travailleur social

residential counselor

nurse practitioner

Support House

I have been employed now with Support House since January of 2020. My personal experience with this agency has been both life altering and life inspiring. I have had the great fortune to work alongside staff who are truly committed to supporting people where they are at.

I have also been heard and been encourage to challenge the status quo at Support House by Executive Leadership within this agency. I have always felt safe sharing my concerns with the staff I work with and the leadership I report too. I have had incredible opportunities to see the people we support grow and flourish during a time when most of the world was navigating a pandemic. I have work with staff and people we support without having once met them in person, we have formed meaningful bonds and walked along side each other through virtual connections. 

I also rose into a management role because of the pandemic, as the time of crisis provided me with the opportunities to utilize my skill sets to create meaningful programing that was co-designed with the people we support and the staff I now oversee. These programs are still in place today, and service our community in a way that is holistic and empowering to witness.

I work on the front lines facilitating groups and providing 1 to 1 support, in assistance of my staff and in support of their wellness. My team speaks weekly around collective wellness, we support each other, cover for each other, and find creative ways to maximize our collective skill sets and potential. I consider myself fortunate to work alongside system changers, who are committed to improving inequity within the housing and mental health and addictions sector. 

Support House drives change, with that comes up and downs, but there is always a sense of collective purpose, support, comrade, and respect that all focuses on those we support and the staff within our agency. I personally feel we are collectively rowing towards Person Direct care, Engagement and Co-design, and the Health & Wellness our community and our staff.


I have never worked for an agency that has so grossly neglected the well-being of their employees. Anyone who speaks out gets fired and scares the other front line workers into compliance. It’s happened for YEARS and they have a high turnover on top of that. You’d think that this would be an opportunity for management to reflect internally, but with management accounting for at least 40% of the agency they obviously don’t see anything wrong with what they’re doing. Their ideas are too large without taking any consequences into account and disregard their burning out and over worked staff, who are still expected to show up everyday and accept blatant disrespect of their boundaries from both management and clients. They tell you that your schedule is flexible but if you’re not at managements beck and call then you get penalized for it. If you’re not at every clients beck and call then you are penalized for that as well. Management will tell you to your face that they care and want to support you, but their actions prove otherwise. Have seen too many staff come in, bright eyed and motivated, just completely turn into zombies with more mental health problems than the clientele they support. 

Working with clients was enjoyable however once they were connected to another service we were pushed to offload them. Many staff were let go at random times leaving other staff to pick up the extra workload and keep the workload without extra compensation offered, even if it was an entire other role, and when annual reviews were done there would be no mention of a raise, when asked for one, it wasn’t possible for the agency to provide even after 2 years of employment. Management wants to provide ‘lessons’ by throwing you in the deep end to figure things out on your own or to work with other staff who are less experienced to solve issues and the lack of support from management allowed employees to feel like there was no sense of guidance and you just needed to ‘wait it out’. There were unrealistic expectations on staff which created quick burnout and little work life balance. If you did manage to bank extra hours you were told to use them sparingly and not for hours at a time, meaning the banked hours kept piling up and there was no time to actually use them. 

The workplace culture is not the greatest and there is more management than frontline staff. There is a high turnover and you are expected to pick up the slack and take on more clients than you can handle. High expectations placed on staff to go above and beyond- asked to work weekends and evenings when it is not part of the job description. It was very discouraging to me to see management praising staff for not having client boundaries and dropping everything for individuals and it made me feel incompetent as a worker for not doing so. There is a huge disconnect between teams. The program operates as crisis but staff are not trained in proper crisis support or given the tools needed to operate as a crisis agency. The job is a lot of travel over Halton, minimal time to complete the extensive data requirements. The program operates as harm reduction but management and staff do not have the tools or training to operate as harm reduction. You are expected to deliver food to individuals, chase them, and knock on their door if they are not responding to you.

An organization with minimal regard for staff wellness, an overwhelming amount of administrative duties, and upper management constantly asking employees to go above and beyond their job description and pay scale. The number of staff on management exceeds frontline staff, management does not carry a caseload or work with clients while frontline staff is overwhelmed with duties. Lots of travel around Halton is involved. High and constant turnover leads employees to burnout and an inability to service clients in a meaningful way. Employees are being asked to work evenings and weekends, with minimal notice and high expectations for flexibility. Less of a “case management” job than it is a “food delivery” job. Staff deliver food donations to most clients homes at least twice a week. High stress positions, lack of support from management, toxic work environment, and staff constantly leaving or seeking other employment.

I have never worked in a more supportive environment. It is unfortunately rare in the social services field to come across agencies that genuinely put the clients needs first.  Support House does exactly that, and extends this same value to their employees.  They are understanding that staff have lives outside the job and are willing to allow staff to adjust hours accordingly. This place is full of staff who are authentically good people that provide excellent service to clients, because they aim to hire people who meet this criteria.  I have felt nothing but supported and valued since accepting my position here.

Support house was by far the worst place I’ve ever been employed, they have no respect for personal boundaries, work life balance or mental health of employees. You will always be expected to go over and above the job expectations and if you challenge them you will be met with resistance. The workplace has a cool kids club and if you aren’t a part of it, you’ll be made fun of and talked about by both managers and staff. Manipulation is what they thrive at which has been said by many others. You absolutely will experience trauma from some of the things you witness in the field and be expected to be okay with this. They stay they have good value when it’s all just show. You’ll spend hours doing paperwork then get in trouble for why you spend so much time doing it. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Bonding with colleagues while supporting high needs clients with no back up from management 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being screamed , yes screamed at at least twice a day. Being micromanaged and mistrusted. Oppressive manager. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Fear and punitive based. I’ve never seen such a stressed out staff. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Work phone rings 1 hour before shift starts with manager screaming. Support clients and collaboration with amazing community partners. Support co workers who are burnt out and full of stress. End the day getting screamed at.

My time at Support House has been incredibly challenging, with staff members being treated in a traumatic manner. I have experienced belittlement, intimidation, and gaslighting from management. I have witnessed staff get fired and isolated due to advocating for themselves or their clients. therefore I keep my head down and cry in between clients. The high turnover rate at the agency speaks volumes. I am constantly living in fear of being fired and have started looking for other job opportunities. The trauma I have endured has led me to seek therapy. 

So many responsibilities and expectations with little support from leadership.
When asking for help manager creates a toxic environment and provide suggestions that are not helpful or supportive.
When  manager faces possible issues in their professionalism, they create lies to protect themselves.
Truly fake leadership on many levels.  
Front line staff are amazing and have the best interest of the clients at heart.  Which leads to more pressures as most staff are willing to go above and beyond, which then is taken as an expectation of staff, who then get burned out.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Travailleur social 1 salary reported	$82,000 per year
Residential counselor 1 salary reported	$50,000 per year
Nurse practitioner 1 salary reported	$115,000 per year

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