Pros
Kids are great and fun to hang out with
Cons
Basically everything else. The first red flag I noticed with this job was during my interview when I asked about lunch breaks I was told that "staff are allowed to eat with their kids when they are having lunch", making it seem like not only did we get a lunch break, but also could snack throughout the day, great. Well, on my first day when I asked when lunch was I was shocked to be told that "it's at 12:30, ya know, we eat with the students" when I inquired about this to a manager I was informed that the fine print of my contract actually included this and I basically signed away my right to a lunch break. Now, at a normal school this would be no issue, but I was also expected to flawlessly run a very complex feeding program with my student while I was managing his eating lunch as well as my own. I soon learned that most staff just eat at the end of the day during staff independent work hours. Next, I was told that the two weeks of training (at half pay) that we are forced to participate in prior to being put on the floor was actually worth 350 dollars and anyone who doesn't work there for over 6 months has to refund the company that money for training (I immediately marked the 6 months date on my calendar after learning about this). As for other basic workers rights that were taken away, we were regularly watched through a camera while working (we knew there were cameras in the rooms but were not informed when they were being watched) and then later judged and scored based on how we performed using a very complex scoring rubric. Many points of this rubric were very subjective (a manager would watch you work when you didn't know and basically decide if they liked your behavior) and you could be docked points for things such as not smiling enough or not looking engaged enough. The kicker was, these evaluations are tied directly to your yearly raise and not scoring enough points can result in you literally not getting any raise from year to year. We were also expected to take time outside of work to update out students programs books, these were also part of the review, and as tiny of a mistake as writing the wrong date down on a single piece of paper would cost you hugely on your evals. I can't say everyone will have the same experience with their direct managers there, but the one I worked with was probably the worst thing about the entire job. She would constantly take behavior tech's ideas with students and pass them off as her own (after telling us no, that won't work when we suggested it during meetings) and would regularly swear during meetings, sometimes directed at staff, and would regularly try to hold our eval scores over our heads to intimidate us into doing things that were outside of our job description. She also once told me "I was trying to do your observation for your eval but your coworker told me you were in the bathroom, you're clearly going to the bathroom way too much so I had to give you a 0 for that section". If you are considering working here, I beg you, please look into a different school. I know the allure of potentially getting BCBA school for free by working there is enticing but that is another thing they constantly hold over your head and, since managers have to recommend employees for it, it's another way the managers play favorites and intimidate staff. There are so many other places where you can get the reward of helping children without feeling like you're working in a prison.
