Soul of CoStar - Research Associate CoStar Group Employee Review

Let me offer a snapshot into the soul of the Research Department. While this example may appear dated, nothing has changed. If anything, the culture within this Department has worsened. Years ago, after New Jersey was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, Our Team, despite severe objections by team members, was forced to call our market. Every day, a Researcher is expected to make an insurmountable pile of calls, and according to the Research Department, this day was like any other. Families were without homes, businesses were crippled, the state was in shock — but we were told we had to burden them with our daily metrics. Do not for one second think that our scripts were abridged to incorporate any human feeling. Our goal was to ask the same questions, harass the same people. Here is how I remember the typical script from that day: RA: “Good afternoon Mr. Smith, this is XYZ from CoStar Group, how is everything?” VICTIM: “I can’t talk my home is underwater and my business is a mile off the Jersey shore.” RA: “Well, do you have any other listings on the market?” VICTIM: “You’re kidding…” RA: “No, I’m not kidding, sir, I take my job seriously. We’re the #1 provider of commercial real estate. Have you heard of our subsidiary LoopNet?” VICTIM: “You do understand that our community is in a State of Emergency?” RA: “I just want to provide maximum exposure to your listings.” You get the picture. Scripts and bureaucracy are more important than actual human feeling. I know that sounds like a cliche, but I have worked for many other organizations and CoStar takes this notion to new definitions of the word. Hannah Arendt had a term for this. She called it the ‘Banality of Evil’. It means that in going along with what you are told, as Managers, Directors and above do, they create an atmosphere of immorality, and are capable of tacitly carrying out horrible acts. While this alludes to unspeakable atrocities over 70 years ago, the underlying psychology persists in vile, seemingly benign corporate gutters like CoStar Group’s Research Department.