nursing assistant

resident assistant

dining room server

licensed practical nurse

chef

The Waters Senior Living

1. This place boasts work life balance and HR told me, to my face, that I cared too much about my personal life when I was trying to use up some of the 70+ banked PTO hours I had because I never took time off. 

2. I told my ED that I was scared to talk to her about an issue I was having with a different manager because I was scared it would be taken out of context and because of previous incidences. She said I should feel like I can come to her about these things and not be scared. Less than a week later it was used against me when I was told that “I have ‘the same’ issue with every manager”. 

3.When a different employee reached out to HR about management, HR asked them, “is this just [me] and [different employee] making you say this?” Like I’m coercing staff to be upset. They are so protective of the WRONG people.

4. Internal promotions are a joke. I applied for one and they set up an “interview” and let me think I had a shot at the job for a week, just to sit me down and tell me no without even interviewing me. 

5.good luck if you have mental health issues of any kind. They do not care. I reached out to my boss with a workplace situation induced panic attack, scared and upset and needing to remove myself from the situation for my mental health and specifically, to protect the situation from being made worse. Instead of offering support I was WRITTEN UP and accused of making the situation worse anyway. 

6. Good luck if you’re lgbt+ too! My boss called my trans partner an “it” and got offended when I called her out for being homophobic.

7. Number seven for how many bosses I’ve had in the past three years! Turnover at the waters is unimaginable, toxic, and disheartening. 

8. They make you reuse PPE five times before discarding. 

9. Management NEVER works holidays or weekends.  If a holiday falls on a weekend they give themselves extra days off. They barely work six hour days when they are here. If I go down to those offices after 3pm and find even one person still working I’d be shocked. Five of them took vacation on the same day in May. The required MOD on Saturday is never there for more than 3-4 hours. If something happens on Sunday good luck! 


10. Yesterday I got a final written warning for my attitude because I tried to help my staff’s voices be heard, but I guess I just helped the wrong staff! I am sick of hoping things will get better here. Can’t wait for the Waters of White Bear Lake to fire a depressed person who repeatedly reached out for help, just for having a bad attitude! 

I work so hard here and all of it means nothing to the leadership of this company. Can’t wait to see the generic HR covering response the waters is gonna pump out to this!

Have you ever had a job that, even months or years after you've left, just the thought of that place fills you with hurt/rage? That's The Waters for me.

Let's talk about job/work life balance-- it didn't exist. When I first started, I was working roughly 60 hour work weeks, and that's not an exaggeration. No weekends off, and working almost every single evening, despite being specifically told that I would either have weekends off or get SOME evenings off. Lot's of people can do the evenings/weekends only schedule, and that's great, but it's not what I was promised.

Compensation/benefits-- Their benefits package is "competitive!!" Since this was one of my first jobs in my career, I really thought it was pretty good! Now that I've gained more experience, I have realized it is by far one of the worst packages I've ever seen. Compensation is sad as well. I had to fight for any of my employees to ever receive raises, and at one point, a corporate manager laughed at me when I suggested a raise for our assistant manager.

Job security/advancement-- This one is tough. It's the main reason why I left. I applied for a position outside my department but in my field of study. I went through several interviews, and during those few weeks, I was able to shadow and receive training from the person in that current position. I was even specifically told by the decision maker that I was the top choice. Then, seemingly out of no where, I was told I would not receive the position due to lack of experience, but I should still stick around and try again next time if the person they went with "didn't work out." I was heartbroken.

Management-- I loved some managers and disliked others. I was not a fan of the more recent ones. During my time in my management position here, I did my best to never ask an employee of mine to do something I wouldn't do; I just thought that was a good policy. A lot of other managers did not approach their jobs like this. It was very clear that I would be asked to do things just because my manager didn't want to do them.

Job culture-- Very toxic. Blatant favoritism and gossiping galore. This place lost some very good employees over the last year just because of the culture. I would strongly urge the managers to really take a look at the kind of environment they are creating for their employees. A change needs to happen.

