gouvernant

charpentier

The Ottawa Mission

The Mission is a great place to gain experience to move in to other fields, most people only work there for this purpose. You will learn valuable techniques for dealing with an extremely difficult population comprised of individuals experiencing mental health as well as addiction challenges. This will look amazing on a resume. The Frontline team is compromised of incredibly dedicated and hard working individuals who you will make life long relationships with.

Moving on, the Mission is not a safe place to work, management disregard safety issues to the point that staff have to be injured or come close to being injured to implement changes. Staff assaults happen, and if you are unlucky enough to be the victim of an assault, you will be given little to no support from management. Aside from the physical injuries you may potentially receive, management completely disregard the mental health implications on their Frontline workers. You will witness traumatizing events given the population you work with. If you fall victim to a mental health injury and book off sick, you will be gossiped about among the very tight knit Frontline management team. There is a very antiquated attitude of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

Frontline management's mantra can be described as "Do as I say, not as I do", you will be micromanaged to the utter limit and frequently be contradicted on what you are supposed to do. Frontline staff are treated very poorly by the organization and seen as below every other role. Management is completely out of touch with the day to day experiences of staff. Management are also not consistent with how they treat incidents, and will often contradict their decision making process when comparing it to the past.

The organization is obsessed with public mage, which is valued much higher than the day to day treatment of their staff and clients. Incidents are often twisted or hidden to fit a specific narrative.

HR practices are highly questionable, with clear conflicts of interest due to the close relationship between management and HR. HR will always side with the management team and not with the employees.

Compensation is much lower than other social service organizations in the rest of the city.

The Mission is one of the best places I've worked so far. I was initially hesitant due to it technically being a religious organization and the rule book is rather thick. I was pleased to learn they are currently in a state of reforming policy. During training I was told directly, "we know this or that rule doesn't work, and we're working to change it" which is something I respect deeply. 

Management is very staff centred and involved. Great food, fair pay, and a strong sense of community and belonging. They treat staff and clients like human beings which is all I ask from working in the shelter system. I've found how an organization treats clients will often reflect how they treat staff. From the beginning staff have been very warm and welcoming / patient, understanding, and informative to new workers. The clientele are also generally low acuity and very easy to talk to. 

My only criticism is a tendency to punish clients without taking into account their situation and not having a strong enough harm reduction program... yet. Harm reduction based on achieving abstinence isn't exactly harm reduction. 

While there are some increadibly dedicated, compassionate and friendly individuals who work for The Ottawa Mission,  certain parts of the mamgement team create a toxic workplace environment. What you hear from management what what is actually taking place can be two very different things. Alot of rhetoric is given regarding care for the mental well-being of employees when the reputation of the company is what's actually valued. Unethical practices are often swept under the rug. HR is primarily there to serve the interests of management first and foremost. The work itself is both very difficult and very rewarding depending on the day. This is a great place to work in order to develop a wide array of skills but is also challenging due to constant changes in protocols and/or programming and lack of clarity regarding  expectations. While the benefits are good, the pay is low for the amount of responsibilites and emotional energy that comes along with the job.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Wonderful workmates! Next level up in management are very nice, but the politics start to leak out of the old building crevices! Then it's up to the top level, and the evil centre of power and corruption are on full display...for only those who get to witness it...like me! Their mandate is true and wonderful. Unfortunately, it's tactics and dark aura permeate on a ghost-like ghastly level!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Upper management. They are so caught up in power, greed, control of message, that they forget about the well-being of staff.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very good, until you need them to support you in a tough situation.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Hard working, early start, stress of working with the homeless in an enclosed environment, risk of COVID or injury in close quarters with homeless. Free meals are wonderful, and staff awesome!

Initially this seems like a great place to work, until you see the inner workings. This place is toxic. Management and director level are gossipy, unprofessional, cliquey, self-serving, and pay lip service to their staff. They genuinely don’t care about you or your advancement. Going through a tough time? Oh well. Need help with your tough cases? Better ask a coworker because management are useless and have no clue. Physical labour with no PPE? We got you! Favourtism? Oh yeah we have lots of that. I didn’t stick around to see how much worse it could get. The pay is decent. That’s all. And steer clear of the housing and cm managers. They are definitely talking behind your back. Keep your private life private. 

This is a great place for exposure to front-line work. Sadly, the management don't know what they're doing and depend not he reputation of the helping nature of the place. It's all about the reputation and never mind the employees. Watch out if you speak up about unethical things going on within the organization: better have another job lined up.
If you can put up with questionable ethics, you'll gain great experience in working with a tough population.

I have been working at the Mission for over 4 years and have had several promotions. Management is great and is always looking for ways to improve services and support both staff and clientele. The workload is tough as some staff do not have basic social work knowledge, but many trainings are available to support education. Meals are all included. All staff are friendly and engaging. Parking is too far and too expensive

The work atmosphere is fun, everyone who works there is like a big family. You do need to know your responsibilities and make sure you're doing your job on time, and to the best of your abilities, but that should be expected of you everywhere. 
I volunteer in the kitchen but  i highly recommend working here in any department.

Overall really group has to work. Only non-union workplace I've been where staff are truly treated very well. Pay isn't great but free meals while you're working and typically they do a Christmas bonus which is pretty unique. Lots of training respect for management and pretty fulfilling role.

While this wasn't a paid position, I found the Ottawa Misson was a rewarding place to volunteer, with great company and a fantastic atmosphere. It was fast paced around meal times, and slowed down during food preparation time. All around lovely place to spend the day, where you really feel like you're giving back.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Gouvernant 1 salary reported	$21.11 per hour
Charpentier 1 salary reported	$25.00 per hour

Working at The Ottawa Mission: company overview and reviews

The Ottawa Mission

The Ottawa Mission ratings

Popular jobs at The Ottawa Mission

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected