Pros
The people we support keep the majority of the employees coming back to work daily. The rewarding feeling when one of the people we support finally accomplishes a goal.
Kontras
The DSA staff is expected to be teachers, counselors, drivers, housekeepers and cooks among other duties. On top of the daily logs, notes and documentation that has to be done before leaving your shift. All the different aspects of our job is expected to be done at a high level because we are in direct contact with our service users. We are not compensated for our important need to the company. Because we are a 24/7 operation we are expected to be flexible and this does not allow any chance of maintaining a part-time job. There is no such thing as holiday pay for the DSA staff but management staff does not work any major holidays( Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.)The hourly wage of $9/hr is not enough to sustain a single person with no dependents but you want us to come to work on time, be everything to the people we support and do it at a high level. In some of the group homes we work 8 to 9 hrs straight because there is only one staff on duty. We are constantly monitoring our residents so we don't get lunch or dinner breaks. Paid days off is hard to schedule because of budget restrictions that most staff don't understand. So the accrual time on our pay stubs mean nothing if you can't take time off when you want it and not when the budget allows you to. Our incentive to go above and beyond is not there because we are not recognized as an important part of this organization for example during the holidays the DSA staff got nothing, not even a simple holiday greeting with our pay stub. P