mental health technician

therapist

care associate

clinic manager

associate

ColumbiaCare Services Inc.

I have several concerns regarding my employment with Columbia Care with the issues that overshadows any potential rewards: the pervasive presence of favoritism. Within our workplace, favoritism significantly influences various aspects of employment, including promotions, scheduling, pay rates, and opportunities for training and conferences.
Promotions at Columbia Care are a source of frustration and disillusionment for many employees, myself included. Despite pouring my energy and dedication into my work, it's disheartening to witness how personal connections and favoritism often dictate promotion decisions. Individuals with close ties to management or those who align with certain cliques seem to have a clear advantage, overshadowing the efforts of deserving employees like myself. This dynamic not only undermines morale but also erodes trust in the fairness of our promotion processes.
Scheduling and hours present another layer of unfairness due to favoritism within our workplace. It's infuriating to observe certain employees receiving preferential treatment when it comes to their working hours or shifts. Whether it's accommodating personal preferences or catering to favored individuals, the lack of transparency in scheduling decisions breeds resentment and fosters a sense of inequality among the rest of the workforce. This unequal distribution of hours can also have detrimental effects on work-life balance and overall job satisfaction.
Compensation at Columbia Care further highlights the issue of favoritism. Despite sharing similar levels of experience, qualifications, and job responsibilities with my colleagues, it's evident that some individuals are compensated more generously than others. This glaring discrepancy not only fuels feelings of resentment but also perpetuates a culture of inequality and injustice within our organization. Fair and equitable compensation should be based on merit and performance, rather than personal relationships or favoritism.
Opportunities for training and professional development are also tainted by favoritism at Columbia Care. Certain employees consistently receive invitations to attend valuable training sessions or participate in conferences, while others are overlooked or excluded without valid justification. This selective approach to professional growth hinders individual advancement and reinforces perceptions of favoritism and unfair treatment.
My experience at Columbia Care has been overwhelmingly negative due to the prevalence of favoritism in various aspects of employment. The lack of transparency and fairness in promotions, scheduling, compensation, and professional development has a negative impact on morale and causes employees to find the work fulfilling. 


 In my role as a Case Manager, I handled a unique set of responsibilities compared to most of my colleagues. I served as the primary point of contact for clients seeking services, guiding them through the entire intake process. This included reaching out to clients who expressed interest in attending, assisting them with completing all required paperwork, and ensuring all documentation was finalized accurately from start to finish. Gather more.  There were significant gray areas in my role, as many of my responsibilities were performed outside of the standard job description, yet management did not clearly define expectations. Leadership struggled to articulate the focus and purpose of the position, while still expecting a high volume of client contacts without providing the necessary flexibility or resources to achieve those goals.

- The day‑to‑day work was complex and demanding, involving coordination with many different people, but there was limited consistent guidance or support. Management’s lack of clarity and confidence in their own processes often created confusion, and the overall direction of the department and organization frequently felt uncertain.

-While initial trainings were generally strong, there was little to no follow‑up or reinforcement from upper management, which made it difficult to apply what was learned in a sustainable way. Additionally, the work environment could become quite negative, with tension and top‑down pressure affecting staff morale. Performance concerns were often handled in a punitive manner, which contributed to a culture of fear rather than support of fear of being fired.  Meetings no one could really express their real concerns with put any backlash.

If you're reading these reviews, pay attention to the job titles listed with each one. Employees working removed from the programs like IT, administration, and such have a very different experience than those employees working directly with clients. This is where the toxic work environment and turnover happens. NOT due to clients, but due to upper-management's total disregard for direct care staff's job satisfaction and empowerment. This organization contradicts itself in everything it does. Employees are provided with reasonable time off allowances but aren't able to use them due to staff shortages. Services are completely structured around profits rather than supporting the individual needs of clients. Facility admin teams are required to work absurd hours including being on-call overnight, which doesn't allow for a healthy work/life balance that the company's Wellness Program encourages. CCS claims to provide "competitive wages" since raising their hourly wages, but so has every other industry, and CCS has not kept up. People can literally make more working in fast food. The org claims to see clients as "people first" but is constantly infantilizing them, both through company policies and informal comments made by staff at all levels. There is an overwhelming feeling of stress that comes with this job that is difficult to describe. You are always pushing to "just get through this," then to get through the next, and the next, until you look around and it's been years and nothing has changed to make things any more manageable. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The company has core values that align with mine in the belief that everyone can get better, and always striving to do more, providing the best possible care to everyone, no matter who or where they come from. Bonuses are great, coming in the form of additional PTO, or cash, throughout the year. Insurance coverage, mental health assistance for employees, and other needs. The people I work with are absolutely the best, sharing in a vision for a better world for those who need it. I love working for and with ColumbiaCare Services.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Learning new positions can be challenging, but having the opportunity for growth in my career offsets this exponentially.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
People are kind and caring, with amazing personalities. It seems that everyone that works at ColumbiaCare is there because they want to be, not because they have to be which makes it a wonderful environment to work in. It is easy to go to upper management and talk with true open door policies.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I go out into the community to meet with clients where they are at, providing mental health and crisis treatment. Each day starts with a team meeting to see what each team member has planned for the day, adjusting schedules where needed and when possible. I can work in the office if that's what I choose, or in the community if that's better for me and my clients that day. The flexibility is great.

