special projects manager

primary care nurse practitioner

philanthropy manager

nurse practitioner

medical secretary

Carea Community Health Centre

This agency is being run by managers who are only concerned for their own abilities to receive pay increases, if you check the sunshine list our managers are shunning bright! Meanwhile we are being told there are no funds or lack of funds to provide programs or services to families in need. We are abruptly informed they will be closing one of our sites with no plans or intentions to replace it! Families in that community are relying on healthcare that we currently provide! Managers are receiving thousand dollar raises while staff haven’t received pay increases in a very long time! Also majority or our mangers including our mighty HR department who sit high on their mighty thrones are NEVER to be found in the office! Through the pandemic it was us doing the leg work while they stayed home nice and cozy and safe! Self appointed raises to congratulate themselves on their ability to trick our funders! And what did the staff receive who did the actual work? Wel we now get to pay for our benefits! If you were wanting to work at an agency who expresses their gratitude and appreciation for all of your hard work this is NOT the place! They don’t believe in building up their staff or expressing their appreciation for all of the amazing things we do, transparency is also NOT an asset you will find at this agency! They don’t enjoy educating their staff on the realities of what is going on at the agency! Currently they are on a lay off blitz! And it’s all hush hush! Our turn over rate is out of this world because of the lack of respect, empathy, appreciation, and let me say it again RESPECT! They don’t care about their staff and it’s evident they don’t care about thr communities they are funded to support! But what they do care about is… having 20 Larger then life TVs displayed around the building! A new paint job for the Oshawa location and they care abut their management team! We are staff feel that the mangers get a pay increase for every one they lay off! We have requested meetings with a variety of upper management to try and discuss the happenings of Carea BUT they cancel meetings at the last minute and refuse to be transparent, they have created a very toxic work environment. When staff leave because they are mentally drained they have been told to not let their team members know! To keep it on the hush! It’s so slimy. As a health care provider we have variety of professionals working with us and on administrative assistance appreciation day NOT one manager acknowledged that it was a “special” day BUT our emotionally stagnant CEO felt it was appropriate to send a shout out to a manager who know one new! Not a single person had any time whom she was lolo so detached so unaware of what they have created. This place has turned into a dictatorship run by two people who are so high on their throws and their minions and our outstanding HR department it just makes me shake my head! At one time this was a beautiful place 

Every day I see clients that are so grateful for the help they receive here. The staff are so empathetic and truly understand the needs of the populations they serve. The leadership of this place are a different story altogether. Those same clients who appreciate the work of staff also express their discontent with the structures, processes, and environment of Carea that betrays to them and the community a micromanaging and incompetent leadership that hinders healthcare rather than promotes it.

Apart from the satisfaction I derive from helping the clients in the community, I hate working here – everyday is the same horror show when it comes to ‘enjoying’ the awful working conditions. Since it’s so bad, what would really solve the problem if is the unqualified and inept leaders would pack up their personal effects and be escorted out of here. The good employees have been sacrificed at the altar of ‘leadership’ incompetence: If Carea no longer wants martyrs, they should stop the crucifixions. 

It would also help if the HR Keyboard Warrior would stop pretending to be a cheery employee that doesn’t exist. That’s what you might call false advertising. More than one new employee has been duped by false images of what Carea is like, only to leave soon after being hired. Let’s stop the martyrdoms.

The frontline workers who do great work are not the problem - the buck stops with those who lead (that's "Leadership 101"). It takes maturity and insight to realize that basic and fundamental fact, which true leaders have no problem grasping. Not so with Carea leaders – remember, ‘unqualified and inept’ are accurate descriptors for them.

This isn’t a place of sunshine and rainbows consisting of caring, supportive leadership. We are not holding hands singing kumbaya. The staff has to fight the leadership on a daily basis in order to fight for the clients of the community. It’s exhausting and demoralizing, and it’s why so many of us have been rendered physically, mentally, and emotionally sick – it’s what we call “Careavirus” around here. Don’t catch it – stay healthy!!

