Colonial Properties Trust Reviews

Pros

Good industry and good but expensive benefits. Good product and opportunity to learn as much as you want to learn about the business.

Cons

Pay and long hours. Most Weekends you'll work. The music we have to listen to all day can put anyone to sleep! Management does not give us money for the things that would make Colonial a cut above the rest.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more maintenancce (part-time even!) and please do most of the painting by professionals! Listen to us. We hear it all day long. We know what's really going on.

Pros

Until 2008 this was an awesome place to work, great team enviornment, growing orgnization, strong in the publicly traded market resulting in very fair bonuses and career growth opportunity. I really enjoyed getting up and going to work everyday (until midway in 2008). Working with a very dynamic and cohesive team in our local HQ it seemed there would be no boundaries we could not cross. Up until 2008 I would have given this company 4.5 stars overall and recommended them as an employer to anyone.

Cons

As apparently all good things must come to an end the executive management of this company chose greed over its employees and stock holders best interest! What that means is they decided to sell 85% of each of their properties to enter into a JV arrangement which ultimately padded the pockets of the few major shareholders, the directors and the executive staff. They qualified this by stating the influx of capital would help the company grow to new heights and at the same time reward the shareholders with a dividend payment that they deserved. What they failed to recognize is that doing this would instantly forfeit the companies leverage on their own assets leaving them to be a pawn in the MONEY game known as investor/asset manager JV partnership. And if that wasn't enough this move ultimately caused the company to fall victim, almost overnight, to the start of the stock market woes. This move started in 2007 and completed by early 2008, when all was said and done the company witnessed many of its top performing senior VPs, the ones who were the true visionaries and the direct link to local markets who helped to make the company what it was in the first place, protest the bad decisions ultimately leading most to move on. When the dust settled well before the stock market collapse Colonial's stock was nearly worthless! Over the next year, 2008 and into 2009, those same executives seemed to start drawing numbers on a daily basis of what employees or divisions they would eliminate next in order to keep their own outlandish salaries intact. It was a sad event to see such a great company spiral out of control due to a few top execs greed and misplaced judgment. This all caused such a stagnant workplace environment that it became painful to go to work each day, you could not count each other or your manager any longer as it seemed most everyone in the middle to senior manager roles were just trying to hold on being forced into survival mode. This was sickening to witness because the very same people you worked so closely with in the past to achieve greatness for each other and the company now were turning on each other like rabioness dogs. It seemed the new mentality was - "if I as a manager can place focus on others as the weakest link then I will save my job a little longer." I hope I never have to work in these conditions again but one thing is for sure I learned a great deal from this and will definitely see it coming should I ever cross paths with similar circumstances again. Being a person who cares greatly about others, I will as a manager do everything I can in the future to be proactive in preventing this type of fallout!!! I know my comments may seem personal but the truth is they are passionate and heartfelt. I can only pray that much of what occurred here was a mistake and they learned how to avoid same mistakes in the future but I am more concerned that they learn to never treat their rank and file like a pool of numbers in the future. I will close with a good comment about them for what it is worth, they did give most of their employees a reasonable severance package, I think that some benefited much more than most but all in all they did try to make amends in this manner. Again, this all stemmed from some bad decisions so hopefully they learned from that and will pick up the pieces and rebuild what they once had for the sake of those employees still with them.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn from these mistakes and in the future do unto others as you would do unto yourselves. Also if you are ever faced with downsizing again think about other ways to solidfy before just sending a "pink slip brigade" to eliminate those you don't have direct contact with thinking it will not wiegh on your conciousness. One more thing, many of the people you promoted or hired for senior roles in 2008/2009 were not fit for their jobs. They had ego's so big they barely fit in their offices and they treated your employees like dirt under their shoes. This alone caused you some failure. My suggestion is this: look at the persons accomplisments in their respective field(s) of experience, instead of their smooth talk and paper embelishments including education. "A true leader leads by example not by status!" "One cannot command respect he/she must earn it!"

Pros

relative experience, promote from within

Cons

Long hours and unrealistic upper management. Very stuffy and occasionally fake when someone of importance is coming to town

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the people at the property. They know what is going on and they aren't blowing smoke to get you off their back. They know better what's going on in the region than someone based in a different state.

