Below are employee reviews, pros and cons, of Bright Horizons Family Solutions.
“Unqualified Leadership” Former Teacher in Summit, NJ– Reviewed Sep 29, 2012
Pros – The kids are amazing and the center is very nice. The center is located in a medical arts building so staff has access to medical doctors and the pharmacy. Staff also gets a discount in the pharmacy and in hospital eateries. Overall, the teaching staff are very nice and working very hard everyday.
Cons – Staff cry on a daily basis because they are stressed out and are highly underpaid for what we are asked to do.! Staff retention and turnover is the highest I seen in any other childcare center! Staff are hired and don't stay because they are highly underpaid. Individuals in leadership positions are unqualified and lazy. The Director rarely walks around to classrooms checking on activities and asking how staff are doing. There are days when staff go a whole day without a bathroom break. Front desk staff ignore pages for assistance. Incident reports go unsigned not mention to parents after they are handed in to leadership for review. The Assistant Director is very unprofessional towards staff. Many families remove children from center dislike towards Director/Assistant Director
“Top 100 places to work.... Absolutely Not True.” Current Teacher–
Pros – Bright Horizons has nice facilities. They do offer a lot of options in insurance and other benefits and they try to keep on the 'cutting edge' in technology..Of all the Child Care options available, Bright Horizons is one of the best for families, but not for teachers.
Cons – Most of the benefits available are person specific i.e.they assist with elder care, travel expenses, cell phone discounts, wellness seminars etc.... But as I said, these are person specific, if one does not need these services, it does not help- just takes away money that could go into our pockets.
The thing they claim is discounts for child care of employees children. but the manager does pick who gets what discount- one person 40% another 20% and a third 0%. When someone does have their own child in the school,they are not treated as well as the other parents. When an employee's child get sick and is required to go home, but the employee is needed for ratio, the employee doesn't get notified their child is ill, until later.Yes I get to take days off or call in sick, but the hassle is getting lectured or funny looks when I stay home with my sick child. And only one person can request off at a time????? Policies change weekly - sometimes going to the opposite extreme, and guess who gets to do or redo the work? And guess who gets in trouble if it is not done right? The sick child policy is at the whim of the manager- as if they have to deal with the vomit or diarrhea.
The management does not support the teachers when there is an issue with a parent- the teacher is written up, when the issue is the parent's fault. If we bring up a situation or behavior the child is demonstrating and the parent is either in denial or thinks their child can do no wrong, management sides with the 'paying customer', and we get 'counseled', or written up. There is too much work for the management team to handle and support the classrooms when we need it. Cut the hours of regular teachers until they had to leave to find othert jobs to pay bills, claiming to the unemployment office "We offered them hours, but they decided to leave" so basically tricking them out of it. Then they hire new people or transfered people from other schools to fill in.
Each year there are lower numbers of children at the school during certain time of the year. And each year management blames us for that. What are you doing wrong that made the parents take their child elsewhere? And each year we are 'punished' by losing our supply budget. When teachers need something, they will buy it themselves- with what little we make, is that appreciated? Is that reimbursed? Why doesn't Bright Horizons plan for the down time?
We are supposed to get time away from the classroom the paper-work we are responsible for on a daily/weekly/ or monthly basis,we are forced to skip it/r do it at home/ attempt to complete it all during the time when the children are napping. It is impossible when half the children are awake and require attention, to work on it, especially when there is only 1 teacher in the room, and we are not allowed to turn our backs on a child who is awake. So what happens when a lesson plan is not updated? There is no loyalty to employees, though they say they need us to make the company the wonderful place it is... they don't really care if we are so unhappy that the work suffers.
The pay is so low, and 1% raise is not good enough.They expect us to follow protocol when there is an issue, but when the issue is with the manager and/or regional manager, it ignored.