Brookdale......not good!!!

This company is not good in any way. They market QUALITY CARE for its residents but in many cases border abuse and neglect. They also treat the employee like a low life. They will almost never fire you, INSTEAD they make you life living hell and run you out that way. Then good luck when you try to collect unemployment. Stay far away from this company

Chris jaces in Sarasota, Florida said: This company is not good in any way. They market QUALITY CARE for its residents but in many cases border abuse and neglect. They also treat the employee like a low life. They will almost never fire you, INSTEAD they make you life living hell and run you out that way. Then good luck when you try to collect unemployment. Stay far away from this company

I agree 150%, until Alterra and ARC merged there was an adequate degree of care and concern. It's BAD. Managers are treated worse. They promote poor managers and make changes like you change your socks. In dining services managers are audited as if they are criminals. It's worse than when I was in the army

I agree. Have the scars to prove it. Would like to e-mail you in private. You can reach me at: Robertajoyce4@yahoo.com. Thanks! Hope you are recovering from all that nonsense.

I currently work for them.........I understand!!!!!

Tried to e-mail you, but it was returned as they Major said you no longer had an account with them. Would love to get my email posted, but really don't know how to do it!
Snuffles

I agree with all of you. Been there. I live in fear of losing my job. Managers are nonsupportive of the caregivers and cooks. When corporate visits it's a different story.

Chris jaces in Sarasota, Florida said: This company is not good in any way. They market QUALITY CARE for its residents but in many cases border abuse and neglect. They also treat the employee like a low life. They will almost never fire you, INSTEAD they make you life living hell and run you out that way. Then good luck when you try to collect unemployment. Stay far away from this company

i definetely agree. i am a server in the dining room and we are basically on the bottom of their shoe. they treat us the worse. i cant wait to quit.

Chris jaces in Sarasota, Florida said: This company is not good in any way. They market QUALITY CARE for its residents but in many cases border abuse and neglect. They also treat the employee like a low life. They will almost never fire you, INSTEAD they make you life living hell and run you out that way. Then good luck when you try to collect unemployment. Stay far away from this company

A Brookdale Senior Living skilled nursing facility dropped my father on his head. The week before they had six caregivers (because of State audit), the week of they only had five, the week after six again. My father died ten days later. They were perpetually on the verge of being understaffed. My mother (with Alzheimers) is living in one of their assisted living facilities and they pay big lip service to wanting to make things right, but I have not been impressed with their level of care, cleanliness or food quality. It was good when she was able to fend for herself, but now that she is slipping a good bit, it is harder. I spent/spend quite a bit of time in both facilities and don't see why the government regulators don't catch on to their high jinx, e.g. at the skilled nursing facility staffing hours were adequate if CNA's worked an 8 hour shift; however, they only worked 7.5.

A daughter in Jacksonville, Florida said: A Brookdale Senior Living skilled nursing facility dropped my father on his head. The week before they had six caregivers (because of State audit), the week of they only had five, the week after six again. My father died ten days later. They were perpetually on the verge of being understaffed. My mother (with Alzheimers) is living in one of their assisted living facilities and they pay big lip service to wanting to make things right, but I have not been impressed with their level of care, cleanliness or food quality. It was good when she was able to fend for herself, but now that she is slipping a good bit, it is harder. I spent/spend quite a bit of time in both facilities and don't see why the government regulators don't catch on to their high jinx, e.g. at the skilled nursing facility staffing hours were adequate if CNA's worked an 8 hour shift; however, they only worked 7.5.

It's horrible what they did to your father. Can you find a better facility for your mother? Maybe a smaller facility. Did you report Brookdale to the authority? If it happened to my father I'd be screaming bloody murder.

I currently work for brookdale. When I applied for the cook job it was posted on careerbuilder as a full time job. I am not full time, and am currently looking eleswhere for employment. I was however told if I would take a midinght to 7 am shift as a RA I would be considered full time, this shift would be in conjunction with a 7am to 5:30pm shift on the same day. So I would get home at 6pm and have to turn around and return to work at midnight the same day. Not taking on an 10 extra hours when my supervisor is off would not classify me as full time eventhough I would be working 40 hours a week. I don't consider the ED at our facility to be honest, they needed a cook and I needed a job. I didn't even get a kiss first. My suggestion is do your homework before you apply with this company. Oh almost forgot, it was 3 weeks after I was hired before I was able to sign my offer of emplyment. The residents at the house are nasty, bitter old people who have nothing better to do than complain about their bacon not being crisp, the cookies not being big enough, not getting a strawberry in their mixed fruit when the next table got a strawberry in their bowl, and then they have the balls to call my food nasty. Sorry but I am not a bad cook, my theory is: if they don't like the food don't eat it and get take out. But by god do they waste food, and eat all their dessert. I was always under the impression that age group did not waste food because of the great depression, I guess money changes everything, because they waste enough food to feed all the homeless people in New Orleans Louisiana.
Man do I feel better. Just do your homework before taking a job with this place.

