Foroige -poorly managed. Welcome to the deep end. - Counsellor/Therapist Foroige Employee Review

In my experience I felt under supported and not treated very well. I was brought in for 9 months to cover a maternity post, but the manager wanted me to change a lot of what she considered poor practice from the person I was covering and her colleague. The job was meant to be me being one of two youth workers, working together. However the partner was on long term sick leave with stress, which I should have clocked quicker than i did. I was by myself for most of my time there. I don't mind working alone and am happy to work alone if i know what to do, but I didn't have someone to induct me or show me what to do. I was thrown in the deep end, empowered and used to make a lot of changes but that made me very unpopular with other staff and the young people, and also the other youth worker when they returned from sick leave. The first 6 months were great. Loads of flattery and compliments from the manager whilst being the most hated person in the area. I was left to work alone in a vulnerable position with quite "rough" kids. I said I didn't want to leave myself open to accusations and didn't want to work alone and needed at least 1 other adult there with me for child protection, but my manager didn't agree. I loved the young people and the wider Foroige team in other youth projects, and my partner was great, but that youth worker returned from being sick to a totally different job. I didn't like the way I was treated and essentially used to change what the manager should have done with the staff she managed before I arrived. A maternity post should have been to keep things ticking over whilst the post holder was away, instead of the managers chance to address all the things that had been neglected before i arrived. The post holder even turned up to see "their kids" and it was awful as they and the youth slandered all the changes to the club that i had been hired to make, and totally undermined me being able to build a relationship with the youth. I wish the manager had communicated what was going to happen to the postholder during their maternity leave but that visit set me back months relationally. I was in an impossible position between my manager who wanted me to change the culture of the club and raise the standards that she was angered had slipped, and the other youth worker and youth/ volunteers and staff who wanted me to stop changing things and let them do what they had done for years before i arrived. It was very stressful and put me off working for Foroige. The maternity post was offered to me with a verbal promise of they would find me a job somewhere else in the company at the end of my time if i did a good job, (hence the flattery and compliments for the first 7 months). Every other week i was told there was something permanent for me because i was doing such a stellar job. I did really like my manager, and we had a good relationship but the challenges of my job fell on deaf ears after I was ill and late to meet the manager one day 7 months into my time there. It was totally my fault and I apologised for being late and was honest that I was sick and on medication which is why I struggled to make it in on time. From that day the manager had a grudge against me and there was no going back. Every problem in the club then got spun about me, and i'm know things went back to the way they were before I arrived. I learned a lot from the experience and being under a manager who was essentially using me to compensate for their failings. I'm still grateful for the chance I had there, and focusing on the kids got me through it. In my experience I was thrown in the deep end and cheered on while i slowly drowned, until I was chastised for struggling too much. You need to really love young people to do the job I did or to work for Foroige under my manager. I hope they learned from their mistakes too.