Underpaid, burnt out, understaffed. These are three words I would use to describe my three years at Aegis. While caregivers are required to take dementia and memory loss courses, the servers are not. It may seem like we would not converse with the residents much, but it is quite the contrary. As I mentioned above, the residents are curious and we grow a lot of care for them over time.
I would come home from an 8 hour shift completely drained or easily irritable due to exhaustion. The mental, emotional, and physical requirements of this job are immense. If this concern is brought up to any of upper management (Including: General Manager(s), BOM, Dining room staff manager, Culinary services director), you will either be dismissed, spoken to with condescending tone and language, shamed into thinking you are sensitive, etc. . One instance a manager in a team meeting stated he would help us write our resumes for other places if we did not like the requirements of the job or felt we were underpaid. Now seriously, how is that supposed to make for a healthy work environment?
Now, combine the emotional, physical, and mental hardships with unsupportive management, and extremely low pay for what is required. It is a recipe for disaster, high turn over rate, and lack of proper care for the residents.
Residents are fed frozen food as the chefs are constantly overworked and understaffed.
I endured this job due to the fact that leaving the residents felt like leaving puppies on the side of a highway. If I could make a positive difference in the residents day, while consequently harming my well-being, that made it all worth it. Until it wasn’t.
