behavior technician

board certified behavior analyst

front desk receptionist

board certified assistant behavior analyst

registered behavior technician

Gateway Pediatric Therapy

The bad based on my personal experience:

Behavior technicians do not get paid the same here and neither do BCBAs. I got hired in at the same time as another person (we started at the same time and had almost identical work experience) and always got paid $9.00 more than that person. Why you ask? Favoritism. When BCBA's talk about their salary it is always different from the other. 

I would have to travel VERY far with no gas reimbursement and when I would express this to higher up they told me they would "fix it" and still put me on the schedule to travel 40 miles one way to a location even though this is against the rules and in part I was a bit of a push over that just wanted to be a good technician and not disappoint anyone. 

I would be schedule and paid to only work a 3 hour session with a client and then go home. When I asked for more hours they would give me another 3 hours session with a client but the first 3 hour session would start at 9:00am and then the next one would not start till 3:00pm and I would not get paid in between time and would travel so far there was no point in driving back home. When I expressed this concern to higher up they fixed it for about 2 weeks and then it went back to the far apart sessions with no pay. Also, there were so many times I would travel all the way to the clinic or a client's house only to find out that they would cancel last minute, when I would ask for work to do so I could get paid because the client cancelled I was never actually paid for it unless I begged higher up and pleaded my case and time to them which eventually made me feel like I looked like "one of those" hard to work with employees despite I was completely entitled to my time and dedication.

Lots of younger people (20s to 30s) so naturally a lot of gossip occurs especially within administration. Some people are given then power to oversee and do things in way that they carry themselves in a very unprofessional manner just to be "catty", especially to other women. 

Some BCBA's here get away with a lot of things they should not such as swearing in front of the kids and blaming their mistakes on the behavior technicians that work under them. I cannot speak for all BCBA's here just some of the ones that have done minor illegal things in front of me (e.g. accept side payments of money to babysit and create a relationship with families that would be viewed as "unethical" within the industry). Also worked with a BCBA that would lie about her service hours to meet with the family because she would never show up to the house when expected and their was a language barrier within the family that enable the BCBA to get away with it (they no longer works for the company, however).

I have went to many in-homes and felt very unsafe within the house or within the area I was sent. One time I looked up the name of a client's uncle that would come to visit and he was on the sex offender registry and would make inappropriate comments to me. Another time I was mildly bit by a client's cat and then got an infection and when I told higher up about it I got the impression they felt I was over exaggerating and I felt like I was punished because they just took me off the schedule to be at that house and did not give me another case to get paid and work till a few weeks later. Feeling unsafe at in-home therapy runs is one of the BIGGEST reasons why I had to leave Gateway. 

Many new behavior technicians act in a very unprofessional manner (e.g. many of them are able to travel in their own vehicles and work inside homes but DO NOT EVEN HAVE THEIR LICENSES or sometimes do not even have a car). Why is this allowed? Why are we not checking to make sure people can legally drive before we send them places?

Some of the clinics have back see through windows in which parents are able to go back and watch their kids and at the same time see other people's kids which is against HIPPA code and a HUGE VIOLATION OF PRIVACY in which I have witnessed BCBA's continue to take parents back despite that they know it is a violation of privacy because Gateway put so much money into the set up they do not want to take it down.


The goodish things based on my personal experience:

If you are looking to be a BCBA here then for you it may be worth sticking around if you can tolerate working here because they offer decent benefits and give raises to the BCBAs (1,000 or more dollars) every year from what I have heard my BCBA bosses talk about. Since they are a bigger company they can pay pretty competitively compared to similar clinics. 

If you stay a long time at Gateway they will try and give you the opportunity to fulfill a different role (we are talking about 2 plus years). 

If you are into cliques and sorority like work relationships you may feel more welcomed or accepted here.

If you have the opportunity to work under a BCBA that does not try to half a** everything you will have a much better experience here than others. Having a good BCBA that cares about the therapists as much as the client's is hard to come across but possible. 

If you like companies that grow fast, Gateway does that.

If you are able to stick up for yourself and not let "bosses" take advantage of your time or experience you will have a better experience here. 

If you do not take a lot of time off of work you will also have a much better experience here. 

You can work as a behavior consultant here and not get your credentials to be a BCBA.

