Wow, where do you start? I have been an employee for 7+ years in middle management. While, from my perspective, the company spends so much time catering to the wants and needs of the front-line direct care staff, there is little attempt to acknowledge or reward the middle managers. Over the past several years, we have lost pay raises (last one was 5 years ago), 401k company match, PTO buy back, mileage reimbursements has decreased, and the health insurance seems to get more expensive and less comprehensive with each year. Yes, the front-line employees have lost many of these things as well, but they still continue to get pay raises and can buy back their PTO time. While I believe that it is very important to treat these front-line employees well, I also strongly believe that it is just as important (if not more so) to treat the middle managers well. With happy middle managers, the quality of care and oversight of the day-to-day programs will improve. Right now, middle managers are overworked, underpaid, and just plain frustrated. There is no hope for a possible pay raise, there is no hope that anything that has been taken away will ever improve. We, the middle managers, are the ones who work all different shifts, weekends and holidays, covering for front-line employess when there are call offs or when there is a shortage of staff. We are the ones who are paid by salary but work much more than 40 hours per week. We are the ones who feel completely ignored and unappreciated by the senior people at the corporate office. It really makes you not care so much about how well you do your job, and that is sad since the quality of our consumers' lives depends on how well we do our jobs. But I get the feeling that the quality of consumers' lives is not of the utmost important thing for this company. It is the bottom line and how much money can be made.