When I first started, a resident told me that I should try to find a different job somewhere else. She told me that people come and go so quickly, and there was a reason for that. I wish I had listened to her.

I loved my job, what I did for the residents, taking care of them. I miss them. Management favoritism was palpable. Scheduling for aides/med techs was very inconsistent, and thus they cannot keep staff. I couldn’t count the number of employees that came and went in my 20 months there. Management constantly bugs everyone to work overtime.  Employees are mandated a lot.  Because of this the care of the residents is inconsistent, and suffers. After awhile “thank you” goes in one ear and out the other because the company itself seems to care very little about the employees. They do not recognize that their greatest asset is happy employees who want to come to work because they feel compensated and cared for.  There is no compensation for working holidays. There is no call-off policy and it is severely abused by some: thus, employees who do consistently come to work do not feel appreciated for their dedication.  Training is almost nonexistent and new employees feel as though they are simply thrown into the wolves.... they don’t last very long. Communication is almost nonexistent. We got so tired of hearing “we told you that!” when no, no they didn’t tell us that. Many issues were addressed to management that they never did anything about: issues directly affecting care of residents. They worried more about the aesthetics of the shared living spaces for potential residents than the comfort of existing residents. The menus are terrible. I don’t care what The Waters “strives” for, they are far from accomplishing it. I wish I were still caring for the residents. I miss them terribly. I actually miss my job, The Waters..... not so much. 😢

Understaffed, they make you do two aids jobs weekly, no communication unless talking about others, management does nothing, nurses pick favorites, they call you every morning to come into work because they need help, get mad when you have a kid to get on the bus, want you to come in right after or act like you a bad person, turnover, they keep bad aids due to  they need workers so bad. Don’t work hard if you want to work here.  The ones who work hard are always having more stuff to do. When you don’t work hard and miss work nothing happens because they need workers. aids do bare minimum get away with it. Next shift comes into a mess. Night shift sleeps and doesn't do anything. This makes everyone not like each other and act like children. If you ask for help they get mad with you or don’t come to help. You are on your own almost always the only time they do have time for you if you made a mistake. They come get mad at you make a big deal out of it very mean. Half the staff are travel nurses who work a lot of places and never get tested for Covid in between jobs. I got Covid from someone there then you don’t get paid for staying home. If you get sick but no Covid they make you work. If your kid sick you have to work too. When other people do no call no show all the time. 

During my employment at The Waters I learned many things. My coworkers were amazing people, and everybody had each others back through everything. I felt at home right from my interview. It is a welcoming place of work. Management is not easy to talk to though. It is hard to get anything through to them especially if you are concerned about something. I miss working here a lot, and I would definitely want to come back if management changed - That is if they let me come back. At times it felt pretty mentally draining. We were short staffed and running around constantly; it was hard to take more than a 15 minute break. Work/life balance was poor for me. I found myself worrying about the residents so much that it would keep me up at night. Leaving here was one of the hardest things I had to do, but it was more for my mental health than anything else. I would come back to my coworkers and the residents in a heartbeat. The residents were all so amazing and I really enjoyed hearing all of their stories. It was by far my favorite work experience. The Waters of Oakdale is a great place. But it has all the potential to be the best place. Hopefully they take action to make it better both for the residents and the staff. Staff is underpaid severely compared to other facilities, and the residents deserve the world and more for what they pay!

Much more time commitment than disclosed but excellent base staff. Lots of changes, average turn over but poor work-life balance. Leadership tries very hard and is very dedicated. Most staff is phenomenal, and very hospitable. Residents and their families tend to want much more than we can provide because of the price they pay to live there, and they’ll make sure you know it. Difficult balance at times but nothing uncommon in this field. One thing I would change is disclosing that any absent positions naturally get absorbed by this role, and you will wear many full-time hats at once with the same time constraints/expectations. Salary (as good as it was) doesn’t equal anywhere near what I should have made as a nurse when broken down to hourly. I resigned because it was very poor work/life balance and I was going in to work the floor or coordinating staffing persistently when on-call (multiple days throughout the week). They do have clinical triage based in MN, but staffing is this sites main issue; they need much nursing leadership presence, oversight, and intervention to maintain.

