resident assistant

licensed practical nurse

cook

dining room server

life enrichment manager

Cedarhurst Senior Living

Working with the residents was the best part of this job. Building relationships with people living with dementia and creating meaningful activities that brought them joy was incredibly rewarding. I had the freedom to be creative, and seeing residents smile, laugh, or reconnect through music, art, games, and conversation made the work worthwhile.

A typical day involved planning and leading activities, completing documentation, decorating, coordinating volunteers and families, and often helping wherever the community needed support. I learned a great deal about dementia care, person-centered programming, and adapting activities to meet residents where they were.

Unfortunately, management and staffing made the job much more difficult than it needed to be. Chronic understaffing, frequent call-ins, and unrealistic expectations often meant that one person was expected to do the work of several. It was difficult to consistently provide the quality of programming residents deserved while also being pulled in multiple directions. Communication from leadership was inconsistent, and staff concerns often felt unheard.

The workplace culture was strongest among the frontline staff, who genuinely cared about the residents and supported one another. The hardest part of the job was trying to maintain high-quality care and programming without adequate staffing or support. The most enjoyable part was spending time with the residents and seeing the positive impact meaningful activities had on their quality of life.

If leadership invested more consistently in supporting employees and maintaining adequate staffing levels, Cedarhurst could be an excellent place to work. The residents deserve that level of commitment, and so do the people caring for them.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The residents are a joy to work with 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
There is no support. There is no communication. There is no consistency. They demand total flexibility from us to accommodate their lack of structure and it really wears you out fast. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I liked my coworkers. Management is a different ballgame. There is a giant morale problem. And a clear lack of support from management. The workers feel unappreciated. So they quit, and the ones who are left pick up the slack. Then we get criticized for not doing two jobs as well as we do one job. Feels disrespectful when your workload went up but your hourly rate didn’t. The managers won’t pitch in to help. It’s just your fault you can’t be two people at once. They’re trying to get new people in but more people quit before the newest hire even starts. The workload gets bigger. The new hires get thrown into a situation where they are doing multiple jobs, and can’t leave these jobs undone because it’s literally health and safety of human people, and they get so overwhelmed by the workload and the way management treats us like it’s our fault, that they’re gone in a week.  It’s just a really horrible cycle they’re ignoring. They need to take accountability for the way they treat staff and start appreciating the incredible team they have that wakes up every day and comes in and does their best. If your staff didn’t wake up and come in and do their best for even one single day, every single resident would suffer. I don’t think the managers appreciate that at all. And it’s something they need to stop and think about every single time they stop to criticize care staff, dining, or life enrichment. What would the building look like if everyone gave up? Who can you pin the blame to when you’re the only faction left? There is a common denominator here and it’s the way yall treat your staff. It needs to be addressed. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I run activities for the residents basically the whole time. If I’m not running an activity, I’m prepping to run an activity.

Working as a Life Enrichment Director at Cedarhurst of Des Peres was, at its core, about the residents. They are truly the highlight of the role. Building relationships with them and contributing to their daily quality of life is incredibly meaningful and something I will always value.

However, beyond the residents, the experience was consistently challenging in ways that made the role difficult to sustain. The turnover among both staff and management is extremely high, and over time it becomes clear why. There is a noticeable lack of support at nearly every level. Expectations are set, but there is little structure, guidance, or follow-through to help you meet them.

Communication from leadership often consists of vague or empty promises that are not carried through. After working under one Executive Director and then seeing how corporate handles broader situations, it became apparent that the company does not consistently uphold or reflect its stated core values in practice.

The environment can feel reactive rather than structured, and employees are often left to navigate challenges on their own. While there are individuals who care deeply and try their best, the overall system does not provide the support needed for long-term success or stability.

As with every role in this industry, the residents make the role meaningful, but the lack of structure, accountability, and support ultimately outweighs that positive.

A typical day revolved around gossip/slander of fellow employees and residents. Inquiring about daily duties (as I am easily bored of sitting around) resulted in statements of "we don't do these things"- but the staff "sign off" ignoring their existence. There is no accountability and definitely lacking any sort of structure/organization.
They offer time consuming, although very informative, training modules that manager(s) and staff suggested I skip through and simply answer the questions at the end without learning the materials. I quickly realized that few (if any) of the staff recognize/respect regulations. Very little hands on training and trained by individuals with limited life experience who seemed to lack the empathy/compassion necessary for such a job.
This is definitely a "sink or swim" type of environment which is frightening considering it is a business that focuses on taking care of others family members. While, there are a couple employees who take pride in their work, the environment is incredibly toxic and bound by nepotism. There were a several times I asked for help and was completely ignored. I was very new to this field and needed a bit more help than the average person and felt little support. I often felt the staff would rather see me fail than succeed.

