physiotherapist

occupational therapist

massage therapist

physiotherapy assistant

kinesiologist

Lifemark Health Group

I'm not even sure where to begin. Buckle up, cause this will be a long one - it's taken me almost a year to finally be able to even talk about it. 

I want to preface everything I'm about to write by saying that I actually worked for this company for a very long time, and I really enjoyed the work I was doing and the team I worked with, minus management. The majority of the people that are still there actually reach out to me and ask me to come back often. Safe to say I was very good at my role and went above and beyond for this place (my mistake). 

First off, you will NEVER be compensated appropriately for the immense amount of work that you do. It doesn't matter what position or department you're in, how long you've been with the company, or how great you are at your job. Especially with the merge to Shoppers/Loblaws, the goal is to push people as hard as you can for the minimum amount of money. And then when you sit in the quarterly town halls, the CEO will complain during open questions that people feel they aren't properly compensated. How dare anyone ask to earn a living wage while being worked like dogs. 

Secondly, and probably the most prominent issue, is senior management. There are hardly ANY cases where people working in middle-senior management have actually worked the jobs they're managing, so not only do you have zero training or support in your role, you're constantly told that you're not doing your job properly - but you need to figure out how to actually make it work properly. Good luck! And when you become good at it, they still won't promote you but will always outsource new managers. Senior management does not listen to their employees when they're told that something won't work, and then blame their employees when it doesn't work. 

Third, you have the incredibly high turnover rate. Half of it being the amazing, hard workers who finally end up leaving because they're sick of the lack of recognition, lack of being heard, or find a job that will actually pay them fairly. The other half being the ridiculous firings/lay offs of the long term employees that actually know what they're doing and how things run properly. And don't forget, these people don't get replaced, they just move the work onto everyone else. 

As for my personal experience, I not only had to train people who were being hired at a higher pay rate than myself, but I even had the pleasure of training and hand holding the manager for my team - instead of just being promoted to management after years of hard work and commitment, and being the go-to person for our department. A specific person in a position of power was notorious for bullying and mistreating many members of our team, and even though this was brought to HR, nothing was done. To say that this person is responsible for tanking the entirety of the department would be an understatement. Nothing will ever be done about this of course because senior management is very clique-y and they're all buddy buddy (especially going to sports events on the company dime, while the lowly workers are turning to food banks and working second jobs since they don't earn living wages). 

They have removed the hybrid model (just call it what it is, one day WFH is laughable) and despite hiring a good chunk of workers to be remote, have decided that everyone is required to be in office 4 days a week. For those that work remotely out of province, they have implemented a tracking system on their laptops to ensure that you are chained to your desk and working every second of your shift.

All in all, every stereotype that you will ever hear about a toxic corporate workplace - this place has it all wrapped into one! I would only ever recommend this company to someone who absolutely hates themselves, enjoys being overworked and underpaid, being treated like garbage and gaslit when you stand up to it, and left to flounder with no support by management. 

OH OH OH AND, don't forget the best part - the CEO herself has said on multiple occasions that the ultimate goal of Shoppers/Loblaws is to be the "go to company" for privatized healthcare in Canada. How lovely.

Unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend this place to my worst enemy. The staff there are great and about the only upside I can think off my clinic manager was also great and tried to work with us as much as they could but still had the corporate gods they had to appease too. The turn over rate is extremely high because no one wants to stay and work there cause of how corporate runs things. In the 3 years I worked there my location alone has had 3 clinic managers, 3 RMTs, 5 or 6 physiotherapist, 3 kinesiologist, 2 admin staff, 1 OT, and an RCT leave, so what does that tell you? We didn’t even have our own in house physio therapist cause no one wanted to work there, we have to get physio therapist to come in from other clinics to work 1 or 2 days a week to be able to remain classified a multidisciplinary clinic. If you don’t pay really close attention to your pay they end up swindling you. They are more interested in getting client in and out the door so they can accept new referrals for their data numbers than continued care of their current clients. They say they offer competitive pay rates but their base commission rate is lower than most new grad would make right out of school anywhere else in the city. And when you give you months notice because you find a better paying job and they say let me see what I can do and come back with a offer that’s still lower than a new grad would get so there really is no hope for them. The reason they pay you so low is cause they have so many different departments that are basically pencil pusher they pay a lot of money to but the front line workers are the ones making all the money for the company. And then if you have an issues it’s a constant run around getting transferred from HR to payroll to IT and back to HR just to be told they can’t help you. I worked there for 3 years and never got access to my pay stubs or a T4 because of technical issues on their end and every time i asked about it nothing got fixed (yes i was still able to do my taxes, my accountant was able to pull my T4  from the access they have to the government website but still. The first year I called them and was like can you help me out and they were like first off that’s illegal right but yeah we can help you then when i went back to them the second year and had to do the same thing they were utterly shocked and then the third year I was finally able to print one off. Not because I was finally given accesses to it but cause my manager raised h*** with all the departments and they just ended up emailing him a copy. (Like I said management was great corporate is the problem) Still had to filed my taxes late for the past three years in a row cause of all this tho.) Got a 2% commission raise before going on medical leave for surgery and when I came back they bumped my pay back down to my starting hire rate until I noticed and was like hey where’s the raise you gave me. Overall it’s still pays well I mean you are making 50-55 bucks an hour but most places around will hire you for 60-65 with opportunities for raises so if your looking for a job you don’t have to really care about and can just kinda clock in clock out and go home (aside from hours of reporting you’ll be doing on your personal time each week) then it works great but if you actually wanna be client oriented and improve your own life well doing that it’s not the best place for that. It really sucks caused I showed them a lot of loyalty over the years hoping things would get better they offered my a job after Covid in a time where I hadn’t worked in my field for over a year and I was grateful for the opportunity so I didn’t mind taking a lower compensation pay and expected that as I showed my worth to the company they would increase my wages over the years but after 3 years all I got a 2% commission raise that they also took away when I came back from medical leave 

The physiotherapy company I have worked at for 6 years switched ownership to Lifemark 2 years ago. Since then, our clinics have undergone a lot of change. I have been able to experience this change at a CSR level and an Office Manager level. In my opinion, the majority of the changes have been very positive. Lifemark provides a much stronger and more organized structure and there is always a contact to go to for help or advice. Someone will always have an answer or be able to guide you to help resolve problems in your clinic. I have had the opportunity to meet new people across the country that I wouldn't have otherwise and I believe there is room for advancement within the company if I wanted to pursue that option. Just over the past 2 years I have seen many managers promoted to new positions which i think is a plus. Working for Lifemark, I now also have the opportunity as a full time employee to register for benefits. There are flexible options for the benefit plans Lifemark offers so I can tailor my plan to what I want. As a Office Manager new to the position during Covid, it has been overwhelming at times but I graduated University in April 2020 and got a job right away. I feel thankful for the experience because I can't imagine I would be getting this much experience related to my degree and career path anywhere else. My pay is very fair for what my responsibilities are and what is expected of me. I also work a very typical work day and 40 hours a week. As a fresh business school grad, I am over the moon with all the perks I experience. Lifemark also offers courses for therapists or support staff at a special rate for just Lifemark employees such as management development, dealing with mental health, and more. Also of course injury management type of courses for practitioners too! I feel that Lifemark has a very strong organizational structure and great communication. Covid has definitely thrown everyone for a loop and it is a stressful time for most but after lay offs, we were able to offer positions to everyone who was laid off and resume day to day operations. Lifemark representatives (in my province that I have experienced at least!) have worked so hard to make sure all staff and patients are as safe as possible. Our policies and procedures have been updated many times over the last year to keep in line with what the governemnt's requirements are with Covid procedures. If you are considering employement with this company, i would recommend it. You will learn so much and meet some great people. 

