Pathfinder Support Services
3.8 out of 5 stars.
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Working at Pathfinder Support Services: 18 Reviews

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United States18 reviews

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3.1Work-Life Balance
3.4Pay & Benefits
3.2Job Security & Advancement
3.6Management
3.8Culture

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Great place to work

Indeed Featured review

The most useful review selected by Indeed
This was my first job out of college and I think it was a great first experience post graduation. The job is super flexible and if you are not available to do a visit, other coworkers can step in or you can step in to help out if you would like more hours. Management at the time was great and I felt very supported but also had much freedom. I could do notes remotely from home which was a benefit. Coworkers were great although you are mostly on the road and don’t get to see them much. I would note the nature of the job and the pressure of having supervised eyes on clients the whole duration of the visits was very anxiety provoking. Working some nights was also a negative of this job and having to transport using your own vehicle.

Pros

Flexible schedule, great coworkers, supportive management

Cons

Possibility of unsafe situations, working night hours, training wasn’t great
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It was fine

Your schedule was always based on client needs, which meant there was lots of downtime during normal hours. Pay was terrible for what you do, which is meant to say it's on par with most Social Service type positions. Mileage reimbursement was ok. Management and coworkers were good and professional, not much drama.
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Pathfinder Support Services insights

Based on 4 survey responses
What people like
  • Support from manager
  • Ability to meet personal goals
  • Clear sense of purpose
Areas for improvement
  • Energizing work tasks
  • Sense of belonging
  • Overall satisfaction

Work independently, create your own schedule, great people and management

This is a great place to work if you like working independently with little management oversight. If you have a heart for helping families and don't mind long hours and being out in the community. The salary is good, but depends on face-to-face time, which is dependent on clients' availability. Travel time is paid at a lower rate, and there is a company vehicle available. This job is not for everyone, but if you love helping families, there is a lot of work available.
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I learned some good things and bad things.

I wished I had paid attention to the review with 2 stars. It gives accurate information. Pathfinder Support Services is a company where the FSW supervises wards of the state while they are visiting with their parents. The culture can be great if the workers are in "the" clique, if the FSW is not in "the" clique then some employees will treat the FSW the same, and some will be snobbish. The promise was made that the FSW makes the schedule. This is not accurate. The job is mostly in the afternoons and evenings, and one weekend day per week. No visit = no pay, so sometimes the paycheck is sparse. Parents cancel their visits often. The highest pay rate is for face-to-face time, travel time is paid even less. An employee uses their own car, their own phone, and their own computer for working and the only reimbursement is for milage. Huge, huge turnover. Benefits are awful.

Pros

The kids.

Cons

Atmosphere, dishonest in job details and in pay scale, they hide things.
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Great work culture with plenty of opportunities to learn new things.

Pathfinder provides its employees with several opportunities to learn new things. The work culture is fun and tight-knit. The clients are the most important part of Pathfinder and this agency works hard to provide the clients with every opportunity to succeed. Management is supportive and understanding from the location manager to the CEO.

Pros

Supportive team and management, training opportunities, company vehicles for certain visits, mileage reimbursement for personal vehicle use, PTO (Full-time), Sick days (Full-time).

Cons

Unpredictable hours, evening hours
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Great superviser

The Feemont Supervisor is amazing. The work is inconsistent and has long periods of minimal hours. Working with clients can be very rewarding. There is a shortage of rewards and acknowledgement from the higher management.
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Horrible Management

It was a great place to work until the management switched over. Now, unless you are friends with the manager you get terrible cases with bad hours and clients that are difficult to work with. The manager does not balance the cases out amongst the staff. The manager has never had any management experience she doesn't even have a degree and it shows. The culture at this work place is to take children from their families and not to support and help families succeed. The manager is a foster parent herself, and is biased. She now has taken on her own sisters CPS case. The upper management doesn't not care and is not in any contact with field workers to support you if you have a concern about the local management. An employee gave a 6 week notice to take on a different position and the manager gave all the employees hours away leaving the employee with no paycheck at all. They do not care about their employees. The only staff that has been there longer than 2 years are the managers themselves. They have fired 11 people in the last year with no documented reasoning. They constantly violate HIPPA, talk about clients and celebrate when families lose children because it means more cases for them.

Pros

Pay is good. Helping families and spending time with children is great.

