Grubb & Ellis Reviews

Pros

Great people, very compotent, difficult in current economic environment and recession but smart and savvy people take charge and do freat work.

Cons

Lots of company distractions make it challenging to operate, brand has taken a lot of shots recently which is unfortunate for a really good company with a good history.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop strong strategic direction to combat the market downturn and prepare for eventual turn in market and opportunities to grow.

Pros

Great people to work with.

Cons

Health benefits get worse each year, never received a raise as increases have been frozen since 2008, more responsibilities and promotions given with no compensation for either, layoffs have been regular 2009-2011 so very little job security.

Advice to Senior Management

I know it's difficult to manage in today's economic environment, especially in the commercial real estate industry, but it is disheartening when senior management makes sure they make as much as they can and take away the basic needs of their employees such as health coverage and no compensation for added responsibilites or promotions when cost of living rises every year. This lowers the image of the company itself and senior management as individuals.

Pros

Great benefits package compared to other companies. It is easy to accrue vacation days. Fairly flexible when it comes to needing time off.

Cons

There seemed to be a disconnect between upper management and staff. When I first started there was a good vibe within the office but as time went on the changed

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on the happiness of employees and offer more encouragement and praise for the successes of those in the work place.

Pros

It's a job and they offer medical and dental.

The workers on your level are extremely helpful and overall work well as a team. All are extremely competent and educated.

Cons

I have NEVER worked in a job where I felt so belittled by managements comments towards me and so unappreciated for my hard work.

They cut 401K's but then employees receive multiple emails every week about how wonderful the company is doing.

Managers do not give about the lower employees apart from working them to the bone and then having employee meetings on how they still aren't doing enough even though this is one of the most hard working group of people I have ever seen at any job (after the facilities has taken over roles from multiple other departments increasing the work load by 4x).

Employees are made to feel completely unappreciated and inadequate. If you go above and beyond they won't whisper a word of praise, but then when you ask about the raise or promotion you were promised if you did all the work, they're only response is, "If you don't like it, find another job."

They claim that you will only have an additional responsibility for a short period of time until they hire someone for the position, but then decide you do the job good enough and fire two more people and give you their work also. They then start complaining that you're too busy to focus on "customer service" and need to be focusing on that. I'm sorry but when I have the workload of three people that you fired and multiple deadlines from departments you told to give me their tasks also, there is a point where you are completely maxed out. Then again they don't care, bc once again the manager will tell you, "If you don't like it, get a new job."

There is absolutely no possibility of advancing through management. There are multiple highly capable employees with many years of service and they choose to DEMOTE them claiming their position has been cut or claim they can just go find a new job, and then hire a new employee for a similar position instead of hire internally or giving the previous employee the new position.

There is a huge turn around bc all the good employees leave ASAP after seeing how horrible they are treated.

There is a complete disconnect from upper to lower management, and absolutely no productive way to discuss issues with them since they will only turn things around and make you feel even more disgruntled.

Advice to Senior Management

The Facilities Manager should NOT assume my workload and capabilities just because they were sneaking around and decided to observe me working for 15 minutes around the holidays when the majority of employees are on break and the office is quiet. If you want to make a real judgement, please sit there for a full week that is not during a major winter break.

If you want good customer service, show the employees some appreciation (when in fact the customer service level at the site is superb but senior management still acts as though we're high school kids ignoring customers and spending the whole day on Facebook).

Realize the fact that when you say you want a steak and are willing to pay $5, you will not get a filet mignon. And if you then start yelling at the waiter and belittling him you will most likely not get a steak at all.

Stop with all the sneaking around and having everything be so secretive in the workplace. It only causes more problems than being upfront with the employees on what is going on.

Stop having all these employee meetings on "Customer Service" where all management focuses on is how horrible all the employees are bc one person made a complaint even though one hundred praised us for the work we do.

Employees thrive from positive reinforcement, not from being beat down bc itt has only further lowered the morale.

If you really want decent customer service stop making the employees feel disposable bc the real change starts with a positive and supportive management team which is not anything close to what we have for our current outgoing and competent team of staff.

Pros

Direct Manager was in St Louis. This gave me the opprotunity to develope solutions on my own.

Cons

They lost the contratc and I got laid off.

Pros

There is no micro management.

Cons

There is no management at all.

Advice to Senior Management

Share information and leads with all.

Pros

Great commaraderie in the work place

Cons

Seems to be behind on technology sometimes...

Advice to Senior Management

Show your support staff that they are appreciated more.

Pros

If you are unemployed and want short-term employment give it a shot. You will see first hand how difficult an environment can be when a firm is close to financial disaster and hanging on by a thread.
There are also interesting products and services for the real estate and financial service industry that you can learn about.

Cons

Unfortunately the staff is over worked since they have had severe layoffs for the last 2 - 3 years. Management is not good about sharing the vision of how they believe the firm will succeed, but since most of the long-term loyal employees were terminated to reduce costs you may find a newer person to share some insight.

Advice to Senior Management

Take the time to provide yourself and the employees with an honest assessment of where the company stands, the challenges it faces and what you are doing to turn the situation around. If it is possible it will take more of a vision than they have been provided for the last few years.

Pros

The only positive to working at Grubb & Ellis is that they grant you time off that you have accrued without giving you the stink eye.

Cons

No support from management; it's all about the brokers. Bottom line the brokers attitudes are "What have you done for me lately" and "what can you do for me today?". You learn to have thick skin but after 2-3 years expect burnout, especially because there haven't been merit increases in three years, although they hand out VP titles with golden parachutes like there going out of style. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians!

Advice to Senior Management

Offer incentives in order to retain quality people.

Pros

The pay is ok. The work is not hard for what you get paid.

Cons

The management in some departments is AWFUL.
It is a boys club.
Very behind on technology.
The worst is the peoples attitude that work there. This can really make or break a company and work experience. There was no team building and positive feedback, but they sure would give feed back if they had a problem with something.

Advice to Senior Management

More teambuilding and positive feedback is needed for their employees. Stop putting up with the "old timers" that are here that will not learn anything new.