I have mixed feelings from when I worked at Gateway Pediatric Therapy. The company itself does not seem to have any care for their employees, unless you have worked your way up in the company and are in some other type of position that is not a behavior technician. The scheduling team will also guilt-trip you into taking specific hours almost every day, and if it is a week ahead of time, they will just put those hours on your schedule without talking to you first. Along with this, weekly schedules are not consistent, and if a client cancels their appointment, you will not be compensated. Also, unfortunately, you need 60 consecutive days of full-time hours to be eligible for health benefits. Because of this, I had asked for more hours due to wanting to be full time and they gave it to me for almost two months and then put me back to part-time. So I was ineligible to get the benefits because they kept putting me back to part-time, every time I almost made it to 60 consecutive days.

Along with this, they don't seem to care as much about their actual clients either. Some BCBAs do care about their clients, but for the most part, they all just seem to do the bare minimum to have the child act in a neuro-typical manner. It seems as if the company, as a whole, is more worried about expanding than the actual care that they are giving to their clients. ABA therapy is supposed to have a lot patience, and some BCBAs will have you be a little more forceful in order to get a certain amount of stuff done for the day. For example, you need to have at least 12-15 programs done per day, each program consists of at least 10 trials. So, the BCBAs are more concerned if you don't complete these each day, rather than waiting on the child and guiding them in a more patient manner in order for them to make the correct decision on their own terms. I have worked at other ABA therapy companies, and they handle these situations much more patiently than Gateway Pediatric Therapy does. 

If you choose to work here, be prepared for the children to lash out. You could possibly work with very destructive children, but you cannot take it personally. Because Autism is a spectrum, a lot of the times you will see the children handle their behavior in both positive and negative manners. Just remember that sometimes they do not know how to communicate properly with how they are feeling and it can be very frustrating for them. Working with the children overall is amazing. You get to see them flourish and pick up new skills/behaviors that they previously had no idea on how to do. I had one client who had graduated from the program, and when this client first came in, they had no idea on how to even make certain sounds. It is a very rewarding experience, and personally, it has helped me decide on my future career because I like watching the impact I can have on other people's lives. However, this specific company is not for me. 

Technicians do not receive guaranteed hours as families may cancel appointments, services may be put on hold, etc.... Keep in mind maintaining a certain number of hours is required to have and maintain health insurance. Training is conducted at a reduced pay rate and they almost always require 2-3 evenings and open availability.  Following training, techs find themselves lacking support from BCBAs due to the unmanageable expectations of our case loads and fixation on billable hours, resulting in chaos.

At the clinician level,  BCBA's are overwhelmed with caseloads. We were expected to support techs and the clinic in its day to day functions if someone on front desk calls out. They figured out they can operate on a skeleton crew and never gave additional support, so BCBAs and even techs are pulled to 'help open/close'. There are also clinics that will only have front desk present, which is a person that is less trained than a technician, and they're the only point of leadership at the clinic because they don't have the BCBA's available to be at every clinic/ have to go to in homes.

In the most senior leadership, which is comprised of long-time employees, there is a presence of ego decision making. Upper management is comprised of long term employees that started as techs and have spent the majority of their corp career at this company. They like to boast about how moving up is possible, but promotions  are given through favoritism, capability of "managing" unmanageable case loads, unrelated abilities, or just based on how long you've been there. Based on how many people are leaving, some of the most senior BCBAs range between 9 months - 1 year before being moved up because they have to dump the responsibility on to someone. On top of that, many the 'leaders' old and new exhibit low emotional intelligence. They have been disrespectful, passive aggressive, yelled, snapped, or go out of their way to create a case against another bcba or tech and asking others to document any negative experiences. There is a huge divide between BCBAs, technicians, front desk, and other departments. 

There is also a ton of burnout and people often said they are scared to come into work because they don't know what mood their boss will be in and are just waiting to be yelled at or fired. Also, adding a vending machine when techs report they don't have time to eat because they are scheduled back to back because they can't afford to not work constantly, is evidence of either choosing not to care about the root problem or just ignorant. 

Overall the company prioritizes billing over employee well-being, which employees clearly pick up on when you see the number of people leaving. It is clear that they rode on the coattails of success at one point, capitalizing on growth, but without changing the operation models and thought process that comes with growth. Cracks became apparent and the time to fix the roof is not during the post-covid thunderstorm.

I recommend to current employees to discuss pay internally too.

I worked there for about 8 months before I could no longer handle working for this company. 

I was very excited accepting this position directly out of college and was promised 35-40 hours/ week. Compensation was lower than I was hoping ($16/hr) but it allowed me to move home from college and was in a field I was highly interested in. The woman interviewing me seemed passionate about ABA as well and this company seemed like the right choice for me.

I found out shortly after taking this position that my initial impression couldn't have been more wrong. The company's passion for ABA is there, no doubt about it - I just wished they valued their employees a bit more... It didn't take long to realize that upper management was operated primarily by a group of women that were more friends than co-workers. This doesn't seem like an issue until one of them decides they aren't your biggest fan, then the whole team seems to treat you poorly. Individuals that made friends with upper management were promoted, no matter how long they were with the company. 

I was told upon hire I would be receiving 35-40 hours per week. I understand we cannot control weather factors/ family cancellations, but I ended up averaging 20-25 hours per week if I was lucky. Upon notifying my supervisor, I didn't receive more scheduled hours - just a few extra last minute calls to pick up a session when another therapist was unable to make it. There were very few times where I wasn't asked to stay late or cover a session with only minutes before the session started. Not only was I unprepared to work with a child I had never met before, but the child's therapy session was compromised as the child was being tossed between new therapists every other day. 

The turnover rate in this company is insane, partially due to individuals finding that ABA is not for them which is understandable but also due to the fact that management does not value good workers. ABA tech's hourly wage is insufficient with the hours provided to them, with no PTO - if you need time off, your paycheck suffers and in this field time off is completely necessary. 

My primary issue was the way I was treated by management. I politely asked for more hours, but if I was unable to cover a session last minute I was given attitude and my schedule for the following week would have less hours... I understand I was requesting more hours, but it would've been nice to know my schedule for that day before leaving my home in the morning - instead of making adjustments 20 minutes before they'd like me to be somewhere and tossing me between 2-3 homes on opposite sides of the county without time to stop and eat.  

My final straw was when grandfather passed away and I notified the schedulers my need for time off - it took 2 days to hear back from any of them & no condolences were offered. That was when I'd had enough and found a company that truly values me. I don't fault this to the CEO, I'd met her and believe she had no idea the troubles management was causing

I've been with Gateway for about 4 months now. It took a while to become acclimated to taking data, being supervised, and being in/out of the clinic for your kiddos but after about a month I would say that you feel genuinely comfortable. BCBAs are generally amazing, and they can give you great advice on not only your kiddos, but also your future career goals if they lie within the realm of psychology/social work. It is difficult to meet and get along with coworkers as you may be in the clinic for one week, and completely out of the clinic for the next month, but if you are in the clinic for a couple of months then you're bound to meet some friendly faces. The kiddos are the highlight of the job and my love for psychology and pediatrics was fulfilled to the absolute maximum each and every day, regardless of the age or background of the child.

The only troubling part for me, as many other people say, was management. There are days that you will have three sessions in a single day, ranging from 3-4 hours each, all back to back. Breaks are not mandatory here, and you are often times forced to gobble down some granola bars on the drive from one house to another house, or eat with the client (which can be extremely uncomfortable). This results in a less-than-optimal mood for the technician, especially if they are prone to hypoglycemia, and doesn't reflect the delivering of "premier ABA services" that the company claims it has. Technicians can't do their best if they don't even have 30 minutes to take a breather and eat some food in between sessions. 

Additionally, scheduling can be a mess. You will have an amazing kiddo for a month, building rapport, moving your way into their family, finally getting to know all of the child's behaviors and reinforcers and programs, ANNNDDD scheduling will take you off of that kid. This destruction of the technician/client relationship is so damaging for the client, to the point where I've seen data during the periods where a client has "subs" (substitute techs), and it can show nearly a 50% regression in accuracy for each program. 

I'm not one to tell scheduling/HR how to make Gateway run better - they clearly have it on lockdown. However I think they fail to acknowledge some of the fatal flaws that exist within their workplace and it slowly digs away at all of the technicians. Nearly everybody complains about the lack of a real break/lunch and the fact that you can be ripped from your kiddo at any moment. 

But hey, the pay is nice. I feel like it is one of the strongest things keeping technicians here. If the hazard pay is dropped, then yikes for Gateway and it's technicians. Make a smart move everybody! If you love kids and can work your butt off without a lunch/break, and are willing to put in your all every day, then this place is for you. Difficult, yet very rewarding. 

The clients are the only positive thing this company has to offer. Human Resources is terrible, condescending and demeaning. With the one exception, the director who is great. She is so great that she deserves better than this company. The rest of the supervisors have no qualms about taking their stress out on you. 
At the Dearborn location, it is near impossible to get supervision as the supervisors tend to online shop, talk, and eat most of the time. The director at Dearborn could not care any less about the employees or the clients. Allowing her staff not follow the ABA code of ethics. Making fun of clients and behavior technicians, inadequate supplies for cleaning, extremely inappropriate conversations in front of clients, lack of stimuli for the clients. 
Recycled behavior plans and incorrect name of clients on the programs. 
Training is only a week long and NOT enough time to create decent technicians. The supervisors do not do supervision so the technicians often run programs wrong and record data incorrectly due to lack of support. 
I have seen the director walk over a client and say "see what I have to deal with" while not offering support to the behavior technician who has never had this client prior. She walks around acting sweet but she reports everything to HR so watch your back. She will NEVER address issues with you to your face.

