nursing assistant

caregiver

line cook

licensed vocational nurse

server

Belmont Village

I have never had an experience like this in my entire career this has been the worst professional experience I had.
I have many years of experience in education, working with diverse age groups including children, adults, and senior citizens. However, my time at this company has been extremely disappointing.From a professional standpoint, there has been a clear lack of support, organization, and adequate compensation. These conditions did not meet even basic workplace standards.
I have consistently felt disrespected and unsupported by both staff and management. There has been a lack of communication and inclusion, as I was often the last to receive updates regarding schedules and activities. Despite being a highly independent worker and a strong team player, I was frequently placed in situations where I was responsible for up to 20 senior citizens with disabilities without any assistance from aides or caregivers.

While I am fully capable and comfortable leading activities for large groups, there is a clear distinction between facilitating activities and providing caregiving support. When multiple residents require assistance using the bathroom or returning to their rooms, this responsibility should be handled by caregivers or aides. It is not safe or realistically manageable for one staff member to oversee more than 15 residents who require immediate personal assistance at the same time. This creates situations that compromise both resident care and overall safety.In addition, I was expected to work in an environment that was not properly maintained. The room I worked in was not cleaned for weeks, trash bins were overflowing, and the air conditioning was set to extremely cold temperatures, causing both staff and residents to feel uncomfortably cold. These concerns were communicated to management multiple times, yet there was little to no response or action taken. This reflects a lack of regard for the health, safety, and well-being of both employees and residents.

Within less than two months, I was called out sick three times due to these conditions. Despite this, there was no acknowledgment of the workplace factors that contributed to this. Employees were not provided with appropriate uniform items such as sweaters, and at the same time, I was not allowed to wear my own. I also received complaints regarding dress code compliance under these circumstances. These issues were beyond my control, yet there was no follow-up, no resolution, and no accountability from management.

Additionally, when I needed to take time off due to illness, I was given a difficult time and was treated as though it was my fault. Rather than addressing the underlying issues or showing concern for employee well-being, the response lacked professionalism, support, and basic understanding. A more appropriate response would have been to address the conditions, provide proper resources, and offer acknowledgment or resolution.

When I requested assistance or raised concerns, management either responded with minimal communication or seemed frustrated that I was asking for help. Emails often went unanswered, especially when addressing important issues. It also appeared that certain employees were favored over others, particularly those who spoke Spanish. Additionally, speaking in a language that others do not understand during public meetings felt exclusionary and unprofessional.Even a simple follow-up or acknowledgment from management would have demonstrated some level of accountability. The company promotes itself as a “best place to work,” but based on my experience, this is far from accurate. This is my honest feedback and likely contributes to the high employee turnover within the organization.


This is an amazing, life changing position in which you will make an incredible difference in your little corner of the world.  

 Employees are given 2 full days of Dementia training as well as monthly in-service to keep your skills and strategies for working with residents top notch. In addition, you will 'shadow' an experienced employee with your same position for 3 days before you work independently. Belmont Village corporation is on the cutting edge of the assisted living industry and though younger than others, with 25 nationwide, its mission is to set the standards for residential care high.

All Belmonts are immaculately clean and visually stunning places to live and work. Walking into work each day for the employee is like walking into a 5 star hotel.  All employees are given uniforms to wear, they are all different so to identify your position. 

Activities Assistant are responsible for providing engaging activities for the residents in the Circle of Friends area.  The director plans outings, there is live entertainment twice weekly, and a corporate binder that supplies daily topics and ideas for discussions and say, perhaps, crafts, or music with which to engage your residents.  However, if you have a creative gift of your own, you are allowed complete freedom to plan your own activities, crafts, arts, games, puzzles, etc. around the topic.
For example, if you can play piano....start a chorus session weekly!

The hardest part of an activities assistant's job is dealing with those residents with Dementia & Alz. who do not still have their abilities to understand your directions when you talk to them. At dinnertime some will begin "sundowning syndrome" and might pop up from their dinner place and walk around before you can even get their order while resisting being reseated. Sometimes these residents get angry at you, but you are trained how to deal with these situations.

There are many best parts of an activities assistant's job. One is the laughter one can experience with the residents.  Sometimes the mix up their words in hilarious ways that would make a great book. Another "best" is the compliments and love these residents will give you.  They speak what they think because Dementia can diminish their impulse control, so you KNOW when you do well and provide fun and meaning in their day.

If you have the "gift of gab", if you "wear your heart on your sleeve" and if you are a creative person who loves all....this could be your dream job.