Pros

Everyone works hard and cares. Good team work.

Cons

It is very difficult to get the company to spend money on anything necessary to grow and improve. Low Salary.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend more money marketing.

Pros

-Higher pay than most other companies in this industry but they need it to retain employees.
-Many properties and high turnover so chance to move up is greater.

Cons

-Only one choice for healthcare and its expensive
-401k company match is gone
-80%+ turnover rate
-Understaffed properties so getting time off is difficult
-Got rid of vendors so if you are maintenance be prepared to give your life cleaning carpets and painting and if you are a vendor trying to get paid goodluck
-Management changes are so frequent its hard to get noticed for promtions. You have to prove yourself so many times over.
-Corporate office micromanages the property managers so bad. Ordering basic office essentials is a nightmare.
-Company policy has it if you get written up for something they will take away your commission. Write ups are frequent. Normally when you are pulling a high commission for that month.

Advice to Senior Management

Let the property managers handle the properties. That is why you hired them in the first place. Quit micromanaging so bad and go back to the corporate culture you had prior to 2007.

Pros

Great pay
good benefits
ability to use your skills and talents to your best ability
promote from within
large company with other properties close for assistance
they move you around until they find your best fit
They are willing to put their money back into older properties
The upper management is fantastic
the help desk and online corporate support system is very impressive
They are trying to stay up with the times and continually update technology and programs

Cons

They really don't give a large amount of training, they rely more on the throw you in there and see if you swim method (although if you start to sink then more attention is given)
Biggest con that I've noticed is that it seems like the purposely understaff their properties. We have just enough people to barely squeak by on what is needed and mine is not the only property with that problem
mediocre benefits (really expensive short term disability that the employee completely has to pay for, more affordable long term disability that the employee completely has to pay for, no 401K match, leasing staff isn't paid for extra hours on weekend shifts the way some companies do)
OPEN SUNDAYS so on 2 person properties it is hard to make everyone happy
I've had a difficult time working with my manager to get reasonable time off for family emergencies (for example, a death) but that is singular for my property and the other employees at other local properties pitched in to give me the time off that my manager wouldn't

Advice to Senior Management

Upping the benefits and changing the 1 person per 100 units standard will go a long way to making Colonial a top place to work, at least in my city!

Pros

Steady work,relatively good people to work with

Cons

High turnover, bad product, and high stress

Advice to Senior Management

Put some money into the properties, its hard showing a piece of crap..

Pros

The salary is very good.

Cons

Colonial Properties could care less about it's employees. You can work endless hours and have the highest occupancy, the best work ethic and give your life and your soul to them but you will always have something that you are failing at. No one can last in this environment. Yes, I agree with a previous review that the company is very "performance driven", however there are certain things that cannot be measured this way. There are some markets that are very bad right now and the company does not consider this. They expect your property to perform the same way that a property on the other side of the country would perform with an entirely different market. The performance standards are sometimes impossible to achieve and can push away even the most dedicated of employees. A company with such high Property Manager turnover will never be able to achieve the goals they are looking to achieve. Goals are achieved with consistency in leadership and faith in the employees you hire to run your properties.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the micromanagement of the employees you pay a very good salary to run your properties.

Pros

the compensation is alot better than the last community I worked for as the previous author stated it's like selling your soul to the devil i had two managers during my two year tenure and numerous maintenance techs

Cons

you may find yourself working for a manager that knows less than you the company believes in hiring college grads for management position over people who have several years of experience just because you have a degree doesn't mean you know how to run a property
high turnover

Advice to Senior Management

worry less about the all mighty dollar and more about your residents and employees
it also wouldn't help to put some money back into your properties

Pros

They pay well- but keep in mind, it is NOT worth it

Cons

they push everyone out, they are so caught up in the manushia they forget about running property mgmt, Ask around the industry before you even consider making a move, it is one you will greatly regret

Advice to Senior Management

consider that associate retention is the MOST important indication if your company is successful, not the all mighty dollar. because if you treat your employes like they mattered, the rest will come