I truly believed this would be the last company I would work for. I fell in love with the mission and values of the company and found them to be very ethical. My problem was not with the company itself but rather the community I worked in. I worked as a department leader in one of the Sunrise communities.
I worked very hard for my bachelor's degree and the job applied for stated that a college degree was necessary. First of all, I am all for companies promoting from within and growing leaders in their staff. However, when I find that my peers (all with jobs that require college degrees per sunrise's job postings) don't even have a high school degree, I am left in a bit of shock. I am not trying to sound pretentious but it truly made me feel lied to and that my degree was not seen as a priority. Having care managers being promoted to Coordinators and eventually ED is GREAT but what about those job requirements? Be honest when positing jobs!
Now to the actually issues I faced. My ED and I had very different leadership styles (again, TOTALLY FINE) however, I always felt like she never considered me a good leader due to being completely different than she was. She would always tell me to go to her for help but then when I did she would shrug her shoulders at me as if i should know how to deal with the issue without her guidance. This definitely left me feeling unsupported throughout the majority of my time with Sunrise. I reported abuse allegations a couple of times and felt like I was bothering her. She once said to me "Oh this will take hours of my time to deal with". Im sorry? Should I not tell you about abuse allegations then? If she was upset, WE ALL KNEW IT. She would not say good morning or hello or even smile at you. It left the entire building feeling scared and uncomfortable. She had no problem yelling at you during meetings even to the point of grown men crying! Imagine going to work everyday afraid if you were the next person to get yelled at in front of everyone!
The hours worked are absolutely ridiculous for leaders in the community especially those who are salaried. The expectation is that all salary employees are on call 24/7. Will you get paid as if you are important enough to be on call 24/7? Absolutely not. Wellness nurses and the RCD are compensated for being on call, other employees are not. Is this fair? No and it should be illegal. You would receive calls at 3am and be expected to come in on your day off. They honestly took all hands on deck to A WHOLE NEW LEVEL that sounded a lot more like "we are too cheap to hire enough workers so we will ask the coordinators to do it and give them no other option". It's very clear. Anybody that has worked for reputable companies would know this is NOT okay. Again, I don't think this is a Sunrise issue as much as it was a community issue. I could be wrong -- but I'm doubtful.
After all that I did at my job (I hate when people say this for a job that pays them but I really went above and beyond) I received such a low pay raise and a bonus that was HALF of what other community leaders received that I was just done. At that point, I felt very taken advantage of and unappreciated. I already felt uncomfortable in the community that this just set me off. To overwork and expect so much from your employees and then show them 0 appreciation is the reason people have no problem walking right out that door.
My overall health and wellness has improved so much since I have left the company. Again, I really wanted to like this company and I know I had so much to offer but this whole experience left me feeling very turned off from the whole field. I loved the residents and the staff members but the expectation is just way too high that it is almost impossible. You can never do good enough and you are always expected to do everything. Horrible.
