I was hired as a "program director." They told me there would be occasions I would be required to work in the homes with clients. I completed their two weeks training (most of which is in a computer,) and then was able to speak with another program director who was actually stepping down to take a lower-paying position. I was then told that it is REQUIRED for the program directors to work a minimum of 16 hours in one of their assigned homes (or possibly someone else's home if there isn't coverage.) This was never mentioned to me in the interview or during training. I asked the director is this was true, and she replied, "yes, because we are in crisis mode."
The day before I left, I sat in on a meeting where the other 5 program directors were frantically trying to fill a half empty dry erase board full of the next 4 weeks' open shifts. They were calling and texting every direct care worker to see if they could pick up as many shifts as possible. The "program director's" job is to manage 5-6 houses that have anywhere from 1-5ish clients living in each one. In an ideal world, the direct care workers would be making 12-15 an hour, and would work with the same people day in and day out to get to know the clients and the client's family, and eliminate the issues that come with different employees working with different clients every day. However, direct care only make a little above minimum wage, so this location is about 30 or more employees short of being fully staffed. There is no way that each direct care worker is familiar and trained on each client. No way.
There was also a very strange animosity or drama between the program directors. Some of them were very rude and not willing to work with each other. There were some comments about each other in front of me that made me very uncomfortable. In fact, it was when I saw the dynamic between the program directors that I decided I was not going to take the job.
I know that this is not for profit organization, and they are doing the best they can. However, I didn't appreciate having the wool pulled over my eyes about the position itself. If they had been a little more up front about the requirements, I wouldn't have wasted so much of their resources in training. I was told in the interview that I would be required to come in if someone in one of my houses called out. I was NOT told that would be working a minimum of 16 hours a week in homes that I may or may not be trained on. Its a hard job, and they do not have enough resources, funding, or employees.
