property manager

service coordinator

assistant property manager

maintenance technician

senior maintenance person

CommonBond Communities

At the middle management level in this company, I found a great team of co workers and a great mission to provide affordable housing with services to those in need. I also found a great deal of micro management, an addiction to long, pointless meetings, and difficulty in getting things done because of top heavy upper management. As jobs in this industry go, the overall workload is pretty enormous and indeed challenging. I would never recommend to the inexperienced or to anyone who wanted to hold things at a forty hour week (unless you are hourly). 

Benefits are pretty good, PTO is stellar,  activities like team building events are fun and build relationships in a large organization where that can get lost at times. Competition and snark is not an issue at the peer level, it’s a team and we were in it together. 

On the other side, you’re either “in” or “out” with Director level management, and it’s pretty obvious who’s “in” and who’s not. Performance assessments are more about personality than performance. Don’t be fooled by talk of “mission, vision, values”, that’s about residents and not staff. People are frequently allowed to perform miserably without consequence, working years past the time they should have been disciplined or gone. Yet that is not consistent, and others are disciplined or terminated for far lesser infractions. 

I cannot say that I regret giving this organization years of my life. It’s a great team, a great resume builder, a place to learn no matter how much you know. On the other side, I have not missed it for a moment. One of the most difficult life experiences I was fortunate to have.

I work with youth at a CommonBond property.  The work is very rewarding and I'm afforded a lot of responsibility to plan activities and projects with youth.  The families at this site are wonderful and are very kind to staff.  Property management also has a close relationship with staff that serve the residents, and my coworkers were always very flexible and supportive.  However, I can't give CommonBond 4 or 5 stars because youth workers are paid a very low wage (between $900-$1100/month, hours change seasonally)  and it is difficult to find a way to move up in the company.  I do receive benefits (PTO, holiday pay, enrolled in 401k after 1000 hours) even though I am part-time, but I would trade them for a higher wage and regular hours in a heartbeat.  I work 1 PM until 7 or 7:30 PM four days a week.   The youth supervisors are paid more but it is not a good wage to raise a family on, and the hours can be very inconvenient (evenings and sometimes weekends).  It seems that many of the sites are understaffed and a lot of work can be piled on one person. The people who choose to work for CommonBond are like-minded and healthy individuals who are great coworkers, but there is high turnover due to lack of good pay.  I don't know about the health plan because I am not eligible, but I have heard it's so-so.

When I applied I was really excited to work for a larger property management company.  The company was great at first an then I started to see all the bad stuff slowly come to light. They will slowly weed you out of the company, as the turnover is ridiculous. 
In the 2 years I was there as an Assistant Property Manager I went through 3 Property Managers and 3 Regional Managers. I started as a full-time employee and after a year and a half was cut to 25 hours a week and lost my benefits. I worked 2 properties while my "manager" worked at the smallest of our 3 property portfolio. 
When I was cut to part time, I still managed 2 of properties and also helped at other properties outside of my portfolio to make up for the wages that were lost when going from full time to part time. 
The company does not value their employees and is not interested in promoting anyone within the company as this means they will have to fill your position. 

A typical day at work was sitting down with my manager and establishing what program(s) we were going to work first. I enjoyed helping individuals reach or find their highest potential. I set out to establish programs that were informative, provocative and educational for the residents of that community.The most challenging part of the job was working with other organizations, trying to get them to see the value of working with that class of people. I was the lead volunteer for two years with this organization and in my length of time we had established a gardening program, exercise program, residential board, food program, and a clothing program and we changed some of the strict housing rules for the better. We made the community more like a home rather than an institution.

I started work about two years ago and the training stresses team work, collaboration, and a problem-solving approach to daily management.  Not sure what happened but all that went away and now it is run like a pyramid.  There has been a mass exodus of executive level people from the company since this summer and I am hoping it will not implode.  The real problem is the total lack of communication and a poorly trained layer of management that deals with the frontline employees.  We had an all company training this summer and what was worse is that the two directors that were running the show did not do a very good job and appeared very weak.  Many employees fell by the wayside after that.  It is too bad because at first, it seemed like an ok place to work.

At my site, the culture is very supportive and the communication is great. I am always encouraged to do what I need to do to balance work and personal life. Compensation is average. Advancement is possible. I've learned a lot from my team and the residents here about how to better support people in recovery (mental and chemical health.) The best part of the job is the people --staff and residents. The hardest part for me is documentation. I don't like paperwork! The company is currently going through a lot of positive changes in order to adopt a more inclusive culture, from the trenches all the way up to the officers. 

Typically my day is very busy, I work in a fast pace environment that requires constant attention to detail eyes and ears. In Compliance you learn something new everyday, this is why communication with management is vital in every situation. Our work place cultural is very diverse and team oriented. The hardest part of the job is meeting deadlines with auditors and the best part of my job is serving the community. We speak nine different languages here and it is so wonderful learning other cultural differences at first hand.

Work/Life balance was decent for the coordinator level, and as expected, seemed to get more challenging for higher positions.

Compensation and benefits are modest, but competitive for similar nonprofit roles.

It is a very steep climb to be able to advance from part-time to full-time positions, especially in Youth Services, but there is good security once in a FT position.  

People in management positions are accessible and responsive.

The work culture varies by site.  I had amazing coworkers where I was based.  There doesn't seem to be a culture of happy hours or other after-work activities established though.

1.) Repair various equipment throughout the building. Cleaning and trash removal on days opposite of work orders.2.) I learned how to work with many people Exspecially seniors who are very demanding and set in their ways.3.) Manegement was very hard because they didnt have a onsite Manager that would stay with the company for to long. So I had to help out and answer a lot of questions that I didnt have the answers to.4.) My co-workers were fabulous I loved all them and would do anything for them.5.) Hardest part of the job was trying to stay within the budget.6.) The most enjoyable part were the seniors who lived in the building and my co-workers.

PROS: Kind, authentic, inclusive and thoughtful culture, quality training, social justice and work groups. Open to feedback, company cares about employees and residents, not just the dollar. Great benefits and significant PTO.

CONS:
High turnover resulting in not enough people to do the work and high stress for those doing multiple jobs.  A lot of confusion and chaos with ongoing change of the processes. Always a bottleneck and a passing of buck in decision making where PM staff are spinning wheels trying to get results.  Minimal advancement opportunities. Poor communication particularly from and about compliance.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Property manager 14 salaries reported	$62,029 per year
Service coordinator 20 salaries reported	$24.43 per hour
Assistant property manager 1 salary reported	$28.85 per hour
Maintenance technician 2 salaries reported	$22.63 per hour
Senior maintenance person 17 salaries reported	$27.79 per hour

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