support worker

occupational therapist

speech language pathologist

registered practical nurse

physiotherapist

CBI Home Health

What is the best part of working at the company?
Easy going staff, most houses trust their care attendants. 
They don't require you to drive their clients, they have a personal driving service.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The pay is terrible, for the amount of work you put in to care for the extreme complexities of the individuals cared for, (ie: clients). Staff is expected to work with high risk and aggressive individuals, or supporting clients with high needs, Inc. Bathing, feeding and changing also extreme behavioural challenges. Which is fine, just the pay is not enough to encourage quality of care, so a lot of the clients are understaffed.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
85% of the staff are Nigerian, and it's easy to feel left out. Because employee's are "clique" it's easy to feel left out. But most are nice, team leads can be a pain, expecting staff to do everything, from cleaning, feeding, shopping, recreational activities, changing. The supervisor's undermine their staff infront of clients and their families, which can cause a disruption in authority, because clients begin to realize they can get away with aggressive behaviour to their support workers without consequences. Some clients are even rewarded as a way to, "not cause disruption when supervising staff is in checking on things, and to save the behaviour until they leave and are alone again with their support workers".

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Your day is usually 12 hours but most times 13 to 13.5 hours because staff are constantly leaving or being sent to work with other clients. You have to get the clients up undress them, make sure they use the toilet, (in some cases see and weigh the clients solid waste for medical reasons) totally inappropriate for support staff, and more inappropriate for the below pay range. You have to prepare and feed, then shower your clients, dress the clients, clean the linens, they try to get support staff to teach academic skills to the client as well as try to keep the clients active by teaching exercise. In the summer time, most houses are not air-conditioned and I have personally read the thermostat in an old clients house was 45degrees Celsius(August). Lunch, and medication administration is also on the list of daily duties. Some clients won't take their meds and they use it as a game and they will use it to their advantage by being rewarded by the leadership staff in order to get them to take their meds. To the point where leadership had to create another plan to accompany this task or they won't take it. Your day is over at 7 pm and the day is completed by documentation. Extra long documentation because they need to make sure their staff is signing off on ALL their duties.

For majority of staff vacation is 4% (2 weeks) paid, therefore unpaid at time off

No benefits for the majority of staff. Those that have benefits company pay 50%  
 
Salaries are just over minimum and no raise in 4 years.

No sick time for part-time If you are sick more than 5 days consecutively, you are let go, for the illness reason, so that you can collect EI. They don't have to hire you back if they don't want to. Therefore no job security.

An Office Staff member was heard telling another employee, over the phone, to go to work when calling in sick. The reason that person called was that they were struggling with the heavy smoke outsaide from the forest fires. The employee was told to where a mask when health and safety officials were saying that masks were worse than breathing smoke becuase the particles clog the fibres, making breathing even more difficult.There was no thought to the employees health and the office person just wanted to save themselves some work looking for a replacement 

For those that drive their vehicles for work, reimbursement is only .47 for the first 5000.00 and .41 for the rest, over the year. This is well below the govenment standard and because of this, it is considered taxable income. You are therefore taxed on the wear and tear on your vehicle and then taxed for your repairs. I'm on my 3rd battery

Management stay in their offices and only speak with you, if you or they have an issue.

Very quiet, with most staff whispering

Have never had a staff meeting in 4 years

Difficult to get supplies. Waited 5 weeks to get a binder.  Asked for a different colored high-lighter and was told that they don't order that color. It doesn't cost anymore than any other, so why not. This is likely why they are a Best Managed Company. You are unable to have anything outside the norm, even if it will improve how you do the job.

100% Human Resources front-line staff turnover in 2 years ( all except the Manager have left)

No future - very little advancement opportunities

Benefits are different in Ontario as the labor laws are better. CBI Alberta could compensate staff the same as they do in Ontario, but unlike most other companies, they choose not to. Pay is not the same standard throughout the entire company.

I will start off nicely by saying there are good people working here who are dedicated to helping families and their cause. The families you deal with are quite amazing as well. However, being in the position as a Behavior Interventionist you will feel that you are not being trained appropriately (it occurs at very random times, as well as being extremely confusing to the point of asking yourself "what am I doing?", "I don't know if what I am doing is correct?", "when will I get information on how to do my job?", or "when will I be trained?"). You instantly get thrown into a big unorganized, messy salad and arrive at peoples houses not knowing what to do. Everyone else is on salary, this position is not – expect a terrible 40 hours a week with a very unfortunate paycheck. I was driving from point A to B to C NOT COMPENSATED, and exceeding 8 hours throughout the day because of the driving time. You have to keep track of gas receipts, time spent driving, as well as km's driven so that you can later submit – hopefully this has changed and employees are actually getting *mileage*. Expect to drive a lot if you're working more than 25 hours. Also, consider winter time because that will have effect on this position, and expect a lot of wear and tear on your vehicle. Break time is not paid for, and it is often hard to make time for lunch during driving days – you will be buying lunch most times. You will also be dealing with very different families and home settings – many of which are willing to learn with you, and others more difficult to deal with.

