STAR Education reviews

Unfortunately, this company is run more like a fraternity or sorority house and the top management (which is really just one person) bases many decisions on emotion and what feels like a strange popularity contest with the employees. Basically if you're in, you're in. But if you are not liked or you do or say anything that threatens the establishment, you're fair game for ridicule or justifiable firing. I've heard well-meaning, hard-working employees scolded like children in the open office environment. It is unprofessional, unfair and can create a "walking on eggshells" office environment. This management style leads to unfairness across the board and little accountability at any level. STAR is run by a mother and her two grown children. They are the kind of people who would rather buy you lunch or a birthday cake than actually give you a raise or genuine praise for a job well done. Anyone who questions the integrity of the company or suggests a better way to do things is either labeled a trouble-maker and demonized or simply gotten rid of and then bad-mouthed once they are gone. It can be a toxic environment. The company is technically a non-profit and management is always complaining in large group meetings that they are broke. But there are no real steps taken to change or improve the situation. The financial stress is placed back on the employees (as an explanation why no one gets raises) while management over-commits resources. There is health insurance for full-time employees but no retirement benefits of any kind. The majority of employees are not full time and treated as somewhat expendable. They are constantly interviewing for new people. The parking situation has already been mentioned and is truly atrocious. Some employees have to walk several blocks to find parking just to attend weekly mandatory meetings. But management has reserved parking spaces so they never really address it as the true problem it is. Many of the best people end up leaving for a more professional environment.

Since when must teachers double up as salesmen? Teachers should be relieved of the stresses of "making a sale" and focus more on the child. Teachers are pressured to sell/fill their seats and are ridiculed if quotas aren't met. Interesting fact to discover: How many people where hired from Craigslist? And how many of those people were hired based on their qualifications rather than Star's NEED to fill a spot. More often than not, the teachers are disinterested and unqualified. Do they even have a HS education? Very bad organization within the company. Much of this company is played like a game of Ball and Shell without the scary alley venue. A lot of things are move around quickly and secretly to meet state requirements for funding, licensing etc.. Required volunteer time? You hire someone and then require them to donate a certain number of hours to volunteer for your company so you can fill your pockets and dilute the little pay you give employees?