I worked as a server at the Sunnyvale Facility for more than a year. At first it seemed like it was a cool job to keep during school, but when i turned from part time to full time. Benefits were okay, you only would get your first bonus 15 months in, free food for people in the kitchen. Pay was not good at all, doing all this slave work for minimum wage. Don’t believe me? Ask any employee that works there and everyone’s answer will be the same. Management keeps changing so there are always new rules that are implemented that are unnecessary. The HR doesn’t even know what she’s doing, basically just a useless person sitting on her desk all day (took 2 months for me to get hired here). The HR assistant definitely needs to be the actual HR because she was very helpful, really nice and actually does the job an HR should do. The kitchen staff or I mean to say, the “Chef Manager” and “Dining Room Captain” need to get out of there. Chef manager doesn’t post schedule on time, so you have employees not showing up or employees showing to days that they are not even scheduled on. Same goes for the Dining Room Captain. You make her mad and she will keep a grudge at you for weeks or even months. She will make you feel like you are a burden to her life. She acts like she’s doing all the difficult tasks that her servers are supposed to do but all she does is stand around while she watches her servers put in all the work. Not a great example, especially coming from a supervisor position. No one keeps a consistent schedule, apparently the servers who have been there for 10+ years get the most respect. The actual good servers who do more than what our job asked for get no appreciation, and the servers who are not trying at this job and slack off to talk and be on their phones get the respect. There is no chance of advancement at Belmont, try and apply for a higher position and they will talk you out of it and discourage you about it. This facility is always short staffed and from working here this past year or so, I definitely understand why they can’t keep their employees for long. With this kind of management and no respect or praise for their employees, no one is going to last long here. If i had the chance, I would have called the ombudsmen to send an insider to see how workers are being treated with disrespect and hours frequently getting cut. I also just wanted to add that the residents living at the Sunnyvale facility feel like they are caged animals that have no where to go but to just stay in their rooms all day. I know we are in the shelter in place phase of our economy, it at least give the residents more activities so that they’re not bored out of their minds. 

I am a Personal Assistant Liasion or P.A.L. I was hired as a "floater" which means that I can be scheduled to work in any area that they need me. I not only work with Assisted Living residents, but also Alzheimer's residents which is sometimes difficult but I have experience working with Alzheiemr's residents as I was a Life Enrichment Manager at Sunrise (Blankenber) for 30 residents. I worked with their life skills, did one-on-ones with each of them, tried to empower each one at their own level, and wrote families about their loved one's progress. My job as a P.A.L. entails interacting and conversing with the residents as I see them, checking on them hourly during the night, toileting, dressing the ones necessary, communicating with the nurse on duty about the shift, and completing paperwork at the end of my shift. While working with the Alzheimer's residents, there is daily laundry, ensuring the safety of each one should they be out and about during third shift, showers to those scheduled, hourly checks, changing briefs twice during the night, and completing a nightly report for the nurse on duty. I have learned that every resident is different and each should be given dignity and respect. Management in my mind is not communicating as effectively with employees as they should. Many times we find out when the situation arrives and the nurse will correct or change the way of doing a particular task. My co-workers are from many different countries such as the Phillipines, Africa, and they are sometimes difficult to communicate with them because they are not all fluent in the English language and I have had to explain many times what I'm trying to say to them. The hardest part of the job is, as I stated, communicating with co-workers who are not born in the United States and have a hard time understanding. It works both ways. We have a hard time understanding what they are saying. It can be frustrating, but we work through it. The most enjoyable part of the job is that I know I am helping people and that at the end of my day, I made a difference in someone's life for the better. It is a ministry or a calling.

Belmont village Cardiff by the sea in Encinitas CA. 
I feel it's time to speak up. The admin team is very immature and talks badly upon the employees behind close doors. So in this sense you can already see the structure of their supervisor staff. Not to mention the lack of support for the health of their employees at this location. Some employees working 3 or 4 12 or more hour shifts in a row, Because the turn over rate at this location has become so overwhelming. This turn over is from the lack of faith employees have towards management and supervisors. But not only that, this situation has become more severe towards the residents at this location. Less employees, less supervision for the residents that need it. Only 2 PALS for 3 floors is unbearably and unsatisfactory. We have residents with Dementia, Alzheimer's, Memory loss, Bedridden. Families that pay ridiculous amounts of money for their loved ones to be left in these conditions? To be honest the family members come in and look around and are promised a package they are not receiving when a closed eye is turned. 
Now to talk about the  Company as a whole. The company does give great things as in PTO and benefits and 401K and not to mention bonuses. But to be honest for a company that is giving such a great experience for their guests and residents. You would think they would look at the location of where they start a new community for business. Southern California is a very pricey place to live. You will probably find a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment here for no less than 1800 a month. But yet they pay their staff $12 an hour $13 an hour?.  I think that if this business is going to grow and flourish it needs to start with it's employees. Example: If you walk into a Belmont village location, and you see nothing but sad faces and frowns on the employee's. But smiles on the management and supervisors. That would be your 1st key that something's not right for any guest or resident.

