Pros
The job is fun and working with kids is fulfilling. Management used to be great, and we used to have a semblance of a relationship with our managers. There are days when I really love working here, when I have really great lessons, or when management seems to be better-than-terrible.
Cons
Communication from management is the worst I've ever seen. A few years ago when the team was smaller, we all had personal relationships with leadership and everyone loved their jobs. Now, management is ultra-robotic, they will only reply to you in corporate-speak, and you feel like only a number. The curriculum for the younger kids is so terrible that we have to buy our own reading materials to go over with them. Try sitting a kindergartener in front of a black and white pdf of a story where literally nothing happens, in a classroom of 40 kids overseen by a single teacher. Not gonna happen. I have seen other tutors literally showing their students a single YouTube video of the alphabet song and that is the entire class. For all of the talk about how leadership is engaged with teachers and is conducting observations and feedback sessions, I wasn't observed but maybe two times all of last year. No feedback on how my lessons are going. No feedback on what I could do better. We never know when our school year is going to start. We get a ridiculous amount of breaks throughout the year - not Amplify's fault - but last year, we were promised "beginning of September" as the start to the school year. September rolls around, "two more weeks". Two more weeks rolls around, "MID-OCTOBER". Luckily I save money during the school year, and was able to juuuust skate by and not have to pick up another job. I'm certain there are other tutors at Amplify who aren't able to do that, and to move the goalposts on the order of 6 weeks of lost pay for us is incredibly unfair. Just this year, we were actually told mid-October would be our starting date. Then, the FRIDAY BEFORE THE SCHOOL YEAR STARTS, we are told that most of our classes are actually starting on November first? Or is it tomorrow? Or is it two weeks from now? Or do we not have the green light yet, but we'll send you a Slack message on one of the 15 channels we have open to let you know whether or not we're starting with this school, or just to tell you that we have no idea when this school will start? Don't worry, just check this email that has what is possibly the worst-looking and most-confusing chart I've seen in my life. If you're looking for upward mobility, look elsewhere. I have no idea what even the pipeline to promotion is. However, they did give us a dollar raise last year, which was genuinely appreciated. I doubt it will happen again this year. Ultimately, the terrible way that Amplify is managed makes me feel like we are truly a leech on the school system.
