Equity Residential reviews

4.0

76% would recommend to a friend

(1,121 total reviews)
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Mark Parrell

87% approve of CEO

72% positive business outlook

Equity Residential has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 1,121 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Equity Residential employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Real Estate industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
2.0
Jul 8, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Senior management above the local VP is approachable and seems to truly care about the company culture and the teams. Regional Managers try to build great relationships with their teams and keep them motivated. Leasing consultants can be promoted to community managers with hard work and a lack of other qualified candidates. Pay is decent for many positions.

Cons

There is a huge clique in the corporate office and it can be felt on the properties and during meetings. The Regional managers are not in the clique and try to keep the teams happy and motivated. Community managers often feel that they cannot do anything to make changes and are expected to salute and march. Properties are short staffed, only 1 person per 100 apartments which is not enough for resident's expectations. Employees are told to put good reviews on google, ratings websites and glass door for the company. Even the annual employee survey is rigged because the VP can pull statistics for regional portfolios and tell who is giving bad reviews. We even have had meetings about it with our Regional managers making everyone feel like it was to raise morale when it was just to blame managers for the reviews. Employees are afraid to be honest.

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Equity Residential Response
7y
Although it is difficult for us to hear, we appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback. The environment you described is not in line with our expectations and core values, and we would appreciate an opportunity to discuss your concerns in more detail. Regarding the engagement survey and the requests for reviews, we do want to note that our engagement survey is administered through a third party and comments and ratings cannot be traced to individuals. As for requests for employees to leave reviews on Google or Glassdoor, while we do love for our employees to leave reviews and we do request feedback at times, the intent of those requests should only be to encourage our employees and employee residents to share their honest impressions and experiences on these platforms — if they feel so inclined. If this was communicated in a way other than that, we apologize, and we will clarify expectations with our leaders who may be making the requests. Once again, we appreciate your feedback; please know that we take it seriously. We wish you the best.
1.0
Jul 5, 2019

Run away as fast as you can!

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company like to give the perception that they care about their employees, but they don’t. The thing cool about working here is the discount

Cons

No work life balance They only care about money Management can’t be trusted. They will lie to make themselves look good HR needs to be more involved. Currently, they are so detached from the business and managers are doing hella shady stuff.

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Equity Residential Response
7y
We are sorry to hear about your experience, which is not in line with the expectations we have of our leaders and corporate teams. We would like to hear more about the behaviors you observed from managers in an effort to improve, so we hope you will reach out to someone on our leadership team to share your detailed feedback. We wish you the best.
1.0
Jun 30, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The CEO and upper echelon of the company has taken many steps to develop a healthy work environment. There is a strong push toward ownership and responsibility on the individual level. However, the concepts touted fall flat when the individual exercises them.

Cons

Managers and coworkers make the climate. Without purpose, direction, and understanding it is easy to loose motivation. For maintenance professionals, the training is all "hands on" or on the computer. The computer training is from the company, but the on job training varies greatly from supervisor to supervisor. As a floating service technician, I saw the majority of properties in the DC metro area. None of them had similar standards. Most of the supervisors rely on verbal instructions over proper training. With that said, from my experience, the number one con is lack of leadership. There are plenty of bosses, but no leaders. Furthermore, there tends to be a coercive atmosphere from the management. It seems that everyone believes the customer is always right. However, it isn't exactly true. If a problem rises between the customer and employee, there is a tenancy from management to convince the employee to please the tenant. Sometimes this violates laws and policies (i.e., fair housing act and etc.). In my case, when I mentioned this grievance to management, they blew it off. Eventually, I wrote the CEO and I finally got some attention. Eventhough he deeply cared, the lower he held on of management took passed the buck onto other employees, claiming that they lacked loyalty. As others have written, it is the people that make the company. And, the DC market is deeply flawed.

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Equity Residential Response
7y
While we are disappointed and concerned to hear of your experience, we appreciate you taking the time to bring your feedback to our attention. We recognize how critical training is for our associates, and our OTD team and field leaders are always looking for ways to improve and enhance those programs, as well as apply more consistency throughout and across portfolios; we are always open to suggestions, and we appreciate yours. We assure you that we take feedback like yours seriously, and that it has been heard and will continue to be discussed. As for your mention of laws and policies, it sounds as if you have discussed this with our leadership team, and we hope you shared your feedback prior to your departure and received some resolution. If you have any more specifics you would be willing to share, we encourage you to contact our Human Resources team. We thank you for the vital support you provided to the region in your role, and we wish you the best.
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Glassdoor has 1,166 Equity Residential reviews submitted anonymously by Equity Residential employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Equity Residential is right for you.