Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society

I attended interview with this agency and was successful. I was brought into the office two weeks later and was offered a position with the Working Warrior program for which I held for a few years while with the agency. Originally, with a new role you will expect some sort of orientation and guidelines in embarking a new role but there was none given!

In the beginning it felt like I pretty much much was taken to the middle of an ocean with this job and was left to figure it out to either swim or sink. I begin to regret leaving my former job to this job and was contemplating going back as my previous employer with open arms was always willing to take me back. I decided to stay here to take up the challenge so I stayed. 

I single handedly trained myself in my role and for the most part carried out my task assisting and supporting the clients and the program very efficiently as best as I could. In other word I will proudly say that I gave this agency, their clients and the program I worked for my time and very best. 

One of my experiences here Working with the Working Warrior program is that the Management most of the time were no were to be found, they will never checks in with you and most of the time will not answer your phones calls when you phone needing help or support in resolving a difficult task that were work related. 

Management were never seen in the office prior to when offices became shot down for COVID pandemic in other words were barely assessable when needed by staffs. 

My other experiences here in terms of management was that you’re never appreciated or given positive encouragement for doing a good work with their clients or trying to figure things out on your own since you have zero to none support from management. 

Most of the time, management seem to be too serious, unfriendly in result making themselves very unapproachable by some staffs not all staff as they pick and choose their favourites among team members. 

Management will always find a reason to blame you for something even when incidents occur from their own mistake they put in on you and blame you for incompetency for their own mistakes. 

Management will delegate most of their task to you and put you into pressure with unreasonable deadlines to complete multiple tasks including yours and theirs that they put on you. 

One other terrible experience is their style of communication and approach which they termed “military style” that they put out in work place environment. The management style of communication to their staffs here is very unethical and unprofessional as your boss will literally scold you in person and on the phone even in front of everyone during staff meetings. 

Due to this work stress and pressure, In time, I even developed health condition from all the stress put out on me by my former boss while working with this agency. Most of the time, I wake up each day been fearful of not having a job the next day as there is NO sense of job security. One person runs the whole show here!

Literally, you could be called into the office at anytime and be fired for any cooked up reasons and lies especially if you are that staff who decides to stand up for yourself to challenge bullying projected towards you from management. In my very eyes I see tones of staffs get fired from their jobs for unjustifiable reasons and this becomes a pattern. 

Managements are not held accountable for their actions and conducts here due to conflicts of interests and favouritism that revolves around their small circle. Staffs are encouraged to gossip about other staff as the management becomes part of this circle of gossips. 

Management will rarely conduct supervisions with staffs to evaluate staffs work performance and to provide those adequate support to staffs on areas were needed for improvement but will call you out on staff meetings or on the phone to scold you for something they feel you didn’t do right of which in most cases the said issues were not as result of errors from the front line staffs but the system practiced or sometime management but then get blamed on front line staffs regardless of the source of error. 

There is no sense of work place family, support and togetherness in this work place considering how I lost my father back in 2020, and never received any text message, phone call or visitation to sympathize or show condolence or support from any member of my team at the time. 

Work plans and strategies are always changing from time to time and no consistency as you are always told to things a certain way today and tomorrow that same thing a different way. 

I wish I had a better experience with the management style of leadership, because on the other hand I actually genuinely like the idea of services that were made available to clients and the community they serve and I enjoyed the work I did with the clients  thru the Working Warrior program but only wished things were different with my experience with management and the energy around staff dynamics if which different, might have just made this job a one of a kind for me. 

I felt I toward the end of my stay here that I was no longer wanted here as I started speaking up for myself and then I became a target. I was targeted to a point that even few other colleagues of mine will see this and privately ask me questions how they notice I’m being targeted by my boss and suggest that I take it up to upper management for complaints. 

Due to fear of loosing my job I did not take this to upper management but continue to defend myself until my last days with them when they finally exercised their powers (One Man Show), and succeeded in getting me out by cooking false allegations and lies against me with their client which they had no proof of neither from their own records or from their said client to back up those claims. I was not surprised about this as I have seen this same pattern happen in multiple occasions with other terminated staffs right before my eyes. 

Allegations were put on me that were not true and even after their “completed investigations” no proof of their claims were they able to provide to justify their poor judgement and conspiracy. 

