residential counselor

clinician

mental health technician

residential supervisor

activity specialist

The Home for Little Wanderers

There is a mindset on this campus that there are staff that do their job, and staff that everyone knows doesn't care. Higher ups on the campus will acknowledge it and vent their frustrations to employees but instead of doing something about it, the staff that care are expected to do twice or three times as much work. There is very poor communication, and often residential counselors are not given information they need for client appointments, home visits, med changes, and incidents that happened earlier in the day until it is too late. We're expected to know everything the second it happens, even if we're not working, but there was almost no effort to communicate effectively.
I often found myself working doubles without a single break, extremely out of ratio in cabin, working well over an hour after I was scheduled to leave, being pressured into picking up extra shifts because I "didn't have a good enough reason not to", and using my own money to put gas in the campus vehicles because nobody knew where the gas cards were. Because of the lack of support from admin the culture between residential counselors (and residential supervisors) was extremely toxic and everyone is ready to throw anyone/everyone under the bus for the smallest thing. Especially on the weekends you could expect up to 5 or 6 last minute call outs, and so many of the staff were already working doubles or triples that we physically couldn't stay longer even if we wanted to. 
Everyone on that campus is burnt out and its not good for the staff, and certainly not good for the clients.

The Home for Little Wanderers does great work. They are a very fast paced and forward thinking organization. My manager was amazing. I had great support at the program level from my manager and peers.  As a supervisor I worked with the  HR department. I found them to be very supportive and always willing to provide advice on various issues. I had a difficult situation as a supervisor and HR was very supportive, provided constant guidance and helped me navigate territory that was very unfamiliar to me. 

The higher level program operations staff is out of touch with the day to day working program staff and possibly with the rest of the organization. I felt they were pretending to support us but at the same time feeding us stories about others within the organization especially those in the HR department. As an employee who doesn't not have much contact with those at the main office, you are often left to distrust the "corporate" staff based on the things the higher level Operations staff tell you. Especially when your interactions with that staff are the complete opposite experience. The Vice President of Operations comes across as disingenuous and fake. This is felt by many clinical staff. 

Clinical employees are driven to put in hours and hours to achieve numbers. This is a fast paced, burn out culture. I wish this was appreciated and compensated more.

The Home provides life-changing services to a wide range of in-need children and their families throughout eastern Massachusetts, and has done so for more than 200 years.  While not perfect, there are a wide range of opportunities available here for people in a variety of disciplines.  From mental health professionals to administrative staff, and from residential counselors to fundraising, the potential career paths are substantial.

Administration seems to understand that many of the employees of The Home have very challenging jobs because they have worked in those roles before themselves.  Many of the leaders in the organization have come up through the ranks, and so they know firsthand the kind of support the employees need and deserve.

Deferred maintenance is noticeable throughout many of the buildings. Understaffed crew for maintenance and less than competitive pay. The spaces in many buildings are are repurposed and offer a compromised outcome. Storage of stuff is all over the place in hard to get to places always going up or down some windy stairs. The summer program students are placed in dated, dark, dirty, depressing cabins scattered throughout the property. If you have to lug mattresses around be sure to demand a mattress carrier for the job don't want to injure your shoulder like three other people did. Hopefully, they bought one or two of them by now. Hello!...workman's comp!..it's more like...trending towards negligence which opens the door for a law suite. The place in Windsor, NH needs a large capital infusion and The Home hasn't assessed  wither or not it's worth it. Buyer's remorse... maybe.

I have worked at the Home for almost a year now and just quit. Productivity expectations start almost instantly as a new clinician even if you can't build up a case load of more than 5 clients (I had only 5 clients for 2 and a half months and had to make up sooo many hours). I constantly fell behind and got 0 support from anyone above me when I asked for help. You are left on an island alone to figure things out and I was in 5 different schools who had no relationship with the company prior to my employment and I was left to fend for myself which left me miserable everyday. They didn't prioritize client goals/treatment plans and did not prioritize paperwork. Every time I brought up a concern my supervisor would shrug it off and say "this is just how it is to work in the field" LOL. The system is so broken, if you are not ok with breaking your ethics/morals as a social worker please do not work here. You will burn out in a month like me. 

In short I worked at The home for 13 years and I can honestly that besides one horrible supervisor who is no longer there I had great experience with management. The work was rewarding and being able to work with parents and children and see progress was very rewarding. The only change that I would suggest The Home really considering is the pay and opportunity for growth. After all the years working there by the time I left I only earned 39,500 a year. That the reason why I left the work can be very challenging and increase in pay would continue to keep the staff motivated. Also my other concern for the home is that if you do not have a masters degree you will become stagnant. They should have more leadership opportunities for staff and even if they don't qualify for certain positions they should consider the amount of years that staff dedicate to the home.

They have programs that do great work within communities. The executive leadership is more business-focused than people-focused. Also they express their desire to an organization that care our DEIB, however they have many oppressive practices, little racial diversity as you climb the ranks, and little space for dissenting opinions or points of view. I have found the culture outside of individual programs to be very oppressive.

Please, before you take a look at this organization (though it does fantastic work for the children of the community) the management and way they handle their employees is the complete opposite. For all the care they give for the children in their programs, they could care less about their employees, and treat them as "disposable." 

I wanted to be involved because of the work they do for the kids of Boston but I found it much more difficult to deal with the way I was being treated. 

I want to urge all of you to really try and get a feel for the style of management and how well you might fit in. If you are the type of person who likes to be yelled at every day, belittled and micromanaged, than this might be a good place for you.

I would not recommend working for the Home. Management can be cliquish and will pick and choose what information they let other staff know. Paperwork was a disaster and demands for the job exceeded the point of manageability. Poor communication and lack of accountability from management when things went wrong also ruined the employee-employer relationships. The kids were great, hilarious as well and fellow staff were wonderful to work with. Definitely a place to be short term, but long term can lead to burn-out. They expect you to work yourself to the bone, and will coerce you into working longer hours, otherwise you are not a "team player". Would not recommend

What is the best part of working at the company?
 Ability to grow professionally, great management support  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
There are no comments on this question, I have not experience any stressful moments in the company 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture environment is diverse respectful towards individuals 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Work is base in the community, conducting visit with client's, attending school meetings, attending providers meeting. Every day is different

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Residential counselor 43 salaries reported	$18.88 per hour
Clinician 16 salaries reported	$58,594 per year
Mental health technician 12 salaries reported	$62,500 per year
Residential supervisor 8 salaries reported	$20.40 per hour
Activity specialist 1 salary reported	$24.50 per hour

Working at The Home for Little Wanderers: Company Overview and Reviews

The Home for Little Wanderers

The Home for Little Wanderers Ratings

Popular jobs at The Home for Little Wanderers

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected