Teacher / Counselor - Teacher Counselor Youth Villages Employee Review

Please read if you are considering Youth Villages. I started when it was Inner Harbour, and then was bought by YV. They had us sign a contract or we would be terminated on the spot. Part of the contract included a "floating work week." This allows them to pay you 1/2 pay for overtime. YES. HALF PAY. If you make $10/hr. You get paid $5/hr for overtime. I asked if this was legal, and was told yes bc of the "floating work week." FWW states if you are roughly an hour or 2 short on your paycheck, they will go ahead and pay you for the full 40. However, they have weekly meetings that last an hour, that is not factored into your work week. So, you are scheduled to work at least 41 hours, receiving half pay for that hour. Also, every shift is scheduled 8.5 hours, to allow a 30 minute break. You might average 1 break every 2 weeks, due to understaffing. Now, you have 2 hours of overtime, at half pay. All while not receiving a break. You see the talk about management. It is true. There is a "management clique" and if you aren't in it, you will not get promoted. They are complete tools. They would sit outside of the main entrance, to the side where there's a patio area, and compare their new shoes. Anyone who has worked there can verify. I worked there for over 5 years and worked all shifts. All shifts are understaffed. One night we only had one person for each unit. Which is a ratio of 1:10 - 12. Law requires 1:8 during 3rd shift, 1:5 on 1st and 2nd shift. This was not a one time occurrence. Just so happened on this night there was an issue on one of the units and "all staff available" was called over radios. Two of us had nurses cover our units to assist. There were no supervisors scheduled (dumbfounding), and we could not get in touch with them. We called the police due to kids beginning to get ready to riot. This is not made up. When I started day shift, we had 5 T/C's. 2 for each unit and 1 to float where needed as kids were vary volatile. The floater ended up moving and leaving the company. He was never replaced, and we were pretty much told that bc we did such a good job, he never would be. Yet, there was no compensation sent our way even though our work quality was saving them around 25k a year. Bc we were understaffed, I was able to get a vacation for 6 months. At YV, you "cap out" at a certain amount of vacation time. Meaning if your max is 120 hours, you cannot accrue any more until you have used some. I was capped and denied multiple vacation days due to, "Not having staff to cover it." So, I am working harder, due to understaffing. And I can't get a vacation to recover, due to understaffing. See a pattern here? I put in for a week of vacation in June. I put the request in at the beginning of March. 3 months for mgmt to plan the schedule. I reminded every two weeks for the first 2 months, and then every week the month after. I was told I would not receive one day due to not having enough staff. The understaffing causes safety concerns as well. You can legally be left with 5 kids by yourself. You call for assistance, and there is not enough staff to help you bc they are engaged in a different crisis. I am 6'1 240lbs. I was able to handle most incidents with only one other staff. However, there were times I made an "emergency" call over the radio, and it took more than 10 minutes to get help. Some of these kids are my size or larger. The CEO is a tool. He sends emails about how they are buying more facilities, but they were on a "raise freeze" for over 2 years. The only reason I stayed as long as I did were my coworkers (non-mgmt). When I resigned, start pay was 9/hr. Please know some of the kids will try to hurt you at some point during your employment. High turnover rate for a reason.