I worked at the waters for 5 years. When company first opened , everyone wanted to work there! However , over time everything has gone downhill. For the amount of work they expect CNA’s to do , they don’t pay their CNA’s that much. As a CNA , you also have to do housekeeping, serve meals , and come up with activities for the residents to do. The wage at the waters is from $12-$15. Depending on the color of your skin and how good you are at speaking English. An african lady and a white girl started working together. I took it upon myself to ask both of them how much they made privately , the white girl said they started her off at $14.40. The african lady told me they started her off at $12.25. At the St.Paul location , if the co-workers don’t like you, they’ll do everything in their power to get you fired. I wouldn’t take my family members to the waters. On 2 occasions, people have broken into the St.paul location. They did everything to hide that information from the residents and their family. For $7000-$10,000 a month, some of your family members are getting abused , and neglected at the waters. They don’t care about their workers, What so ever. They only care about their residents paying $7,000-$10,000 a month.

A typical day at work offers variety and positive challenges, leading to growth and expansion of horizons, both personally and professionally. 
Management consists of passionate people who care about the residents, the team members, and the company as a whole. I've never met people who care more about innovation in the Real Estate/Senior Living Industry -- from all dimensions: Operations, Marketing, Compliance, Finance, Management, etc. 
The variety of backgrounds and experience that exists between my coworkers is a breath of fresh air. Everyone brings something different to the table and it merges together to form a strong unit. 
The hardest part of my job is not having enough time to accomplish all I desire to move forward. This stems from the fact that we are growing rapidly as a company and I view this as positive. 
The most enjoyable part of my job is knowing that we are literally changing lives for the better. I also work for a great boss who encourages growth and helps me to develop my strengths. The boost of confidence helps me enhance my contributions and leads to a great satisfaction at the end of each day.

We’ll start with the good first . This is a gorgeous home for these residents , very upscale and classy . Home like feeling more than a nursing home feeling which is amazing for the residents ! The residents and families are very nice . Dining staff and their management is amazing , housekeeping and maintenance staff and its management is amazing . Great incentives to working here and decent money .


If you are going to work at this place I do not recommend working in the nursing department . Terrible management , no training process , new people training new people so it’s like the blind leading the blind .
Employees are not valued unless you’re a favorite . You’re not allowed to voice your opinion or you are in trouble . No confidentiality . very minimum places in the building to wash your hands !!!! That part is disgusting to me !!! Management does not appreciate their employees.  Bottom line is management doesn’t give care about you they just need a body in the building to meet their “hours” 

this places sucks !!!!!!



The other departments have their issues but they have always been nice to me and very welcoming !!!!!

This place would be AMAZING under new management ! 








Managers and employees at The Waters are cliquey and two faced. The job is way more stressful than it should be due to the nature of mid level and upper management at this company.

I reported inappropriate harassment to HR and spoke to the regional director (head of the location) after being harassed by a female coworker personally and was told that “girls will be girls, you need to ignore it”. I was then immediately given a $1 an hour raise. I feel that if the gender roles were reversed (I am a male),  the situation would have been handled much differently.

The new manager also thought that this inappropriate harassment  situation was funny and joked about it with my coworkers.

I still to this day have nightmares about working here, and you can be sure that this review I am leaving right now is going to be shared and ridiculed amongst my former coworkers at this location. 

THAT is the type of workplace environment that you’re potentially applying for.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Nursing assistant 135 salaries reported	$19.95 per hour
Resident assistant 12 salaries reported	$22.00 per hour
Dining room server 57 salaries reported	$15.88 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 33 salaries reported	$30.05 per hour
Chef 23 salaries reported	$21.87 per hour

Working at The Waters Senior Living: Company Overview and Reviews

The Waters Senior Living

The Waters Senior Living Ratings

Popular jobs at The Waters Senior Living

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected