direct care worker

program manager

Stewart Homes

Stewart homes is very negative and stressful. We're always understaffed, mainly because the pay so bad for the large workload we do. Children that are getting 1:1 funding are constantly not getting it and instead are getting paired up with other kids in terms of staff supervision and care. Meaning, these kids are not getting the care they're supposed to be getting and staff are constantly overworked and stretched too thin. Since we are so understaffed, staff are always getting pulled from one house to work at another. When you get hired, you're told you're hired for one particular house but you can get pulled at anytime to work at another residence and be expected to work with children that you have never even seen before. The managers here are an embarrassment, never show any appreciation for anything and will tell you one thing but do something else behind your back. There's a ridiculous amount of favoritism here and certain staff are allowed to get away with whatever they please. We have staff that literally engage in child neglect and it's situations management knew about and they did nothing. Bullying and gossip are rampant throughout the agency and this is an extremely poisonous environment. The scheduling is the worst you will see anywhere. We have to do oncall shifts and we don't get paid for them unless we get called in. When you're oncall, you're oncall all day and overnight. Supervisors schedule your oncalls wherever they please with no consideration to your availablity. The schedules get posted late all the time and the most stressful aspect is you never know what you're working until the schedule actually gets posted. You're promised a rotation but your hours get changed constantly behind your back and you don't find out until the schedule gets posted because supervisors don't even give you a heads up. Again, no respect for our availablity, and if we go to school or have another job. The pay is so bad here that almost every full timer is working a second job just to live but at the same time it's so hard to manage a second job because of the ever changing schedules and the oncalls that we get every 2 weeks. We try to do everything we can for the kids because they deserve so much better than this but we are stretched so thin and everyone has had enough of this negative draining place.

This was the worst job I've ever experienced for several reasons. The pay for full time is laughably bad to the point where it's almost impossible to live off of just this one job but at the same time, the scheduling is so bad too, that management makes it almost impossible for you to hold a second job on the side. Your hours and schedule are constantly changing and you never know when your oncall shifts are going to be scheduled for because your supervisor just assigns them wherever with no regard to your availability. You never fully know what you're working until the schedules get posted and the schedules usually get posted very late, like only a few weeks before. You dont get any pay for oncalls unless you get called in and you are oncall for the entire day and night. What's even worse is that when you're oncall, you're oncall for every house. Let's say you're oncall for your main house but another house is really short staffed and already used their own oncall staff for the day, you can get called in for another house with no notice and be expected to work with a house full of residents that you've never met before and be given zero training on. This happens alot and that includes getting called in for overnights at other houses. Also, they tell you that you're hired to work at 1 particular house but staff are constantly getting pulled from one house to work at another regardless of whether you feel comfortable or not, because the agency is so short staffed. The workload is very heavy and we are never shown any respect or appreciation for anything. Management doesn't care about their staff at all and that's why everyone keeps leaving. Turnover is extremely bad and being short staffed is always a problem. Residents that are supposed to get one-to-one support often don't receive it and are stuck getting paired with other residents and aren't getting the attention they should be getting. Working here was such a stressful mess for staff and it's so sad because the kids deserve so much better but sadly the management here just doesn't care about the staff at all. You try to voice concerns to management and it never goes anywhere. Our voices are always ignored.

The supervisors and mangement here are terrible and they make this job very stressful. They don't care about the staff and show no appreciation for us. The scheduling here is really bad. They tell you that you have a set rotation/fixed schedule but this is not true. Supervisors constantly change shifts and they do so without notifiying or asking you first. For instance, let's say your Tuesday shift is supposed to be 2-9 every week, one week your supervisor will just change it and schedule you for a 9-9 that day instead and they won't tell you first. There's no consideration at all about whether you may have another job you're working at that morning (and most staff are working a second job because the pay is so bad here). So they tell you that you're going to have a set schedule but that's not true, it's a complete lie. The on-calls are horrible as well and you're on-call for the whole day INCLUDING overnight. You don't get paid for on-calls unless you get called in and you have no control over where you're on-calls get scheduled, the supervisors just schedule them wherever works for them. You commonly get on-call shifts on your weekend off. Even worse, you can get on-call shifts scheduled the day before a vacation day. Let's say you booked a day off for something, they can give you an on-call the day before your vacation day which means there's a risk of getting called in for an overnight the day before and have it ruin your day off. This has happened several times! Turnover is extremely bad because the staff are fed up of the management and fed up of being overworked and underpaid and the residents aren't getting the care they should be getting. There are so many times where the houses are understaffed and residents that are supposed to be getting 1:1 staffing aren't actually getting it and are being paired up with other residents. It's so sad because the residents are all amazing and they're all so sweet but management and scheduling just make this job awful to work at.

