MeriEducation Reviews

I worked with MeriEducation on hiring and experienced a surprising level of age-ist reaction that was disappointing. They only want to hire people who are young (when I interviewed a very qualified and sweet retired teacher with exceptional background, they wanted me to deny her because of her age). Another instance that gave me dread was going on an administrative getaway where the founder and owner of the company spent lengthy time making fun of and poking jabs at a fellow admin employee who was unable to make the trip. I gave so much of myself to the company, traveled to every center every week, and was paid a poor wage. After mustering up the courage to ask for a raise, I was fired a month later after returning from a friend's wedding. The CEO, CFO, and my supervisor skyped with me for what I thought was going to be a quarterly review. My CEO began by stating that while the company is small, it's a place to grow into a career and hone your skills, followed by the poor reasoning that I had the ability to see the best in others and that was an unfortunate skill to have in my position. I knew there was an assistant director position available (I did all the hiring for every center except one) and was denied the opportunity to work in that position, or any other for that matter. They gave me the choice to either quit or be fired; how kind of them. I asked for two weeks to be able to set aside some money and have time to apply for other jobs and was denied that as well. When the skype talk was over, I was no longer an employee. The night before they fired me, one of the directors who knew what was about to happen took me out to dinner and talked trash on the company and CEO, encouraging me to admit the unfairness of the way employees were treated. This was one of the worst work experiences I've ever had. They will make you feel special and important to your face and have a completely different opinion as soon as your back is turned. By the time I had caught on to the backhandedness of the company and their morals, it was too late and I was in the "you're fired" seat. I do not recommend this company.

It's hard to know where to start. Management is an absolute disaster. Turn-over rates are ridiculously high--they try to suck as much work as possible from employees on minimal pay with no/crappy benefits. Was told there could be a "discretionary bonus" at the end of the year for excellent work--that never happened, despite receiving great performance reviews. Job titles and descriptions constantly change. There's almost no upward mobility. The owner/CEO is terrible at management--doesn't delegate well, doesn't support employees well, and doesn't take criticism well. She surrounds herself with "yes men" who are afraid to say anything negative to her for fear of their jobs. Prices for services continue to climb--but employees don't see any of that. Tutors often start tutoring with a bare minimum of training, and are then expected to teach subjects in which they have no experience. On multiple occasions that I directly witnessed, tutors would let management know that they didn't know how to tutor a certain subject--only to be told to, in essence, "fake it until you make it". With prices as high as they are, that behavior is simply unethical. At the end of the day, it's all about the bottom line--as much as management would claim otherwise. If you're charging for premium services, employees should be highly experienced and receive top-quality training. Period. There are definitely some excellent tutors within the company, but none of that can be credited to management's training. The sales people are pushy and aggressive, often encouraging parents to book large packages that they can't afford. I saw so many loyal clients become frustrated with the way prices would constantly rise. Tutors would be "promoted" to higher levels and subsequently cost more per hour--but they don't actually get a raise. Absurd.