River's Edge Retirement review: False Advertising, Resident and Employee Mistreatment 2

Allow me first to say that the statements in the following paragraphs have been copied, pasted and re-edited from a previous comment I submitted under another user's complaint. I decided to post my comment as a seperate complaint of my own after I submitted the commited because I feel so strongly about the unethical practices of this company. My comment was hastiltyand passionately written and after I copied it I saw that . So I corrected the errors as best I could and included additonal information in some areas in order to clarify some portions of my statement. So if you have read my previous commentt and notice the similarities an discrepencies, this is why. If you see further spelling and gramatical mistakes, forgive me, but my computer is old and recently had a very nasty altercation with a tipped over bottle of rubbing alcohol. I hope that helps to clear up any questions you may have about how the following is written.

I was a Holiday Retirement employee (housekeeping) in Savannah, GA. I was employed for just two weeks shy of a year and received not only alot of praise from residents, but praise to my superiors as well as letters written to corporate about how pleased residents were with my service. Never one complaint. That being said, management and the corporation itself IS WICKED, blood thirsty, deceptive and money hungry. They are actively LYING to new residents to get them to sign up and then treat them like dirt. In the one year I worked for them we went through three sets of General Managers and one set of co managers. The best set of managers and comanagers got sent to other sister communities. Residents are promised all these wonderful cleaning and food services but the corporation has systematic guidelines that PREVENT housekeepers from effectively servicing apartments and serving meals. Management communication with staff was almost non-existant unless we sought them out for clear directives so that none of their last minute poorly timed garbage would adversely effect servicing our residents and their apartments too terribly. I ended up working for a woman whos mother was a new resident after I left (I had met her mother and found her funny. I loved my residents) and she had doubts at first in my abilities to thoroughly clean private homes because of the housekeeping experience her mother was having at the community. Once she saw me work she felt VERY different and was pleased. Each housekeeper has an entire floor they must service including trash, change bedding and towels, clean kitchenettes, restrooms, sweep, mop, vacumm, dust, clean a/c filters and wipe threshholds down at 10 minutes for a studio, 15 for a one bed and 25-30 for a two bed apartment, and mind you, I had many studios the size of one bed apartments. Additionally, once a month we are supposed to have our elderly residents empty their fridges so we can defrost them, a process that takes an entire shift from beginning to end once you turn off the refridgerator and chip out the ice, sweep balconys, clean patio doors, threshholds, and windows, and clean all windows in the apartment. You are not given extra time in each apartment to accomodate these mandatory tasks by the way, and you will be yelled at by managment because "You can't do your job" Nevermind fighting to keep residents out of the laundry room we share with them so that we can have all of the sheets and towels washed, dried and folded before shift is over because it is against the rules to have dirty linen left in the bins until the next morning. Laundry is not in the timeline as well, so we are forced to shave several minute off each rooom in order to comeplete the laundry and clean, dust and vacuuum and all the hallways, stairways, common restrooms and the 40 minutes a day it takes to empty all four large trash bins on each floor by hand into the outside dumpster each morning. Those forty minutes are not in the timeline either. Housekeepers must also change and serve breakfast and lunch to the residents as well as bus and reset the dining room. The residents are rushed through meals and it is unfortunate. Management is supposed to help residents who arrive late or require extra attention during meals because of the timeline but they often sit at their table and wait for housekeeping to serve them after they serve tea and coffee twice and stay late entertaining guests and each other, so that housekeeping is unable to leave the dining area until they are finished. Management is aware that they will cause a huge back up for housekeeing to serve residents whos rooms are serviced after dinner but no overtime is allowed. In fact, overtime is subject to a write -up and failure to comeplete dutites because of the lack of time is a write-up and a resident who complains because you were unable to service their room, which is beyond your control is a write-up. I was GOOD, but even I had to leave laundry undone until the next day, skip dusting in this apartment, pass up windows in that apartment or not vacuum the three flights of stairs I am assigned each week so I would not have to abbreviate service in or push back srvice for an apartment until another day. Residents are very dependant on housekeeping for help with their rooms and it is what they are promised so I tried very very hard and had some very sweet residents.
