Pros
The clients and nature of the work. The front line team.
Cons
The general view is 'We don't care if staff aren't happy, if they're not happy they can just go elsewhere'. There's no team meetings because they don't care about your views and won't take them on board unless they agree with their own and maintain the status quo. There's no leadership, communication or feedback as management is completely removed from the daily effort of the hard working team. In fact, communication is severely lacking to the point where staff are piecing important and relevant information together via snippets that filter down the grapevine through managements friend circles. This lack of transparency leaves everyone frustrated and cynical - it also breeds poor decision making as employees are not given the full picture. All support plans are hugely out of date and written with minimal detailed and blanket statements where possible - simply to pass inspections, putting vulnerable clients and staff at risk of not delivering suitable or appropriate support. The staff are not properly trained or supported in how to put these together and are left feeling frustrated. Despite all of these many grey areas, there's actually no protection for staff at all as they 'don't recognise unions', another representation of how they have no care for their staff and management makes no secret about this either, a form of intimidation. New staff are not given any training before they are allowed to work with clients, some can be working for 6 months until some of them may be sent on a short course about key principles of their job role which should have been covered before even coming into contact with service users. Therefore many of them are working without any training or knowing the basics of the conditions the clients have - unless they've done their own external research or had previous training from a better organised company that invest in staff development - many have been working solo with individuals that have epilepsy and Buccal in place, without any epilepsy or buccal training. They make staff work with clients that have a history of aggressive/violent behaviour, without any deescalation techniques or breakaway training. They can be working for months on end without any knowledge of what the mental capacity act entails, what rights the clients have, how to descalate challenging behaviour, what techniques help to enable and support in the least restrictive way, how to identify, avoid and report unsafe practice or practice that infringes on human rights. Even senior positions don't have this knowledge to impart, so safeguarding of the clients is an issue and ethical lines are crossed on a regular basis. One of linkages values is person centred support but that service is not being delivered whatsoever, unless the client is lucky enough to have savvy family members that are willing to kick up a fuss. The management team is juvenile, inexperienced and segregated from the front line of staff as family members and best friends are given power trips while the rest of the team feel invisible and unimportant. Not only is it corrupt, but nobody takes accountability for mistakes they just cover them up and push out anyone who dares speak up - your opportunities and reputation in this company is purely a social game There's no investment in your potential to develop as they just have the intention to keep people swimming in place unless you've earned their favour on a personal level. Internal transfers are not only frowned upon but are discouraged - you have to resign your post and lose any term benefits, and then get placed back on probation. Promotions are not even advertised internally. Agile thinking is stifled, and any suggestions of small adjustments in the best interest of the clients are automatically rejected. Creativity is not nurtured and change is resisted, complaints and concerns are not encouraged or taken seriously. There's no incentive for going above and beyond as it is not recognised or acknowledged. However, it IS expected so if you don't work yourself into the ground, making Linkage your whole life and reason for existing, you're passive aggressively punished - a ridiculous culture. If they manage to recruit somebody, they don't usually stay long because the cracks show almost immediately as the whole team is demotivated, disillusioned and frankly just pissed off. The clients themselves and the Linkage values are wonderful, but sadly the company is not upholding them so all the best staff move on quickly. No matter how eager you are to fulfil a role in this area, or how desperate you might be for a job, it is not worth working for a company that will completely strip you of your value and self worth and actually subject you to organisational abuse. If you are genuinely passionate about this line of work, you will not be happy working here long term so just keep hunting for something sustainable and save yourself the hassle.