caregiver

in home caregiver

nursing assistant

home health aide

personal care assistant

Comfort Keepers

I worked with Comfort Keepers for a year as a second job, I was also a caregiver for a facility full time. The interview process was very short, 5 minutes max. I was immediately hired and started the hiring process that day. I was even asked if I would like to take a shift that very day. 

I was started out at $10 an hour despite having experience and great professional recommendations. I suppose they would rather save the higher wage for the rare CNA that applies. 

There are zero benefits, even if you are working 40+ hours a week. Although it is very, very rare to get more than 20 hours a week. 

The plus is that you can be very flexible with your schedule and which clients you want to work with, but understand that if you decline more than they like or refuse to take a certain client, then you'll find that they stop sending work to you altogether. 

One thing I didn't appreciate was that in my interview I was told that the client pays 50 cents to the mile for our gas and the company does not take a single cent of that. I later found out that Comfort Keepers actually charges the client about 75 cents to the mile but we caregivers only get 50 cents. I suppose technically, they didn't lie. 

About 80% of your clients will be located in Sun City, so if you're not near that area prepare to spend most of your earnings in gas. 

Overall, it's a decent company to work for, and the office can be very sweet and understanding, at times. 

This is not a job to go for if you're looking to advance or work full time or have job security. But if you want to make some extra cash or just get some experience under your belt, good luck.

Tips: 
**BE KIND TO YOUR CLIENTS. Yes, you are there to do a job, but for most of these clients you are everything. Family members and friends have either passed or forgotten about them. One thing this job will teach you is what loneliness can do to a person. So please, be kind to your clients, even the ones that act entitled or even disrespectful deserve to be treated with dignity and kindness. 

**Arrive 5-10 minutes early to your client, especially if you are relieving a previous caregiver. Go over everything the previous caregiver did and discuss what needs to be done next. 

**Write down EVERYTHING you did on the shift in the log book. 

**Do not discuss your personal life with clients, its okay to mention a few details if they ask and the questions are not evasive, but you need to remember that you are on a job and keep things professional. 

**Do not be afraid to say no to tasks that are not in our scope of practice, clients WILL try to take advantage of you if you are too eager to please. I once had a client ask me to do her son in law's laundry, he was staying with her for a few weeks and usually his wife did it for him. I respectfully declined and explained that I am not a housekeeper, I am here to care for the client only. 

**Sometimes you'll find yourself caring for one spouse, and the other spouse will try to get you to do things for them as well. Personally, depending on what it is I'll just do it. But if you find yourself caring for two people and the assignment says one, contact the office and let them know.

Comfort Keepers is a well-organized and professional agency that assists older adults with care needs in their homes. People that are in the higher positions of the agency are professional and very helpful. Local offices have staff that may or may not be professional and helpful. One of the positive features about Comfort Keepers is that you can choose your shifts and are not required to fill in shift needs at the last minute. However not taking "fill in" shifts will show up on your evaluation and you will be scored down. Another advantage is that most required training can be done online at your own pace. They will also offer "optional training", but if you do not attend this training it will show up on your evaluation as well and you will be scored down for not attending. These events are about an hour or two in length and can require traveling around 150 miles to reach the location where the training is being held. You are NOT paid mileage to reach training or the clients you work with. Another issue that I have encountered is that you are not allowed to call family members about issues, you must go through the office. In my initial training, when I was first hired, I was told I could contact family members and even was allowed to give out my own personal phone number. I contacted a family member of one of my clients because I noticed that their parent's vehicle tags had expired. I was informed that if I contacted the family member again I would receive disciplinary action or termination. Since this incident I have contacted the office several times about important issues. Their response has always been the same, "The family will need to contact the office," and then nothing is done about the issue. This lack of concern and resolution of any problems is common at the local office. I have over twenty years of experience in this field and I have expressed an interest in moving up in the company, however I have been passed over several times and have not been considered for available positions. My hourly wage is about fifty cents above minimum wage. I have not had any pay raises.  I've had some very positive experiences working with clients and their families however I can't count on help or support from my local office. I think that the examples shared will give you an idea of what to expect if you choose to work for Comfort Keepers.

There is NO typical day at work when a Care Giver... every day, every assignment is different because the client could be different from their personal, medical issues. A caregiver opens the door and never knows what she will find, must adjust accordingly to the client. Each workplace is different, a Care Giver does the best she can to find the best fit for the day.
   The hardest part of the job is overall, the lack of communication between the Office and the Caregiver.  Sometimes the client has moved to another location, no one calls the office so The office cannot call caregiver. Caregiver must wait until facts are sorted out before she knows what/where she is doing/going.  A caregiver must be/stay flexible because the client can become easily confused, and that is not acceptable.
   The most enjoyable part of the job is knowing after a period of time, that I made a difference -- whether it is making a suggestion based on a change in the client, or maybe finding an activity which the client enjoys, and we do it together. This can change an attitude from "blue" to "happy". It is exciting when I walk in and someone with dementia recognizes my face, no matter what name he/she puts on that face.  S/he knows ME!!

