CBRE Employee Reviews about "brokers"

Pros

Benefits are okay, large spending accounts for events and swag, team outings, very high-profile brokers and company recognition. They do some nice things for Admin Appreciation week.

Cons

The health insurance is horrible coverage, very high costs and they won't cover even basic things like annual pap smears - I received a $2000 bill for mine. The senior executives and brokers are treated like kings and queens even if they facilitate and encourage a hostile work environment, which they absolutely do. These executives thrive on the "kill or be killed" mentality even within their own teams.... Complaints to HR will not do you any good, they will simply fire you to keep you quiet. I know of at least 4 assistants in the year I was there that had this happen. Since I left, over 6 assistants have been hired to replace me and every single one is gone in 6 weeks or less. You can be terminated at any time if your executive decides they want you gone, even if your performance is exceptional. They very much stand behind the "employment at will" clause that says you can be let go for no reason. I saw amazing assistants get fired left and right - it creates a terrible sense of paranoia that you're next and you should basically have your resume ready to go at any time. The performance expectations are unrealistic and not attainable - you basically need to be a psychic mind reader and dedicate your entire life 24/7 to the job. It is completely normal to work 12-14 hour days, 6 days a week for the entire team and only go home to sleep and change clothes. You will eat all of your meals here, you will have zero work life balance and your health will absolutely decline. Its a running joke among the admins on what ailments will happen to any new assistants hired because it is a real thing. The pay is excellent, mostly because of all the overtime but don't expect a large bonus, certainly no where near the level the other team members get even though you do most of the actual work on deals. Its a thankless job that will drain the life out of you and leave you with no time to date, see friends or family, exercise, travel or ANYTHING that you enjoy because when you do get rare time away from the office you are so exhausted that you basically go into a coma. Also, CBRE instituted a new communication hierarchy where instead of your boss discussing things with you directly, they now will tell an HR rep who then has a meeting with you to relay the information. You then go back and forth a hundred times because you aren't allowed to receive corrective conversations directly from your superior. However, because of this - your opinions are never really taken into consideration and explanations don't make sense because the HR rep isn't aware of what actually happened. You're basically just told to improve this or that but in very vague terms like "be more proactive", improve your "ability to anticipate any future scheduling needs that may arise in real time" and "personal assistance to an executive should now also extend to their family, staff and others deemed as VIP". It's the worst place I've ever worked in 20 years and leaving there was by far the best decision of my life.

Advice to Management

Understand that employees need to feel valued and actually be valued. Executive's success is in a large part due to the person at their right hand side, so assistant's needs and concerns should be listed to. If you demand that they dedicate their lives to your company then at least provide some on-site perks like a yoga studio or fitness area, nap pods, meal stipends, etc. Assistant's should get a generous bonus... based in part on their Executive's sales - if a broker is making $21 BILLION a year in sales, then yeah their EA absolutely deserves a bonus of .000002 % of that. Also, if you have the same role constantly having turnover, then recognize that the problem isn't the 20 assistants that were in that position, its the executive. It's 2019 - why do you still only have 5 women in leadership roles when you have over 90,000 employees? Stop being part of the problem.

Pros

Support staff are awesome, with a few exceptions with some embedded staff in a broker team. If you shine, you are given more opportunities to work on special projects with increasing complexity and responsibility.

Cons

Management. If you are promoted to management, beware the backstabbers, insanely immature brokers who treat you like you are an idiot even though your job is to support them (and do their grunt work). Egotistic, mysoginists that are homophobcx xenophobes and have narccisitic personalities are the loud mouths who complain (behind your back, of course) to management, and when they are proven wrong they just dig in. ... Senior Manager has no backbone and is a yes man to the brokers, HR is a joke

Advice to Management

None to give becuase it falls on deaf ears. RISE values and annual harrasment certification applies to ALL employees, including Mangement and top producers. Walk the talk!!!