North Bay 2010 from jobvent

Here are examples of jobvent content about North Bay Mental Health

The reviews were on jobvent.com and were removed by glassdoor.com when glassdoor.com bought jobvent.com and renamed it jobitorial.com

See also the posts on this site that examine indeed.com, jobitorial.com, and glassdoor.com.

In 2010, I researched social service agencies in the greater Boston area that provided mental health services.  I was directed by employees of North Bay Mental Health to look at a web site called jobvent.com, where there were employee reviews of almost 10,000 companies.

At that time, I copied most of the reviews on jobvent.com that were written by North Bay employees. One employee told me that management had started writing positive reviews of North Bay, giving the company high ratings to try to counter the low ratings and critical reviews.

Jobvent.com was acquired by glassdoor.com which removed most of the critical reviews, probably by programatically targeting those employee reviews that gave their employers low numeric scores (ratings were originally between 1 and 5.

They renamed the site jobitorial.com.  The North Bay content had been reduced to only uncritical reviews, probably the ones written by managers.  Today, the jobitorial.com site does not tell visitors that most of the reviews had been deleted, or that, as a result, company ratings went up significantly.

Jobitorial did this throughout the site, thereby gutting most of the important content.  I include the original NorthBay content here as examples of what disgruntled employees write if given the chance to speak out anonymously.

As you read the examples, imagine if the authors had been offered links to safely find others with similar views and to take carefully considered action.  I have written “REMOVED” above the reviews that were removed and “NOT REMOVED” above those that were kept.

 

 Reviews from JobVent, “reviews of jobs we Love and Hate” about “Working at South Bay Mental Health – Reviews by Employees”

http://www.jobvent.com/south-bay-mental-health-job-reviews-C6194

copied on 08/14/2010

 

Working at South Bay Mental Health — Reviews by Employees

Love It: 9 Hate It: 15

 

the following review was REMOVED —

From MA — 08/02/2010

OK – here’s the real deal. Upper management is telling its directors to post good reviews about the company to balance out the real ones. It’s not a secret they are doing it, so be careful about what you read. South Bay preys on new graduates. Think about it – the great Boston area has more colleges and universities than anywhere else in the country. They keep pumping out new social workers and counselors and South Bay just snatches them up – fresh meat.

Do you know they call this time of year “new hire season?” If you like that, you’ll get an absolute kick out of what they call their pre-season. Yep, you guessed it, firing season. First they clean house by firing everyone, then they hire all new grads. Don’t get trapped in this abusive cycle! You want real stats? Here are some for you:

– You get paid every two weeks at $30/hr. Sounds great until you realize that there aren’t enough clients to give you to really earn a living. My first paycheck was $150, my second paycheck $300, my third paycheck $330, my fourth paycheck $600, my fifth paycheck $750, my sixth paycheck $900. That adds up to $252 per week before taxes. That would mean $13,000 for the year. That is below the poverty level!!!!!

– You work minimum 50 hours/week. That includes all the unpaid things you have to do: team meetings, supervisions, mentoring, trainings, paperwork group, travel time, and no shows and cancellations. I was working full time and only earned this much

– you get fired if you don’t meet their quota of 23 hours/week by your 12th week. Even if you don’t have enough clients!

– you don’t get paid for no shows and cancellations, which the agency says is 20%. In reality, it is more than 20%, but let’s roll with it. At 20%, that is still a minimum of 7 appointments per week, which is $210. I know, disgusting.

– I put 900 miles on my car in 2 weeks. Don’t let them tell you it is tax deductible at the end of the year. that’s bogus in most cases. It’s only if you itemize and only if you can take more than the standard deduction. I haven’t met anyone yet who has been able to take this deduction.

– They tell you they have plenty of referrals for you, but in most cases they don’t. They expect you to go out and sell yourself for referrals. I am pretty entrepreneurial, so I went out and met people from DCF, DYS, DMH, shelters, etc. I was so embarrassed because I was always politely shoved off.

I finally asked some people, off the record, why they didn’t refer to me/SBMHC. I was told that SBMHC has such a high turnover rate that it adversely affected client care and they wouldn’t refer to them. Who would want their reputation sullied in this way? Again, disgusting practices.

– Everyone feels replaceable. Do you know why? Because they are told they are replaceable. Directors are told that. Supervisors are told that. Staff are told that. We all know and that is how we are treated.

– The company takes advantage of the fact that “disadvantaged people” have nowhere else to go for counseling. Not many agencies take state health insurance. Many of my referrals were actually transfers from clinicians who have left. Clients start to give up after their 3rd or 4th therapist and who can blame them?

Before you get sucked into the abusive cycle, ask the following questions in your interview:

– How many directors have you had in the past 10 years? (you are lucky if under 5)
– How many people have been hired and how many left in the past year? (turnover rate is close to 100%)

– What is the percentage of people who are earning at least $40,000 (you are lucky if 1 or 2 are)
– Ask to talk to someone other than a mentor to get the real deal
– Ask how long supervisors have been at South Bay – most are promoted in 6-9 months because they are senior staff by that time
– listen carefully in the interview. They are so busy selling South Bay that they don’t even ask you any questions. Ha! What a joke.

Finally, if you decide you have to take the job because of the economy, consider this 1. If you put all of your effort into this place, you will not have the time to pursue any other options and 2. You better have at least 4-5 months in savings to support yourself and your family before you even start to make bare minimum. Good luck.

