Pros
I have been an associate at AvalonBay for quite some time and I have to say that I do love my job. There are multiple opportunities for growth, and the company and management teams want their associates to be successful. They've handled COVID-19 incredibly well from a safety standpoint and I'm grateful for that. We receive good benefits (health insurance, 401k, 20% off of rent if you live in an AvalonBay Community, etc.), and they have standard, but still good, time off policies. My teammates and almost every single associate I've met so far are incredible people, and they make this job better and I am happy to come to work because of them. I have the opportunity to make a difference in my residents' lives, which I love, and I have a lot of power to make my own decisions in how I work with my residents from a customer service standpoint. Finally, there is definitely flexibility in my position to take on projects and make them my own, from planning resident events to coordinating new programming and more.
Cons
Simply put, no matter how much I do love my job and where I work, I don't make nearly enough to live at any of our Communities, even with a 20% discount, and still have enough money in my budget for expenses for food, utilities, transportation, and to put enough money in my savings account every month (this doesn't even take my student debt into consideration, let alone other expenses). Unfortunately, this describes not only living on my own at one of our communities, but also living with a roommate or possibly even two. My hourly rate is extremely low compared to our competitors (~$18/hour), and while our previous bonus plan provided the opportunity to make at least an additional $2,000 or more per month on average (and that is definitely the lower end of what I've seen for my bonuses), my new "bonus" is likely only going to be $1,000 per month - enough to cover my hourly rate's taxes. Because we are understaffed (no matter how much my manager lets higher-ups know we need another associate at my location), and even if we weren't, for the amount of work I do and the amount of energy I put into my job, as well as the amount of customers that I work with daily (including those that are immeasurably difficult to please), I question almost every day how much longer this path will be feasible for me. Aside from that, we are constantly measured by net promoter scores that are not applicable to the management staff (i.e., "the building could use some work", "the rent is too high", etc.), and when I asked who to provide feedback to about this, I was shot down because "this has been in place for years". Finally, on the days where I work by myself, I find that I work far more than eight hours in a day, to the point of where, for a long time, I consecutively wasn't getting back home while it was still light out. Ultimately, I feel as though I am doing the work of what a supervisor would be doing in another property management company, but in no way am I being paid a comparable amount of money to make the job and the hard work worth it. I don't want to leave AvalonBay at all, but I still often find myself checking for new job postings at other companies that may offer better pay and a better work/life balance and I plan to apply for new positions elsewhere when they open if things do not change soon.
