residential counselor

licensed practical nurse

nurse manager

program manager

direct support professional

BAMSI, Inc.

The pay here is ridiculously low. There are no step wage increases for certifications earned (you make the same as someone without them) no pay increases for becoming med certified, just more responsibility. Not much is addressed, fixed, or taking seriously until it’s state inspection time. Managers are stressed and there’s a high turn around for them. They handle all the scheduling and that’s a job all on it’s own. They are required to work the shift if they can’t fill it and they are not paid for it. They can “comp” the time another day but rarely get that opportunity.  Lots of good employees end up leaving because there’s not much incentive to stay. Most of the staff that work here have a second job because it’s not a living wage, unless you work round the clock and get some overtime. However, overtime is usually restricted and only as a last resort. Management will tolerate you as long as you keep doing them favors (covering shifts and not making waves) as soon as you stop so doesn’t the nice treatment. There are clear favorites and cliques. Squeaky wheels do not get the grease, they end up getting less hours or some unprofessional treatment.  No regular bonuses, i think they gave us 15.00 towards a turkey once. Raises are only if the state mandates it (cost of living wage increase) which are few and far between and usually only .20-.30 cents. You definitely don’t feel appreciated by this company at all. You feel more like a body filling the shift and if you weren’t there another body would be in your place. It doesn’t matter if you have worked here 1 year or 20, everyone is replaceable. Very much an “us against them mentality “ between staff and management. I’ve wanted so many times to be proud of this company and feel like a valued employee but it just falls short on so many levels. Ive learned to value myself and not seek recognition here. I’ve held multiple positions in this company and I can’t say any one of them is better then the rest. 
With all that being said, what happens is you develop relationships with the people served and their families. This makes it hard to leave (if you can financially swing it). Relationships are built with the staff that stay and you work through the “trenches” together and have many stories to tell. I have met some wonderful hard working staff here. For that, I stay here. Not the company itself. When I speak of my job I do not praise the company (nor do I really recommend it to anyone) I speak of the clients served and the level of care I personally provide them and the satisfaction that brings me. I speak of hard working people I’ve met in my 20+ years in human services. 
The turn over here is remarkable. There are sign on bonuses and other promises being made to get hired now. Be aware that these are being offered for a reason. They cannot keep staffing.  

Entering this role, I was met with significant challenges that shaped both my experience and my understanding of workplace dynamics. Despite receiving only a fraction of the training typically necessary, I immediately became a go-to resource across departments. I frequently handled responsibilities far beyond my official role, regularly fielding questions and performing duties for multiple teams. This breadth of involvement led even my predecessor, who had glowing feedback for my own work, potential, and process, to question the appropriateness of the workload assigned to me by my supervisor.

One of the most disheartening aspects of this position was the lack of support and communication from my supervisor and that I couldn't count on my team. Despite consistently delivering high-quality work and drawing on over a decade of agency and office experience, I often felt dismissed and excluded from meaningful collaboration with other teams and departments. While feedback later validated the value of my insights, they were frequently overlooked in real time,  often only acknowledged at the last minute, when adjustments were difficult or no longer feasible.

The workplace culture emphasized assisting others, but rarely if ever, reciprocated support when I needed it. I often found myself overextending to bridge gaps in interdepartmental communication, sending countless messages that were frequently left unanswered. This one-sided communication left me feeling isolated and unheard. 

Yet, what kept me going was the tangible impact I was able to make in the lives of the persons served and seeing the impact we made into bettering their lives. That made the challenges feel worthwhile, even when my efforts went unrecognized by leadership. The most rewarding part of the role was knowing my work made a difference.

I am disappointed I wasn’t given a real chance to grow in the position, especially after being encouraged by the CEO, members of leadership, members of the board of directors, the IT department, and especially my predecessor, who also said, “It will take more than a year to understand every aspect of your position, but if you have the will and drive, you will do well. I think you’ll soar here, truly.” I had the will, the drive, and the performance to match; what was missing was the support and recognition from my superior necessary to thrive.

