What is the hiring process like at Brookdale Senior Living?

There are some nice employees.

Avoid at all costs. The entire building reeks of urine—an immediate red flag, confirmed by my mother-in-law who's been a CNA for decades. I witnessed a med tech scream at a resident literally in his face to take his meds multiple times. Totally unacceptable. On my first day the employees immediately started talking trash on management, I wasn't in the door but 5 minutes. Not a great start. Hiring process was a disaster. The pay is so low they apologized to me in the interview but I took it because I was excited to pivot my career and care for seniors, and of course in this market, desperate to boot. Took weeks after they “hired” me to get on the schedule, didn't communicate, lost my number I wrote down no less than 10 places in all my paperwork, had me drive back and forth for onboarding that was completely disorganized—no lunch provided like the email promised, email specifically told me to buy and wear scrubs I didn’t need yet for onboarding (used the last of my money thanks to them dragging getting me in to start), and when I showed up for training, I wasn’t even in the system. Spent hours on the phone with IT and login wasn't working because turns out they had no record of me being employed. Really efficient. Great use of my time and gas money. Worst of all, they bait-and-switched me from the evening shift I was promised to overnights—starting the NEXT DAY (no respect for people's sleep schedules and health??)—even though I made it extremely clear I couldn’t do overnights. In fact, I said in my interview and throughout my "onboarding" that I could do any shift EXCEPT overnights. They cornered me and guilt tripped me during my attempted training day asking me to switch, then after I said no sorry that is not what I agreed to and I can't, telling me they "need help" and are "actively interviewing." They started begging and it was clear it wasn't a request but a command. I said yes just to get them to back off and stop pressuring me. Plus, judging by how long it took for me to get in the door (and I never even technically did apparently), I know damn well it would've taken way longer than a "couple of weeks" of ruining my sleep schedule when I have a family at home that depends on me being home during the hours I informed them of. Honestly there were so many red flags during my onboarding day I should never have even showed back up for training, but I was hopeful because I really care about seniors, had already made some connections with a few in my time mulling around waiting, and genuinely wanted to help them. During my first day onboarding, which I was never paid for, I stood at the nurse's station uncomfortably listening to the person onboarding me talk with a residents' son and his wife about their sex life and how his wife doing yoga makes him a "happy daddy when she's a happy baby" (friggin barf, dude) for almost an HOUR before she told me "oops- you're done for the day, you could have left an hour ago." Too bad I couldn't get a word in edgewise until then. What the heck, guys. Have some situational awareness and keep your gross sex talk away from people who want nothing to do with it. Total disrespect for people’s time, money, and boundaries. No organization, no accountability, and not a safe or caring place for residents or staff. Totally ruined my newfound passion for this industry as I'm afraid everywhere else will be just as bad. Oh, and one of the employees referred to black people as "colored." Good luck.

An office environment with some hard working staff that really love to promote the seniors living in the community

Disorganized, horrible onboarding, the hiring director has no experience

Benefit package was decent. Building grounds were nice.

Pay was very low for the number of hats you are expected to wear. Training was rushed and inconsistent. Office was the size of a box, no room to meet with staff, residents or their families. Office was loud due to mechanical room and heavy traffic. Management was very inconsistent when dealing with staff & following rules & regulations. Insubordinate employees were kept to avoid staffing issues. Values & culture were lacking. ED never took accountability for her lack of knowledge & errors. Weekend coverage was never mentioned during initial interviews or hiring process. Expect burn out within first 6 months. Sales Manager was not a team player.

From the moment I was hired by Walt Roebuck I felt like I was contributing to a new family and caring for residents was #1.

The community I worked was a long commute so it was tiring at the end of the day. Being on call 24/7 365 was difficult.

Brookdale is a large company so if you want to be positioned to grow into other areas it will be helpful. There are a lot of tools to leverage as you leamicromanage. When I started, the Director who hired me was knowledgeable and supportive. I was asked to assist another community with the possibility of promotion relative quickly after joining Brookdale. There are several great employees in the company and if you seek them out, you will have a better experience.

Corporate leadership only cares about numbers. Any of the intangibles that numbers do not reveal are only addressed as part of checking the box. For example, training is all online and the emphasis on it is more geared towards ensuring compliance with anything regulatory is met. Another example, is when there are service failures the leadership at the community level will remain more focused on occupancy than drilling down into addressing why there is high employee turnover or how to be proactive about service failures instead of responsive. There is also a clear move away from reinvesting in the communities and creating a plan to stay up to date with renovations as they continue to struggle with rebounding from the pandemic and its overall drag on occupancy.

1. Its my first time in a management role- in my experience over the last year my knowledge base has increased tremendously. 2. Learned leadership skills 3.My supervisors/ED/regionals- always answered any questions I had with grace and kindness. 4. Challenges have come and really tested my nursing knowledge and I find myself better for it. 5. I plan on transferring in 2 months due to personal circumstances out of state, Brookdale as well as my current ED, my current director and my new ED and my new director. All have listened to my situation, supported me through this transition with nothing but kindness and understanding. I am so happy to be working for Brookdale. Its bittersweet I'm going to miss Baywood but I am also very excited to be working soon at Spruce wood.

1. I don't have many cons in my experience. Some constructive criticism. I would've liked to have had more hands-on training and the expectations that are required for me to do/know. Especially given it was my first management job. 2. More follow-through with expectations of staff when complaints arise from either the residents or family.

Getting to interact with seniors, they can be really fun.

The community I was at (and others I interacted with) are so desperate to meet numbers that they encourage you to be a used car salesman type persona in your approach to seniors. It didn't matter if they weren't a good fit for the community, if they were hesitant to move yet, or anything else. As long as they had the money you were encouraged to push them into the community without regard for the actual person involved. It's a problem when a vulnerable population is looked at in literal terms of numbers on a spreadsheet and not as people. Yes, I get places need to make money. But this approach was so appalling to me it decreased my overall faith in humanity.