community associate

maintenance technician

administrative assistant

community manager

director

Associa

The Associa Arizona branch is probably one of the worst run company branches I've ever worked for. The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. The sad part is I feel like the corporate office would be an excellent place to work. However, the local branches are ran poorly. The managers are put up on a pedestal, and the support staff are treated like they can be replaced in minutes. The sad part is, it takes weeks or months to replace someone who leaves. Support staff constantly has more work dumped on them all the while being told that they need to suck it up, that other people in higher positions used to do your work and more with no problem. The branch executives have created an environment of dread. One where employees literally get sick thinking about coming into work. You're either ignored, placated or dismissed, if you raise any kind of concerns.

They are supposed to conduct bi-yearly reviews which leads to a yearly final review on which your yearly raise is based. The raises are supposed to be based on merit however, the people conducting the reviews were told by branch executives not to rate people higher than average, thus avoiding large raises from being given. 

They constantly beat the drum that Associa is a great place to work, except it's not if you aren't a manager or executive. The managers have free reign to come and go as they please with no accountability. They often come in after 9am, take a 90-120 minute lunch and leave by 3pm. They use the "work from home" excuse to avoid to using sick time, personal time or vacation time, and the executives seem to encourage this. Which leaves the managers and execs with an excess of time to use or lose at the end of the year. This becomes extremely annoying for the support staff who need these people to be there and they take weeks off during the holiday season.

The support staff is extremely under-trained in certain areas, undervalued, and starved of information. Everything is a secret in that place. Often time admins and customer service will get calls from homeowners who know more about issues within a community than they do. When they request information they are often provided little to no information. Or given information days after the fact. The resolutions are not always followed through on but the support staff is not made aware of this. The basic community information is sometimes kept from the support staff as well. How in the world someone asks a person to answer phones and emails without giving them the information they need to answer the questions being asked and then blames the person answering the phones and emails for upset homeowners is beyond me. But this is a regular occurrence with Associa Arizona.

I could go on and on about the horrible things happening within the branch, but to go into further details would break the review guidelines.

Typical day starts with a meeting with workers to give assignments and state the days objectives. This also gives me a chance to get feedback from the employees. They are able to point out areas of concern which are utilized in the next day's or week's scheduling. This is usually followed by a daily tour of the property. Checking for trouble spots and inspecting work done by previous shifts. Next, at this time various paperwork and ordering of supplies is done. I check on employee assignments to estimate time allotment for the next day's scheduling. Standpipe, pump rooms , elevators and all mechanical devices are checked to see if all are fully operational. All remaining work orders that have not yet been completed are checked for progress report. Any new work orders are assigned to staff. Follow up contact with concierge staff and housekeeping for review of the morning's assignment load and status report. Review of maintenance work that has been completed. Scheduling of next day's activities and follow up on e-mails and phone messages. File all required reports with property manager.

I have learned a great deal in the area of time management. This helps with employee assignment expectations as well as my reporting to the property manager in order to set realistic goals and completion dates for all work activities. I have also learned important safety and fire code compliance related to the management of a 200 unit condominium property.

I have built an excellent relationship with the property manager and board of directors, enabling us to achieve beneficial results while not exceeding our financial threshold.

My coworkers and I share a respectful working relationship. Everyone is aware of what is expected from them and what they can expect in return from both myself and the operating board of directors.

The hardest part of my job is maintaining high standards while operating within tight budget constraints. Finding the best value for money spent requires researching new vendors and new techniques in a time of rising operating costs.

The experiences where I have been able to interact with the board of directors and residents themselves have been the most enjoyable part of my job. Helping to solve resident issues and maintain a well run building helps me feel that I have contributed to a happier home life for the residents.

I was hired on in the middle of a big turnover.  It turns out that a lot of community managers had quit, all due to the same reason.  Too many communities, not enough training, no accountability or support form leadership, and the list goes on.  The community managers were great to work with and were wonderful support to each other, but leadership never had your back.  Many managers were placed on disclipnary write ups due to community complaints and leadership would tell the Boards that they were talking to the managers to help them, only the managers were never given any help and were left to tell the boards their concerns were never passed on from leadership.