The role that was offered to me was not the role I ended up working. 
As an exercise therapist that was involved with the return to work program, I was constantly being given administrative work to do. Also as the only “hourly” employee, I was tasked with laundry, ordering supplies, covering the front desk, and calling patients to rebook appointments. I was under the impression that I was hired for my prior experience, but I was not paid for my education level, or the experience I brought to the job. I was paid as a customer service representative who also happened to prescribe exercises. 
There was ample discussion about clinic revenue and it seemed like patient care took a back seat. The physiotherapists were constantly encouraged to pass work off to the kinesiologists or the PTA’s to open up more time for new clients. There was also a heavy reliance on passive modalities and as an exercise therapist I was constantly encouraged to use them instead of motivating the patient to exercise. 
The benefits were the only real perk of this job. 
I was overworked, underpaid, and constantly told that “that’s the way it is”. 
The employees were undervalued and management was worried about the finances of the clinic before the happiness of the employees. I understand that there is a business side of healthcare, but it felt wrong to have that as the driving force behind every decision. When a staff member was yelled at by a client to the point of tears, managements response was to apologize to the client and inform the team member that they mishandled the situation. That was the final straw for me. The sign that was placed in the clinic that informed clients to “treat the team with respect” was clearly just for show. 
The clients made their own rules in terms of treatment, access to the clinic gym, and the way the staff was to work within the clinic. I have never been more frustrated working in a place that was supposed to be a healthcare setting. 
I would not recommend Lifemark to any healthcare professional in the workforce.

Working for Lifemark as a transcriptionist, at least for my particular clinic, has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. 

The doctors in the clinic are very positive and goal-focused with the patients. They have regular meetings and take a team approach to make sure they are looking at problems from many different angles and giving each other new ideas. The difference we see in our patients from start to finish is inspiring! I hold our doctors in high regard and respect the work they do. 

I feel my work as a transcriptionist is valued by the doctors and the management team and that we are all on the same page regarding the high quality standards of health care documentation. There are, as always, tight deadlines in report turn-around-time, but the workload is manageable even with all the ebbs and flows. 

There are some flexibility options as per hours worked, but it is primarily Monday to Friday 9-5. My management team has been accommodating to my needs regarding scheduling whenever I have needed them to be. 

There are similar positions with other companies that have a higher rate of pay, but I feel that the positive work environment and the primarily high quality of dictations help to offset that. There is also a lot of trust from the management team for me to complete my work however I need to, which works very well for me.  Our benefit package is flexible, and you are able to build it based on your own family needs. 

This is a long-term position for me, and I am very happy where I am with how things are, but it is nice to know that if ever I feel the need to change it up, there are options to move around within the clinic and within Lifemark in general. This will be my home for a very long time.

As other reviewers have said, the pay is comically low for a job in general, but especially for a job that requires a degree.  I would also argue that the work-life balance is abysmal - not because the job hours are bad, but because the pay is so low you're going to need to take a second (or third) job.

One thing I don't see many people saying though is how tedious the job is. I'll preface this by saying that I work at a smaller LTCH and so am the only PTA at the home - larger homes or jobs outside of the senior's wellness division likely have a different work environment. But from my personal experience, I find myself doing nothing but ROM exercises ~20x per day, every day. I'm positive there must be some other aspect of my job that I am missing, but given that the only training I was given was in slightly different variations ROM exercises, that's all I do... for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I had more fun when I worked fast-food. 
Again, this is likely because I am the only PTA in this specific home, but I find the job oddly lonely. The other staff are nice, but I don't feel especially close to any of them and I'm never really sought out unless they need me to contact the PT for something.
I also feel like the staff at the home expect me to know more than I actually do. Lifemark management & my PT seem to think I'm performing my job as required, but I'm tempted to agree with LTCH staff - there HAS to be more training that I'm missing. 
Of course, every job has its positives and I will say that I believe this job has helped me to become a more empathetic and patient person. The residents are truly lovely and the absolute highlight of the job. In fact, I could definitely see myself working in LTC again in the future - just not as a PTA. Never again. 

I have worked for Lifemark now for almost 3 years. Here is generally what a typical day looks like from the administrative perspective:
Answering phone calls, which can include booking patients, answering questions about the services/programs we offer, reschedule appointments, as well as confirming the times.
Booking patients for different programs. We offer in our clinic several different programs, and there are different ways that patients are scheduled, based on their program, the type of service they are receiving as well as the needs of the patient. 
Faxing, filing, making sure paperwork is completed by patients correctly.
Greeting and interacting with patients at the front end. 
I have the best management team I could ask for. They are helpful, and caring and understanding, and always encouraging you to grow and learn new things.

The most enjoyable part of the job is We Have Fun! Our clinic we all get along really well, and there is always a positive attitude. As well the company provides little challenges throughout the year to encourage healthy competition. We recently competed in a Winter Olympics challenge. Over 2 weeks we were given 5 challenges to participate in. Our clinic had a lot of fun with this activity. We had pick a team captain.  We also had to take a bunch of pictures doing the following things, Hosting a Sporting competition, a new sport, and a champion's feast. The competition was a lot of fun to participate in, we had a lot of laughs posing for the photos.

