I pay $32/hour, 3 hours am daily, M-F. My husband is 76, in continent and non ambulatory. I prepare his breakfast and give him his meds. The most they do is change him and do a bedside bath 2 days week and fold a basket of laundry. I have become lenient and do a lot of the tasks I initially requested in hopes of lessening the turnover rates. and they are consistently 10-20 mins late which I don’t report. Most agencies in my area charge $34-$39/hour with a 4 hour minimum. I’m home when they are here. Any suggestions on how to improve the turnover issue?
To me when there is a big turnover, its the company. They don't pay their employees enough. Don't support their employees If you like where u work, you don't leave.
$9! And I could only work 32 hours a week or I'd get in trouble b/c then they had to offer health insurance.
The woman I worked for and I really clicked and although I was making garbage pay, I stuck it out with her. She'd hired and fired 3 CG's after only a day a piece.
I have to say, my training was absolutely a JOKE and while I know they did a background check, after I met a few of the other CG's, I couldn't BELIEVE these people were OK. Most other CG's were young immigrants with zero experience and no training. (Don't chew on me for saying they were immigrants. They were-- and the language barrier made it VERY hard for them to work for older people who were losing their hearing and struggling to be 'heard' on a good day.)
Sadly, that is the way it is. I really, really needed to make more money than $9 an hour, so I got a 2nd job at $15/hr, not in CG.
It really does get to you--CG is so hard and you wear out so quickly and are often berated, put down and made to feel like a slave. The lousy pay is just another nail in the coffin. On bad days, I would think to myself "all that abuse and I made $54."
9 dollars is a joke for doing so much work & putting up with abuse! What is the old saying, " You get what you pay for!" No wonder our elderly don't get the care they need!
I worked for a post-secondary school that taught, as one of the programs, Nursing Assistant that trained students for work in LTCs and home healthcare agencies. Sadly, the program will probably close due to low enrollment... it's been offered since 1959 and was always one of the programs with high placement rates because aides are always in such demand. But the instructor, a former nurse and LTC facility administrator, told me that no one wants to do the work. It's hard and does not pay well. You may be paying the agency $35 an hour but the employee is probably getting around $12-$15.
If the federal minimum wage is raised to $15 aides may be even scarcer- get paid the same to flip burgers or run a cash register and not have to toilet anyone? Yes, please!- unless these agencies pay more... but that cost will ultimately be passed on to you so you'll pay more, too.
There is no clear win for anybody but the agency. Being lenient won't guarantee anything except that the aides might take even greater advantages of you. Stay hopeful that you'll eventually find a good caregiver that clicks and is willing to stick around.
If it were certain that the other agencies were better, I'd advise you to switch. Do you have any word of mouth recommendations to go on?
Tactic: you may have no intention of switching agencies, but your current provider doesn't know that. I should get hold of whoever did your husband's initial service assessment and rip his ears off.
You don't have to be a slave driver to expect people to do the job they are contracted to do in a professional, conscientious manner. I would be ashamed if a client felt as you do, and it's not because of turnover (we're a very short-term service serving a widespread client base and staff turnover just can't be helped - we do our best), it's because of the lateness and the lack of interest in doing their job well. Get cross! You're allowed! - but make your formal complaints specific and say what improvements you want.