This experience taught me the critical importance of two-way communication and equitable collaboration within a team. It also reaffirmed my value as a professional who is capable, dedicated, and deeply invested in meaningful work, despite the circumstances.

While able to spend plenty of time with PATIENTS (I refuse to call them clients, which BAMSI expects), I don't recommend working for this company. I have been a nurse for almost 10 years, and was treated like any other worker there, with no degree and no clue of what is supposed to occur when dealing with medical care. If a patient was suspected by me of having a UTI or any other sickness and I reported this to a superior, it fell on deaf ears. They practically all but removed my ability to assess a patient's needs, and when I was scolded for not giving a patient a shower when they flat out refused to take one, I knew I had to look for something else. (Nursing 101: if a patient refuses ANYTHING, it is their choice to do so, and to MAKE them is called abuse of their human rights.) The laymen they hire are required to take a simple class, then given the keys to the med cabinet - AND are allowed to take and transcribe orders - rather than insisting qualified medical professionals take charge of this. There are thousands of meds out there, and these people they train do NOT know most of the time WHAT they are for, but more importantly, what can go wrong when they are taken incorrectly, or with another med they should not be taken with. If I, as a nurse, do not know what a med is for and what its side effects or drug interactions are, and I administer to a patient, it is a med error and the ramifications of this can be pretty serious. I found BAMSI to be trying very hard to re-write the definition of nursing and healthcare, and poorly at that - which made me scared for my license that I worked to hard to earn. I do have to say that being able to take patients to the mall or something during your shift is a big plus, and a refreshing change from being on a nursing unit for 12 hours or more. The entirety of the company is at least half immigrants, which for some reason I never figured out is so important to this outfit... I only mention because when you can't understand a co-worker whenever they speak, it can be a LONG shift. (families of the patients dislike this as well - if they cannot understand them, HOW could their family member who is disabled or compromised??)

 A new CEO began his position mere days before the pandemic shut everything down.   Credit to him for helping the agency navigate this biggest challenge BAMSI ever faced.  

During this period, and about a year beforehand, the agency faced a "brain drain" with many, many long time employees leaving for greener pastures.  This departure of so many with institutional knowledge was felt strongly and even more so during the pandemic when it felt as if the departure of so many was causing the agency's efficiency to fall apart.  

It was at the tail end of the pandemic that I left.  Not so much because of the transitional nature of the administration, some of which was positive, but rather due to the hangover of the previous ingrained way of doing things that didn't sit right with me.

I left after many years partially because communication between administration levels remained ridiculously poor.  It had been terrible for years.  From what I hear, a year after I left, it remains so.   Most times, I received important info from my peers rather than various supervisors as info trickled down to some managers but not all.  

Also, the culture at the agency of blatant favoritism carried over during this transitional period.  If one is liked by those in upper administration, they receive better treatment and opportunities regardless of skill level and job performance.  I witnessed incompetent but well liked people receive promotions, managers able to sidestep policies if they were close with upper level admins, etc.

So while BAMSI made a transition and did reasonably well during Covid, it has not transitioned its way of thinking and working enough to really be a great workplace.  Old habits are still prevalent and that hurts the agency.  Their culture of favoritism needs to change.

Agency has good intentions however, rapid growth without preparation has left gaps in the chain of command. Forms are revised, released, then revised the next day forcing you to complete the same form at least 3 times. Training is extremely rushed and vague and the agency will often leave you on your own to teach yourself how to complete a task and then will become upset if it isn't completed correctly. Constant call outs often leaves you calling for coverage after hours on almost a daily basis. Constant phone calls/emails after hours. Often working more than 40 hours and never receiving compensation for it. Overbearing work load leads to unrealistic expectations for someone to complete without training/enough time. Upper management is often very rude and unprofessional in general especially when reaching out for help/training and developing their staff. The agency will recognize problems (huge management turn over and large amounts of complaint on lack of training) and will not implement any strategies to make these problems improve. All in all an agency with good intentions and goals that they will never reach because they do not take the time to listen to their employees and to make much needed improvements. If you like being reprimanded for task you were never trained to do, getting attitude from supervisors, constant phone calls & call outs, an overbearing work load and constant revision of all forms and policies and being completely stressed out then this is the place for you! Otherwise save yourself the headache and your time and stay away!

