Pros
Keeping it real, there are pros working for Tillinger's, but in my opinion they do not outweigh the cons. Here are the perks of the business though: - Working for Tillinger's, you will meet an innumerable number of people at whichever property you're assigned. Some of these people, whether they're residents, coworkers, maintenance, or leasing, are the best of mankind. - Earn paid time off. - Reasonably good healthcare. - Working alongside property staff, you will pick up some things from the leasing and maintenance. - Access to discount movie and event tickets. - Duties and responsibilities are rather easy and straightforward, relying most heavily on customer service, communication, and organizational skills.
Cons
The cons, most noticeable from hiring, become more difficult to bear as time goes on. Some downsides are only realized after hiring: - Tillinger's has a ridiculous shift coverage policy. If you're working a morning shift and the evening concierge doesn't show up, guess what? You're stuck doing a double, regardless of what you have going on afterwards. Seriously, it's that inconvenient. This can make juggling two jobs difficult to impossible, depending on what your set schedule is. You're always at the mercy of whoever comes in after you. - Pay raises are disappointing. If you bust your hump all year long, cover an uncountable number of shifts, and only use one or two sicks days, you will at best receive a 3% raise. This is not an adequate enough incentive. 3% barely covers inflation, let alone the rising cost of living. 3% is treading water, don't let them kid you. - Upper management is apathetic and out of touch with site supervisors’ and concierges' needs. Specifically, Tillinger's suffers from chronic understaffing, which they do not seem urgent to resolve anytime soon. I have worked for them for going on three years; for all but maybe three or four months of that time (being generous) we have been understaffed. During the hiring process, HR told me that in addition to my fellow permanent site concierges, site supervisor and area supervisor, our small team would have access to staff assistants (substitute concierges) to help out with desk coverage in the event of sickness or time-off requests. With the exception of short, intermittent periods of time, this has not been true. We almost never have access to a substitute. This means requesting time off can be incredibly difficult. You will have to make arrangements with your fellow coworkers directly (most times) to have shifts covered. Get ready to be asked endlessly to cover shifts. This happens on a weekly basis for me. Management assumes we have a bottomless appetite for extra hours and don't have personal lives outside of work. - Tillinger's tends to staff desks for upscale, luxury communities. Understanding that, you will occasionally have to serve rude, entitled, disrespectful residents. This just comes with the luxury turf, sadly. - High turnover rate. If you sat me down for a quiz to list all the previous concierges I've worked with, there's no way I'd be able to remember them all. At best, I'd recall little more than half. They come, they go, and I cannot blame them. It's a demoralizing environment to work in. - They severely overwork their supervisors. Since they're salaried and not hourly, upper management tends to often work supervisors into the ground (their response to high turnover rate and chronic understaffing). It's almost as though they see a site supervisor as being worth two concierges for the price of one. I suspect many supervisors earn far less than me when they convert their pay into an hourly rate. - They make you sign a non-compete clause...for concierges. This bars you from working for another concierge company for three years. Non-competes are usually reserved for high-paying jobs, not concierges. It's outlandish.