Avantages
Being able to impact the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities. They really love you and appreciate the time you take to work with them.
Inconvénients
-Poor management from upper level and site directors.
Staff who make any mistakes at work, even those within their training period, will receive "staff mistakes" on their employee profile, which upper-level management uses as excuses to not give employees raises. Staff can receive mistakes for not doing tasks that they were never told to do. Staff were almost guaranteed a staff mistake if the route they drove was back late in the morning due to traffic. Instead of telling you what you did wrong so that you can fix your mistakes, they write a staff mistake on your profile so they don't have to discuss it with you in-person. Management is extremely micromanaging. During staff and site meetings, management would ask for suggestions on how to make the place better, but staff's suggestions were frequently ignored.
-Poor vehicle maintenance.
The company does not maintain their vehicles that are used to transport participants, which is a MAJOR safety issue. The vans frequently had tire problems, A/C issues, and engine issues. The van's tires were a frequent issue, as they were either not kept to proper inflation, or they were so worn down that they needed replaced. The company only hired one maintenance technician to fix all of the company's vans, so he was constantly busy with work because all of the vans had problems. Because of this, the vans couldn't be repaired in a timely manner. For a company that claims to care about the participants they serve, their vehicles definitely did not reflect that. They also required staff to drive company vans in unsafe weather conditions, like sub-zero temperatures and icy roads. On snowy days, staff had to dig the vans out of the snow before driving their routes. If it's snowing, be prepared to get stuck in the snow or cause an accident because the tires have no tread and management takes forever to get them replaced. On one occasion, one staff was required to drive a van that had no heat on a below-freezing temperature day and transport participants because all of the other vans were being repaired.
-High turnover.
The site that I worked at was notorious for high turnover. Be prepared to come in early, even on days that you aren't scheduled to drive, because you will probably be called to drive routes when people call off. Our site was constantly short-staffed, which made participant supervision difficult. Often we would have only two staff to supervise 40+ participants at the site and on outings, as well as helping in the restroom. Management was actively trying to add new participants to the site, even though we barely had enough staff to supervise them. (Company gets money for each participant they have on site). Management was aware of the high turnover rate and did not do enough to mediate it.
-Long hours.
Be prepared to work from 7:00 am to 5:30 pm if you drive the routes to pick up participants. If your site is short staffed, you'll likely work 40+ hours/week, and if your site is fully staffed with drivers, you'll be lucky if you work 35 hours. You are given very little time to complete your paperwork each day, which includes planning the activities for an entire month, writing participant notes, etc. If your route arrives at the site late in the morning, your only time to do paperwork gets cut into, so you have less time to complete your daily paperwork. ALSO, management at the site I worked at would constantly tell staff to not use the restroom while they were clocked in, and to only do so on their 30-minute lunch break, even though we were often working 10 hour days. They also constantly interrupted our only break during the day and had us work during our lunches, then they would complain that we "took more than 30 minutes for our break".
-Poor benefits
The company boasts about their "great benefits", but they only allowed 3 days of PTO and 3 unpaid days off during your first year. If you take off more days than you are allotted for the year, you will be given less PTO and unpaid days the following year. The company also makes you use your PTO or unpaid days if you are sick OR if the site is closed due to weather. No vacation time until after your first year. They also do not allow you to take any days off if another staff has requested that same day off. The wages they pay you for the amount of work you are responsible for is abysmal. AND they tell you to not discuss your wage with other staff out of "fairness". This also doesn't include all of the unpaid work that you have to do off the clock. Directors expect you to respond to calls, texts, and emails before and after your shift. If you were scheduled to drive a route and the site is closed due to weather, you are responsible to call the family of each participant on your route to tell them that we will not be picking them up (This is UNPAID and done off the clock at 6:30 am). When staff would ask if we would be paid for calling the families off the clock, we were ignored by management.
This company could be so much better if they listened to staff and treated their employees fairly.