Pros
If you don't like who you work with, they probably won't be around long anyway. You get chocolate candy in a tacky mug as a holiday bonus instead of money to live on. If you are attractive, it takes you less time to climb the ladder. If you are stupid and toxic, you climb even faster. Upper leadership makes money and raises, even when there is "no money" for direct care staff to get raises. The CEO will most likely drive the company into the dirt sooner than later, so you won't have to put up with things long. The CEO plays a really good part, pretending to care about staff. If you work under crisis department, you will be golden. You get your own office, have 5 clients, and don't really do much of anything all day and get paid more than most other programs. If you become friends with upper leadership, you get to enjoy the benefits of nepotism.
Cons
You will make much less than what you are worth, especially for direct care staff. While you enjoy minimum wage, food stamps, and Medicaid, your CEO makes $500k a year. Leadership will be threatened and terminated when numbers are low, but given absolutely no ability to make decisions to improve programs, nor the systemic changes to implement. If you are an adult or child case manager, you WILL have between 250-600 people on your caseload, be expected to manage ALL of them, and get paid much less than your crisis counterparts who do much less day to day. You will be overworked, underpaid, and undervalued. You will have leadership curse at you and call you names. You will be talked about behind your back by leadership, in an open forum, in front of others who do not need to know. Nothing you ever do will be enough; not good enough, not fast enough, and not cheap enough. You will come in wanting to save the world and leave defeated, not because it isn't possible, but because your leadership expects amazing outcomes with no investment into staff and programs. Clients are challenging, demanding, and violent, and it is hard when you don't have resources to help their situation. The Board is made up of lifers who bring nothing to the table, the cause, clients or staff. They are made up of people who believe the CEO is their boss, and not the other way around. They are all friends and social acquaintances. And the Commissioners Court continues to look the other way despite multiple complaints. You should Google the Denton Record Chronicle and this Center. Good luck getting anyone to fight for the staff, the Chief of HR, Board, and Commissioners Court are all very cozy in the CEOs back pocket.
