Community Living Alternative Services Employee Reviews

Working at CLAS provided for an interesting environment. The benefit was that I worked 48 hours in a row and I had 5 days off. Although they wanted me to work as many hours as I could but I did not want to. It was great being able to sleep at night, but some houses you could possibly not get a great sleep. It is sad to see how minimal you are paid, especially for the clientele that you had. I get sad that people with disabilities are somehow on the bottom of the totem pole for those who work in Social Work. It should not be treated that way. This work is hard but it can be quite fun. I spent many days on walks, going to Banff, hanging out with the clients and seeing them have fun. I know that 'safe rooms' can be a little scary, but I am thankful for a place where the clients can feel safe when they are struggling with their emotions.

Pros

Your 40 hours week could be done in 2 days

Cons

Pay, long hours if you want, boring when the client cannot spend money and go anywhere-you become their entertainment.

Was this review helpful?

You can use the job to afford a decent lifestyle

Residential Support Worker (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 1 February 2023

It is what it is. Nothing really to say about this place besides it is a paycheck, paycheck while you look for another job that has proper management.

Pros

Opportunity to make big bucks

Cons

Long hours

Was this review helpful?

Insights into Community Living Alternative Services

Based on 7 survey responses

What people like

Fair pay for job
Feeling of personal appreciation
Supportive environment

I enjoyed working here, the management and the owner really care about people with disabilities.

Human Resources Administrator (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 15 July 2022

I genuinely believe that the leadership team and the owner very much care about the individuals with disabilities and they are their number one priority always. I was part of the HR team and worked closely with them. The environment was very pleasant, my supervisor was very supportive and helpful and helped me grow in my role. I found the benefits being expensive, but this is probably because I am used to having them covered 100% be employer.Many social workers loved working for CLAS as they paid more than other non profit organizations, there were lots of opportunities for overtime which was amazing for many. All that being said it very much depends on who your supervisor is and this can make a massive difference in regards to enjoyment of your work. I think there should be more vacation days provided. I think it is great place to work!

Was this review helpful?

Management does not care about staff, their only concerned with funding

Day program frontline (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 20 January 2022

The overseers did not care about day program staff's mental health or well-being throughout the pandemic, only concerned with funding. Thus they would force staff to go into the community with individuals in their personal vehicles without providing proper PPE for the staff and their vehicles. They would threaten the staff's job security, to compel us not to complain, and if we did, we would get fired (which occurred) before the pandemic things were a little different, not perfect but not excellent. Once the pandemic hit, the actual colors of the overseers came to light.Lack of leadership resulted to low morale. We also got paid monthly.

Pros

Staff

Cons

management, pay

Was this review helpful?

Friendly and safe environment

Day support worker (Former Employee) - 2936 Radcliffe Drive SE Calgary , AB - 11 October 2021

Effective and safety environment, flexible staff always behind you, enjoying morning routine singing welcome song for everybody while playing my guitar , on special occasions like birthdays we never fail to sing together birthday song, also had fun on doing morning exercise or stretching for those able to, entertained challenging but interesting individual's issues or concern about. Glad on our monthly Speak up meeting, that everybody is encouraged to participate to say something independently, and we end up from reminding individual's right and safety in the community.

Pros

Potlucks and surprise birthdays of co - workers

Cons

N/a

Was this review helpful?

Rate your recent company

Share your experience to help others

Very productive & fun working environment

Residential Support Worker (Current Employee) - Calgary, AB - 29 July 2021

Good work culture & very supportive management. It is a fun work atmosphere with very supportive colleagues. Excellent work like balance. You don’t feel that you work for individuals but live with them.

Pros

No pros

Cons

Long hours good pay

Was this review helpful?

This place is a joke

Support Worker (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 9 September 2020

This work place is toxic and very unprofessional. You have supervisors that date staff within the company. The staff tend to do whatever they want. As a support staff you can’t grow at all

Pros

Salary

Cons

Everything else

Was this review helpful?

Community disability service practi

Complex Needs Case Manager (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 4 December 2019

Cannot speak to the organization in the other program streams though I used to work in the complex needs program, as a community disability support practitioner. I’ll start with pros then lead into the cons. Pros: - 4 twelve hour shifts and 3 days off at 25$ per hour. So high range for this field and position - Decent financial bonuses based on performance and compliance with management - Minimal paperwork (seemingly very useless minus a few key targeted charts for behaviour modification) - From past experience If you are looking for a job that requires a minimal level of cognition and critical thinking you will be quite pleased ————————————————————— Cons: - Management does not value staff input or the safety of staff - Supported individuals can constantly verbally and physically assault staff without repercussion - Job is lacking in any sort of cognitive stimulation. Most of your days will be based around cooking/cleaning and deescalation of potentially violent situations followed by sitting on the couch for hours - Team work is very strong though unfortunately it sometimes lacks if staff working together do not work well together or have different perspectives on support - In the time I was working it appeared that documentation and case management is very unprofessional and very basic. If coming from a case management background and you thrive on objective, organized information, you will be disappointed. - No room to progress your career in this position. This position is a job and will not stimulate you cognitively nor will it promote growth and a career -

Was this review helpful?