This company had just opened a group home for developmentally disabled and was having a hard time keeping it staffed, so I got hired without a lot of experience, I was fresh out of nursing school. This particular site has the highest job turnover I've ever seen. Within three weeks of hire, the head nurse who trained me quit and the program director above her was fired for embezzlement. As I was orienting, I was told not to discuss my schedule with the other nurses because one of them did not know they were getting fired and replaced by me. Enough said? Do I need to discuss how they took on patients far too complex for a group home environment staffed by a single nurse (two completely vent-dependent residents, four G-tubes, one slowly dying, pretty much everyone a seizure risk, one that seized almost every day) Thoroughly unprofessional at all levels, they hired a house manager with no social services or health care background who actually was responsible for managing nurses, CNAs who sleep on overnights and who try to get each other and nurses fired. Then after they fired me, they managed to ruin my COBRA claim by losing checks that were sent to them by certified mail. Enough said?

If I had no experience working in direct support before coming to BAMSI, I wouldn’t know what it meant to be a direct support worker. The person-specific training I’ve experienced has been minimal, bureaucracy is justification for preventing folks from accessing the simplest of things (like cookie ingredients on a weekend or a trip to a community pool). Because of my hours, my primary communication with my manager is via calls or texts, but he’s taken two two week-long vacations (when we are not to contact him) since I started in May. He cares a lot about the residents and works hard to run a tight ship, but I’ve raised too many issues to him that go insufficiently addressed. Compared to the last agency I worked for, it is harder to organize outings, get folks non-food items like tissues, or even make suggestions to more senior coworkers about how to engage with the persons served more respectfully/in line with their wants and needs. 

I've been the organization for several years now and have had numerous opportunities for growth related to both internal and external training opportunities.   Internally, I have been able to attend a wide array of in-house trainings our organization offers both in person and in online formats.    I've been able to join several workgroups at work related to fundraising, recruitment and quality council.   This has allowed for great face to face interaction with leaders and stakeholders within the organization.    Externally, I've been involved with programming through the Providers' Council and that has opened up additional doors for me toward my master's degree.   The organization has a new CEO whom is very engaging; a diverse Board of Volunteers and many leaders who are willing to show people the ropes.   Involvement internally and externally with the organization and respective stakeholders is key, but there are so many ways to be involved in order to have professional growth opportunities.

A typical day includes any number of tasks from a two-sided single- spaced list of job responsibilities, with a highly stressed supervisor that projected her stress whenever at the residence - and lacked focus and guidance.  The position has lacked support of management and administration for years - as many people rotate in and out of the same position at the same residence.  The hardest part of the job was knowing that the supervisor didn't want the job to work for the new program manager - so as to fulfill what has been going on repeatedly (staff and residents said they hoped I'd stay - and that everyone leaves) - and the upper management turns a blind eye to the misguided and lacking support .  As a result the house staff has created a highly negative work environment; and this ultimately affects the residents.  The best part of the job was the residents. Loved them!  Feel sorry for what they're exposed to.

I worked for this non-profit for years, and upon leaving it felt like a different place from where I started.  I had heard some people saying it was because of the original CEO retiring, but I feel like it started before that.  I remember sitting in a leadership training where admin made jokes about lower ranked employees complaining about low wages.  They will take dedicated employees, guilt them into working way harder than they should, and toss them aside when they burn out.  They say they care about all people, but that certainly does not include staff, just clients and donors.

ALSO, they did not support us during the early weeks and months of Covid-19 (I had to secure my own masks, gloves, sanitizer, etc), regardless of what the PR videos they just produced say (filled with interviews done by people who got to work from home).  I never got my hazard pay.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Residential counselor 688 salaries reported	$21.72 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 158 salaries reported	$33.41 per hour
Nurse manager 53 salaries reported	$37.16 per hour
Program manager 32 salaries reported	$58,733 per year
Direct support professional 14 salaries reported	$20.81 per hour

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