Cons

Manager. You're not paid your hourly wage for drive time like other service provider companies.
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Great place to work

Great way to help the children of today and teach parents how to parent. Many parents just need that encouragement to do better. Can be challenging but is very rewarding. Love helping? This is your career.
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Great starting point

Pathfinder Support Services is a great starting point for someone entering the social services field. It allows employees to learn about what community resources are available for clients involved in DHHS and prepares people to move forward to other positions such as case management. It is a fast paced job and you need to be ready for changes that can happen immediately. However, the rewards of seeing clients meet their goals and the relationships between parent and child are immense and make the stress worth it.

Pros

Good pay, great learning experience

Cons

Long days, stressful clients, sporadic work hours
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Horrible Management

Management talked down to and about clients and employees. Manager would check out female employees. Good thing about working there was helping families reunite and teaching skills to new parents to help them succeed.
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Fun and quick paced job.

At Pathfinder there would be a lot of everything, sometimes it would be calmed relax working in the office, putting things in their files. Would drug test clients here and there, answer phone calls. When there would be other days that you would have many people be in the office writing their reports, having to send documents to case managers, getting lots of phone calls, having people asking questions, meetings going on. The hardest part of the job is dealing with angry parents not know what to answer when they ask where their children are at when one doesn't have a clue because they are not on the case. The most enjoyable part of the job was to see family reunite and that feeling one has inside that they have accomplished for the family to reunite for once.

Pros

You get to set up your own schedule.

Cons

Got to work every day of the week and have to travel far.
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Great management, difficult but rewarding job, tough hours

I loved working in the Pathfinder for various reasons: management is competent, helpful, supportive and hard working. I was always treated respectfully and fairly, encouraged and supported and never felt like a newbie, although it was my first social work job. I worked there just a couple of months (quit due to relocation) but learned a lot - how DHS and CPS works, how to deal with difficult clients, how to help and how to be professional. You get 1 week of training including shadowing visits with other workers and it's very good, but does not prepare you for everything. In your day's work you drive kids and parents to and from visits, supervise and document the visits and enter all the information into the online system. You might be drug testing or be doing family support counseling, but driving and visits are the majority of your work. You spend a fair amount of time doing paperwork. You get mileage reimbursement and you're paid for the travel time. You do wear down your car if that's your concern and better off if you have a fuel-efficient car. You have to be extremely well organized. Co-workers are great, but you don't see them much, rarely you share a case with another worker, but mostly you work alone. Clients you work with are mostly nice, respectful and cooperative, but be prepared to be yelled at, ignored or disrespected. A lot depends on your approach and skills too. Kids are mostly non-problematic, but not always. Generally, it can be a stressful job if you're not prepared and if you expect everything to run according to plan. If you know what to do, it's - 

Pros

good pay, great experience, great management, flexible hours

Cons

unpredictable and/or inconsistent schedule, evening hours, being on call
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Pathfinder Support Services

A typical day at work would be transporting children to and from visitation with parents or other family members. We are contracted through DHHS and work closely with case managers and attorneys. Management is great. The manager and supervisor bend over backward to help employees. The hardest part of the job is separating yourself at home from your job. It is very easy to "take work home with you" with everything that you witness on a daily basis. The most enjoyable part of the job is working closely with the families and building rapport. When you help a family or get them the help they need, it's very satisfying.

Pros

Vacation build up, pay, flexibility

Cons

No set schedule
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Great place

This was a great company to work with. It was innovative and had a vision for the community. They treated employees well and their services offered were of benefit to all.
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Rewarding and Professional Employment

There was not opportunity for advancement at the time of my position being available. I was Supervising staff and the company was bought by a larger firm and my advancement positions and current positions were dissolved. It was amazing to learn from this job and take what I learned and use it for further care with others and in related fields.
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Reuniting families.

In my opinion this job is a good job but has some crazy hour, other then that I think it's a good feeling helping these families that just are having a hard time. Help them get back together and also accomplishing meeting goals that are set. After every visitation I have to document. Other then that is a basic day as a Family Support Worker.
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A good first human services job

This was a good first job out of college. I learned a lot about how to be adaptable to clients and have a fair load of responsibility and be held accountable to do such things. The nature of the work is fast-paced and constantly changing. It is a requirement to be flexible and have constant communication. However, because the company is trying to make changes to make it more competitive, there is a lot of disorganization. Hours are not always guaranteed - if a client cancels a visit, it is your responsibility to get more hours if you are full-time.

Pros

Paid mileage

Cons

No 401k matching til one year of employment
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Hard working agency that gives back!

Team oriented staff that works together to assists families in need.
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Overall rating

Based on 18 reviews

Ratings by category

3.1 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
3.4 out of 5 stars for Compensation/Benefits
3.2 out of 5 stars for Job Security/Advancement
3.6 out of 5 stars for Management
3.8 out of 5 stars for Culture

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