I personally only worked there for the experience of the children because you won't find this kind of home anywhere else. Somedays it was a struggle to go into work but thinking about who I was working with ( staff in my house were amazing and worked well together) and I got to see the children is what encouraged me to go. Management is horrible. They say "there never to busy to deal with stuff".. but they really are to busy to deal with stuff. The Children are the ones suffering, supervisors don't preplan stuff or don't make sure they have the right size clothes that fit and staff bug them so much that staff usually go out and use their own money to buy the kids new clothes and never get refunded. Grocerys are sometimes a few days late getting them and we run out of food to make proper meals. They don't pay staff to be on call unless you get called in and you go. So no one ever wants to be on call and they call in on their on call. They are weeks behind putting out the schedules and then once it's out have to make a million changes because they either messed up or forgot to schedule people and dont realize till the day of and struggle to find people to cover the shifts. They have a very high turnover due to all of these issues especially the pay. For part time and full time you dont make a lot. They expect people to have post secondary education which we all paid a lot of money for but only paying us 1.81 more then minimum wage for part time. If they were paying more money they would have a better turnover. Oh and get yourselves some new dishwashers.. there is mold growing in them and staff have cleaned it more than once and wont go away, Get stainless steal might be cleaner. Management you should maybe listen to some of these reviews and change some of the procedures on how you guys do stuff. You are losing out on amazing staff who really care about the children.

I don't even know where to begin.. the only reason I stayed at Stewart Homes for as long as I did was my attachment to the residents. They are the best part and only good aspect of the job in my opinion. Unfortunately, it got to the point where I had to put my own well-being over the love I had formed for the kids and move on. No matter how fulfilling it was seeing their smiling faces greet me every day - no job is worth diminishing your mental health. It is an incredibly toxic place to work. The management is corrupt, and they have zero appreciation or respect for the staff. They make it impossible for you to advance in the company while covering it up by making it seem like they take the appropriate actions when filling a position. Seniority doesn't mean anything, they accommodate new staff off the street over staff who have been loyal employees for years. They take advantage of you while it benefits them and bend the rules as long as it works out in their favor, but at the end of the day they don't have your back. The mandatory on call shifts are laughable.. you have to waste an entire "day off" sitting around waiting for them to call you in, and half the time they give you no notice at all if they need you to work an overnight resulting in a write up if you refuse. They make it really hard for you to maintain a healthy work life balance and burn you out very easily. I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. The things I've seen and experienced in my time working for this company is disheartening. Don't sell yourself short, you'll be much happier somewhere else!

Stewart homes lies to their staff about everything so it shouldn't be a surprise that their own job postings online are full of lies too. First off, they claim you get "Every other weekend off of work" Not true, on your "weekends off" you regularly get scheduled for on-call shifts so you're literally on call and have to go in for any shift they tell you if they call. So really you only get 1 full weekend off a month.

Second lie is claiming you "work a 2 week schedule rotation" There is no rotation, period. Supervisors constantly change your hours behind your back with no regard to your availability. You have no clue when your on call shifts are going to be either. Supervisors tell you one thing and then do something else behind your back. Scheduling here is the worst I've seen anywhere and management doesn't care at all.

Third lie they tell you is saying you will only work evening and day shifts. Again, this is totally false. When youre on call, youre on call for the entire day and that includes overnight. It's very common for oncall staff to be forced to do overnights and every single staff has to do oncall shifts. Supervisors will also regularly schedule part time staff for overnight shifts whenever full-time overnight staff go on vacation, regardless of whether you're in school or have another job. Management simply doesn't care.