   Sometimes, since the office staff is not usually in the "field" -- if one Caregiver says something happened on her shift -- the HR rep will take that person's objection or perception, and believe it without challenging nor investigating the facts.  This is difficult since one client can have 6-10 caregivers, and it is not always easy to sort.  I believe the office staff tries hard to "keep up" and do their best so we in the field can do our best.


I am rating each office on its own, not trying to compare. I get paid better at one than the other, but here I say they are the same.

Management is awful. They clearly don’t care about both the clients and the employees, as they don’t communicate with the clients ever about any changes and they take advantage of the employees. I was hired on the spot and worked the very next day without any sort of background check. I found that very fishy, as I am working alone with a client and you have no way to distinguish if I am a criminal/have ever been fired from a facility for being abusive or negligent, etc. I have clients that complain about the lack of  communication with aComfort Keppers. They ask me constantly why they get multiple caregivers in and out of their home and Comfort Keeeprs doesn’t even notify them. It’ something that scares them because they usually keep their doors unlocked waiting for the caregivers and they don’t know who is coming. It makes them vulnerable. Also, they will treat employees like trash. There’s no way you will get enough hours to live off of unless you take any and every shift available. You get treated poorly if you call out sick, yet you’re taking care of people who should probably be in a nursing home setting, but want to stay in their homes, so if you get these geriatric clients sick, it could put them in the hospital. Still, they don’t care. I had a client get told something on the phone from the office COMPLETELY different than how things are done. It’s a shame that they take advantage of the elderly and the employees who put their all in to take care of them. Some of the homes are not safe for the employees to go into, some are extremely dirty. We’re glorified maids and babysitters. I love working with people. I love helping them, but I do not love the way things are run at all. Get the office workers out and hire nurses and those who have been in the medical field to run the place. I can guarantee then that you’ll find compassion.

A typical day of work involved arriving at a supported client's home and providing assistance with daily activities as well as companionship to many of the people who do not have family or friends to support them all of the time. Some clients were more thankful while others felt like the service was forced on them by their family but as an employee you would provide as best of a service as possible as requested by the client when you arrived. 

Life/work balance depend on the times you have available versus the clients that can afford the expensive but minimal services provided. It can be balanced. But the wages and travel locations require you to put more wear and tear into your vehicle without reimbursement equal to 1/8 of what is overall spent.

The owners and their children are actually wonderful, but the human resources department is lacking in professionalism, lack an ability to return calls or emails, and they have no oversight because of the personal relationship with the owners.  Scheduling is wonderful and great at communicating as quickly as possible, training is provided to a basic degree, but no further training or advancement is available within this small franchised location. 

The hardest part of the job was the required app paperwork for each shift. The best part of the job was interacting with clients, making them smile, and helping them get through the day. 

Inability to work with individuals who experience sudden life medical emergencies, and provide a lack of communication in procedures and policies as they change for company performance. 

The company truly cares about you. With all of the blizzard/snow stuff going on, they are always sending out emails and making personal phone calls to let us know to be careful, bad weather is coming, how to prepare for it, etc. They gave out gift cards for Christmas, I think it was around $25 to a grocery store. One time (an isolated event) when paychecks were late, they called and asked if I needed anything at all (sounding like they would personally lend me money if I was in need). They called to ask me how I was after the death of a client, etc. 

They are super flexible, I am a college student and you essentially plan your own schedule. They text the shifts that are available and you can pick them up at your own will. There are some permanent clients that you can pick up to have a set schedule as well, I'm not sure how hard those are to come by though. Because they have a lot of CNA's working for them, if you have to call out without too much heads up, it's usually not a huge deal. 

Management is always super friendly if you ever go into the office. Someone always says hello to me and asks me how it's going. Because it's a bigger company and they have a lot of clients, job stability is good, getting enough hours is never a problem. & They do pay time & a half for over time! 

Now, the negatives. They start you at $10 an hour, which is not much considering what we do, and they charge the clients $19 per hour. After 90 days you supposedly get a small (10-30 cent) raise, however I have yet to receive mine. There is no room for advancement, as a CNA you stay a CNA. Sometimes the scheduling department can be flaky, I have called before to try to get out of a shift and they say they will get back to me, and never do. The key is just to keep bugging them and eventually they will get it done. 

Overall, I'm really happy with this company/job.

