Watermark Capital Partners Reviews

Pay and Benefits are at the low end of the range. Titles are not properly leveled to the industry and responsibility. Pay for the respective responsibility in the industry is at the low end. The company is lose with titles and a title is often given instead of additional money. Benefits are severely lacking. Insurance options are expensive, both the deductible and premium amounts. The company does not cover a meaningful portion of the premium and the out of pocket is significant. PTO is a combined sick and vacation and is not necessarily commensurate with others in the industry/sector. You are expected to be fully available during time off. HR is a stickler for counting the time you are not in the office, but not for the time you give back. You would think there is a benefit of hotel stays when working for a hotel owner. However, there is a clear policy in the employee handbook that states you are not allowed to be at the hotel for anything other than business. The CEO seems to work around these rules, by attaching personal travel to business events and entertaining events at the hotels. Employees took the initiative to do a benefits comp study, which was initially ignored. Then it was communicated that the wrong set of comparable companies was surveyed (even though all the companies surveyed were direct industry competitors or operating partners). Technology is severely lacking. Lap tops are old (3+ years and typically more) and the solution when computers start to crash, is to add RAM. Cell fees and data plans are not covered by the company, however, you are expected to always be available by cell and a lot of data consumed is through corporate email (think about when you need to review a legal document on your cell phone). Team members buy their own technology just to make their life easier and are not reimbursed for it. There is an expectation to always be in the office or available, even if you are on PTO or traveling. The CEO is not respectful of family/personal time. There is a weekly meeting, that you are expected to be at. All calls, travel, and life are expected to be scheduled around the meeting. When you have travel, calls, meetings, PTO, personal obligations, etc. planned outside of the standing meeting and the meeting is changed at the last minute, you are expected to miss your flight and change your travel, reschedule meetings with outside parties, call in while on PTO, or miss personal events. The CEO has the flexibility to move the meeting subject to his schedule. You are expected to be in the office. Although not a written rule, travel is expected to be outside of traditional office hours so that you can spend as much time in the office as possible. One associate developed Shingles from the stress and has permanent scaring. Another Associate had twin preemies and stayed in the office until 9:00/10:00 and went to the hospital for the last hour of visiting. In anticipation of a polar vortex, when it was advised not to be outside, a meeting was scheduled for 9:00 am in the office. During a blizzard, an associate took a train to the office during only to be stuck on a train all day never making it into the office. Only recently, the company added car rides home for late nights. There is backstabbing and self-promotion at the expense of others. Starting at the top and all the way down, few people take responsibility and when something does not turn out right, it is someone else that did not do their job (note, the comments about when you aren't given the tools to succeed). Solutions are to make a change in people, instead of solving for what is causing the problem and solving for the fix (which isn't always a change in personnel). The core team in Chicago is less than 20, so you would think that everyone is friendly and collaborative. However, there are clear cliques. Information and best practices are protected and not voluntarily shared. Very high expectations are set around underwriting and budgeting. However, the inflated numbers are recognized as under performance when financials or other metrics are missed. The CEO likes to fall back on established "rules" about why he can not affect change internally, especially around personnel issues. It does not seem he has the power to solve complex internal operating problems affecting his people or it feels like he does not want to solve these problems. A typical line is "That is a board decision" to which he is a board member. There is clear nepotism.