Almost every board in my portfolio was already mad at the company due to problems with their previous management and leadership swept it all under the run and expected you to make them happy.  Many boards were surprised when they heard how many communities a single manager was responsible for, they were under the impression we all had approximately 5 communities when the truth was more like 13 communities a piece.

Due to the nature of when some board meetings are scheduled, there were many nights you wouldn't get out of a meeting till 9:00 pm and most likely your community was nowhere near your home and you wouldn't even get home until 10 pm or so.  Yet, when they tell you that you are able to adjust your hours to accommodate those late nights (like come in later than 9 am the next day), you received a lot of push back and made to feel like you weren't doing your job if you came in late.

This job  came with so much stress and worry that I was adversely affected medically.  Even being away for months, I still haven't recovered.

My personal experience at Associa has been great!  If they have had problems in the past, things have definitely changed.  They have gone through a couple acquisitions and/or mergers.  Anyone who has experienced that knows it comes with some growing pains. I enjoy coming into the office in the morning to see my co-workers.  People overall seem happy in the work environment.  Property management can be a unique industry.  There are always a number of improvements that need to be made.  I feel like my co-workers not only have a true desire to uphold a standard of excellence, they really want to help each other. When I'm trying to find a solution to a problem, there is always someone to ask who can help you get up to speed.  There are plenty of resources to get the job done.  

I was given weeks of training prior to taking on my own portfiolio.  My training was with almost everyone around the accounting department.  That way I not only got a full circle point of view, I also had a personal introduction to each employee which was a great ice breaker.  Each and every employee that I sat with made me feel welcomed.

It's the other little things that I have noticed that really matter.  They do employee breakfasts every other Friday.  They do potlucks sometimes.  On Thursday we have a party planned with catered food and drinks to have a little bit of fun with the people you work with.  

The office is located on Bishop street.  The office is very nice with hardwood floor lobby and tasteful decor.  It's very clean and modern inside.  It's convenient to bus lines.  There is a gym next door and tons of lunch options.  There are also two nice break rooms with plenty of refridgerator space.  ;-)

The company has a generous PTO policy, health benefits, dental, and 401k.

If you enjoy working 24/7 with nothing to show for your efforts and getting paid next to nothing while your bosses offer no help, then this is the pace for you. Requested internal feedback is for lip service only. Positive feedback is only needed so they can market your comments. Critical hard truths and honesty about abusive managers and bad business practices and functions are not welcomed or appreciated and there is no real effort to actually improve the working conditions people work under. The most successful people who work there spend most of their time getting other people to do their work for them while at the same time blaming them for “not putting in enough work.” 

As for their customers, they could care less what they want so long as the associations keep sending in payment. A bad manager can hide mistakes and complaints for a long time before anyone at the upper management level notices or cares. At most a change in manager is the only action they will take, which almost never addresses the underlying issues of being chronically understaffed and overworked. 

Vendors are subjected to a “pay to play” scheme and only ones who “contribute” to their charities (which are questionable) get invited to bid on work. For larger projects, upper management essentially hands the work to the contractors they want the Boards to use, steering them to what vendors they want to use, not necessarily who would be best for the community. 

When I fist interviewed for the job, I was coming out of the Automotive industry. I thought the expected work load was too high and unattainable. I was SORELY mistaken. The work we actually put it is very segmented and easy to manage. The expectation is easily achieved within the training period. Managers actually take the time to get to know their people and they work WITH you. They put family first. The schedules are flexible and are able to earn a hybrid schedule. The hardest part of the job is just getting started in the morning. This company has so many things in place to keep morale high and to help others succeed in their roles. If you apply yourself, it's easy to achieve your career goals. You can even listen to your music while you are working. The dress code is business casual. If you are typically a cold person, you can bring a small blanket to cover up with at your desk. There are a lot of fridges and freezers to put your food in, and you really don't have to worry about people stealing from you. It really is a company that puts in the efforts to make the job easier or more pleasant. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The actually company is fantastic. They treat their employees very well. Great benefits great people. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The amount of properties they load on you make it impossible to give proper attention to the properties needs. The work load forces you to put out fires constantly and projects get left waiting too long or forgotten. The management is well aware of the problems but either can’t or won’t find a way to fix it. Also the maintenance department only does half their job leaving the managers constantly having to check to make sure jobs are complete or the maintenance department has what they need to complete the job. Because there isn’t a process for the managers to be informed when maintenance doesn’t complete the job!