There are no enforceable guidelines for clients and very few protections in place for staff who work directly with high-behavior individuals. Leadership is clueless to day to day operations and the stress that comes with it, lower paid staff know more about how to do the job than the ones making double our pay. 
Chronic understaffing is a major issue. Many full-time staff members, including college students and parents, are stretched thin with little work-life balance. The refusal to implement alternative scheduling options, such as four 10-hour shifts, adds to burnout particularly when working with high-behavior clients. Part time only being weekends and 8 hour shifts being the only options is why they are unable to fill positions. 
The most positive aspect of the job is the camaraderie among frontline staff. However, it is disheartening to watch dedicated coworkers become overwhelmed and burned out.
Working in this facility you are a babysitter with less protection, our clients have more rights in a locked facility then in the outside world which isn’t setting them up for success, most our clients don’t want to get better because they don’t believe they need to so they live in a free for all dorm and there is nothing we can do.
Columbiacare is proud about their belief system “We believe People get Better” but the way the facilities are set up is the opposite of therapeutic. No rules, constant turnover, no structure. Treat your employees better and the clients will benefit. 

The work at ColumbiaCare is rewarding, there are multiple departments that can all rely on each other and make it so that clients can be successful, and it is the first non-profit that I have worked for that is able to provide you with confidence in the result that you can provide clients. They receive a lot of funding, and they use it wisely as well as ethically. We provide chances for all sorts of people and while our housing model prioritizes the rights of our clients, we somehow end up with more people that make it to their intended goal than do not. I think the most enjoyable part of the job is the work-life balance, because it is also the first place I have worked where I am not stressed about doing the things that everyone has to do, take PTO, go to appointments during weekdays, get raises when you expect. I could be lucky due to an extra-ordinary supervisor, but that would not explain all of the other happy coworkers that are still working here. I have learned by working at Columbia Care that I am a person that puts my life into my work, that it is OK to do so, and that I am objectively doing well. 

Some great individuals but they can't make up for the absolutely terrible upper management and HR. The company has grown rapidly, and since the passing of the founder and CEO in 2017 the company has taken a huge nosedive in terms of  morale and organization. The executive team operates with zero accountability; they talk a lot about their commitment to diversity and caring for their employees, but it is 100% lip service. Long-term managers who have learned to kiss up to the executive team and CEO are given free reign regardless of competency, and the culture is toxic. Transparency is nonexistent.  The Outpatient program in particular is frighteningly dysfunctional with a revolving door of therapists and staff. Program Director and managers are winging everything; due to their inability to retain staff, no one actually knows how anything is done and endless pointless meetings are held to look busy and appear functional. Unprofessional to an alarming degree. Clients are openly mocked by staff, and the vibe is "mean girls (or guys) in high school"--very clique-ish. Their only priority is profit and keeping up appearances. I worked for the company for over 7 years and saw firsthand how its integrity and treatment of both employees and clients slowly disintegrated. 

There have been recent changes made by the big-shots that are impacting the company negatively. Forcing changes of hours and working days, firing the nurses  without notice (some who had worked at the company for over 5 years) because they decided they only needed 1 per county all of a sudden, bullying the staff into not unionizing, changing the PTO so that staff lose at least 16 hours of accrued time off than we hide prior to the change, and plans to make more negative changes overall. Many of the lower-level higher-ups (tech support, therapists, program supervisors) seem to be quitting left and right as you can see from their available job postings, and it's all happened very quickly. 

But for a working environment it can be good. They offer tons of training opportunities, options for advancement, the clients are amazing, and the site managers are compassionate, helpful, and dedicated. Work culture at most programs is pretty good, staff are helpful and welcoming to new people, and it's a really good job for a student as they offer quite a bit of part time and on-call work.  They will train you thoroughly and you will learn a lot while working here. 

While it is certainly a great way to gain experience working with those who have mental illness, there is clearly a lack of communication between higher management and staff.
Most days are dependent on the activities of the residents so either you are doing work the whole 8hr shift or sitting there doing practically nothing besides helping a resident every now and then after the main activities are done.
ColumbiaCare's philosophy is certainly an inspiring one, but at times I felt like staff were doing the bare minimum which made the whole environment feel less supportive. It's great to see a company push such a positive narrative for mental health however it unfortunately can be a bit conflicting after working with those who clearly either don't have the right amount of support they need or are unable to make much progress after months even years of treatment from these facilities.
All in all Columbia Care is a good start for getting a better hands-on understanding for the mental health field and working with those affected by mental illness (you will learn a lot), but the lack of communication and management makes it definitely a place you won't want to be at for long.

Management changes regularly, turnover for the company is very high for both floor staff and leadership. Floor staff pay varies from $19.50 to $23, about a $0.30 cent raise a year if your annual review goes good. Most facilities are run similarly with small changes depending on administrative choices. Client population is difficult and staff are regularly harmed by the company's leadership decisions. Nursing/Medical support is minimal due to layoffs. Lots of opportunity to practice boundaries with both clients AND management. OK short term but few employees last longer than 6 months unless they develop strong team connections and are assigned a suppotive QMHP for supervision. It's 50/50 shot. Wellness Program is nice. For educational program, they offer roughly four employees a year the chance for reimbursement on obtaining a masters degree if they agree to work for two years as a RN or QMHP. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mental health technician 787 salaries reported	$21.11 per hour
Therapist 48 salaries reported	$6,677 per month
Care associate 763 salaries reported	$21.82 per hour
Clinic manager 6 salaries reported	$8,073 per month
Associate 1 salary reported	$21.00 per hour

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