I'm concerned my caregiver job is an actual cult.
For the past 8 years I have worked as a professional caregiver for the disabled in supported living or group homes. This line of work is not for the faint of heart. Most of the people I care for have some sort of developmental disability. However, many are borderline normal people who just suffer from mental illness. My line of work is known for having slippery employers. However, the company I've worked at for over 5 years does some particularly weird things. I'll just outright tell you, it is a particular operation out of North Vernon, Indiana for the company ResCare. However, the company is now merging with another larger company called Sevita/Mentor. I want to note that it is this particular operation out of North Vernon Indiana that is the issue. I have no reason to suspect the whole company operates this way.
For starters, the way they go about recruiting is different from most employers. They'll hold "job fairs" which have no other employers other than themselves for people to talk to. They host community events to try and draw potential employees in. The events will be advertised as family friendly and have activities including face painting and animals. When they interview you, it will not be like a traditional job interview. It's more like they're attempting to sell you the job and convince you to join. They'll hire literally anyone they legally can. They've even been known to ignore the state age requirements to hire younger workers. (Kids in highschool) They mostly talk about the good their company does and how people will have the opportunity to do good for others. They'll also attempt to hire entire families and attempt to get people to encourage their entire families to quit their jobs and have the whole family come work for them. Again, all under the promises that they'll be doing good and helping others.
However, once they're employed and begin working in the homes or group homes, they soon realize it is anything but what was promised. Many of these homes or facilities are hidden away from the public eye. Unlike the nice professional looking office they interviewed at, the environments they expect their workers to work in will be dirty and in disrepair. One of the homes I was expected to work at had holes in the kitchen floor. Another didn't even have central air conditioning or heat. Some of them have mold. Some of these properties are suspected to have issues like radon but have never actually been tested.
The workers, including myself, will often be asked and expected to work long hours. Often, these hours will be 12 to 16 hour shifts at all times of day or night. One guy I knew was expected to work 16 hour days for 3 months straight with no days off. No weekends, no holidays, no time off to spend with their family, just work for months on end with no knowledge of when a day off will be. I personally have had to explain to my extended family many times that I would not be able to see them or spend time with them on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, or other events.
To be clear, this is of course completely different from what workers are told they will be working when they get hired. They're usually told they will have plenty of time off and have a nice core schedule which is promised to them upon hire. But one way or another, they're strong armed into working these long hours with no time off.
The question most people have is, "how can someone realistically work this way?" The answer is they can't. Eventually, most of the workers develop serious health issues as a result of working to the point of exhaustion. It's difficult to explain if you haven't watched it happen to someone else, but it's like their body just starts breaking down. And, in case you're wondering, you're not allowed to nap or rest at work. Even if you've worked 16 hour days for a solid month, you're not allowed to fall asleep. If you get caught falling asleep, there are pretty severe punishments for you as an employee. Most employees are not permitted to go to the doctor either. I don't mean that they don't have health insurance. They do. I mean you are literally not allowed to take a day off to go to the doctor. Management will straight up tell you to cancel or reschedule your doctor's appointments until a time when it is convenient for them to let you take time off to see a doctor.
So, they'll work the employees long hours for months at a time without a day off. They'll deprive them of sleep. Then when they get sick, they won't allow the employees to see a doctor.
Finally, there's the issue of low wages or pay. The workers are generally given a low wage when can be decreased and stretched in various ways. The company is usually able to convince people this is okay because they're getting the opportunity to do something good or help others. Mind you, this is literally a billion dollar enterprise and a publicly traded company. The budget for our operation is in the 10s of millions of dollars. Whenever someone questions the low wages, a manager or even other brainwashed staff will repeat this mindless mantra about how they're there because they care about the clients we care for and the opportunity to do good.
The question I know most will ask at this point is, "why don't you just quit? Why would anyone stay at a job like that?"
This is where things start to get particularly cult-like. To put it simply, they don't make it easy for you to leave. They work on psychologically conditioning their employees from the day they start. Employees are required to go to regular mandatory meetings or trainings. However, these are not like normal meetings at most companies. You are not permitted to call in via zoom or conference call. All employees are required to physically show up in person for these "trainings." It doesn't matter how sleep deprived you are or how many hours you've worked, you are required to show up in person. At first it will seem as though these "trainings" have no point to them. They're not about anything in particular. They're essentially a tactic used to psychologically condition the employees and make them easier to control. It's a similar concept to being expected to attend church. It's a way for management to gauge how brainwashed the employees are. If they don't think the employees are well indoctrinated enough, they'll begin requiring more of these seemingly pointless "trainings." At this point, the trainings do begin to contain a fair amount of indoctrination. They sort of begin preaching about all the "good" ResCare does. They make a point of talking about the employees who have remained loyal the longest. And, they'll begin dishing out and assigning more menial labor as a sort of punishment. Things like mopping and shining floors that have already been cleaned or requiring employees to clean the toilets every hour. But here's the really cult-like part. They'll begin talking about people who have left the company as bad people. They'll talk about people who left as people who "walked out" on their clients, the people with disabilities. Some of them will discuss how they believe they are doing the Lord's work and how it called to them divinely. They'll attempt to make you feel really bad about the thought of leaving or even taking a day off. Many of the members of management genuinely believe they are doing this work because God called on them to do so. There's this weird underhanded assertion that quitting this job or working less goes against God somehow.
As I stated before, one of their tactics is to recruit entire families into working for the company. So, one thing that is often held above the employee's head is that they would be leaving behind their family if they were to quit. This is a legitimate concern. There are people I know who after quitting were unable to see their family members regularly since they could only see them through work or the company then encouraged the family members to work harder to fill their spot once they had left the company. Of course, the company would then make seemingly deliberate attempts to force the rest of the family to work holidays and special events to prevent them from connecting with other family members who had quit the company.
If they begin to suspect a good worker is going to leave, they will often begin finding ways to cut or lower their wages in an attempt to make the worker more financially dependent on them. In some cases, they will even offer the employee the opportunity to rent a home or apartment which is also owned by the executive director's family so they can hold their home or the threat of homelessness over the employee's head.
Unlike other companies that may give you a bad reference, the company will deliberately attempt to sabotage employees who attempt to leave. They may make up rumors. They may claim that you were undependable. They may also use those employees as a scapegoat or "fall" for state investigations. During these investigations the employees are suspended without pay indefinitely and are not hirable by any other healthcare company operating within the state per state regulations. The employee is effectively trapped at their job until the investigation is resolved, which happens entirely at the discretion of the company.
Most of the managment and higher-ups are all secretly related somehow. I haven't figured it out entirely, but many of the employees figure it out eventually.
I've worked at this company for a number of years and have often asked myself why I still work there. The more I think about it, the more I'm questioning if I'm in a cult. There are some company events coming up soon. I know I'll be shamed if I don't go to them. But, I'm seriously considering just not going and seeing how it ends for me.