Brookdale Senior Living Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Brookdale Senior Living full-time for more than a year

Pros – Being able to work with residents long-term across both home health and outpatient services and as someone else said I after working for ISC I now appreciate my new job so much more (if only I'd left before being bullied out while 6 months pregnant)

Cons – 1. very little respect for therapists and basically no effort to retain them, benefits that were promised were constantly being cut, 2. therapist are responsible for creating their own caseload with little concern re: whether there was truly a skilled need or responsible use of pt's Medicare coverage, 3. therapists are blamed if they do not create a big enough caseload/have cancellations that affect productivity, 4. chronically understaffed, 5. no admin support for non-billable tasks that must be accomplished, 6. very ineffective management from the top down providing little support even when therapists seek it out, 7. no guaranteed hours unless you want to drive to cover any building in the network (some up to 1 1/2 hours away with no consistent policy re: mileage/time reimbursement) meaning you could lose benefits at any time

Advice to Senior Management – Please actually read and listen to these concerns and begin seeing your employees as assets rather than mere income generators, those who suffer the most in this type of environment are the residents we're meant to serve

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Brookdale Senior Living full-time for more than a year

Pros – I had the opportunity to work with some outstanding clinical staff. People who were smart, caring and went above and beyond for their patients.
I appreciated my next job SO much after blessedly being terminated.

Cons – Some of the most hypocritical and dishonest persons I've encountered in my 20+ years in the industry work for ISC - and have risen to the RVP and SDO positions by bullying and manipulating their way. The Corporate Compliance attorneys seemed genuinely interested and appreciative when allegations (which were ultimately substantiated) were reported. However, even Corporate Compliance attorneys cannot protect one who Senior Ops folks want to terminate.
Financial performance trumps all - including descent, ethical behavior - despite all the hollow claims of it being "about the resident" and a "culture of caring".
Avoid this company (ISC) like the plague.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to require new associates to sign binding arbitration agreements prior to employment. It is a very cost effective way to keep the company out of court.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Brookdale Senior Living full-time for more than a year

Pros – Hourly rate is fairly good for full-time therapists.

Cons – Productivity trumps quality of care and ethics. Many on-site therapy coordinators do an extremely poor job of handling departmental issues...I'm not sure whether it's an individual coordinator issue, or whether the company handles things so poorly from upper levels that it is impossible for coordinators to be successful. Likely a bit of both. Residents do not receive the quality of therapy services they are owed, and it's because of the way Brookdale allows Innovative Senior Care (therapy/nursing staff) to be managed.

Advice to Senior Management – I truly hope management actually sees this advice, because the residents deserve good, consistent care:

Treat your employees as assets, not as expenses. Stop making therapists travel around the entire network. Plan better so that you aren't constantly short-staffed. Stop harassing staff about productivity. An employee that feels valued and appreciated is much happier than one who hears nothing but negative feedback. If you change the way you treat your staff, your turnover rate and productivity rate will improve greatly.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Brookdale Senior Living full-time

Pros – Professional wages are good; staff are patient oriented and caring toward residents.
Benefit menu good; costs excessive..

Cons – Caregivers poorly educated/supported and underpaid. Corporate culture is command and control...top down directives; very demotivating environment.

Advice to Senior Management – Offering SNF level care requires properly trained caregivers! Retaining staff should be a higher priority for company success. Corp. culture is outdated and will dwarf company success in new healthcare environment and workforce pool. Employees don't feel valued, trusted, or trustful of management. Programs are great on paper, but not supported with enough properly trained staff to implement them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Brookdale Senior Living full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Great place to work when it was the original Brookdale.

Cons – Now too big, too beauractatic and too clicky...Kiss but to get anyway or they fir you!

Advice to Senior Management – Get it together...Replace upper management with people who know the business and can relate to their employees and their residents. You guys grew TOO big, TOO fast and kept the WRONG PEOPLE in positions of POWER! f I'm sorry to say I would NOT recommend the NEW Brookdale.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Brookdale Senior Living full-time

Pros – My initial experience was a response by email and then a face to face, very brief, meeting with the person you would be working for. What a joke! Then there was a second interview where this person was "out of town" and it was with an older employee who you would be working in the same area with. This left a very negative feeling and I knew she would be the person to block further progress. I was correct. This was followed by a young lady, filling in for someone temporarily, who informed me that she was ready to hire me and would call the gentleman responsible and let him know. Then weeks and months went by and I had given up hope and here comes another email asking if I was still interested. HA, HA!!! I replied yes simply to see how far this would go. I had a job and had no intention of working with Brookdale ever!!!!

Cons – There were no cons whatsoever. My advice would be don't fall for the pretty picture they present.

Advice to Senior Management – You have extremely poor management individuals here in the Richmond area. I am sure there is some sort of legal punishment for misrepresenting employment and for outright lying.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Brookdale Senior Living full-time for more than a year

Pros – Assisting and spending time with the residents was the highlight of my day. Some coworkers were very nice to work with.

Cons – Management was the worse I have ever seen, from the facility Director up to the Regional people. They promote the components of their mission statement verbally but they DO NOT act on it at all themselves.

Advice to Senior Management – Visit your Communities on a regular basis. DON'T call ahead, DROP IN. Don't take the E.D. word for the state of the Community. I was paid 3k LESS than low norm for this company and expected to work 60-80 hrs wkly. This employment experience was a living horror story.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Brookdale Senior Living full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – residents, my staff who worked their ass off while waiting sometimes up to 2 months for new hires to begin.

Cons – run run dont walk. I got 2 promotions things were great till i got to last promotion. Averaging 100 hrs a week no support, when i tried to CA a employee Corporate declined it or by the time they approved it a week went by that time its like punishing a dog for something they did a while ago. Residents complaining food was horrible. I agree YOU TRY FEEDING Someone for $ 6.00 a day. I did it but cant get the food that residents want, a same when they pay average rent of 5000. I finally gave notice after they demanded me to work from 530am-7pm 7 days a week until they could get me a pro tem to help me.

Advice to Senior Management – practice your cornerstones. Quality of life i never seen that with this company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Brookdale Senior Living full-time for more than a year

Pros – You work with the elderly. They are the ones that make your day better.

Cons – Management, My manager always had favorites. Very sexists (towards men), Management brings their problems to work, usually take it out on the employes. No fairness.I was only allowed to work 32 hours weekly, If you work more then 32 hours. You would get called in to the office by Senior Management.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop thinking about your bonuses, and start thinking about the people that are working for you. Stop belittling people and your staff. It doesn't matter if your male or female we can all do the same job.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Brookdale Senior Living full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – I love the residents. Awesome people. The employees there for the most part were good people. Not a lot positive to say about this place.

Cons – Dishonest. Upper management is super shady. Hired family members to work under them and showed favoritism to them. Said they were an employees company and said if you see something wrong in your dept to take it to the exec dir. And you wouldn't have to worry about repercussions. Don't fall for it. They lie. .

Advice to Senior Management – Do not hire immediate family to work under you. Or in the same facility.

– I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company