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.