The corporate office personnel behaved as if they were only motivated by money.  Clinical decisions were being made by non nurses, who were telling nurses at their communities what to do, clinically.  This was a great place to work, but as more buildings were acquired the less they seemed care about the ones they already had. This went from a great place to work to a place I was ashamed to work and consequently, I chose to go elsewhere. Regional and corporate staff did not follow up with the concerns of their employees or family members. The staffing levels should be increased for the level of care they accept and tell families they can care for. Once residents are admitted they change their policies and residents aren't  given what they were promised when they were being given their sales information. For example, they are told local transportation is available M-F and then when the community is full they changed it to only 2 days a week putting the transportation back to the family, but certainly not decreasing the monthly rent.  There has been a mass exodus of employees since mid 2021. Continuity of care is so very important and that doesn't exist there at this time. I am very disappointed and miss the lovely residents.

Worked for the company for a while and management changed constantly, never saw corporate in the building. Residents rates would increase almost every 3 months and would loose residents due to price increases. Staff constantly leaving because management is disrespectful to their staff. Lots of drama between members of management. Members of management unprofessional. People hired because they are friends with someone who works there and not because of their skills. 
Management likes to remind you of your jobs description constantly even when performing job correctly they like to point out the phrase "other duties as assigned" to have you do the most odd end job rather than the job you were hired for.  At one point that was attempted to be used on me to have me work overtime in another department after my scheduled shift. 
I was satisfied with the company for the first year of working there and then a new group of managers came in and caused drama throughout the whole building, and I ended up leaving to prevent anything bad being said about me when I had worked my tail off constantly the past 2 years picking even picking up overtime in other departments. 

This company has so much potential to be the best in the industry on all aspects. Unfortunately, they have faults, not just one or two small ones but large important ones. 
Their management is awful in the community and they can’t keep a good director there longer than 6 months-year. This causes problem all over the board without stability.
The employees are always going behind each other’s backs and lying just to try and save themselves. They will even lie about patient care to families just to make them look good.
They put on a front that they will do anything and everything for their residents but sadly that is not true. They will do whatever it takes to get the check. They even charge more for residents that they know have more money. That is not right. For the amount of money they pay their care does not match it.. doesn’t even come close to it. 
There are so many other reasons to not work here. It makes me sad to say it because those residents and their families deserve everything they are being promised and more.  Residents are AMAZING! The actual job is AMAZING! But everything else.... not so much. Don’t be fooled like everyone else.

Each day is planning activities designed to improve and enrich the lives of the residents in the community.  To provide activities to create purpose, opportunities for growth, to improve the lives of seniors through love and patience and time. To create activities that will challenge them and help them leave the comfort of their apartment and socialize with other residents in the community.
The Management team are approachable, easy to talk to, value your input and ideas, encouraging, and positive. They are thorough to inform staff of training.  Regular meetings are held to keep staff informed of the goings on in the community and various important information.  
The most difficult part of the job is keeping on schedule.
The most enjoyable part is spending time with residents, learning about them and what makes them smile and feel purposeful and cared for.  Helping them become accepting of their new home and new way of life.  Watching faces light up with the prospect of an activity.  Building relationships of respect, love and trust with staff, visitors,  and residents.

Cedarhurst of Troy continues to have major turnover in management. There is no respect from the regional team. There needs to be better hands on training for success in a management position. Regional council you on accusations of wrong doings without investigating to see if they were even legitimate. They will make you sign counseling forms stating that you know better because they've mentioned it during orientation months ago. Just very lacking in training, they find a way to make you feel very small. Being on-call 24/7 and still having to work Manager on duty and pick up shifts when someone calls off is not a work life balance, it causes alot of chaos and discord at home. Again, noone seems to care. It's sad, because the Troy location has gone through many executive directors and directors of nursing in about 8 months. There is so much dishonesty among the management team and so much bickering and backstabbing. It's a toxic environment and makes you feel very weighed down with negativity. I hope they can get things fixed for the next crew.

I will start out by saying I only start this job about a month ago and so far it has been nothing but amazing the staff is so welcoming I never feel like I’m not apart of the group even though it is work it still feel like we are one big family. Staffing is so friendly and go above and beyond to make residents and families as happy as possible . Communication and team work is amazing we communicate everything with our team and we always work as a team to get things done fast or fix anything. Management is always quick to fix any problems that may occur and they always love to hear how we feel about things and not just how they feel . Kitchen is great they made good food and residents can order other things besides what on the menu for that day and employees do get free meals as well witch is a plus. Actives is always making a way to make sure our residents our smiling . Overall if you are considering coming here  I recommend it 10 out of 10 you will not regret it 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Resident assistant 162 salaries reported	$16.85 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 168 salaries reported	$30.54 per hour
Cook 155 salaries reported	$18.05 per hour
Dining room server 187 salaries reported	$15.30 per hour
Life enrichment manager 110 salaries reported	$17.07 per hour

Working at Cedarhurst Senior Living: Company Overview and Reviews

Cedarhurst Senior Living

Cedarhurst Senior Living Ratings

Popular jobs at Cedarhurst Senior Living

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected