BAYADA Home Health Care reviews

The situation at BAYADA is pretty dire. Although the company is growing, it is growing in spite of itself: the demand for home health services is increasing at such a dramatic rate that BAYADA is growing simply by virtue of being in the marketplace. The company’s success belies the reality in the support offices. That reality reminds me of the quote “beatings will continue until morale improves.” Here are some truths. Massive egos hinder real progress. For example: BAYADA frequently makes positions available to internal candidates first before looking outside the company. The recruiting department encourages BAYADA employees to apply for these positions. So far so good. However, many directors do not like it when their staff attempt to apply for other positions. They view it as an insult or as a threat to the status quo – the directors’ mindset is very much like this: “What? Joe wants to work in another department? I can’t afford to lose Joe. OR Joe must not like his team. OR Joe must not like me. I’m not going to allow Joe to leave. I’m going to shame/guilt Joe into staying where he is.” One director even let an employee go because that person applied for another internal position. Of course, that can’t be proven since we are all employees at will, but the person who was let go had always been an exemplary employee, and it’s very fishy that she was let go four days after applying for another position. Shortsightedness hinders real progress. For example: One employee made the decision to leave Bayada and return to school. She had been with the company for more than seven years and was considered a very valuable member of her team. She gave six weeks’ notice and offered to continue working on a part-time basis while attending school so that her workload could be gradually redistributed (either amongst the remaining members of her team or to a replacement). Her director would not allow her to work part-time, and the director waited until the employee’s final day with the company to decide how the work would be redistributed. The employee did everything right – she gave ample notice, she offered to help transition her work to other people on her team, and she offered to work part-time for a while in order to make the transition easier. The director ignored all of those positive efforts, did absolutely nothing to address the employee’s impending departure, and then panicked on the employee’s last day. Technological incompetence hinders real progress. For example: The largest software program utilized companywide is DOS-based. I don’t need to write any more (but I will). A replacement has been promised by upper management for years, but the company is so deeply entrenched in this system that upper management fears the learning curve will be too steep for many folks to handle. It’s a vicious cycle. There have only been slight patches and modifications made to the system (which was created in 1980) – it is 100% text-based, completely unfriendly to use, inaccessible via the web, and reviled by nearly everyone. The change to a modern system would undoubtedly be difficult, but it is absolutely necessary for this company to stay relevant. And yet upper management fears that change so much that they keep postponing it. The endgame will not be pretty. A caste system hinders real progress. There is a definite line of demarcation between directors and non-directors. Directors seemingly have a free pass – it is normal for them to arrive at work late, leave early, and take as much vacation as they want. However, heaven forbid that a non-director needs to leave a bit early to take her kid to the doctor. There is no flexibility or work-life balance consideration for non-directors, but directors – who typically do not have overseers based on site – do whatever they want. Directors frown upon providing morale-building activities or group outings for their own employees, but they spare no expense when entertaining people from other companies. The lack of good benefits hinders real progress. For the last four years, employee satisfaction surveys have indicated that Bayada employees are extremely dissatisfied with the benefits. We should be – health insurance coverage for a family costs $200 per week before dental and vision are factored in – and yet there have been no changes (other than increases to the premiums). New employees still have to wait 3 months before they can enroll in health insurance. They still have to wait a year before enrolling in the 401k. The company still matches just 1.4% of employees’ contributions to the 401k. The discounts/perks are usually for things that employees do not need (i.e. discounts on Groupon) rather than things that would directly benefit the employees (e.g. day care, gym memberships). Nothing has changed.

Favoritism and Nepotism - two key words here! If you aren't one of the "chosen" then you may as well be invisible. Very cult-like in their culture. If you don't drink the koolaid, and disagree with something they feel is "best practice" then you are ostracized and replaced ASAP. Lots of lop-sided rewards also - office staff consistently rewarded, given trips, nice Xmas gifts, etc. Little to nothing for the field staff, who actually care for the patients. Exorbitant amount for medical benefits for field staff, very little PTO. Treated like second class citizens. Top people give the impression that they are very caring and have all these high morals and ethics, but behind the scenes it is really just a ploy to gain the loyalty of the lowly workers. Most of them believe it! In reality, you are just a number and not meaningful at all, other than adding to their wealth.