We recently went through the process of unionizing. The fact that the staff felt it necessary to bring in a union should be an indicator of the poor working conditions and poor treatment of staff by this agency. While the agency could have used this as a way to problem solve WITH the staff on ways to make it a better place to work, they instead took a defensive approach and decided that the best way to handle this was to reduce our benefits package and clearly sent the message that they do not support us, value us, or think very highly of us. During the unionizing process they took away benefits we had, such as REDUCED the sick days we have per year. That hit us hard, as we are a health care facility, and you would expect that they would value the need of sick time and value the importance of staff being able to have the time they need to take care of themselves. And while we were able to preserve the number of vacation days that current staff have, we unfortunately were not able to protect new staff who may join the agency. What this means is that existing staff started off with 4 weeks vacation and can get up to 6 weeks vacation, NEW staff, on the other hand, will only start with 2 weeks vacation and can go no more than 3 weeks.  The exception are NP's and RN's who will still get to start with 4 weeks vacation.  Imagine...what might it feel like to know that Nurses are valued and respected so much more that they get double the vacation time than anyone else? They pay us lower than the industry standard, plus they want to give us the minimal benefits. How much do you think Carea cares about their staff when this is the way they treat their staff?  If being valued and respected is important to you, then you might want to think twice before you apply for a job here.

Having worked in the health care environment for 9 plus years in numerous settings I would just like to say that Carea has nothing good to offer its staff. Coming from places where vacation time, sick days, benefits and pension are perfectly adequate what we do have at Carea are attempts to bribe us with peanuts and call it a parfait. A pension is no good to you in some imaginary future if you’re not healthy enough to enjoy it - you still have to live today. We are offered minimal professional development days with no real view towards improving ourselves to grow within the company and try new things. At Carea, you remain stagnant. Since working at Carea I have experienced an underwhelming amount of support from my manager and those in leadership: They are never available to me when I need guidance and they fail to show empathy and compassion to staff. Fortunately, I have been able to participate in different training that only helps me to grow more with the hopes of getting out of here so I can move on to greener (and healthier) pastures. At Carea, I am never treated like I matter. The leadership team clearly does not care about their staff and making necessary changes to improve the quality of our work experience is not part of their agenda. You couldn’t possibly come from worse working conditions than how bad we have it here. I like to believe that if you work hard and do the job you are there to do and take initiative you can thrive and have a great experience – unfortunately, however, no matter how hard I work and no matter how well I do my job, at this place I am languishing in the most awful experience ever. Sure, no workplace is perfect, but you’ve gotta be kidding me! Really??

My therapist thinks it would be therapeutic for me to tell my story a little bit about my experiences working at this community health centre. I could really just stop at one word to describe the place: TOXIC.

Everyday after work I would be like a zombie. My marriage started to crumble and my relationship with my kids started to go by the wayside. Every night I cried myself to sleep thinking about the horrors that I put up with that day and what I would be forced to go back to. Working with the clients wasn’t the problem - working for callous management/leadership is what did me in. I wish they had a heart for the community and the people they are supposed to serve - but they don’t. They will tell you otherwise in an effort to seduce you to the dark side, but the honeymoon won’t last long, ladies and gents...I’d recommend getting out before you even get in. 

My therapist gave me the courage I needed to recognize my worth and finally quit my job. I have since been hired at another health organization that values me for the person and professional that I am. I am now happier and healthier and my relationships have vastly improved. I consider my negative experiences at Toxic Carea to be my awakening to realize what I had been missing out on these past few years. I have come back to myself.

Don’t get me wrong - this community health centre used to be a great place to work prior to amalgamation a few years back. Since then it’s gone steadily downhill with no end to the horror show in sight. Do yourself a favour and apply elsewhere. You’ll be glad you did.

As has been said elsewhere, the good employees at North Carea are clamouring to get out of here alive. The good employees do not plan to further erode their self-esteem by staying stuck in this toxic environment. The dawn of a new day at North Carea will finally emerge when those in leadership are replaced. At present, they are waging a campaign of disinformation to combat the spread of the truth. They don’t want you to know that things are worse than they have been in a long time and are only going to continue to get worse. An internal email was sent out recently in which they disavowed their primary responsibility for a positive work culture, urging us to give our feedback to them rather than through “other avenues.” A true leader takes responsibility for the team they lead – including the team’s morale – not blame their followers for falling down, wounded, after leading them off the precipice. If feedback is not flowing upward to their delicate ears, it’s because they have actively sent the message that they don’t want to hear it. If a positive culture were fostered by the leadership, we would be able to communicate with them and they would be responsive. Sadly, however, that is simply not the case. Telling someone who is abused to reach out to their abuser when they are hurting is not my idea of a healthy approach.

The message clearly is: If you don’t like being abused while wearing a smile on your face, you don’t have to stay. Maybe I won’t.