I was a cook for Brookdale so I know what you're going through. I had to put on a happy face whenever some of the residents complained about the food. I put my heart into my work knowing at least someone would appreciate the work we do. They do love their desserts. I had to quit because of the inhouse backstabbings.

Yea I know about the backstabbing. My boss called me yesterday to come down 32 miles and wants to talk to me, maybe an 86 is comming. Maybe he/she read this, or another company called him/her for a reference. This is one job not going on my resume. I love to cook, but just not there.
Have a nice day.

Brett Alywaysthere in panhandle, Florida said: Yea I know about the backstabbing. My boss called me yesterday to come down 32 miles and wants to talk to me, maybe an 86 is comming. Maybe he/she read this, or another company called him/her for a reference. This is one job not going on my resume. I love to cook, but just not there.
Have a nice day.

i was fired from brookdale when they thought i had lung cancer. turned out it was just a scar, but brookdale stuck to their guns and let me go anyway.......

I know they have their problems like every other company now in this economy but I haven't seen any of these issues in either of the two buildings I've worked in. Maybe we were lucky at those two locations. I know my regional staff is good and they express their gratitude whenever they're in the building for checkups. One thing you must remember is that they have bosses to answer to as well.

But i must say the things you all are talking about are a shame but cant say that i've seen the same things in my 4 plus years with the company.

THE WORST COMPANY!! It is a therapy mill! I am a Speech Pathologist. (I dont want to give away too much info because I wish to remain anonymous.) I lasted a total of 2 months at Brookdale before I "fired myself" and walked off the job. I have NEVER in my life done anything like that before. But in no way was I going to be bullied by my manager and give in to the pressure to maintain a caseload that wasn't even appropriate for therapy, much less jeopardize my professional license and my personal integrity. If you are a health care provider, my best advice is STAY AWAY from this company!!! It is a HORRIBLE environment to work in. It became evident to me after my second day on the job that this company is only after the mighty dollar. The "demands" they put on therapists to maintain caseloads are ridiculous. I was told if I was not meeting 75% productivity, I had to go home for the day, regardless of the fact that they hired me as a full time employee. We (therapists) were called and harassed about caseloads on a DAILY basis. I am a former military officer, so I am certainly qualified to make a judgment about management, and I can honestly say my manager was the most INEFFECTIVE manager I have ever had, in the military and in the civilian work place. She micromanaged us to the tee, did not value our professional opinions or expertise, and certainly did not care about anything but her bonus that our "productivity" provided her. (Yes that's right, managers are given a bonus based on the facilities' productivity and revenue. Makes me SICK!!) I also found myself doing a lot of administrative duties that normally would be provided by an office staff, such as verifying and running insurances, building charts, admission paperwork, coordinating between other health care agencies, etc. All of which required an enormous amount of time to do, but yet we were still expected to maintain 75% productivity.

I ran out of room so I will continue...
This company is milking Medicare for everything it can. For example, I heard my boss giving the Physical Therapists a hard time about billing for a certain code because it didn't provide enough revenue. She was demanding that the PT's bill for a different code, a non-related code, just so it would generate more revenue. THAT IS FRAUD!!! Also, as therapists, we were told "wh" to put on caseload and how many times a week. That is the THERAPISTS decision. My manager always pushed us to put a resident on for 5 days week. Keep in mind, the majority of the residents have a broad range of dementia, from mild to severe. And if they are seen by the 3 therapy disciplines (PT, OT and Speech) for 1 hour a day x 5days a week, thats 3 hours a day spent in therapy!! Hello overload!! A lot of the residents had a 20% co-pay so families were becoming very disgruntled as you can imagine. So that put even more pressure on therapists to have to "sell" their services. Additionally, there was no intention or budget for ANY continuing education or to even buy standardized tests for evaluations. In my entire career I have NEVER been so set up for failure and mistreated. I could go on and on. There is not enough room to tell the whole story, but you get the jest of it. Please feel free to comment or contact me through this forum. I hope this company falls hard. They are crooks.