 

the following review was NOT REMOVED –

From S. Yarmouth, MA — 07/16/2010

As a new employee, I was excited to be able to create my own schedule and work with clients I wanted to work with. I love both my clients and my fellow South Bayers ! I feel nurtured by both. As to the amount of paperwork – there is a lot but it is no different than any other places I have worked. Love it, love it, love it…

 

the following review was NOT REMOVED –

From MA — 07/15/2010

It seems that many of the reviews on this agency, good or bad, really state the same thing. If you want to work hard and learn a lot there is a place at this agency to do that. It has been a good fit for me to have the opportunity to work with some amazing clients and dedicated clinicians. We are supported by the agency as much as we support each other and that feels like good teamwork. We are here for the clients and that is our priority. The start up is intense, but anything worth working for usually involves some level of personal investment and effort in the beginning to learn. All the things we ask clients to do in treatment involve their personal investment and effort, so I feel I am not asking clients to do what I have not done myself: be invested. I am sure this job is not for everyone. You need to believe in outreach and client care and investment in your own professional growth. If you do, you can all of those in this job at this agency.

 

the following review was REMOVED — 

From brockton,ma — 06/22/2010

This is a dangerous company that misguides their “therapists” and should be ashamed of themeselves for what they advertise to clients and staff.

 

the following review was REMOVED — 

From Massachusetts — 05/24/2010

I initially wrote a good review of this job when I started, BUT their true colors recently showed. . Everyone seemed nice and peachy in the beginning, but after a year of working there……….. There are some cold, shady and devious higher-ups there ready to single out anything they feel is a threat. After finding out what other fee-for-service agencies are like , I finally understand the bad reviews about South Bay!

Other agencies pay for supervision, training, re-imburse mileage, and have less paperwork. Some agencies have even started to use computers, whereas you will be carrying a huge load with you all over the place.

If this job is your only option, the job is manageable. Just be careful, and take everything said here into account. The clinical experience is rewarding and will strengthen your skills. Your co-workers may offer better advice than your own supervisor.

 

the following review was REMOVED — 

From MA — 04/08/2010

This company should be shut down.

 

the following review was NOT REMOVED –

From Lawrence, MA — 03/13/2010

What people are saying is true in that this job is not for everyone. To a degree, what office you work in and who you are supervised by impacts your experience. I have had nothing but positive experiences in my office – I have an incredibly supportive supervisor and the support staff go out of their way to make sure we don’t end up with problems with our billing. I have a fantastic group of coworkers, many whom have become close friends.

This job is challenging and will push you in many ways. The clients are both frustrating and wonderful at the some time. The hours can be long but you do have the flexibility to create the type of schedule you want, so it’s all about finding balance that works for you.

Overall working at SBMH has been a rewarding and positive experience and has given me a chance to grow as a clinician. I cannot express enough how amazingly supportive my team has been and seeing the successes with clients is incredibly rewarding

 

the following review was REMOVED — 

From Lowell, MA — 03/01/2010

South Bay Mental Health is a FOR PROFIT company who cares little for either the therapists or the clients. For instance, (by the way I resigned recently) They allow newly employed, just out of college clinicians to work with a varied population, which they have NO EXPERIENCE with.

They DO NOT PROVIDE CLINICAL SUPERVISION for 90 Days! Can you imagine what harm can be done to a client in 90 days! It’s not that the therapist is unskilled, rather it is that they are inexperienced with populations they have not worked with during their internships.

When I asked my supervisor during my first week how to deal with a homicidal client I was told – “We can talk about that” – When I resigned I asked her when were we going to talk about it? She had no response.

The pay is awful, if you work your butt off and are able to book (all they care about is hours booked), 23 clients per week, which is probably the best case scenario (especially if you want to keep your benefits, b/c if you fall below that number YOU LOSE YOUR BENEFITS! or have to pay full price for them) you will make $30.00 per hour – do the math people 23 x $30. = $690.00 per week X 52 weeks, $35,880 annually.

That is for a Masters level, liscened clinician! Also, you do not get paid for the mountains of paper work. You do not get paid during supervision = 1 hour per week before 90 (which is 100% administrative supervision, no opportunities to talk about clients, only about HOW MANY HOURS YOU ARE BILLING PER WEEK)

Then there are 1 1/2 hour meetings weekly which you are not paid for, annual meetings lasting a full day which you are not paid for, no sick days, no holidays! After 90 days you finally get clinical supervision twoard your licensure.

YOU DON’T GET PAID DURING THIS EITHER. So you have to work nights to make up for the hours you are spending in mandatory meetings, ooops, let’s not forget mentoring – this is all about paperwork as well….no pay for that either.

Last but not least, you have your hard earned pay held by BILLING if you forget to do even a portion of your paper work correctly. All this to say, the guy at the top is making a bundle at the expense of the clients, who are devastated by the high turn over, one of my clients told me I was her 3rd therapist, most leave and never say goodbye.

Seriously people, the poster who said this was a great company probably was a staff member trying to balance out all the bad reviews. This place is dangerous and should be shut down!

 

the following review was NOT REMOVED –

From Brockton, MA — 02/25/2010

The mission is what makes this job so worthwhile along with working with dedicated staff.

There was a positive review from 02/24/2010 and one from 11/22/2008 that I had not copied at that time.

Next Steps

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