One of the worst company

Residential Support Worker (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 14 November 2019

Favouritism, un equal Treatment, unfair labor practice. Worst supervisor. They don’t value their employee. Don’t apply in this company. Your efforts and work will be ignored.

Was this review helpful?

Fun Place to work

Residential Support Worker (Former Employee) - Cochrane, AB - 12 November 2019

the hardest part of the job is when you have to deal with individuals having behaviors. typical day includes going out with the individuals to mingle within the community. Writing reports on daily basis and Incident reporting. Monitor individual both day and night against all activities.

Was this review helpful?

Flexible schedule

Supervisor (Current Employee) - Cochrane, AB - 10 August 2019

Good place to work, but could be better. The programs are well suited to the individuals and the agency takes time to meet the needs of their staff. It is a melting pot for multiculturalism.

Was this review helpful?

Awesome planlce to work with good supervisors.I Enjoy working at CLAS and im still a front line staff.

Residential Support Program (Current Employee) - Calgary, AB - 29 July 2019

Great team players and good management. I'm so happy to be part of the team and contributing towards the welfare, safety and improving quality of life of the individuals I support on daily basis.

Pros

None.

Cons

Good hours and flexibility.

Was this review helpful?

Another one bites the dust and it will probably be you

Community Disability Practitioner (Current Employee) - Calgary, AB - 14 May 2019

the reviews on here speak for themselves. this is high school all over again. some houses are in bad bad condition. some have gophers, bugs, mold, mice. appears to be much favortism in management. many friends of management come before other employees when schedule comes out. if you are not liked personality you are a walking target. it is to funny that hr responds on here saying to contact them directly but you have to go through management before contacting them when you are a working staff ? good balance between life and work because you can work a lot of hours in a short time period and have many days off. the clients make the job fun and some shift partners are nice.

Pros

clients

Cons

same as the other reviews - management

Was this review helpful?

Good expereince

Youth Worker (Current Employee) - Calgary - 27 March 2019

I learned lots working at this company! Great experience. They have alot of growth in all areas that they could improve on. Management style is terrible and they are expected to do so much with no time to do it.

Was this review helpful?

Hang on tight, you are in for a bumpy ride.

Support Worker (Current Employee) - Cochrane, AB - 25 March 2019

If you have a chance to go somewhere else I'd recommend seriously looking at it. This place will chew you up and spit you out without a second thought. -Unqualified and incompetent management. -Unqualified and incompetent staff. -Culture of favoritism and nepotism. -100% agency centered care. -Unapproachable HR dept., used as enforcers. -Lack of staff support. -Inappropriate relationships. -Inappropriate staff conduct. -General lack of concern for the well being of the individuals in support. The list goes on. This place is all about the money, everything else is a secondary concern. Some of the things I've seen happen here would make your head spin. Constant staff and lower level management turnover. The last people I would want to contact is HR as that would surely put a target on my back. Unless you are friends with someone in management your job security here is next to none. If you do happen to be related to or friends with someone in management, feel free to come do nothing, take programs in a backwards direction, generally be a negative influence and you will have a home for many years to come. I would never put a loved one or family member in this agencies care.

Pros

The Individuals in support. Bonuses.

Cons

Management. Unqualified and disinterested staff.

Was this review helpful?

not the worst

Community Support Worker (Current Employee) - Cochrane, AB - 14 March 2019

issues with management high turn over rate staff are two faced and make life hard no job security they bounce you around can make good money if you keep your head down and work like a slave not the worst job. i love my individuals

Pros

can make good money

Cons

tons

Was this review helpful?

Productive and a fun place to be.

Community Resource Facilitator (CRF) (Current Employee) - Calgary, AB - 2 February 2019

I work full time at CLAS. I've learned a lot since I got hired with CLAS. I've worked with people who are low functioning as well as the people who are very high functioning. I started with CLAS as a social worker. I worked as a social worker for a year and now I've become a community resource facilitator (CRF). The hardest part of my job is actually the responsibility that we have when it comes to supporting an individual. I love my job because I wanted to make a difference in the world. I believe that supporting someone can be very manageable even though it seems very hard. A lot of people don't know how to support individuals.

Was this review helpful?

Productive and fun place

Support Worker (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 24 September 2018

Great clients, paid once a month. Great staff, enjoyed my time there but wanted to not work with high risk clients as I needed to further education first before working there.

Was this review helpful?

An enjoyable experience overall

Support Worker (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 2 July 2018

Worked in group home setting with clients who had a variety of developmental disorders. I worked at many different work places across Calgary which had different work place cultures. Some were more organized than others, however, I enjoyed that fact that I had relatively flexible schedule. This work place also gives bonuses to its employees several times a year, which was probably the most enjoyable part of the job. This company has many changes in management while I was there, which contributed to this being a disorganized setting at times.

Was this review helpful?

Diversity

Residential Counsellor (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 30 May 2018

the organizational culture was a good fit for me. there was a balance between work life and home Management skills, organizational skills was developed

Was this review helpful?

Great Agency & Great Staff

Youth Worker (Current Employee) - Calgary, AB - 16 May 2018

This company is amazing! I've never worked with an agency that you feel so involved in. All the staff are amazing, always friendly and positive, the management is approachable, caring and dedicated to making CLAS the best it can be. It is a client centered agency and all programs are designed for the client. I am so blessed to work in such a great agency.