The initial position offered upon entering is highly stressful and has a typical turnover rate of 6 months. This makes it difficult to bond and form interpersonal relationships with your coworkers. Depending on your location, there are minimal opportunities for advancement.
Salary rates, while competitive for masters-level counselors/social workers just entering the field, seem inappropriate for the amount of hours and difficulty of work being demanded. Salary rates also vary by location, and can be somewhat drastic. Entry-level salary is also non-negotiable.
The learning curve for new hires is exceptionally difficult, and due to the high-stress and high-demand nature of the job, new employees often express not feeling supported by colleagues and superiors. The lack of support from colleagues seems to stem from the fact that they are often so involved in their own caseloads that they are never in the office to assist you. In addition, job expectations frequently change and are often expressed not to be explained or employees given appropriate training to excel. Nor do employees often feel that their concerns are heard and taken into consideration by upper management. MST in general is a highly complex therapy often not taught in several masters level programs.
Typical work week can range anywhere from 35-60 hours, and is usually at least 45 or more. When they tell you that you are on call 24 hours a day 5 days a week, it is accurate. You are expected to respond to a family's call, even if it is 3 in the morning. Families really appreciate this service, and while supervisors will try to help you manage to reschedule things in order to accommodate actually getting some sleep, but oftentimes you are still expected to meet your target goals without assistance, regardless of the amount of crisis calls or the time.
Counselors can expect to spend between 8-15 hours per week in their vehicles in transit from client to client. Paperwork has been identified as the number one complaint of new hires, and while the company has made efforts to decrease this stress by utilizing technology (Dragon NaturallySpeaking) there is often not enough support for employees to feel comfortable using the software, nor has it been depicted that management models use of this technology, so employees are not given an ideal example to follow, and this has potential to be viewed as hypocritical.
The insurance is great, especially for people with families and/or children. Sick and vacation time is earned as you go, not given to you in lump deposits. Your sick time continues to accumulate (earning 12 days per year) and will increase over time, which is wonderful for maternity/paternity leave or illness, but vacation is limited to 10 days and will never allow you to accumulate more than 80 hours. You have to "use it or lose it." The company will also typically "black out" using vacation time during short weeks (that is, good luck getting the week of Christmas off).
In addition, if the week is short due to a holiday, your workload does not decrease to accommodate your shortened week- you are expected to meet your intensity with your client regardless of whether you have a 5 day work week or a 3.
