Pros
There’s always fulfillment somewhere when working with youth. It gives you more experience to put on your resume.
Cons
My experience with New Focus Academy raised concerns regarding professionalism, staffing practices, and consistency in care. During onboarding, I and other staff were issued keys granting access to students’ living areas before background checks were completed, which I found concerning from a safety and hiring-process standpoint. Workplace culture, in my experience, involved favoritism and inconsistent management practices, which affected scheduling and overall team stability. Although full-time roles were expected to provide consistent hours, staff who were not viewed as priority were not always scheduled for a full 40-hour workweek. I also experienced issues regarding workplace respect. A house manager repeatedly called me “dumbass,” even after I asked them to stop, which I felt contributed to a hostile and unprofessional environment. In my role as a lead, I was assigned significant additional responsibilities, including having to take on a lot more responsibility outside of my role due to management seeming to not take their role seriously and often leaving this side of the program directionless and seemingly unsupported. When I raised concerns about compensation for this increased workload, I did not feel the concern was taken seriously. I also observed inconsistencies in food service provided to students, particularly at breakfast, where items listed on the menu were often unavailable. Overall, I felt there was inconsistency in food quality and execution. Finally, I had concerns about professionalism in leadership interactions. My partner, who was part of the leadership team, expressed concern to me about inappropriate workplace conversations of a sexually explicit nature occurring in private settings. Based on what I was told and indirectly experienced through that relationship, I did not feel those interactions were appropriate for a professional environment. I also observed that Google reviews were disabled at one point, which limited public visibility into client and employee feedback. Overall, my experience reflected concerns regarding hiring processes, management culture, staff treatment, and consistency in program operations.