CK has an extremely high stress work environment.  Each day presents a new set of issues with multiple fires to put out with minimal training, support or guidance.  The Operations Management & HR Team comes to Tulsa, schedules multiple long meetings with many promises that are not carried out and when the staff, particularly the Client Care Coordinator that is expected to resolve the issues attempt to carry out the policies they are not backed up by management and ultimately the client care coordinator is penalized for offending the staff with the policy.  The OPS Manager is unable to make decisions without constant consultation from HR and other management staff delaying important processes being addressed for quality control.  There are many different personalities in this office consisting of unwillingness to be flexible, a bad attitude towards learning as well as  incompetency being tolerated and accepted on a daily basis.  There is no accountability for the office staff that does not complete tasks and makes mistakes such as data entry errors, poor communication along side the unkind response to communication, all affecting client's, caregivers and the overall operation of the company.  There is a disciplinary process in place for caregivers on staff but it is not carried out in a timely manner if at all to be affective and to assure the clients are receiving the best care that they deserve.  Reports, revenue and stats are clearly the priority, not people nor staff satisfaction.  I was very disappointed in my experience at Comfort Keepers and would not recommend the Tulsa, OK office as an employer.

They say they are flexible, but they are not. You give them the hours and days you would like to work, and they sneakily slip people in that are outside your list that you want care for (you request non smoking clients and they send you to a smoking client) They say you're not on call, and you have the option to say no for a particular shift, but they make you work the shift and won't acknowledge any of the above. There were particular clients that I didn't like, and I didn't want to be forced to go clean their house. There is no negotiation on if you don't want to work with a particular client if its already on your schedule. You HAVE to do it. 

Cleaning their house isn't fulfilling at all. Talking with them is fulfilling, but then your told that you can't continue a friendship with them because it's not 'professional'.

They make you work and work and work. They say they don't want their caregivers to burn out, but when caregivers decline shifts, they get mad. They don't respect caregivers at all. 

I wanted to talk to ONE person. They make you talk to EVERYBODY in their office about everything going on with you. Questions about clients/problems/things you're working on/things you're confused on. In their office, everyone is NOT on the same page and will you 20 different answers to the same question. 

There is no consistency. They change your schedule all of the time, and that is frustrating. 

 They treat their clients like objects and do not treat them with respect.  They don't know the client personally, the caregivers do.  They act like all elderly people are just dumb (which is NOT true) Older people have a wealth on information and experience to tell the world. 

I would NOT recommend Comfort Keepers to anyone that wants to work in home care. The management is terrible.

A typical day for me would be to arrive at least 10 mins early to converse with the family or the client to see how the client slept the night before and to see if the client had any physical or mental changes since the last time I was there. I enjoy walking in greeting them and seeing their smiley faces when I arrive.  I enjoy the great stories and wisdom they give me. I have learned to listen even more attentively to the clients through their body language, their eyes and verbal communication. Sometimes oral is not enough so you have to look and figure out what they have not said to assist appropriately. The hardest part of my job is leaving the client at the end of a shift, especially when your client has a look in their eyes of sadness that you are going and will not see you again until your next scheduled shift.  But what I can say the most enjoyable part of my job is knowing that the client and the family are COMPLETELY satisfied with the level of service I have provided to their loved one(s). I treat them as if they were my family members and how I would want someone to take care of my elderly mother. I can also say so many wonderful things about the management. I have never met a more loving, understanding, caring, supporting staff than Comfort Keepers. I had a tragedy in my life and this great company supported me all the way through. Any other company would have let you go and never cared about you or your family. They say Greatness starts from the top, which is so very true and it has and transpired onto the whole office staff. You feel welcomed and a part of the family when you enter the office, and I genuinely appreciate each and every one of them.

A typical day involved managing daily tasks efficiently while collaborating with team members to meet departmental goals. I often balanced administrative responsibilities with direct communication between staff and clients, ensuring smooth operations.
What I believe I learned:
I learned a lot about adaptability, patience, and maintaining professionalism under challenging circumstances. It also strengthened my understanding of workplace dynamics and the importance of fair, transparent communication from leadership.
Management:
While I appreciated the opportunities for growth, I noticed inconsistencies in management communication and decision-making. This experience taught me how vital fair treatment and equal support are for maintaining employee morale and productivity.
Workplace culture:
The workplace had a mix of dedicated employees who worked hard and cared about their roles. However, there were moments where favoritism and lack of inclusivity affected the overall environment. I learned to focus on teamwork and maintain positivity despite challenges.
The hardest part of the job:
The hardest part was navigating unclear expectations and inconsistent feedback, which made it difficult to perform at my full potential at times.
The most enjoyable part of the job:
The most enjoyable part was working with clients and colleagues who truly cared about the mission of the organization. Those interactions reminded me why I value meaningful, people-centered work.

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