Pros
Working at a self storage facility is truly a unique experience in the "retail" world and its great for some and hated by others. Many things have changed in the last several years that has negatively affected working for ESS. But here are still some of the positives that I can think of -Mainly get to work on your own and dictate your own day in how things are done and what order. Dont have a direct superior looking over your shoulder all day. -Free apartment for managers and some assistants for locations that still have them. -Mix of office and property work. Can stay in on rainy days and get out and enjoy nice days. Get a bit of exercise instead of sitting in a chair all day -Form good relationships with the long term customers that come in regularly -Decent benefits with healthcare, PTO and 401k - A growing business that wont go bankrupt anytime soon
Cons
Now ESS has implimented several things over the years and it only accelerated during Covid and they use it as an excuse, like everyone will just accept the suffering. It basically boils down to a few things, but mainly this company trying to squeeze every penny they can out of this business. That means less hours, less pay, more work, less supplies. Here is what that has lead to -Though you get to work on your own, managers are increasingly micromanaged on simple things we used to be able to do without question. -They have been eliminating the free apartment whenever possible and replacing it with rentable storage units. -Almost everywhere is running on a skeleton crew with most sites going with a single person running them. They cut hours across the board and expect the same amount of work to be done. -Working alone by yourself is kinda nice when you get to dictate your own work day, but working alone weighs on you after a while. Working with others is nice sometimes, which is way less common now -They're doing crazy things like closing certain stores an extra day just to save on labor costs - They are going toward automated system and self service kiosks to further reduce labor costs - Employees cant order anything without is being scrutinized, again for cost cutting measures. This means everyone has to run on minimal supplies and makeshift stuff to compensate. - High turn over rate and horrible employee retention. This compounds the low hours and makes running districts even harder. They cant seem to hire anyone either. - Company misrepresents jobs as sales and retail, when its half that and half facility maintenance. Ive seen several new hires quit due to this - Extreme pressure to sell and meet company metrics. Micromanagement extends to this to where they track literally everything you do. - Company insists on using internally developed programs and sales systems, instead of paying other companies. This leads to shoddy computers systems that fail constantly, dont work as intended and dont have the same function of the program they replaced. - Hypocritical company culture with focus on customers and employees, though they only care about customers to get them trust us to sell them more and turn on them as soon as it would cost us money. They say they care about employees but do nothing to satisfy our concerns over hours and lack of support, just say they are "doing the best they can" - They ask employees to care about our customers and put them first, but any amount of success you will get comes at the cost of selling your soul and treating customers like numbers and opportunities to sell and hit metrics -No way to advance beyond manager without selling your soul and paying LOTS of dues and being liked by the right people. This is just on top of the normal corporate stuff like office politics, favoritism, disconnect from management and field employees
