Youth for Understanding Reviews

It's really hard to put into words. I've recently been told by a mental health professional (friend) that this job is comparable to being in a mentally abusive relationship. No one is happy. Literally no one. Even the interns hate it. I imagine the National Office is a much more pleasant place to be, especially considering they have a brand new shiny office with windows. It's truly just a horrible place to be. Do not even consider it. There are so many open positions right now because the turn over rate is incredibly high. People work here for maybe a full year, sometimes up to 3 then they run. People have been known to have actual mental breakdowns in the office because of this place. It's just a disgusting place to be. Also, it's incredibly clear that at lease one particular manager is sexist. A male coworker can look at the manager and ask for a day off for having worked an entire weekend and get an immediate "yes!". Then a female coworker who worked the same exact event can ask the same question and be told adamantly "no!" without any reason. This happens ALL THE TIME. It's truly horrible. People quit as soon as they are able to or some just literally run out and never come back.

This place is truly where careers go to die. The atmosphere can frankly get toxic and turns good employees into mindless grinders. As noted by some others, the management is, by and large, incompetent and clueless to what we actually do and tend to get to where they are by kissing butt and stepping on/calling out people. Many of the managers are simply hold-overs from when the company was failing miserably and they just happened to default into their position by simply being the only guy around willing to take the job. Two of my collegues have been waiting FOUR MONTHS for their Field Director salaries to adjust. Management LOWERED their temp salaries WITHOUT TELLING THEM, while still expecting them to fulfill FD responsibilities. Expecting you to do the work, but not properly compensating employees is the norm at YFU. The structure is not skill based and is the root cause of many of the other issues. They do not develop talent or reward hard work. There is no incentive or need to be proactive because these things are never considered in the advancement process --- it's a cycle of self preservation. Also, they fully assume and expect that you will work overtime every single day. It's such an expectation that getting out "on time" is considered early. They purposely under-staff field staff because they know that employees have no choice but to stay and cover up for their incompetence. They refuse to adequately staff and refuse to give the necessary tools for success yet the placement teams have the largest single impact on the daily success of the company---odd strategy. The company has traditionally been a high-turnover company and though they claim to have all these new strategies and programs for retention, they still operate with the undertone that everyone is easily replaceable and thus individual ideas/concerns are meaningless and job security has no meaning. HR only circles the wagons when employees need a realistic buffer when issues arise. They have tried to revamp their image in recent years by pretending to be a great place to work but the internal reality is that this really is where careers go to die.