AvalonBay Communities Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Pros

Do you want low pay or your foot in the door? You can gain experience anywhere for a lot more pay. Ultimately you have to decide what's more important to you. I recommend UDR or Essex.

Cons

• Pay could be a lot better. Underpaid compared to industry standards in addition to the amount of accounting/administrative duties. • management have you doing variance reports and take credit for your work. (NY market does not do variance reports) • Residents can verbally abuse and physically assault (lease violations) staff and upper management will continue to roll out the red carpet for them. • No work life balance despite what you’re told. • I witnessed all maintenance team members work off the clock to accommodate residents and their general manager is aware of it, but pretends to be blind to labor laws. • Told countless times that I am great leader, intelligent, doer, problem solver etc. etc. But never told me about areas of opportunities. Yet told his boss who then told me. (interesting) • Pretending to like managers, if you do not nod and agree with non-sense, you’re likely to be placed in the out-group and labeled as a trouble maker. • Human resources/regional staff members are facebook friends with front line workers, throwing their names in career advancement opportunities because they have access to ops managers, preventing advancement opportunities for others who work really hard from getting ahead. • Forced to have fun! • Refusing to have lunch with managers will place you in the out-group and labeled as a trouble maker. • Counterproductive busy work • Some managers are allowed to be offensive, rude, disrespectful, intrusive, and annoying and its acceptable behaviors. And others cannot simply be left alone to work and be productive. • Pay can be a lot better. • Overworked • Not appreciated • Overlooked • Constantly hearing about your strengths and weaknesses through your bosses’ boss. Pushed out of the organization because I'm in school and encouraged to pursue another career. Told countless times by management despite my contributions, awards, professionalism etc.

Pros

The people you work with (both associates and residents) are great. There are a lot of tools to make the job easier, although they sometimes miss the mark. The hours are predictable office hours (M-F or T-Sa) and you get bonuses and paid time off, including holidays. There is room to move laterally within the company.

Cons

- Upper management does not understand the onsite experience and cannot offer useful guidance or set realistic expectations. We were expected to request reviews and to get positive NPS results, but most residents would not recommend a community where grounds are not being kept up and the rent increases significantly every year even if their service requests are done in 3 hours. - There is often a breakdown of communication between parties (management, associates, office, maintenance, residents, vendors, etc.) which makes the job harder than it needs to be. - AvalonBay is publicly traded and has a responsibility to its shareholders, but has lost sight of the human side of this people-centered business. Upper management is more concerned with profits than its own people. The worst part was getting to know a family after leasing them an apartment for 12 months and then increasing their rent 25% if they wished to renew. - General lack of loyalty and minimal career advancement opportunities. It was more common for an associate to leave AVB for another property management company and then be rehired in a higher position with a raise than for someone to actually be promoted from within. They typically hired supervisors from outside of the company and often ended up hiring incompetent or unprofessional associates.

Pros

Great benefits, matching 401k program, and chances for promotion. Base pay was average, starting at $15/hour for Leasing in the Bay Area. Lots of structure, lots of organization. Clear channels of communication between the corporate office, Customer Care Center, and other offices. Great software, Salesforce and MRI are great platforms in order to keep communication open and clear.

Cons

They expect A LOT out of an employee, which can be a good thing. Depending on the portfolio director, these expectations can be scrupulous and unrealistic. The way they treat residents is uncanny: $300 - $400 rent increases for renewals, even above going market rate is outrageous. Some community managers were horrible. They would sit in the back office and talk on the phone ALL DAY, refusing to help residents even when residents were requesting to speak to a manager. One manager in particular used to swear and speak loudly about residents in a derogatory way even when there were other people (non-staff) in the office. So horrible. Want to get promoted? Make sure to brown nose your way to the top and hang out with upper management. It's a very clique-ish culture.They say merit gets your way up towards a promotion... only if you have a manager that supports and shows an employee the tools to succeed. But mostly, it's who you turn your brown nose towards and how well you can show off. Hard work really only keeps you employed, but not necessarily promoted. In the end, the bottom line is what it comes down to: profit for stockholders.

Pros

-Work life balance -Other associates tend to be nice (depends on community) -Time off requests are almost always approved if you have the PTO

Cons

Upper management has no idea what it's like to work on-site at a community and it shows. The majority of the corporate team has been working from home (for their safety) while all of the office staff is still required to be present at the community everyday (a lot of our jobs would be doable from home as well). They also decided that in the middle of the pandemic they would adjust our bonus plan which was clearly due to cutbacks that corporate was trying to make. Our bonus is now based off of reviews from disgruntled residents, generally about the quality of the building (which the office team has ZERO control over) and they severely reduced our pay per lease. Most people are unhappy right now due to the pandemic and the chances of retaining residents or leasing apartments is substantially lower but this has not been considered by upper management at all, either that or they just don't care about their employees. The other downside of this company is the serious lack of ability to move up while working on-site. You'd think with how understaffed most sites are they would have other positions available.

Pros

Great employee events, benefits, o]ort unites to advance. etc.

Cons

Upper Management does not provide on site managers with proper tools to achieve high expetations.

Pros

Housing benefit was great.

Cons

Upper management will more often take the side of the resident before even listening to the employee. In one year my communities customer service scores dropped significantly and the only change was a new Senior Manager. However all the blame was laid on the staff already there. It was clear they were directed to clean house of any long term associates.

Pros

Nice communities and many wonderful team members below upper management

Cons

Upper management lies and acts like they care about the associates but after over 10 years I found this was not the case! Just beware!

Pros

The company itself does an incredible job finding the right people for the right job. They are so focused on employee development and satisfaction. It is very rare for a company to invest so much in their employees. Everyone from corporate and upper management to the onsite leasing teams has an equal feeling with a common goal. Before working for the company, I was a resident at their properties and I can say from both ends that I couldn't be more pleased to be a part of a company with such strive to grow and constantly do better. Company events are always a blast and all the employees seem to share the same enthusiasm for the success of the company. It's exciting to be part of something so focused on making new advances towards bettering themselves, not only for the company's success, but for the employees, residents, and community benefit, as well. The opportunity to be part of the company from so many different locations, departments, and positions is a huge part of why I have decided to stick with Avalon. The growth of your own career and development within in the company is extremely encouraged and they are very willing to help in any way they can.

Cons

I can't think of much but the one thing I would say is to have a clearer structure for the benefits department, specifically regarding situations with STD, LTD, FMLA, etc. I personally went through some medical issues and was completely lost dealing with how to file and take care of everything I needed to get done.

Pros

Avalon is decent company. They are always working on improving processes and rolling out new customer service programs, etc.There is room for growth and transfer opportunities as the company is large and has properties in markets. Most paid holidays of any company I've worked for. Quarterly meetings and summer picnics with the rest of the day off are also a nice incentive.

Cons

Pay is low. If you're offered a job, negotiate your salary because it's not going up much from there once employed. I have also seen great employees be pushed out of the company by upper management. Which makes me wonder if I'm actually valued.

Pros

-Meeting or overachieving monthly lease goals made for a really nice bonus check -Great coworkers -Great benefits of vision, dental, 401k, and medical with a HSA option -Housing discount for associates -Associate appreciation days once a quarter -Some vacation and PTO

Cons

-Very, very stressful job between balancing paperwork, tours, move-ins, move-outs, and addressing resident concerns as they arise (and then creating a paper trail for said concern). -base pay is not very good, the months you don’t meet your sales goal are a struggle -Very minimal upper management support -Made to feel guilty for taking time off or calling in sick because other people have to pick up your “slack” when you’re gone