This job is not worth the complications in the end. Sure, the title of "Behavior Interventionist" sounds nice on a resume, but consider your sanity beforehand. Also, having background in this field is very crucial. You will NOT last if your focus is not on children with neurodevelopmental disabilities – hence why the turnover rate is so high. Also, management communication really needs to be worked on, training hours are mostly forgotten on paychecks and need to be verbally reminded. I believe in the values of the company I was working with, but my experience as a Behavior Interventionist was not supported appropriately.

CBI has been 100% the worst job I have ever had. Management is based on popularity and favourites. There is ZERO room for advancement. Employees are treated horribly; emotionally and verbally abused. There is zero organization or thought for new policies or systems. Clients yell at you on the phone and are racist/sexist without any consequence. Other employees (HCAs) yell at coordinators and blame you for them not being able to pay their rent. Abuse from other employees is pushed aside and blame is placed on the victim. Zero professionalism from HCAs all the way to upper management. Supervisors have a superiority complex and never take feedback. Meetings are not collaborative, instead, you get talked at by management and there is no room for change. Legal issues and unethical practices are common. 

Personally, I had to take a 2-month stress leave because of the toxic culture of the company and office. During the start of COVID 19, there was zero organization for safe practices for field staff. The office staff were not given proper resources, 65% of HCAs were on leave and there was no help from management to restaff or find a new solution. Supervisors had no answers and expected you to do their jobs as well. The only bond I had with coworkers was the shared annoyance and disrespect we felt working there. The culture in the lunchroom from other departments was the same, irritation, anger and aggravation over management and company practices. I continuously tried to find new and better ways of staffing and completing my work objectives, and all I got was condescending and unhelpful responses back. 

During my year at CBI I saw 3 office staff fired (walked out by management), but no field staff that had been involved in unprofessional, legal or unethical practices. I cannot state enough that CBI is NOT a place you want to work at. Please do your research before applying or accepting a position.

I was very excited to work here but it was nothing like expected. I was told it would take a couple months to build my schedule but I never got one. Never got the hours to be full time. Some days I'd only have 3 or 4 hours. Every day was stressful waiting to see if there were shifts I could pick up myself.  Never got to see the same clients even when they requested me. Clients get pulled from you with no notice or info. Some days I'd have a gap of 3/4 hours with no clients. This company keeps hiring people but they don't have the clients to give new workers. That's why the turnover is so high!

CBI allows clients to cancel last minute without compensating you. So if your clients cancels the visit then you lose out. Its not fair because then you lose your pay and can't fill that spot with another client. 

The pay is very low and not competitive at all! The "incentive" you get for gas and mileage is a joke!  It's literally pennies and does not compensate for the amount of gas you put into your vehicle or the wear and tear. Not worth it at all! Especially if you don't live directly in the same working area.  I was not paid for drive time and that adds up to many hours a week. 

Supervisors were not on the same page so it was unclear what my job duties were sometimes. Management has a lot of room for improvement! Felt like management totally forgot about me as an employee and don't care at all because my schedule was never fixed. You work independently for the most part but there's no relationship with supervisors or managers.

The best part of the job is that you get to select your availability but choose wisely because you're locked in and they do not allow you to change it until months later no matter the circumstance. 

This was the most stressful and overall the worst job I've ever had. They do not value their good employees at all. They have major issues at management level and with scheduling that make it impossible for employees to succeed. I do not recommend you work for them. There are other much better home care companies out there!

The company has a very high turnover rate which often leaves the staff required to work ridiculous over time hours and work several days in a row without a break.

Management break there own policies and procedures and make no apologies for it. Management also puts people with no experience in supervisory roles, and sets them up for failure. They offer band aid solutions and do not take their time to assess situations. They often put their staff in unsafe environments and expect staff to simply "deal with it". Management likes to lay blame on their employees for many of the things going wrong in their group homes, however, it is mostly due to poor leadership, and staff just looking to keep themselves safe and out of harm from the clients.
Management tend to try and be a friend to the client instead of establishing boundaries which causes difficulties for the staff when they are trying to implement disciplinary measures (according to the policies and procedures of the company) and the client rebels and says "management says/does this, etc".
Management is more concerned about making money and less concerned about actually improving the lives of the youth in their care, and the health of their employees. 

When I was hired, management had over hired staff and many went several days and even weeks without shifts even though we were hired on full time contracts.

