Pros
It’s a rewarding job. There’s nothing like seeing something click for a child who has been struggling. It’s nice to feel like you are actively improving a child’s life. You’ll meet some awesome people and become close with the staff you work with. Benefits are good. Earned PTO is good too.
Cons
It’s definitely not an easy job. It’s exhausting both mentally and physically. Some of these childrens’ pasts will make you question humanity. You take your work home with you. While there are great employees there, there are many who clearly don’t care about the clients, even on basic levels. It’s just a okay-paying job for them. Unfortunately, these staff are often the ones who have worked there for quite a while so they tend to “run” the houses. They are fine with just sitting the kids in front of the TV all day while they sit on their phones. There is also a huge amount of employees having each other’s back, which can be good and bad. It makes it difficult to report something that is clearly wrong. The general conversation you will have with others working in your house is that no one snitches on anyone, no matter what the offense is. They will know it was you and you will be shunned for it. It’s way understaffed. It’s a hard job and Grafton seems to have a hard time keeping employees. Unfortunately, this puts staff at danger quite often. 6 highly aggressive austic clients who need full time care? 1 staff member is fine in managements eyes. In Virginia it is actually illegal to have less than 2 staff members working with clients who “cannot recognize danger and move to safety without assistance.” Which clearly, these clients can’t. Oh and you will be called multiple times a week to come in on your day off. If you refuse often, they get upset with you. I appreciate the no restraint approach, most of the time. Most places over-restrain. But there are times where it is necessary. Graftons solution? Here hold a pillow up to protect yourself. When a 300 pound violent client is coming after you, a pillow is not going to help. You can’t even defend yourself. It doesn’t matter if the client has you pinned and is beating your face. Grafton warns you that if you lay a hand on a client you will face charges. This was my biggest problem and ultimately why I left. Working alone overnight, with 7 violent austic clients, was fine most of the time. But there were multiple nights where things happened. I was injured multiple times. After one particularly rough night (4 clients went into crisis at the same time at 2 a.m.), I suggested to management that we have 2 people work over night. They said absolutely not and I was done. And the house I worked at was where the most difficult and dangerous clients were sent. You’d think that’d be the one house to have an extra staff. Management seems to think that once the clients go to bed, they won’t wake up and have issues. Which is not true. Most of the clients understand that there is only 1 staff working overnight so they try to get away with more including eloping, harassing other clients, destroying property, and attacking staff. There is 1 on-call manager who works overnights, who is usually 30 minutes away if you call for help. So you’re pretty much on your own in a crisis. Pay is mediocre. Pretty average for this industry, which is underpaid overall. But management makes well into the 6 figures while they lock themselves in their cushy offices working 9-5. They are completely out of harms way and have no direct contact with the clients. Some of that money should go to those who deal with the fits, the feces throwing, the cleaning, the cooking, the teaching, and the abuse in my opinion. There’s definitely some smoke and mirrors when it comes to parents and management visiting. Staff want to paint a pretty picture for the outside world. It’s one of the few times the long term staff will make sure the clients are actually doing an enriching activity. That’s why they get super upset if parents show up unannounced. When it comes down to it, I would not send my child to live in one of the group homes. I think that says a lot about the company.
