Pros
- I truly love the kids I get to work with. You get to see an impact to your work and celebrate the successes with them. - If you do in home therapy only, you will really only communicate with your clients, their parents, and your immediate supervisor. - They will pay for your training and RBT certification. Your job growth will mostly plateau from there.
Cons
OH BOY. - Horrible pay. They recently implemented a tiered payment system basically justifying not giving you a pay raise. The starting wage at many other ABA companies starts at least $2 higher than my wage with a "raise" ($16). I can start at a grocery store with no experience and make more than that. - For the pay, you are expected to face physical and verbal abuse. This is a part of the job, but the pay does not match the requirements. I sometimes leave with bruises, cuts, bites, and ripped out hair. They refuse to hold the parents accountable for regressing or stagnating progress and breaking the contract they signed at the beginning of services. Assumably to prolong the paycheck. - Supervisors and management are lazy and pick favorites. They gossip and offer virtually no help. They will be nice to your face then scurry away to their offices, lock the door for two hours, and say how horrible and annoying you are. IF they even show up to the occasional session. - They hired someone with no experience (vs. my years of verifiable experience) starting at a whole dollar more than me. At the end of the summer, they dumped her with no warning. Variations of this completely unprofessional and inappropriate behavior happen on almost a weekly basis at this point. I feel like I'm living in some bad joke or a soap opera. - They offer poor training and you do not feel prepared come your first day with your clients. Everything I learned, I learned from watching other therapists and 2 of the only people in management who actually care about the children. - Poor communication. They will tell you one thing, then change it at the last second and sometimes not even inform you. - Ownership and management only care for the insurance money. The owners are business minded, not in the mind to help the children. Their priority is their paycheck, not the wellbeing of the children or quality of service. They can get away with this because most sessions are done in center and the parent can't verify how their services are going. They will priorities the clients they know have the biggest payout potential from the insurance companies. If they know ABA is not working for a child (it is child by child basis in terms of their needs) and that they need other services they will hold onto them until the last possible moment, almost torturing the child.