Even when I was called into the office, you could see their guilt right thru their faces, but I was prepared to take care of myself and to got me another job even before I was called in to their office. I saw same pattern before hand that was projected towards other staffs that was let go in the passed being projected towards me. Right then I knew my time here was up. So, I decided to get me set up to prepare me for the worse. 

I was excited to receive a call for interview with this company but I should’ve picked up on the red flags that started as early as the zoom interview. During my interview, my soon to be supervisor rolled her eyes and made strange faces whenever I was answering the interview questions. Upon starting, I was given no training only an orientation (AKA sit and listen for 8h) which didn’t help me at all in learning my role. They require you to pay for a driving abstract from the registry and provide your insurance but they don't allow most of the workers to drive the company car or transport youth anyways. Some staff were having to take the bus/lrt with 4 youth to do activities in the community. 

I started working here during covid and was shocked to see that no health precautions were being followed and I was actually judged for wearing a mask while on shift. The house was in terrible shape, falling apart, and just plain filthy. Inadequate supply of cleaning products and no staff members completing cleaning. I was expected to work single staffed for parts of shifts before I had even worked 2 shifts. When I explained my concerns around safety and comfortability with single staffing, I was made to feel as if my concerns were irrational and the supervisor went and talked behind my back to other employees. The workplace culture was absolutely appalling. Staff/supervisor throwing others under the bus, talking badly about each other and former staff (if you worked here in the last year, they are still badmouthing you!). More upsettingly, staff would talk awfully about youth with no care that they were in the next room over. No trace of empathy towards them or their situation whatsoever. This was least trauma informed program I have ever stepped foot in. I did not witness any real youth work or any kind of work for that matter happening in my time at the programs. Multiple workers at this agency with little to no credentials to be there but there because of connection to someone higher up.

This company hires and fires workers in the 3 month probation without cause to avoid paying anything extra for training or severance when they're ready to dump you. I have seen my job reposted 4+ times since being terminated without cause. Supervisor disclosed that I was being fired to the rest of the team (not surprisingly, I was apparently the last to be informed) and refused to give me any shifts in preparation for my termination in the final days of my 90 day probation period. During my final call with HR, HR raised her voice at me and had no empathy for what I was going through. Yes HR, your job is to take care of your workers and send them off professionally. Try to empathize with the person losing their employment!

I really feel bad for the youth that are placed here and living in this toxic agency with toxic staff. Going forward, I will never refer anyone to work at or become a client of Bent Arrow. If you have any sense of professional or personal integrity, avoid Bent Arrow at all costs! 

I worked within the Kahkiyaw program as a Family Wellness Worker. The pay for the job is good you get on-call pay and auto allowance ontop of your wage. The other benefits for the job are lack luster. The health benefits aren't great and there is no RRSP program. The work is challenging but can be very rewarding. The most challenging part of the job was not having a supportive supervisor. I struggled for many months not getting the help and support I needed to do my job. I finally went to management and they said they would take care of it for me and address the issues. A few weeks later there was an incident with my supervisor, that was supervisor misconduct and had nothing to do with me. Management and HR were involved. The supervisor continued to blame me for their actions. Management tried to deal with the situation accordingly. It was offered that I could transfer teams. After I did the supervisor still harassed me and had no understanding into the stress and burnout I was facing because of their actions. In my final meeting with this supervisor it was suggested that I work of self-awareness and recognizing burnout. The supervisor then gave me an evaluation that only documented my alleged "wrong doings" even though management told me I did nothing wrong. Minimal was done to help me through the situation that happened in terms of emotionally or psychologically. Everything was very rushed and quickly swept under the rug. Ultimately it was because of this situation that I left. It was too stressful. The organization has a lot of potential but they need to get control of their management and guidelines/procedures for doing things. The organization doesn't seem to overly concerned with losing staff or the effects that supervisors are having on their staff.

I started in a brand new program. So learning my position as well as navigating through the trials and errors of the new program was difficult because I was always expected to have the answer for things that should have been taught by my upper management. But it was never. The training process was a struggle because the team-lead didn’t know what she was doing either. 
Towards the end of my employment we were down to 2 staff in my program with no team lead. I was exploited into doing unobtainable amounts of work yet NEVER credited for it. I was always looked down upon and my legitimacy was ALWAYS questioned by upper management. Every time I had a question, I was left without an answer OR I was given a passive aggressive Ignorant response.
I found that people who were interconnected to upper management via friendships, relationships, roommates, etc. Were able to keep their positions without fear of repercussions. 
Upper management is a complete joke. None of them obtain the necessary credentials required to run this organization effectively. I was never made aware of management having formal education. Their lack of professionalism is evident in the way they speak, the way they present themselves, and the way the treat others. 
The salary is not nearly enough to compensate for the amount of stress they put on staff. You cannot live off of the wages they offer. There is little room for advancement. 
In the housing program, we were always working alone. You don’t benefit off of the help of your co workers. You do not work as a team. 
In conclusion, I was genuinely set up for the inevitable, nobody was ever there for me in this company. 

