I worked in the Pride Health division, which is a subsidiary of Pride Global. I had dealt with management from both the Pride Health and Pride Global divisions so I think it’s important to post this review on both pages. Management (including C-Suite) likes to walk the tightrope on what is legal and has absolutely no qualms about being unethical. For example: a senior director instructed my team to violate NYS labor law (in writing). This was in regards to LAB § 201-b (employers cannot make prospective employees pay for the cost of pre-employment medical exams as a condition of employment). Even though this individual was heavily involved in the creation of the policy, they tried to have my team violate it behind my back. Of course, I was immediately notified. After reminding him of the law, he suggested that my team should just “heavily suggest” that the prospective employees use their own insurance and medical provider. This issue was relayed to the legal department, who agreed our policy was in line with the law and his instructions were not, but nothing further came of it. Another example, we spent about a year updating our policies and procedures with the goal of obtaining JCAHO certification. After a successful audit, where we received praise from our auditor on our commitment to quality, leadership immediately began dismantling our standards. The ink was barely dry on the certificate before they started demanding policies and procedures be loosened. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the elimination of the drug testing requirement for direct patient care employees (nurses, CNA’s, PCA’s etc). The reasoning leadership gave for the removal of the requirement was that it was not legally required and they didn’t want to pay for it. They were not interested in providing the highest quality of care givers, they only wanted to fulfill the bare minimum legal requirement. I spent a lot of time fighting for this to change to not happen, and ultimately failed. When I asked them if they would want the individuals caring for the health and wellbeing of the family members or children to be drug tested even if it wasn’t legally required they said yes, but did not feel we should have to “carry the burden of the cost”. Shortly after the drug test requirement was removed, a recruiter moved forward with rehiring a candidate who had recently failed their pre-employment drug screen by testing positive for methadone. Their reasoning was “they don’t need to pass a drug test anymore”. Leadership was notified, they were okay with moving forward as long as it was not technically illegal. This person would have been employed in a home for adults with disabilities taking care of the residents day to day needs. Leadership saw no issue with that. However- I left before the employment process was completed so I am not sure if that person ever went to work for the company. After sending in my resignation letter, my direct supervisor told me that if I kept up the habit of quitting jobs when my morals and ethics didn’t align with theirs, I would never make it in the corporate world. I think he meant it as an insult or a warning, but for me it was a revelation. I probably won’t ever make it in a place where profit is the most important factor. So for that, I can say thank you.