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The staff and manager are very easy to get along with. I think the management promotes by emotion rather than the qualifications of the employees. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
At first it was very frustrating due to lack of training. Then it was kind of nice getting into the grove and being able to work with your properties. Then it got crazier and crazier the more properties they added to your portfolio. Way to much to provide the attention to the properties that they require.

A typical day at work would consist of not wanting to show up for work do to not getting the respect and dignified treatment I deserve at the work place. My two Co-Workers kept threatening that I was going to be fired and they accomplished that, Everyday these two Co-Workers would harass me, supress me, and tell me what to do. When I would speak to the Ceo about how I was being treated she would side with these employees since there is preference at the company. I forgot to mention that one these employees can't even speak good English and they think she's the best. The Management team is the worst ever they hire unskilled property Managers which is why they have lost tons of properties. One of the Property Managers forgot to turn in a Purchase application to the Board of Directors and she was never reprimanded for this she still works there. I on the other hand had to deal with the applicant showing up at the lobby in an irate state complaining about this.I of course had to resolve the situation on my own. The hardest part of the job was how unfairly I was treated, I was hired as an Administrative Assistant and had several job Titles. I was the Admin, the lobby clerk, and Compliance Coordinator while other employees only had one job Title, I wore many hats was a hard worker but was never appreciated or promoted.

I am completely happy with the opportunity for advancement with Associa. I started in a CSR II position taking calls however was able to promote on into an administrative role for the Dept in Nov. less than 90 days after hire. (Company policy is 90 days so an exception was made this is not typical also there was no pay increase with this move I'd essentially just started and performance raises SHOULD of been done within 6 mos so I was willing to trade off compensation for opportunity) I got my next promotion and should of started that role in Nov 2020 but my replacement was internal and needed to train her replacement then had to be trained so I started in Feb. my new manager did get my pay increase started in Nov since the delay was due to internal staffing constraints. Pay is my main issue the offer letter was under what I had stated as my minimum,(something most new hires I met stated was their experience too) then due to Covid no performance raises were given for 2020, I did get a decent increase on the 2nd promotion however it's review time and my increase was maxed at 1% due to it being within 6 mos of the last one so essentially after a year and 9 months and 2 promotions I'm finally making about 30 cents more then I was at my last job after 4 years with no promotions......... 

The on-boarding process training was carefully planned and organized. The  various up to date technology tools to assist in training has exceeded my happiness!  All software programs are up to date and user friendly. ALL members of Associa are easy to speak with and everyone greeted me with a smile on my first few days which created a positive  feeling and atmosphere. Majority of my training during the Covid-19 Stay at home orders, my VP was always there to conduct trainings thru on-line discussions, presentations and face to face training. Its been six months and she is always available to assist in any form or fashion. Both the President and VP are extremely helpful and have an open door policy! I know the President and the VP have a full load of work to complete, but they still make time for their staff each week with conducting meetings, trainings etc. My favorite part about Associa, I can tell they really care about their employees. For the first time ever in my career, my VP asked me, "what are my personal goals in life" and we discussed them. From this point on, I knew I made the best decision to join the Associa family. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Community associate 24 salaries reported	$63,125 per year
Maintenance technician 18 salaries reported	$20.83 per hour
Administrative assistant 5 salaries reported	$19.40 per hour
Community manager 9 salaries reported	$74,995 per year
Director 6 salaries reported	$90,417 per year

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