Full of lies, very rude and disrespectful supervisors and managers, and the most dysfunction and disorganization I have seen anywhere. Worst job I have ever had and I can't wait to leave.

It is easy to love your job when you love the adults and kids you support. You will stay because the rapport you built with them.

You don't get management support. They will pick and chose what benefits them the most. They have favourites and seem to only like the ones who are "yes sir" type of staff; they do not like to be challenged.
They stick up for the wrong staff and promote them when it is the absolutely wrong choice.

It doesn't matter if you have been there 20 years or 3 months, the wages are the same but the responsibility is heavier on the senior staff. 
No consistent schedule for staff no matter how long you have been there. When you try to suggest a few schedule changes the supervisor says your whole rotation will change and you will lose ALL day shifts even though you ask for more consistency but they just make it worse. New staff have the better scheduled shifts.

The management does not listen to staff in order to build a stronger team. Way too much drama within the houses between staff and nothing seems to get settled, feels like highschool all over again. No trust between staff.

There is no incentive to stay. The burn out is stronger since covid started. The company is still in the pandemic mindset and so the residents are still living like it is lock down.

Probably a lot more to say. But all in all, you stay for the people you support in each of the houses; they are the ones who win you over no matter what.

I've worked at this agency through the good and the bad, it has made me become a strong group home staff that I can be proud of. Unfortunately management seems content on ensuring every staff who does their job well moves on to somewhere better.

The job is what you make of it. At the house I worked at you could either leave feeling like you did something OR leave knowing you did nothing. Supervisors and management played favorites, and good staff would constantly be told to get up (even though their work is done) while letting the lazy staff get off easy. And THEN hire the lazy staff full time. 

The lockdown still exists in their minds. So expect to wear an N95 and a visor even in the summer (and depending on their mood) a surgical gown. It's sad as the clients generally have shorter lives and they have to spend a large chunk of it locked up

At least half the staff are incompetent, the other half like to spread drama. If you work the weekend you'll probably be taking everyone to the doctors. I will say the on call supervisors were generally very helpful to say the least. Most people have the same mentality of moving on from the company. Everyone I'd burnt out.

The clients are amazing, I had a good relationship with all of them and they are a delight. There are behaviors but they come and go. 

All in all it's a group home agency, your not going to find heaven, but this places is pretty far from that haha. Good luck 






The medical needs of the residents at Stewart Homes make speaking on a "typical day" difficult. One minute you could be assisting with physiotherapy, doing crafts, connecting children with their parents, then the next moment you are following an ambulance to the hospital and extending your shift.

Staff in each residence vary from long-time staff (20+ years) to brand new, creating inconsistent care for residents. I've learned to be adaptable, almost like a chameleon, based on who I was working with since working in peace was my goal. The inconsistencies are also within the management team, one question may result in different answers depending on who you are speaking to. It is important to keep in mind that not all decisions are made by management, this agency is licensed by the government and has its rules to follow.

The residents are some of the most charming, lovable, and adorable young people you will ever meet. The schedules are flexible and there are often opportunities to get more hours.

Despite the majority of frontline staff being visible minorities and immigrants, this agency lacks awareness of anti-oppressive practices. There is no HR department or person whom people feel comfortable voicing related concerns. This agency is not part of a union.

I have absolutely no idea where to start... I worked at one of the Guild residences and when I first started a few years ago, it really wasn't that bad at all but OH BOY, has it gone drastically downhill, or I guess I just didn't notice how bad it was at first. When I started, it had staff who actually had the education and experience to work there but now they hire quite literally anyone, and you can just see how little they care about the kids, it is just a paycheque and a chance to hang out with their friends. It's actually extremely embarrassing and I feel so incredibly bad for the residents; they definitely don't deserve the staff they keep hiring, it's terrible. Also - good luck bringing up any real concerns, getting the schedule you requested, any kind of break, being appreciated, cared about, or anything that could make your experience working somewhere worthwhile. 

Another thing to mention would be that you have absolutely no idea how much work you will be doing until you really start. You will be responsible for SO much more than you're being paid for. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Direct care worker 3 salaries reported	$21.72 per hour
Program manager 1 salary reported	$34.60 per hour

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