Pros
If you like working with kids and making a difference, this work is very rewarding. Very hard physically and mentally but the payoff is great over time.
Most RBTs and BCBAs were very kind and eager to help newbies get established, and genuinely seemed passionate about their job.
A great *starter* rbt job - they pay for you to get certified and have your hands on trainings so you don’t have to do it all out of pocket.
Cons
MANAGEMENT- this obviously depends on the place, but at our center managers were quite inexperienced and often apathetic. Constantly no show or come late to work but expect you to be consistently early, don’t communicate with each other so you’re constantly answering questions multiple times or confused about your own schedule as they tell you different things or change at the last second without telling you do not care about your concerns for the children or for yourself and will not listen to any genuine issues even from the BCBAs. Morale is incredibly low as nobody will voice their concerns to management as they simply do not trust them to do anything except turn their complaints against them and accuse them of not caring enough. Incredibly manipulative if you take PTO or sick time as they’re chronically understaffed and will act like you are the reason kids are not getting enough care for calling off (totally not them or the other company-wide issues.)
Pay- incredibly low compared to other ABA centers in the same area. This is a great place to start your career but there is no upper mobility above a $1-2 raise which isn’t comparable to other companies.
Turnover rates - because of the above issues we are CONSTANTLY understaffed as people quit from burnout/management or to move to higher paying ABA facilities. Makes it harder on the people who stay so they get burnt out, leave, and continue the cycle. Very unfair to the RBTs and the kids who rely on them.
Bad apples- some rbts are there for a paycheck and do NOT care about their kids. The lack of supervision or willingness to fire anyone due to how desperately understaffed they are causes the patient to severely regress sometimes and they don’t seem to care. Awful people stick around to babysit, fake data, and collect a check, while all the good senior RBTs are swooped up by companies that pay competitively and have better management.
Filthy- we don’t get much non kid facing time which means any time to deep clean is essentially nonexistent. It is disgusting - no wonder everyone is always getting sick.