If you don’t want to contract Carea-virus, stay far away!

I have been working at Carea for about a decade. The only reason I stay is because I love my work with clients.  I love that we are helping others who are disadvantaged. The problem is, it is getting harder and harder to stay motivated to come to work. 

We are unappreciated by management. Our Leadership team constantly demonstrates that they have no idea what us front line staff do. They do not listen - meaning they take feedback but nothing ever changes. They tell us that they know that communication is terrible and they are working on it....but 7 years later, nothing has improved. (is that long enough to wait??).

I understand that government funded agencies are slow, but if the government knew how much money is being wasted on upper management that never makes a decision...then I would imagine they would want to put the funding elsewhere!

And for those who do speak up and voice their disatisfaction, they actively silence you by removing you off of projects that you are passionate about (talk about negative workplace culture).

There is no recognition and no room to grow or move up in the ranks. Basically hiring for managment is political, they keep putting people above us who don't have front line clinical experience.  

It is sad, as this could be an amazing place to work at. It could be a dream job - but if you know what being appreciated and respected looks like, you will not be satisfied here.

A lot of great work is done by the staff at Carea. They are empathetic, loyal, collaborative and truly care about the clients they serve. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the leadership.

For my part, I have never expected those in charge to be ‘mind readers.’ However, I had (naively) thought and hoped that they might listen to my legitimate concerns. I tried hard, time and again, to voice my concerns. However, they have shown that they are either unable or unwilling to address the issues that are brought forward. Their ears are firmly shut to any voice but their own. Are they incapable or unwilling to listen? I don’t really know, all I know is that no matter how many times we tell them what's going on, things never change. In fact, things only seem to get worse. Working in an environment with arrogant leadership that can never do any wrong is hardly an environment that inspires productivity and growth, let alone basic contentment (let’s not even talk about happiness). That’s why leadership has got to go. Quite frankly, the present conditions at Carea are disrespectful to us employees and is not good for our mental health. You might even say it’s a toxic environment, as others have said. This present leadership needs to be led out the door so that we can benefit from leadership that actually leads – and cares.

I keep hearing about the terrible working conditions at Carea.  If people think it's that bad, you know what would really solve the problem for you?  If people that were negative left. If every single negative employee were to leave Carea, the toxicity would be lower and the rest of us would still be here, and the negative people would no longer be wreaking havoc on the place and leaving communities to suffer in its wake. This is why negative people have got to go.

The people who work at Carea are here for the people of the community, working hard to make Carea a positive place to work (which is why we stay!) -- but some of the union members actively work against other union members good efforts to make things better for our colleagues and for our communities. This would make staying here more of a viable option, which is why more and more martyrs must walk out the door (I can't say I would blame them). However, I appreciate those who remain at Carea and who work hard to serve the community and contribute in a positive way. We want a positive work environment - and the 'martyrs' need to get on board with that agenda. However, they either can't or they won't. This is why the bitter martyrs have got to go; this is why the complaining martyrs need to recognize when it's time to go and make way for some great people who want to come to work at Carea.

Prior to amalgamation, this was a great place to work. A few years ago 2 CHC's in Durham merged to create Carea CHC. Since then, everything has gone downhill. The staff turnover rate is very high, they have difficultly attracting talent, and yet Leadership doesn't seem to take notice that they are doing something wrong. These should be big red flags that something different needs to happen, that they need to treat us better, yet nothing changes. Very weak (negative) workplace culture in that staff are not respected for their knowledge, and not respected for the experience that they bring to the agency. Management and Leadership do not know how to show staff that they are valued and important. There is no effort made in terms of employee retention. There is no room for growth or movement in the agency, so you stay at the position you are hired at, as management doesn't know you enough to know your strengths and your ambitions, and they do not do any succession planning (which again would be connected to being valued). Leadership is not collaborative, and is patriarchal in their leadership style. Rather than focusing on the well-being of the staff, Management focus is on pushing numbers, and so staff are very stressed out, and many go on sick leave or leave because of this. This agency wants us to "care for our community" however they do not show they "care" about us.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Special projects manager 2 salaries reported	$90,000 per year
Primary care nurse practitioner 2 salaries reported	$118,722 per year
Philanthropy manager 2 salaries reported	$73,138 per year
Nurse practitioner 2 salaries reported	$84,292 per year
Medical secretary 2 salaries reported	$44,480 per year

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