early childhood teacher

service coordinator

support worker

program supervisor

early childhood assistant

YWCA Hamilton

I should have known when a parent asked me if I would be staying temporarily or long term that my position could be seen as a revolving door. Educators don't seem to stay in their positions for too long and it is due to many things:
- Poor hours (early morning and afternoon-evening)
- Poor supply list (good luck calling in sick without finding your own replacement from a list of "can only work here" "can only cover on tues" etc.)
- Expected to plan for program on your own time and to pay for supplies out of pocket
- Lack of communication from supervisors (rarely showed up for in-school visits or to provide support for troubled kids in program)
- Lack of communication between supervisors and managers (as a front line worker you can easily get lost in politics that happen in offices)
- "Feminist" but doesn't respect the work that had to be done at home (due to COVID) and severely underpaid staff because they "couldn't log the hours being worked at home" despite having staff on call for meetings all day throughout the week. This is a female-dominant field and the work we do is already lacking respect. To get that from the organization itself was hurtful.
- Lack of a union despite the amount of staff in this role. There is no way for staff to come together and rally as one. It felt discouraged. (See above "feminist")
Very disappointed because at first I thought the organization was doing good work, but felt exploited after my time there. Was told this is a "non-profit" organization and pay was non-negotiable. Found I was working over-time and supervisors and managers didn't want to speak to the missing pay, wanted to delegate my job to others instead. 

There are some really amazing kids in the programs here, but they are not worth the downfalls listed above. 



What is the best part of working at the company?
Remote work and flexibility to work anywhere 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The organization is very disorganized. The programs are not well planned nor thought out and they expect you to know everything right off the bat without any training. They are emit willing to work with you not help you grow professionally. Expectations from the interview to actually doing the job changed drastically. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It was very fake. They always tried to make it seemed like the care and asked questions like, 'what are you doing this weekend?' that weren't helpful to doing the job but when you asked questions to actually get your job done, there was never an answer nor good support. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Trying to help a lot of participants that really need help in any way you can without the resources, tools or guidance to perform the job right. It was stressful and upsetting a lot of the times.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Great colleagues and clients. Decent benefits and vacation/ sick day package. 
The work is hard, can be isolating depending on the team/ level of management you are apart of. 
Housing and Gender Based Violence Supports is the best department.
Staff from diverse backgrounds can seek employment here and have a fair opportunity. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Due to the rapid grown of services provided during the pandemic the work that is being done has drastically expanded but the agency is still experiencing growing pains in its structural expansion.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It changes a bit between locations and departments, and leaders. 
The offices I worked in were caring.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Multitasking forever, prioritizing as needs are ever shifting.

It took weeks for HR to finally get back to me after my job offer, I needed to do a lot of unpaid training as well as trainings that I had to pay for out of pocket before I could start. It cost me about $200 to work here, and because of the low wage I barely recouped that my first paycheck. Employees are underpaid, overworked, expected to take on responsibilities outside of their job description with the promise of a promotion that never comes. Management doesn't care about people and will downplay and sweep problems under the rug. High turnover rate and they wonder why. Pretends to be anti-oppressive but staff will say vile things about clients and make microaggressions towards coworkers that are dismissed when concerns are raised to management.

Whenever issues would arise in the workplace, management as well as admin staff took a long time to help staff resolve any issue. HR also took a long time to support. I seems miscommunication is a common occurrence across the entirety of the organization. There are conflicts between staff members often, arguments and drama that should not take place in a work environment. A lot of toxic situations happened that I felt were unprofessional and caused me a high amount of stress. The pay was decent, but other workplaces had higher salaries by the time I resigned from the YWCA. I loved what I got to do, but hated where I had to do it. I am looking forward to finding work elsewhere in the future. 

The YWCA has amazing values and really does try to support clients, women and families it serves. Management has improved over the last few years which is amazing & can only get better for employees now. The hardest part is having to take personal days or sick days. It becomes very difficult to cover your shifts and if you don't you feel very guilty because you worry your team might be left understaffed. Management could do more to help protect the mental health of their employees by adding more supply staff or having a float staff all year round as a backup in case of sick days. Coworkers are what keep the staff going! Very supportive and become close working with them every day.

What is the best part of working at the company?
GREAT working environment when I was working with them. Strong focus on Work/Life balance!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
There is a culture that overthinks each line in order to not offend anyone. It is VERY difficult to not offend; so time is often wasted in the act when a simple review will do the job.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Strong attention to Work/Life balance

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Setting the daily goals before starting your day. Days vary depending on your clients, so you have to adapt.

YWCA Hamilton promotes equity and inclusion publicly, but my experience as a trans employee was the opposite. Leadership tolerated and reinforced transphobia, dismissed concerns, and used punitive measures instead of support.

Internally, diversity felt more like a marketing strategy than a genuine practice. There were no transparent or restorative processes, leaving marginalized staff isolated and unsafe.

Until all-level leadership is held accountable and real anti-oppression practices are implemented, YWCA Hamilton will continue to reproduce the very harms it claims to fight.

What is the best part of working at the company?
They do amazing things to empower and support women and children.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Inconsistent policies and practices. Some departments had amazing leadership. Others not so much

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic at times. HR had trouble following through on policies as prescribed.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Overall it was good. Apparently ignorance is bliss

Coming from a toxic work environment to YWCA was like a breath of fresh air! I didn’t realize how awful it really was at the last agency I worked for until I saw how things were supposed to be at the Y. Coming from an agency that provides the same services but at such a lower standard I really thought that’s just how this field is. I couldn’t be happier that I was proven wrong. I hope to retire from the YWCA.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Early childhood teacher 26 salaries reported	$27.37 per hour
Service coordinator 20 salaries reported	$23.98 per hour
Support worker 7 salaries reported	$25.69 per hour
Program supervisor 2 salaries reported	$30.75 per hour
Early childhood assistant 4 salaries reported	$22.13 per hour

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