The agency is more focused on dancing around and broadcasting their teachings, staff also get written up for not taking part of the cultural events even if you have tons of work. They are more focused on culture than helping families and children.I have yet to see any successful files of children returning back to parents. I have no clue what the agenda of this agency is, but my experience is so far terrible, Thank God I found another job. Also no direction or proper training for a new role, as a new worker dealing with children and families..the supervisors were inexperienced and ignorant. They get annoyed for asking questions when their job is to help staff, jeeez they should stop hiring cousins and family members who are illiterate and unprofessional to manage people who actually went to school for their career.  It’s always the overweight obese supervisors who give people hard time, perhaps they should replace some of the countless of traditional stuff with healthy eating and body and involve management to take part of it…that way these supervisors and managers wouldn’t be bitter and angry at the world instead will work on their issues and insecurities. To give this agency a rating, I had no choice but to give it 1, 0 wasn't available

With my brief time working for bent arrow, I spent majority of my time sitting at my desk with no work to do, no one to reach out to to be given something to keep me busy. My manager was rarely in the office to provide me with sufficient training and tasks or opportunity to be productive with time while they were away. They rarely responded to inquiries, but when they did there wasn’t much help. the only time I would receive messages or emails was to be asked to provide information or answers to things they needed right away. Other coworkers had issues with getting approvals from the manager so they can provide basic needs to clients which in turn left clients in predicaments. When I was given tasks, most of the time the directions were unclear and when I asked for clarification I would be treated as if I was inconviencing them. I wouldn’t work here as the salary isn’t sufficient enough in many factors. 

Bent Arrow has been no doubt the best place I've ever been employed. Not only is the work rewarding and the culture of people so amazing, the agency offers many things most other companies would never offer their staff. This includes:
- 4-day work weeks
- extended benefits
- additional training and growth opportunities
- MANY opportunities for cultural teachings
- Fun activities
- So much food
- Paid time off (wellness days, many sick days, birthday off, vacation days, lieu/flex time) 

Management is empathetic and supports you in your daily work and personal lives. While I can't speak for every program, it has been the best experience I've ever had at a job. 

Supervisors and management have 0 people skills, if you want to be humiliated and bullied every day this is the environment to work. Managers refuse to allow workers to have a voice, forget being written up or verbal warning if they personally do not like you..you are gone! this agency doesn't follow the book! The turnover is extremely high ( no wonder)

Doesn't  matter if you have masters or a degree someone with a high education will supervise you, if you dare question them, you are threat and they will humiliate you till the end. Majority of these reviews, despite of being harsh...is telling the truth. These are people who witnessed and faced it, and unfortunately just like someone mentioned previously, for a marginalized group of people who have been brutally oppressed, now they are oppressing workers.

I use to work in this program and the manager is not nice! It's her way or no way! The team members were ok but way too much mean vicious gossip. Don't worry about education or experience as none is needed in this organization. If your family or a friend or simply a warm body chances are you will get hired. This place treats their employees horribly, they will not hesitate to fire you for any reason, including personal. And if they can't find a reason to fire you they will make your life miserable. No consistency and expectations are different for everyone and at anytime.
The overall environment is a health hazard! The paint on the walls is chipping off, the building is freezing in the winter and unbearably hot in the summer! Seriously not sure how this building passed regulations!

Typical day at work began with a team meeting and debrief of previous with smudging and prayer. I learned that family support is priority and that many families requiring intervention lack resources to assist with meeting their needs. Advocating for families to help agency understand and develop services around the families needs.
My co-workers were very well educated and dedicated to helping families overcome adversaries. 
The hardest part of the job was being on call.
The most enjoyable part of the job was being able to practice and feel supported in my spirituality and to be able to help Aboriginal families understand the importance of culture while advocating for their rights.

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