Management likes to focus on the negative with their employees and rarely points out and appreciates the positive efforts staff are making.

The persons in these management roles are good people. They are loving and caring individuals. My personal opinion is that they are simply not meant for a management role as they lack leadership skills.

I worked with this company before it became CBI, and it was great up until about 5 years ago when everything started changing. in the last 5 years, there has been an amazing turn over in staff, both field and office. This is because management is AWEFUL and the latest management is worse to date. Coordination is terrible, the office vibe itself is horrific. Its like high school full of girls. They talk about field staff behind there back but very nice to your face, they get off the phone with staff or clients and talk about the conversation, rolling their eyes and nothing ever gets done with complaints. You never call in sick, because they will make you feel like you are a horrible person for doing so even though you are working with people that are elderly and prone to bugs, you are also told to phone in sick if you are. So the mind games are unreal. Coordination will change your schedule on you without notice and blame you for not knowing. There is no accountability for the office staff at all. Once you reach 16.85 in pay you will not get a raise. You used to make extra money to go out of town however, they pulled that and replaced it with a 150.00 supplement every 2 weeks. I used to put that in gas in my car every week. You can no longer bank vacation pay in order to have a vacation, it is paid out on every cheque now. They stopped years ago giving staff CPR training, which is pretty vital when your working alone with people that had disabilities. 
There is not enough I can say bad about this company and reading the reviews, apparently its a horrible company across Canada.

The clients are amazing. Working one on one with the clients is amazing.

I worked as a PTA for this company and it was awful. I started with about 12 hours for about 2 months doing exercise classes and one on one's with the residents (the pay is good,but no hours). Starting this new year (2014) they discharged all the clients, which I did not agree. Instead of having one on one visits they try to pack the exercise classes to cut all their costs. They told me that they would look into finding me more hours because now I only have 2 hours per week. 

There was a scheduling conflict when I had to cover for the other PTA. The manager gave me the wrong schedule and I waited for the people to show up. I was told: "you cannot input this as hours, if I go to a clients house and they're not there I don't get paid." this would make sense, if it were a client related/my fault, but it was not. 

In 4.5 months I saw my manager once and saw my supervising PT maybe 3 times. Communication between therapist is awful and have no idea what they're doing.

Unless you're a manager or any one who works in the main office, you're an independent contractor, which means you pay no tax, cpp, EI. So don't get hurt and make sure you write down every thing you earn for tax purposes. 

Overall, CBI needs to improve on every aspect of its business. It is poorly ran and do not care about employees or clients. The billing system is awful and takes a very long time (longer then you work) to input hours and all the other things you have to do after you have actually left work.

STAY AWAY

CBI is an amazing company that aims to provide support to individuals seeking transitional housing and for those who have mental health issues. With the help of Monarch House where ABA Therapist are involved with clients and front line staff, we aim to provide the best quality of support through behavioral support plans in order to improve the stability of client's lives and help with their cognitive functioning. 
-A typical day at work would be providing support based on client's needs such as prepping meals, maintaining the environment and brushing teeth. Almost the entire day you are interacting with the clients by engaging in activities of their preference (arts&crafts or sports). The last main thing that is done is daily documentation and reporting of any aggressive behaviors that clients have and any unusual  behavior. Physical Management is also done time to time when clients become aggressive and attack staff. 
- Management members are amazing as they are extremely supportive and never jeopardize our safety. 
-The most enjoyable part of the job is learning about challenging behaviors and how to work with that from experts and professionals as well as building that bond and rapport with the clients. Considering the circumstances, putting a smile on their faces means the world.

CBI has been a great place to work. Management has been very empathetic and applies solutions related to safety very quickly. On the job training was a little scattered, but all paperwork, medication, and support resources are clearly available. There is not much training that can prepare you for this line of work as a lot of it comes from experience and the specific client you are working with. Some locations are a lot better run than others; however, management is actively working to improve this. The pay is good and the benefits are extremely well priced. Contrary to some reviews here, you do get paid per kilometer to travel when working. 

The only complaints are that you do not get paid overtime and COVID has made it very hard to have full staffing. This leaves a lot of extra hours to be worked. It should be noted that the nature of the job is inherently stressful at times as you need to deal with aggressive behavior. However, CBI was very transparent about this. They also offer a lot of support themselves and via supports you can call (benefits also cover psychological counseling).

Definitely a decent place to work if you have initiative and a drive to excel.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Support worker 198 salaries reported	$22.81 per hour
Occupational therapist 131 salaries reported	$75.55 per hour
Speech language pathologist 42 salaries reported	$72.99 per hour
Registered practical nurse 50 salaries reported	$32.31 per hour
Physiotherapist 39 salaries reported	$66.66 per hour

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