A day at Dearborn goes something like this: you walk into the clinic to overhear lude conversations technicians are walking down the hall with their toddler clients. Then you will go to set up for your session only to find that you do not have the necessary materials to run programs. So you'll go ask the BCBAS (you may eventually get materials a few weeks later) for the materials. The BCBA will say they will get the stuff for you or let the designated supervisor know. You'll go downstairs to get you client, you'll wait, wait some more, until scheduling decides to call you to inform you that the client cancelled hours prior but they forgot to let you know. So, then you will leave. Only getting paid for the time you waited, not the entire session. 
Then you come back for a different session later in the day. Your client is engaging in self-injurious behaviors. You are unable to find a BCBA so fellow technicians help you manage the behaviors. BUT in order to do this, they have to leave their client with someone else. When the BCBA finally does come in they will ask "what does the behavior plan say", you will then have to tell them uncomfortably that there is not a behavior plan in place. 
After weeks of the same client cancelling you lose so many hours that you now no longer qualify for healthcare benefits. 
If you absolutely must work here choose a different clinic and do NOT trust anyone!! Watch your back

The children are the highlight of the job; they are all sweet and loving and really make coming to work worthwhile. Management, scheduling, and the work environment desperately need to be exposed and changed. Availability is taken into account, but if your availability is open, you will be taken full advantage of, often working 7:30am-7:30pm Monday-Friday. There is no holiday compensation and PTO is scarce. Coworkers are often burnt out, including supervisors, and will take it out on you as a person, whether they intend to or not. Slowly but surely your motivation and love for the job is dwindled down until you can bare to show up anymore, even for the kiddos. It really is unfortunate and these clients and their families deserve so much better. I came to find out ABA is controversial and lacks progress, results, and even hope. This is not a job that should be commercialized, yet it is. The clinics themselves are depressing, lacking sensory experiences. In fact, they lack variety in activities and toys for children, much less those on the Autism Spectrum who benefit greatly from variety and unique experiences. Despite many expressions to management about the position you are put in with families at their homes, or children in the clinic, or even observations on fellow coworkers, nothing changes. It seems there is no desire to address anything negative as they are short staffed and burnt out as is. While it is understandable to feel these ways, it is unacceptable to allow children to suffer and lack care due to this. Work/life balance does not exist, and you will be made to feel guilty for not being able to burn yourself into the ground with your schedule. If you or your client are sick, rarely will you have a day off for this. The attendance policy is illogical and strict, despite the varying schedule and cancellations. Often you will spend time driving to work or to a client's home, just to find out you will not have your session. Take extreme caution before applying here or applying to send your precious children here, because it is not what it seems on the surface. I am sad to say I believe Gateway provides an unsupportive, unbalanced, and often depressing workplace. I would love to stick around for the children and their families, but this is no longer possible and you inevitably will reach a point beyond consolation.

Well I’ll start with something positive: amazing kids, and great families. Now on to the negative. First off.. the training (or lack there of), was three 20 something girls reading off a paper. No training on autism itself (beside a short 45 second video), and the experiences of the child. Most people there were new to the whole field. Not knowing about autism itself prevents new techs to empathize with the kids. Majority of the training was given on soap notes. Which makes sense, given the company is blatantly out for insurance money. The trainers i received while training in a session w a kiddo seemed very clueless, with having no instructional control over the child whatsoever. No in home training. When you get your schedule it’ll be with kids that you have never seen and then you’ll “pair”. Scheduling is the absolute worst. Disorganized. Catty. Nepotism to the finest. How this hasn’t been addressed by the ceo - who knows. But this company is known as the worst to work for in this industry around here. They continuously lose the best therapists, and 10/10 it’s due to being mistreated by scheduling, human recourses, and the rest of the “management” gateway. They’ve become their own worst enemy. All of my coworkers who were incredibly smart and cared about their job either quit, forced to quit, or were fired. And it’s because of the lack of structure on the management side. The 20 somethings in high positions attempting to run a company are running it into the ground. Hire some people with more extensive experience, masters degrees and higher, and  the company would succeed. Some employees got paid for half of a session of one that they picked up, most of us didn’t (as of course, we were never informed nor compensated). Cancelled sessions happen, however during training, we were told that they’d always find a replacement shift or we’d be “floaters”. Again, never once was this utilized. No insurance is offered here, don’t let them fool you into thinking there is. Most employees here chit chat amongst each other during sessions. Especially ones sharing a room. Ignoring ALL behaviors of a child. Seems backwards. I once overheard a conversation about tinder between two techs, while trying to keep my client focused and begin programming. BC’s are all mostly students or new students. Very “know it all” attitudes. Some kids barely have programs to run due to the BC’s incompetence. I can go on and on. Work here if you want, but just know.. you’ve been warned. This place sucks to work for

