Sequoia Equities Reviews

Sequoia Equities did not support our team while we had a team member dying of cancer. In the 9 months where he was slowly dying but still able to work, only one member of the corporate office came by once to talk with him. No one else came by to address it. They didn't care to be involved or help him through his end of life and seemed relived once he couldn't work there anymore. They did not care how this affected the other 8 members of our team and refused to admit the reality that someone was dying/had died. Business as usual. Also, the San Francisco apartment building I managed for Sequoia had dropped in occupancy during the pandemic. I received a phone call at the end of the work day from Sequoia management and told that I was terminated. They gave me no opportunity to defend myself or ask questions as to why I was being terminated. No considerations for the pandemic or city wide shutdown. No consideration for Sequoia's own emergency policies concerning lease break options which they gave to our residents and many took advantage of. No consideration of the specific demographics (large amount of tech and international students) that had lead our property to this point. No consideration of the weekly reports I submitted projecting this situation. Their only answer was that as the community manager, it was my responsibility/fault that occupancy had decreased and so many people were leaving. Over the next month or so, they terminated the entire leasing staff and the maintenance manager. Six months later, they continue to harass senior members of the maintenance team in hopes that they will quit or retire. Perhaps the rationale is to reset the payroll because rates had dropped so low but I’m not really sure why they chose to do this. It was and continues to be shocking to me, but also made me realize that Sequoia is just like all the other companies out there. They try hard to control their image and appear to be employee focused, but that is not true. As a manager, and as a human being, they simple will not care about you or support you when it counts.

This is the first community I've ever managed, and I was left completely alone and instructed to call a colleague if I had any questions -- most of whom were busy managing their own properties and often unavailable. With the exception of approximately 16 hours worth of onsite training with an actual Sequoia employees, my Regional Manager expected me to train myself while handling leasing, property inspections, vendor/payments management, renovations, resident relations, market research, events, etc.. all while simultaneously completing roughly 200 training modules which were rife with technical glitches. Sequoia's Glassdoor rating is quite high, so I have to concede that this might be an isolated case. Regardless, my experience was extremely negative, so I feel obligated to leave this review. I honestly don't think this company cares about people, my manager struck me as a borderline psychopath, and I'd caution any applicant who joins this company thinking that they do.