Before this halfway house became one of Core Civic's facility's, it was called Time to Change. I loved working for Time to Change, but hated working for Core Civic. Time to Change cared about their employees and the clients. It was a professional, yet fun, atmosphere. Once Core Civic took over, everything changed. Our salary stayed the same (luckily), but people just starting through Core Civic, did not get paid well and had to start at Core Civic's pay grade. Core Civic took away the "humor" that you need to have in such a stressful work environment. No more joking or laughing with other co-workers (even behind closed doors) to get through a stressful work day. That is needed to survive in this field! No cell phones in the facility, because "they have radios for staff." Well, our facility was short on radios. So, not having my phone with me while I am meeting with male sex offenders at 8 PM by myself, doesn't seem too safe. To me, it felt like more of a control thing, and I am not a child. When it was Time to Change, we got 12 hours of PTO a month. When Core Civic took over, it went down to 6 hours a month. Not even a full day off for one month's work!! The 6 hours include sick time as well. The employees Core Civic hire are also very questionable, as they don't seem very qualified. Very high turnover rate and you just feel no appreciation from Core Civic management. When they first took over Time to Change, they tried to act like they cared and asked us for suggestions, but I never saw any changes. There is lack of communication between management and the lower ranks. As a Sex Offender Case Manager, I had more responsibilities than a general Case Manager, but my caseload numbers were the same as a general Case Manager, and I made the same amount of money. There is also something called "on-call" where you are on-call for an entire week. You get calls all throughout the night for random things (most of which you have to notify management about anyway) and then you are still expected to work your normal shift. It's a very stressful and demanding job with little benefits.