I witnessed management sign blind and disabled residents to apartments, promise them help, then tell them they could not have food sent to their room after three days because the blind ones needed assistance to find the dining room. They were basically told tough luck and it was not the company's problem if they got hungry, that this was INDEPENDANT living and though management KNEW these people would require assisted living level services in orrder to live there, they were mislead into beleiving they would receive a little extra help and then abandoned once the company got the money. Many families began to move their loved ones out. I witnessed wheelchair bound residents and residence who could not hold pitchers to refill their own drinks left to sit with no beverages because managemnet refused to get up and help them, and if Housekeeping helped them, we were yelled at for holding up the process or for our inability to comeplete cleaning tasks after lunch. I was actively told by management that they did not care about a resident not being able to have their room serviced that week because they needed you to deep clean empty apartments so they could show them and rent them out. I witnessed management berate a hospice resident to the point of tears because she was weak and was unable to keep her apartment "up to Holiday standards". Residents would pass away and management would tell housekeeping to go in and clean around the greiving families who were packing up their loved one's belongings because they wanted to hurry up and rent their apartments. They moved in residants who had no personal sheets and towels, promising them sheets and towels, KNOWING we had no more sheets and towels because management spent the money paying maintenance and other outside sources to perform the housekeeping duities that management was supposed to perform THEMSELVES over the weekend, so that they could go out shopping and to dinner together instead. They took away the employee breakroom and forced all the employees to eat outside, or in the activity room, but only if there were no tours and the residents were not using the activity room. THIS IS ILLEGAL! There was actually a room available to be used as a breakroom and the kitchen manager suggested that it be used as one but management refused. Management was using the extra space to hang out in, literally. I started keeping notes of conversations and insuring I had witnesses everytime management gave me a directive because they would give conflicting directives, then attempt to berate me for not following directives. Because I had records of who I spoke with and the date and time and the specifics, they learned not to mess with me and to be more carfeul. I am always respectful but do not tolerate abuse or lies and will not be penalized for managereal error. I was often told to perform duties that corporate said I would be fired for performing with management telling me "Don't worry. WE will handle Corporate. You won't get in trouble". Needless to say I ignored them and did things according to company guidleines because I had witnessed management and corporate scapegoat several hourly wage employees for "doing as they were told" when something bad happens. I have gone toe to toe more than once with management for mistreating a resident. I expressed several times "Pick on me all you want, but don't victimize my residents. I don't need this company's blood money". I succeed but was disliked intensley by managemnent. My word is credible, as I have said, I have nothing but commendations from residents, other staff, resident family memebrs and even some members of management and despite their intense dislike of me I am eligible for rehire. My only regeret is having to leave my residents in the hands of those evil heartless money changers. Approximately 10-13 residence from my floor moved out shortly after I left if that is any indication of how poorly they felt they were treated. Management spent most of the money needed to improve living conditions for residents on promotional events to bring in new residents and cosmetic work on the building and grounds to appease corporate who blame trivial paint and carpet flaws for low occupancy and not the horrid treatment, lies, and living conditions the residents have to endure. I loved my residents, lost some good ones, learned alot from them and thoroughly enjoyed making their lives easier and putting a smile on their faces. I refused sick pay more than once and instead offered to work the hours I missed to comeplete extra crap management wanted done so that I could service the residents rooms on schedule. Management and the corporation treat the rest of the staff like sub-humans. They are insensitive, self-centered, lazy and cold hearted. We were encouraged by way of 1000 dollar incentives to have friends and family members sign a lease with our community. Let me be perfectly clear that the the response from staff was ALWAYS "Not a chance in hell. We LOVE our families." Not one person on staff would place a loved one in that place, and beleive me we ALL could have really used the extra money. What does that tell you?