Poor management, doesn’t listen to voiced concerns or show gratitude for all the hard work staff do. Only concerns that they listen to is from the resident’s families because all they see are dollar signs.  If it’s not something they want to hear then you just get ignored. Favoritism, they turn a blind eye for people they like.  Not enough pay for the amount of work, especially in memory care so if you have the option, opt out since it’s way more work than all of the other departments and the pay is the same for working independent living, assisted living etc. Short staffed so more work and longer hours, which isn’t worth it in the end. Parking is ridiculous, employees especially working as PAL’s aren’t allowed to park inside the lot(but you’ll see management park inside), so you're expected to park on the street which is limited. If you get a ticket due to parking on street, don’t expect them to cover it because they won’t. They offer the bare minimum, including uniform shirts as well. They only give you two and if you want more you have to pay for them. The sign on bonus isn’t even worth it because what they don’t tell you is that you’ll get it in increments so they promise you you’ll see small chunks of it added to your checks for the next few months but even then, there’d be months where you wouldn’t see it added to your checks and their excuse was something like oh you’ll see it on your next one sorry. If you decide to work there, good luck. The lunches aren’t even a pro because the food is not good and they charge you for every thing they can, if it’s not for a resident then expect the bare minimum. There’d be many times when you don’t even order or only order the “free” items and you’d still see charges taken out of your check as a “meal ticket”. If you don’t catch it then they’re just taking money away from you without you noticing.

I was given 80 hours of training to understand the world of residents with different levels, types, and symptoms of dementia. As well, I was, in the 80 hrs. given training in first aid, patient transfer and many other skills relative to this position.

I am a part of a team of Activity Assistants that work in the Memory Enrichment Program. We provide daily topical activities at three different ability levels for our residents. This keeps them from isolating in their apartment, possibly having accidents being alone in their apartment, and progressing more rapidly into dementia because of lack of mental engagement and stimulation. Our team, using a day's topic as the jumping off point engages residents with conversations, cooking, baking, all kinds of arts and crafts as well as mental games. We laugh a a lot together with our residents and make close personal connections with them.

The hardest part of my job is dealing with residents who are living at the facility, but do not have dementia. They verbalyl put down our dementia residents like bullies with little comments here and there. They are in their 80's and 90's themselves and their insensitivity never ceases to amaze me. The other hard part of my job is to go home for my weekend and come back only to learn that a resident I really liked and knew well, died while I was gone. I've had to lean on my team mates and director to learn how to cope.

The most enjoyable part of the job is filling my resident's day with purposeful activities that gives meaning to their life. My residents don't recall their yesterdays, they may not have tomorrow, so we can only give them today and we try to make it interesting, relative and fun, fun, fun.

A typical day at work begins with being early enough to take over from the exiting staff. It is of course affected by the mood of your resident.
I have learned that hardwork is rewarded. I have  also learned  to work with a larger number of staff and residents. Most importantly , I have learned that to get the best out of your residents you need to have a lot of patience, treat them with care and love and they will make your day.
For the workplace culture, I must say that the most organized section in Belmont is “the Neighborhood” although most of the staff there are very unfriendly and seem to display a form of ‘clicking’
The hardest part of the Job is when what you are doing is not appreciated. Rather than encouragement you get bad remarks.
The most enjoyable part of the job is seeing your resident happy and joyful. It makes one feel fulfilled.
The management of the place is standard though I should think that a few innovations could make the place outstanding, but for the Managers, the best to me is the HR because he gives a listening ear and is down to earth, followed by the CEO, who is also down to earth and approachable and displays genuine humility.

I was hired as a LPN and as a new employee you are required to do many hours of training (a lot of computer-based training) On the 5th day of my training, I suffered a traumatic death in my family. I obviously could not come into work and discussed this with the DON.  He was not compassionate at all, on the phone all he kept saying is "you need to finish your training". (Keep in mind, if I was not present, I was not a loss nor hindering the work flow in any way, I was still only doing computer based work/training).

Long story short, it was not the right time to work.  I went in a week later to pick up my paycheck and spoke with the DON who said "You were not professional, you are not the only employee in the world who has experienced a death in the family, grow up" I was in shock!  In shock! I This is the person responsible for your loved ones!  It was then I knew I made the right decision to leave.  I cannot say how disappointed I am in this experience.  During training, I was told about compassion and values, but the DON was the opposite of those values. Of course, management will defend him (even though I don't know how you can defend that statement) but it should be said that the DON lacks manners and compassion.  

The pay is the lowest in the area, which was surprising for such a large company.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Nursing assistant 68 salaries reported	$17.43 per hour
Caregiver 89 salaries reported	$17.35 per hour
Line cook 105 salaries reported	$21.64 per hour
Licensed vocational nurse 35 salaries reported	$34.21 per hour
Server 48 salaries reported	$17.53 per hour

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