It will challenge you and then some - Anonymous employee Imagine! Employee Review

4.0
Feb 15, 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you are looking for work that will give you meaning, a direct service job at Imagine can give you those opportunities. Your team and your direct supervisors will become your family, and the clients you serve will define your capacity for compassion, bring out your creativity and sense of humor, and will continually bring the unexpected to your work day. The benefits are good, if not exceptional. There are always learning opportunities and workshops, if you are lucky enough to be able to fit them around your work schedule. Working in direct support will give you vocational experience that you can take with you if you leave.

Cons

While the work can be rewarding on a personal level, you must be willing to sacrifice. The company has a terrible compensation philosophy. Your challenges and responsibilities are not necessarily reflected in your pay. People fill similar roles in other departments may get paid significantly more or less than you. Plus, there is no raise mechanism. If you work hard, your best hope for a raise is a promotion. Senior employees sometimes make less than new ones, because the starting pay can go up faster than your wages, and the company doesn't do anything to address this. You may become overwhelmed and there aren't always supports in place to help you. Direct service work can be intensely demanding and may not give you the opportunity to take a break during your work day. You may be asked to consistently go beyond your job description. For some, this can be a good thing. For others, it can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction. You must also be prepared to let your good deeds go 99% unthanked by management. Though there are opportunities for advancement at the organization, they aren't common. Management positions do not often free up. Consider direct support work as more of a vocation than a career. You may get excellent training with plenty of certifications, but direct support staff often find it challenging to advance their careers through promotion.

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Imagine! Response
2mo
Thank you for taking the time to share such thoughtful and detailed feedback about your experience at Imagine!. We appreciate your recognition of the meaningful relationships, creativity, learning opportunities, and compassion that direct support work can foster, as well as the dedication of the teams who provide that support every day. We also appreciate your candid feedback regarding compensation, workload, burnout, career advancement, employee recognition, and leadership visibility. We recognize that direct support work is both deeply meaningful and highly demanding, and we understand how important equitable compensation, sustainable workloads, opportunities for growth, and strong employee support systems are to long-term employee wellbeing and retention. We especially appreciate your perspective on the importance of connection and communication between leadership and frontline employees. Building trust, listening directly to employees, and creating meaningful opportunities for engagement across all levels of the organization are critically important to a healthy workplace culture. Thank you again for the work you contributed

Explore other reviews about Imagine!

5.0
Jul 20, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great management, great coworkers and free food.

Cons

Low pay, high turn over

2
avatar
Imagine! Response
2mo
Thank you for sharing your experience at Imagine!. We’re glad to hear you felt supported by your managers and coworkers and appreciated the sense of community during your time here. We also appreciate your honest feedback regarding compensation and turnover. We believe every role at Imagine! contributes to our mission and the experience of the people we serve, and we know competitive pay is an important part of supporting and retaining employees across the organization. Thank you again for taking the time to leave a review and for the work you contributed while at Imagine!.
3.0
Apr 18, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Passionate coworkers who genuinely care about the people they support. Flexible work schedule for some roles. Creative freedom in certain positions to design impactful programming. Strong focus on inclusion and serving individuals with developmental disabilities.

Cons

Lack of communication and transparency from leadership. Decisions impacting departments are often made without input from the people doing the work. Frequent organizational changes without clear direction can leave staff feeling unsettled. Pay is not competitive for the cost of living in Colorado, especially for frontline staff. Over-reliance on a small number of employees to carry heavy workloads.

1
avatar
Imagine! Response
2mo
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience and for recognizing the passion and commitment of our team. We’re proud to work alongside employees who care deeply about the people we support and our commitment to inclusion and belonging. We also appreciate your candid feedback. We know that communication, transparency, workload balance, and competitive compensation are critically important to employee experience and organizational health. Over the past year, we’ve been working to strengthen communication across teams, create more opportunities for employee input, and evaluate how we support staff growth and engagement across the organization. We especially appreciate your recognition of our direct support professionals and frontline staff, whose work is foundational to everything we do. Feedback like yours helps us continue to learn, improve, and better support the employees who make our mission possible. Thank you again for your honesty and for being part of the Imagine! team.
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