Pros
Amazing foster parents who go above and beyond to make sure the children in their care are taken care of.
Cons
Interviewer will be untruthful and say things that are not the actual reality of how this company operates. You will be told that you will be given plenty of time during your 90 day probationary period to get trained and acquainted with the job before you will be expected to carry a full caseload or go on call. You will leave the interview thinking this is an amazing opportunity and after reading the companies vision statement, you will be so excited to accept this job offer.
Once you start this job, you will quickly realize everything explained to you during the interview process was completely false and you've been duped. Your first week will be spent in the supervisors office listening to her quickly read off their foster care manual to check off a box. You will be given no time to process anything read to you before you are expected to move on to something else. You will shadow other employees during this time but are expected to take all of their notes and enter them into a documentation system you've not even been trained to use yet or given a log in to enter. During the interview process you will be told that employees will shadow you as well once you have your own cases. This is untrue.
After your background check clears, usually around week two, you will have cases transferred over to your workload for you to be responsible for. These cases will not be transferred to you without a large to do list you are expected to complete. Cases were transferred to me at week 2 and immediately came with a 42 item to do list. They do not fully wrap up cases before quickly transferring them to someone else. Supervision will make you think that they will supervise you and help you with these cases until you are ready to carry them solo. This is partly true. Supervison has to be in control at all times over any and all things. The level of micromanaging will suffocate the life out of you. Supervision is quick to point out all of your flaws and areas you need to improve leaving you feeling vulnerable and like a failure. Supervision is incapable of showing empathy, compassion, or concern. Supervision believes that feelings are not part of their job description and when you express concerns of feeling overwhelmed, you will be told to deal with your feelings, it's part of the job. If you have thoughts or need to process something, you will be quickly shut down. "That's not important, or that's not priority." Supervison is always online or willing to take your call but you will find stepping out into traffic more appealing than speaking to this supervisor about anything.
By week 3, you will probably already be on call.
If you think this job Is about supporting foster parents/children. Advocating for their needs etc. You will find that this is not the case. This job is about checking off boxes and meeting paperwork deadlines. These things are far more important to supervision than being any kind of support to the families they are paid to serve. The foster children who already deal with trauma and have a hard time with change ultimately suffer due to having to get new caseworkers all the time.
Supervision is smart. The mistreatment, rude comments, passive aggressive comments, and basically inhumane treatment will be done verbally without any witnesses. Supervision will make sure to be on ps and qs in writing so that when you complain to the director, she can show the director all communications done in writing and your complaints will be her word against yours. The director will not believe that her "supervisor" is capable of such mistreatment of employees. The director will explain away the supervisors behavior and use psychology to make you think you are the problem. You will be convinced that the actions of supervision were not intentional. You may even start to make excuses for supervision mistreatment of you at this time. You will become the problem. You will be told you are too emotional and not in a mindset to accept support and encouragement from supervision.
The supervisor will meet with you after you've complained to the director. The supervisor will take notes and act as if things can be worked out. By this time you have already formed good working relationships with the foster parents, foster kids, and other professionals. You will convince yourself that you can do this and make it work.
If you think this agency has an open door policy and you will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint. Don't be mistaken because it will happen. Supervision is smart and will use your 90 day review to do so. You will be given a harsh review where this agency will take no accountability for the position they put you in since you started. No one in this agency ever takes accountability. It's always, "just the nature of the job!" Some truths will be told in this review as everyone has things to work on and improve. But you will be retaliated against by supervision nitpicking and making a point to paint you in the worst light ever. The full truth will not be told in that review of complete retaliation. You may even be accused of an absolute lie that is unforgivable, not to mention illegal.
By doing research, I have been told by legit resources that this has been an ongoing issue for some time. Nothing ever gets done about it. This why they cannot keep new employees. Foster children ultimately suffer. The director and everyone else turns a blind eye because supervision checks off all the boxes and keeps licensure happy. If anyone ever decides to take a job at this agency I recommend recording all conversations. Otherwise the things said to you will not be believed. Your mistreatment will be something made up in your head because you are too emotional.
The benefits offered at this agency are the worst I've ever seen. If you want to pay thousands of dollars out of your pocket every year before insurance pays anything while paying high premiums for this insurance out of your check bi-weekly, you may be okay with it. You are given 6 hours of pto each month and two floating holidays. That's it. If you ever get sick or have to take your kids to the doctor, you will quickly deplete your pto balance. Which you are not even allowed to use for the first 90 days. You will be told when interviewed that you will have the opportunity to work 4 (10) hour days. What is not said is you are expected to be fully trained to be offered this schedule and it could take a year or longer before that will even be an option. If you have children who require appts or if you require appts. A few times getting sick, you've already depleted your pto balance. The director says that once you hit a negative pto balance that, "it's out of her hands!" Supervison will tell you privately that working from home is absolutely not an option for you. Working 4 (10) hour days is totally different than working from home and will take even longer time to get that flexible schedule. Then when in front of someone else, she will retract her words and ask you if she's ever denied you these options? But, why would you even ask if you were clearly told it was not an option in the first place. Then again, without actually recording private conversations with supervision, no one is going to believe you. Forget ever being able to take a vacation or anything with the amount of pto given if you are one who is going to need to use the pto for appts.
You are expected to use your own vehicle to transport children etc. You are given a small stipend on your paycheck to help towards this expense. This stipend does not cover the amount of money you will spend on gas, the wear and tear on your vehicle, or the fact that there will be times you will be expected to use your personal money to purchase food and drinks for the children when you are transporting them for extended lengths of time. I personally drove almost 2,000 miles in one month for this job. 70 hours I spent on the road. This stipend didnt even help with a small fraction of the gas I had to buy. The salary provided compared to this is not worth it.
This is the absolute worst company I have ever worked for and I would never recommend anyone to consider taking a job at this agency. If you are a human being, this is not the job for you. Simply put.