Therapy can be very demanding and energy draining on both the therapist and the patients. I do understand consistency/repetitiveness is necessary; however, sometimes I felt some work was unethical and was just entirely too much for certain patients for in a days work (even after expressing-and a BCBA witnessing-how the child was reacting). I believe the BCBA should spend more time with each individual patient prior to developing therapy plan to understand their capabilities and avoid negatively impacting (or traumatizing) the child. Very little break time and 30 minute lunch never seemed like enough to regain energy. If you need to use the restroom or need to make an important phone call, you must find someone who is willing to watch your patient. Incredibly high turn over rate, red flag. Some therapists weren't a good fit and were not very professional and did not take data entry seriously. I sadly felt extremely under-valued by corporate, despite my knowledge and work ethic. I understand organizing toys and therapy materials at the end of the day, but I felt it was degrading having to mop, vacuum, take out trash, refill dispensers, sanitize, etc. after a long day. Felt like we were taken advantage of doing these duties so corporate could save money on hiring daily cleaning crew. Wish this title could be held with high regard and respect from higher-ups. Also, compensation was not fair for the work put in. Oddly, there was competition between each center and we were scorned during meetings for our apparent shortcomings. Bringing to light what we as a center could improve on was not the issue for me since it's critical to productivity, but going about it in a condescending manner is HIGHLY unprofessional and creates a very negative relationship between the staff in center and district manager/corporate. It's especially damaging when the little interaction we had with corporate were mostly negative. Better idea to appreciate and highlight positives along with the "bad"- some training for this type of communication would be beneficial for managers. All in all, I just really hope A LOT has changed since I left- I still care for the patients and admire the therapists!
