Equity Residential reviews

4.2

79% would recommend to a friend

(1,118 total reviews)
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Mark Parrell

87% approve of CEO

74% positive business outlook

Equity Residential has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 1,118 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent 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
1.0
Dec 8, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They offer good benefit incentives

Cons

They promote and listen to seniority over anything else. If a sub par employee has been there for 6 years and an all-star employee is on his 2nd year, the 6 year employee is going to get what others may deserve. They also said they would support everyone through these tough times,...that is not the case.

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Equity Residential Response
5y
Thank you for taking the time to post your review, and glad that you found our benefits offerings beneficial. We are sorry to hear that you did not feel supported while you were here. We are committed to listening to and treating our employees equally, no matter what their seniority status is with the organization. We wish you the best in the future.
1.0
Mar 28, 2020

Careless company during Coronavirus Pandemic

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many essential workers maintain employment during the pandemic as long as they put themselves at risk with no protection from the company.

Cons

While higher-ups hold virtual business meetings from the comfort of their homes, essential workers, including porters, consultants, and concierge, are instructed to enter residents apartments, despite having prior knowledge of several residents testing positive for COVID-19. Company has stated they will not offer masks for protection. They offer “booties” for those workers who must enter apartments. No accommodations for those workers who are at high-risk of contracting the virus and falling ill, despite advanced age or pre-existing medical conditions. No accommodations for those traveling to work by public transportation. These workers travel on crowded trains and then are expected to enter residents’ apartments. No forethought into the hazard this may cause. No hazardous pay.

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Equity Residential Response
6y
Hello, and thank you for taking the time to share your concerns and giving us an opportunity to hopefully clear up some confusion. We are attempting to do as much as we can to protect you and your fellow on-site employees, despite the challenges that accompany being deemed an essential business/industry that must remain open during this time of crisis. We have made several adjustments to the way we operate, including reducing hours at many of our communities (but still paying employees a full 8 hour day), allowing employees who can effectively do their jobs from home to do so, encouraging contactless communication with residents, and only sending our Service teams in to apartments for "urgent" or emergency service requests. Masks and cleaning supplies are constantly being sourced, ordered and sent to our Service teams, and we are obtaining as many as we can given the nationwide shortages. As for making accommodations, on March 13 we announced that all non-union employees are now eligible to receive up to 80 hours of emergency paid time off, to be used if you or someone in your family has fallen ill, if you must remain home to provide childcare while schools are closed, or if you desire to self-quarantine and are not able to perform your particular job function from home. Today we announced that an additional 80 hours will also be awarded to each employee. Please discuss this benefit with your managers if you are not yet familiar with it (but please also note that if you are a union employee, the benefits we are able to provide to you are determined by each individual CBA; more information and communication for union employees is being developed as we speak). Our senior leadership teams are meeting 7 days a week to discuss ongoing developments and are making an effort to communicate all announcements and policy changes quickly to our site teams, but we know that things are changing so constantly that you may not always see the latest information. Every update is posted to the COVID resource center on ERNIE, so please be sure to review that daily for the latest information, in addition to monitoring your emails. If you haven't already watched them, there are video messages from our CEO and COO posted on ERNIE as well, and you can also watch the recordings from the last two weeks of live virtual Huddles. And if you ever have questions or concerns that aren't addressed through those forums, please keep in close contact with your CM, RM, and local HR team. The safety and wellbeing of our employees is our number one priority, and we hope to show you that as we move forward from here.
2.0
Feb 10, 2020

Truly saddened by my experience and what I left to come here

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very good pay. Good location to work in the Loop in Chicago. Lots of wonderful and talented people to work with on your team.

Cons

Work/life balance is a non-factor particularly for the department I worked in. Burn-out factory to the nth. A point that was driven home to me when I took the job was the average tenure of employees that worked there. I believe I was told "14 years" as an average. I just had a child and was looking for a way to make a better life for me and my family and stability was a very attractive variable in my decision equation. In fact, this was so important to me that I took the job knowing they offered 1 week of vacation starting (from my 4 weeks that I used to have) and relatively inferior health insurance benefits. They offered an amazing bonus! I took a chance. After two months, I knew I made a mistake. At first, it was the overwhelming amount of emails that got to you. Every. Single. Day. Then, it was the embarrassment of being chastised in group email distributions. Then, it was your ability to make progress on anything because you were lost wasting time on nuances that you couldn't let go because you were told to find a resolution on a problem that could occur when a far-reaching hypothetical may occur(but never could). Everything is controlled and micro-managed... through email. You watch as good people get fired or simply leave and your own happiness of your career path gets completely seeped away. There is no opportunity to blaze your own path. Anonymous feedback to management was met with "if you don't like it here, you can leave." I left. At the end of my time here, I was the longest-tenured member of my team and I couldn't bear it to my 2-year mark. If you value any time of life beyond Equity, this is NOT the place for you. If you have kids, don't come to this department because you will miss them growing up. If you love to work, great, but no chance of recovery because for some reason 1 week of vacation is acceptable in the USA in 2018 (time of my hire). You will neither advance nor will you be happy with where you're at unless you are whipped like a slave and then like being whipped. The department has a significant culture problem. Management created it or is it. Upper management simply doesn't care. I'm sad because my instinct was to stay where I was, but I took a chance on an unknown. Equity killed my passion for what I've been doing for more than 15 years. I'm no longer in the industry and it was the direct result for working at Equity.

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Equity Residential Response
6y
Thank you for sharing your experience and perspectives with us. We’re truly sorry to hear that you felt this way, as we strive to create an environment of work/life balance and have a team dedicated to focusing solely on the competitive employee benefits that we offer. We would like the opportunity to speak with you about what you’ve described, and if you did not have the chance to share your feedback with our HR team prior to your departure, we would encourage you to reach out at any time.
Viewing 25 - 27 of 1,118 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,163 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.