't work there anymore. They did not care how this affected the other 8 members of our team and refused to admit the reality that someone was dying/had died. Business as usual. Also, the San Francisco apartment building I managed for Sequoia had dropped in occupancy during the pandemic. I received a phone call at the end of the work day from Sequoia management and told that I was terminated. They gave me no opportunity to defend myself or ask questions as to why I was being terminated. No considerations for the pandemic or city wide shutdown. No consideration for Sequoia's own emergency policies concerning lease break options which they gave to our residents and many took advantage of. No consideration of the specific demographics (large amount of tech and international students) that had lead our property to this point. No consideration of the weekly reports I submitted projecting this situation. Their only answer was that as the community manager, it was my responsibility/fault that occupancy had decreased and so many people were leaving. Over the next month or so, they terminated the entire leasing staff and the maintenance manager. Six months later, they continue to harass senior members of the maintenance team in hopes that they will quit or retire. Perhaps the rationale is to reset the payroll because rates had dropped so low but I’m not really sure why they chose to do this. It was and continues to be shocking to me, but also made me realize that Sequoia is just like all the other companies out there. They try hard to control their image and appear to be employee focused, but that is not true. As a manager, and as a human being, they simple will not care about you or support you when it counts.