Very positive experience from my perspective as a new grad. Clinic director and staff have consistently taken time to teach, work with, and review skills and cases to better the treatment offered for both parties involved.

Some of the things I have experienced:

-Front staff set up to streamline paperwork and outcome measure gathering to allow more time for client care. 
-Education series preps you for higher level skills, while refreshing fundamentals.
-Charting system (LPS) easy to follow, supports get back to you quickly to resolve issues.
-Built on collaboration w/ other healthcare practitioners and other clinics if additional services or specialties within the physio community are warranted (e.g. pelvic floor, OT services, sports med). 
-Compensation is generally a tad lower than other clinics or companies at first glance, but I feel it is fairly balanced out considering the stability and perks that come with being an employee vs. a contractor (e.g. no tool and equipment fees, healthcare plan, do not need to become incorporated, potential for courses offered at a discount/ educational allowance if an employee long enough).
-Have not gone through a yearly review to date so I cannot speak on possibility for growth/ increased compensation. 

Overall my impression of the Lifemark I am employed is frankly that I come to a place I enjoy being a third of my day, I work with people that better me, not work against me, and I feel safe and comfortable in the environment. I know I have supports to better my understanding and work off others in my facility. If the focus of your career is to better yourself as a physical therapist and emphasis is on growth for both parties for the sake of client care, this is a great fit.

Sure if you're looking for something for the summer this job is fine. But if you are a hard worker and looking to get a raise and even full time then forget it. This company was completely unfair to me (and everyone that started with me). After an ENTIRE YEAR and a 1/2 that i've asked to go full time they finally gave me my hours. What really ticked me off was they kept hiring new people when here i am wanting to work longer hours. 
 
   Then there's the getting paid part. I started off with $11.00 and after a full year they finally gave me a raise and that was by me sending a letter to head office. I was at $14.00 which i was really happy about at that time. But then i found out that the coordinators that were working there (easiest part of the job) were getting $17.00!! WHATTT?? I'm here at the front working my butt off, hearing patients complain, have several calls handled by myself in a really really fast paced environment and i'm receiving disrespectful voice tone for no reason by the coordinators and i'm getting $14.00???

   It's not that i didn't know much, I knew EVERYTHING. I knew how to thoroughly get things done and how to make those cranky patients happy. I knew how to efficiently get tasks done. I even missed my breaks sometimes because I was caught up with work. AND I GOT $14.00! When you have bills to pay, $14.00 isnt gonna do. 

  WHAT TICKED ME OFF THE MOST: New hires were also getting $14.00!!! You kidding me???? I started off with $11.00 worked by butt off to get all the way up there and these girls getting hired on the spot at $14.00!! 

  I wanted to scream and walk out several times, but i was just being patient. Eventually....my patients ran out.

Things had been alright prior to covid. As a Kin, the salary was not great, but other extra work and perks were pretty good and made up for it. Never had a complaint about the team so the culture was there. However, once COVID hit, they took everything from the staff they could. Makes sense at the beginning, but 11 months later we still have yet to get anything back even though all of our clients numbers are the same as before. Perks have not been returned, benefits got slashed yet were more expensive (Explanation was "to be able to offer the benefits and wellness days to all permanent full time employees at Lifemark Health Group and its companies, rather than just some"), and no annual raise was given. One colleague reported he had only recieved 2 annual raises (2% or less) in 5 years. Work that was deemed as extra before has been thrown at us yet the expectations remain the same. Staff turnover has been outrageous, and management couldn't care less. No attempt to retain staff, and are still always 2 steps behind in hiring. Our clinic was short staffed from October to January and many staff had done countless hours of overtime without compensation. Management just expects it to get done and then harps on us for not making deadlines. DO NOT recommend working here as a Kin unless you want to be overworked with no chance at getting a raise. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Physiotherapist 239 salaries reported	$50.04 per hour
Occupational therapist 117 salaries reported	$55.32 per hour
Massage therapist 65 salaries reported	$76,662 per year
Physiotherapy assistant 157 salaries reported	$19.91 per hour
Kinesiologist 38 salaries reported	$25.96 per hour

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