Pros
I worked at the Rockford North Branch. The kids are amazing! The staff is amazing! The environment is normally pretty upbeat and positive, which helps when you’re having a bad day. They have great team building activities, such as potlucks, games, contests, etc. that can help make the day more fun. It’s amazing to see the progress in the kids everyday and know that you were a part of that! There’s monthly meetings where you go over updates on progress and they give out prizes and make it fun, and you get paid for it! I left this job because circumstances in my life FORCED me to do so, not because I wanted to. It was the best job I’ve ever had and, despite coming home incredibly exhausted every day, I wouldn’t change chasing these kids around for anything ❤️ I cannot stress how rewarding and special this job was to me.
Cons
PTO accrues slowly, which is really unfortunate because this job, as rewarding as it is, can also cause burn out very quickly, so it requires way more PTO than is given. Communication isn’t always great between management and BTs and this can cause confusion and frustration for those of us working directly with the kids every day. Sometimes, I brought up ideas that were shot down and then implemented a week later by management and that was frustrating, I didn’t necessarily feel like I had a voice when it came to the kids. I definitely was given the impression that you’re not allowed to question higher ups. I was told otherwise but, each time I did it, I was reprimanded for it or blamed for “saying it wrong”. No job is perfect, no employee is perfect so take this with a grain of salt. My experience may not be your experience. It is, overall, the best job I’ve ever had! The worse part of this job, for me, was leaving my kids. It feels like a piece of my heart is missing.