I would never recommend working as a behavior technician at Gateway. This place is a revolving door of technicians, and it is so incredibly unfair to the children. As a parent myself, I know how important it is that your child is with someone who knows them fully and that this person is someone you can trust. At Gateway, you could have a different technician with your child each day of the week, sometimes new technicians in the middle of the daily sessions. This makes for extremely inconsistent therapy sessions, severely delaying your child’s growth. They have an extremely strict policy about the technician’s role in a child’s therapy, and it includes NO contact with the parent outside of drop-off and pick-up. Again, as a parent myself, if a technician is in my home, I would care more about keeping in contact with a technician over a BCBA that meets with my child a few hours each week; they know very little about your child compared to the technician that (could) spend countless hours with your child (if consistent). As a technician, you are treated like garbage at this company. YOU CANNOT MAKE A LIVING OFF OF THIS JOB. You are not paid for cancellations, which happens a lot. Your schedule could be cut from 40 hours to 20 hours, and you are left without that money and trying to make it up elsewhere. In the event of cancellations, they will call you to cover shifts. But, for example, they will call you at 8:20AM to cover for a 9AM session. I don’t understand how they think this is realistic. You are not paid for time off. You are not paid for the appropriate time you are there - they only allow you to be paid an extra 5 minutes before/after sessions; this is not realistic. Training specifically tells you to be there 10/15 minutes prior to your session, yet you are not paid for this time. SOAP notes are NEVER completed in session; there is simply no time to write a lengthy note while remaining engaged with your client. This leaves every technician spending time (unpaid) at home or between sessions to write their notes. You. Don’t. Have. Scheduled. Breaks. Imagine a 9-6 session with a 4 year old with no scheduled breaks. Need I say more? In my opinion, this company has just gotten too big for its own good. I imagine this company was thriving when it was much smaller, but at this point, they care extremely little about their technicians. Technicians are the backbone of this company, but they surely don’t treat you like you are.

If you think the following is okay apply at Gateway Pediatric. 
*Not enough training to provide services to a vulnerable population*Doing hours of onboarding paperwork off the clock at home*The 40 hrs of training to be an ABA tech included additional onboarding and company spacific orientation that has nothing to do with ABA*In person training during sessions done by other new staff*Staff not given breaks for sometimes 10 hours of straight sessions unless they hang something on the door and get relieved to use the bathroom*Being told to read and respond to lengthy emails off the clock and from home within 24 hours of receiving even if you are not working*You are paid for session time and up to 10 min before and after but no time for reading emails, client information that helps provide support, charting, or cleaning and straightening the tharapy room* If you go over 10 minutes you must spend more time off the clock sending an email to justify why you aren't able to work faster*The turn over is very high*Calls and emails daily to pick up things last minute* You will be scheduled out of your availability*They tell you in training to check your schedule twice a day as it could change (so if you're not working get on your work device that you take home and work reading emails and checking your schedule). *Work 3 to 5 hour shifts three days a week sometimes and sometimes a lot more but you never know *Be sent home with a work tablet and told if you break it you buy it* It is not a good place to work and not worth it. The clients would be better served if staff were looked after as an asset and training for new hires was much more in depth.* They need to  provide more upport and training to technicians. Shifts should allow for office time in which staff can read emails, send emails, read charts and pertinent information and take a 15 minutes break if needed! They are milking the technician's and rapidly expanding services instead of getting better at what they do first. If you are interested in becoming an ABA technician I would seek a company that invests in workforce development and cares about employees work life balance.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Behavior technician 81 salaries reported	$18.82 per hour
Board certified behavior analyst 23 salaries reported	$84,696 per year
Front desk receptionist 22 salaries reported	$16.98 per hour
Board certified assistant behavior analyst 11 salaries reported	$66,364 per year
Registered behavior technician 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour

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