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Nowadays, “recruiting season” seems to be extended to a year-round affair. While brokers and franchises are battling out splits, tech, and the latest and greatest shiny object to tempt top producers to their side of the street, coaches and team leaders know that training and education are a key element as well. However, there’s one area that even top managers fail to fix: hostile work environments.
Let’s break down what is considered a hostile work environment, common complaints from agents, and solutions to solve sticking points and keep that new agent you worked months to recruit working for your team longer than six months — and staying for the long haul.
Normal office problems or hostile workplace?
There is a big difference between your oblivious co-worker microwaving broccoli and salmon every day for lunch (and smelling up the whole office) and a hostile work environment.
It’s not that you have a few annoying agents sitting next to you making TikToks; it’s regular neglect from management and harassment from others occurring multiple times over a long period of time with no correction or attention from higher ups.
Indeed defines a hostile work environment as follows: “A hostile work environment is one where the words and actions of a supervisor, manager or coworker negatively or severely impact another employee’s ability to complete their work. Any employee can be responsible for creating a hostile work environment.“
Now that you have some context, here are six indicators that your “fun” place to work may be anything but.
1. ‘This is the best place to work. We are like family’
Here is what I know after years of speaking with agents and admins. If the manager or broker has a “We are like family” mentality in the office, it can often be a symptom of a bigger problem. It means that while there are many great aspects to working for that team, there are usually major issues with work-life balance and making excuses for long-term agents who have really terrible habits and behaviors that have gone unchecked for, potentially, decades.
- Are you going to get coached and mentored? Or are you going to get called into the “living room” and yelled at by someone who is correcting you like you are their child (instead of an independent contractor) when things go sideways?
- Is loyalty to the team pushed so hard that perhaps some team members are not getting fair treatment “for the good of the group”?
- Are there “family favorites” who get special treatment?
- When agent Bob says crazy inappropriate things in the office and comes in to drink coffee and harass the admin staff for an hour because he still can’t use the scanner, does the broker make excuses or do they actually do something about the agent’s lazy behavior?
This is where “we are like family” comes into play. Are there respectful work relationships, or are team members over-involved in your personal life?
Before moving to a new brokerage, make sure to ask current agents what the management style is like, and if there are any problem agents in the office. This will save you a ton of headaches. Always take some current agents out to lunch to get the real story.
2. You don’t take Diversity Equity and Inclusion seriously
There is no code of conduct, there is no official fair housing training follow-up, and someone is walking around the office repeatedly saying that DEI is what is ruining our country and that we need to get back to “traditional values.” Many real estate offices do not offer any type of HR support at all to make sure that agents have a place to check in with regular office and management issues, while the lack of support and oversight from a third party can also create issues.
3. Tantrums and tea
There’s a now classically famed scene in the movie Office Space where frustrated employees take the fax/copy machine that never works and destroy it with a baseball bat. If there are folks in your office (including yourself) who have regular violent tantrums, sprinkled with profanity — this is a major red flag and can be a compounding issue of why other members of your team do not stick around.
Unfortunately, as fun as it may be to dish some piping hot tea with your friends, an office atmosphere that is constantly embroiled in the latest gossip can also create a hostile environment that serious professionals will quickly decide they don’t have time for.
If there is constant drama in the office, and you are not on Bravo, you probably need to get a handle on the work atmosphere.
4. Room for activities … and parking
One thing that creates hostility quickly in a workplace is workstations that do not allow for privacy, are poorly constructed, uncomfortable, contain messy conference rooms that no one wants to clean, and — the worst of the worst — don’t include enough parking for team members and customers.
The cleanliness (and smells) in the space can also contribute to a hostile environment. Don’t cut corners on professional cleaners; no agent wants to be assigned a chore chart when they come into the office.
Make sure that essential office supplies are available, and if you can provide a few healthy snacks, it shows your crew that you are invested in their well-being.
Make sure that your office space is not so posh that it is not ADA-compliant. Creating a cool, hip boutique brokerage is, of course, the “fun” part of developing your brand, but if the furniture is uncomfortable, and someone with a wheelchair can’t access your restroom, workspace or conference room .. then you have a major problem.
I have also had agents tell me that they have not chosen a brokerage because of the style and culture of the office; they felt like they wouldn’t fit in with the “clique” that worked there.
5. You constantly have a vacant admin position
If you cannot keep an admin working on staff for you, you may have all of the problems above and then some. I find that the best-run offices are not looking for an “office mom” and a “babysitter” but understand that a great admin who is a pro at transaction management is worth their weight and gold — the secret sauce to attracting and keeping top-producing agents who get things done.
6. Bullies, bros and hazing
When it comes to sales coaching and motivation, if your office looks more like a frat house or the bullpen from Wolf of Wall Street, there is a major problem in your office. It’s not Rush Week, it’s not the ABC’s, and you shouldn’t be forcing agents to cold call or door knock against their will. If the antics in the office are out of control, then you may have a serious problem.
A beer fridge and a video gaming system, cigars and a whisky room shouldn’t be the selling point in your recruiting strategy. Professional training, an agent conduct handbook, and educational resources should be available and easy to access for all members of your team. The drinking problems in our industry are out of control, and every brokerage should offer a sober option for agent events and social occasions.
Final thoughts
One of the top stories recently was about some less-than-flattering ways agents make themselves look unprofessional. As a broker or team leader, it’s your responsibility to have a handle on the level of professionalism you expect in and out of the office.
If your office space is “hostile,” then it doesn’t matter how great your guidance, and packages are. You cannot put a price on a clean, safe, and peaceful place to bring clients to or to come into and quickly knock out essential tasks.
It’s up to brokers and team leaders to make sure that their office is not a chaotic or less than comfortable space. Try to find the Zen for your agents. They will appreciate it.
Rachael Hite is a former agent, a business development specialist, fair housing advocate, copy editor, and is currently perfecting her long game selling forever homes in a retirement continuing care community in Northern Virginia. You can connect with her about life, marketing and business on Instagram.
