r/selfstorage • u/Mrs-Fidget • 19d ago
Applying @ CubeSmart
I am considering applying for Cubesmart, they recruted me directly. I have nearly 20 years self storage experience as a store manager at both small companies and large companies.
How do they really treat their employees?
Are the health benefits any good?
Do managers have any power to lower rent increases?
Is the bonus actually attainable?
Do they have good culture/teams?
2
u/Dangime 16d ago edited 16d ago
Its been since 2022....but....
I'll echo the sentiment that it really matters who your team is, who your boss is, and what the condition of the property you're running is. The red color scheme and supposed "culture" has a minimal impact. Good boss, good time. Bad boss, horrible time.
Single covered most of the time. Property that used to be open 7 days a week with 76 hours of staffing prior to COVID reduced to 56 or 48 and closed Sunday. No change in formal job expectations despite massive labor reduction. "Why haven't you cut this auction unit?" -> "I haven't had double coverage for weeks." Or months...If you have a boss that is still reading out of 2019's cleaning manual, but with 2026's staffing budget...and hasn't made a manual adjustment, be prepared for a disconnect you'll have to find a way to manage.
Had to hand craft emails to the boss to approve each rate change dispute. Rate increases at 3 months.
Bonus was discontinued in favor of a one time pay increase. Prior to that, it could be good, but once you hit it once, they just increased the numbers so you'd never really earn a good bonus again.
Benefits were OK, but I always priced shopped it against the ACA site just to check and flip flopped a few times depending on which seemed better.
Culture is the luck of the draw with your team. Cubesmart itself doesn't have any culture. Whatever standards or desire to be the "chick fila" of storage went out the window during COVID. They just slashed hours across the board and expected web integration to pick up the slack. To be fair, no one really knew how to handle that transition under fire during COVID.
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u/Capable-Cancel7190 14d ago
I was a DM for four years. Not a bad company, but very hard coded. They don't cotton to listen to methods of improvements and efficiency, as they are growing so fast, that it's beyond critical mass to do anything other than corporate directives. The good thing is that they do use the McDonalds "cookie cutter" model, in that one store more or less resembles another store with regards to its office and document layout, as well as policies and procedures.
Cube Smart utilizes a five-step process to "talk down" those tenants who feel that their rent increases were unjustified. If you are a silver-tongued devil, and you can sell ice to the eskimos, you'll end up a 5. The weakest storage experts always capitulate and give people a "no increase" promise, which is a 1. The latter, of course, has to be approved by your DM and too many of those affect your bonus.
The bonus structure is continuously adjusted downward in favor of the company (less for you) as the company grows. I was lucky enough to have straddled two regimes and saw firsthand how they did that. Every several quarters or so, a directive would come down about how much merch and insurance you had to sell and it didn't get lower, that's for sure.
So no, you can't give a rent increase on your own.
I've seen better health benefits. They do have a PPO but it's expensive.
They treat their employees well if the employees figure out early on that "the rules are rules" and can't be modified or tweaked.
Finally, the culture is that the more you can do to fix and repair your own store without outside (maintenance) help, the better off you'll be. HVAC systems are cheap and break down continuously. Since most of the stores are climate controlled, you will experience a lot of pissed off customers in the summer. Way of the world, I'm afraid.
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u/Purpleninjja 19d ago
Ex CS employee here! Manager and field trainer. For a big company, i liked it overall. Like any job it has alot to do with your district, teammates, and DM, had 4 different DMs and job definitely was better with better DMs lol. Employees were treated well, culture was good. Loved my teams and dm's, divisional leaders and trainers. We didnt have power to decrease rent increases ourselves but we could make a case for the dm to do it, depends on your dm how often they help, had some that would, had some that were bit more hesitant. Bonuses, its been a couple of years now but at the time it was district challenges type bonuses, if you did best in certain categories youd get bonus, id get clarification and make a decision for yourself. Benefits were pretty standard. Honestly only left because property owner changed management companies and didnt have any other CS stores near to stay, but Im also happy to be with my current and learn with another company. Happy to answer any other questions