Equity Residential reviews

pay is lower tier, unless senior mgt and you cannot help your residents because they are too cheap, They went on merger spree in the '90s and got all this good quality product and turned it to crap, by not maintaining it. The fell through the floor in quality and then started on a selling spree. Made bad decisions in what regions to get out of before the economy went south and wonder why they can't turn a profit or hold their own. Its call stable markets, You got our of the remember,a nd you keep you blowing smoke on Wall Street like your "plan" is the way to proceed even though it wasnt the time to embark on it before a recession. You buy NYC stuff and Lehman lays off, go figure. You buy CA properties and their market tanks, unemployment at 7.7%, 18 mths later Wat state has held its own through all of this? And you betrayed it FIRST!! Go tell Wall Street your new 'plan' I bet they rocket your stock again for sticking to the plan

EQR was considered one of the more people first orgs in property management. In the last 2-3 years, things have shifted away from a people-focused mentality. Changes, some that can feel penny-pinching, are being made with little regard to how it will impact residents or on-site staff. Some recent changes include: -Allowing tour appointments to book an unlimited amount of appointments for the same slot. You can have 3 tours show up at the same time and this is expected. This creates a terrible experience for both the employee and the tour. Offices can no longer block off time even for move ins. -Most communities now participate in programs that allow the general public to rent parking spaces, common areas, or AirBnB. This creates an additional burden to on site staff and has a negative impact on residents. -Changes are being made with little to no input from, or notice to, onsite managers. Feedback used to be invited and valued, now it feels swept aside. There used to be regular listening sessions, focus groups and Q&A that now seem to be a thing of the past. -Staffing is under a constant microscope. Communities operate with 1-2 less staff than they used to which makes a huge impact to the people remaining. Some places run with 1 person on a Saturday. This increases workload on staff, makes it draining on the team when someone is away for PTO or sick time, and makes it stressful or guilt inducing to use that time away from work in the first place. -Increased centralization of operations has left on site teams with less agency to make things happen and deliver results and answers quickly to residents -In the last 12-15 months there has been a noticeable amount of turnover in Regional and VP level leadership. This makes people wonder what is going on. -There is an increasing focus on metric/kpi driven management, losing sight of the behaviors and only focusing on numbers -Most higher level corporate opportunities are exclusively located in Chicago. If you have interest in career growth on a corporate level, be ready to move