The company cut A LOT of jobs a week before Christmas and began dissolving a division of the company (I am not involved with that division so I am not sure of the entire impact) due to "challenges". There have been a number of changes in upper management! The problem is, the people who replaced the already abysmal executive level team are worse. These people have never been on the ground level and many are not even from a similar industry. They are relying strictly on data, numbers and charts instead of actually speaking with the middle management teams to assess their immediate needs. Their recent initiative (ensure that every community has pictures taken through the app) is an absolute morale destroyer. Long time employees who just want to come and do their job are now being harassed by their managers because they did not take a "quality observation" (what qualifies as a quality observation varies week by week) and your bonus as a DM is directly effected by someone not taking 1 picture. Mind you, this initiative does not take into account poor data reception nor the many bugs/problems that valet's (and managers) experience with the app on a daily basis. You wake up, start work and you don't stop until you go to sleep (which may be after sunrise the next day). If you're lucky, you have a compassionate RDO who see's what you're going through and will assist/look the other way on some of the "fluff duties" that the company mandates. What are "fluff duties" you may ask, let me explain: You're expected to meet with every single community twice a month. Anyone who has worked as a vendor knows the challenge of getting into a customers office for a meaningful meeting once a quarter, let alone twice a month. Property/Leasing/Maintenance managers are busy people and the last thing they want to see is their trash vendor (relatively low on the totem pole of importance to them unless there is an issue) and you will quickly wear out your welcome. 3 Valet visits per month. You're expected to meet with every valet on your team 3 times a month. If you have a territory that spans over 50 miles (many DM's do), expect to go from one edge of the territory to the other multiple times a month (sometimes a day). I understand the reasoning behind this since the valets typically work by themselves and you'd like to make sure they are okay but 3 times a month is excessive. Compliance Audits: You're expected to check out the communities outside of service hours (typically when visiting the office) with a member of the office staff to see who has their trash can out when it is not supposed to be out. The property knows what's going on and they do not need their vendor to point it out to them. Weekly Meetings: 90% of the time, the weekly meetings can be an email and they can save everyone an hour of time. Actual important topics are rarely covered. You will be spoken down to by the upper management in these meetings, even if not directly targeted towards you. Mind you, these are all non negotiable requirements of the district managers position. If you fall short, you may receive a reprimand. Office meetings should be once a month at the most, no compliance audits and valet visits should be once a month to give them more supplies and to keep the personal relationship solid. Other short comings: Budgets: The budgets are unrealistic. They expect someone to leave their home on a cold night, drive 20 mins to a community and service it completely for pennies. The budget/pay model does not adjust for regional cost of living (West Virginia vs California) and you're expected to make the money work even if you're in a higher cost area. After explaining the difference in cost of living in different areas, the response I received was essentially "tough luck, find someone who'll do it at this rate or figure it out". This fits right in with the "screw them, replace them" attitude that upper management pushes and embodies. This applies to employees who have been with the company 5+ years when they ask for a raise of some sort. Worker Appreciation: As mentioned above, there is no appreciation for quality workers. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and when you try to get a bit more money for your best people, you get nothing but push back and gaslighting. An example would be if someone is working a very difficult community and they're making $50 a night for 2 hours of HARD physical labor, they'll be denied a $10 raise since they are "well above minimum wage". The company has gone to an hourly rate for all new hires however this has created even more trouble that I'd rather not get into. Overall Work Culture: As someone mentioned before, this is a woke company. There is more of an emphasis on hiring for diversity than for merit. Over the summer of 2022, they partnered with a company that provided mandatory training on what can be call "critical race theory" which received a massive push back from middle management to the point that they dropped the "mandatory" part. Considering the company is based in Florida, I'm sure that someone in legal realized that they are one call to the FL AG away from a large fine. I find this hilarious since most of the valets on the ground tend to lean the opposite way politically when you really get to know them. Last Note on this Rant: This can be a great position for the right person who can overlook incompetence in management and who can navigate the requirements. If you're lucky, you're able to keep all of your properties staffed, budgets within limit, requirements met and you may be able to find a proper work-life balance. In my experience, I've had a handful of these times and they inevitably bring on more anxiety because you're waiting for the next fire to start (there's rarely only one fire at a time). If you end up with a good solid team, you'll be expected to travel to neighboring districts (often in other states) to assist. Depending on your RDO, this may or may not be mandatory. My advise to Service Valet's within the Doorstep division: You guys are the backbone of this company and deserve better. Your DM probably is trying or has tried to make life easier for you but the company has so many shackles on us that we can't do much without risking our own jobs. Property management does not care unless there is a problem FOR THEM and unfortunately this means you'll catch the blame until someone shoves it back in their faces (trash problems almost always come back to a PM not wanting to reprimand their residents). My Advise to District Managers/Prospecting DM's: If you're current, keep doing what you're doing while exploring other options. There is little vertical movement in this company as you should know and the movement that is available is not worth the additional stress. If you're prospective, really take a look at why you need this job. If you're looking for something low stress, this is not it. If you're looking for something to build a resume and to develop managerial skills within corporate America, this may work for you. You'll get first hand experience with dealing with combative residents, combative leasing offices, constant threats of contract cancellation if you don't perform work outside of the "contractual scope of work" (these cancellations do negatively effect you), dealing with unnecessary red tape internally and everything I mentioned above. I'm here until another opportunity opens then I'd rather never see this company in any capacity again. You've ruined an otherwise simple job by adding busy work to justify someone's salary.
