registered practical nurse

registered nurse - acute care

support worker

delivery driver

housekeeper

Homewood Health

My homewood interview was a panel interview in which you are given a score, then placed where you  would excel according to your score. I was asked questions regarding psychiatric scenario's, my actions, the mental health act, questions regarding communication, my strengths, weaknesses and legalities, signs and symptoms regarding knowledge about the dsm4. The homewood is a highly regarded, accredited psychiatric hospital that offers high incentives for staff to move forward such as their "dollars for scholars' program. Which gives staff interest free loans up to $5000 to advance in the workplace interest free and paid back deducted from your paycheck bi weekly which you don't notice at all.The management is fair, approachable and helpful. Very skilled programs, psychiatrists that have a higher rating of success than others in this setting. This is  a positive workplace with so much room for advancement and learning, but also a positive place for the patients too. It is beautiful, meals are unbelievable and pts have the freedom of choice. I loved my job, even though it was difficult as I was their assessment officer which has emergency dr's at the ggh across the street who minimise and trivialise my skills. I was and had to be a strong advocate for the patients and also be assertive in my job or I would be bullied over by the guelph general er staff where I was only a collaborate assessment with recommendations rather than a psychiatrist, which  was difficult to hear their criticism . However I am not a physician and kept that in perspective and in line. I was always safety first, erred on the side of caution and once known they respected and accepted me as a valuable team member. This position requires an assertive reg nurse, with great communication and collaboration skills and of course listening skills. A true understanding of the mental health act and the legalities, and a back bone. I loved my job, learned so much and proved myself through all education offered at the homewood ect....I must admit, the homewood is and until this day the best hospital that includes all staff from the cleaning staff to the psychiatrist. If you are unhappy in your job, how can you be successful and accurate??? A great place to work.One more thing, staff are awarded and recognised for their advancement, contribution and continuing education, as everybody is valuable in the homewood's. Respect in the workplace gives room for positive learning, happiness and the willing to make a different for the patients as they are our number one goal.

What is the best part of working at the company?
It's a good starting point for a new clinician if you can opt for flexibility in your schedule, unfortunately this option does not appear to be available anymore

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Unfortunately, the compensation at Homewood is far below industry standards, and the client load is excessive, making it difficult to maintain high-quality care. Staff well-being does not appear to be a priority—retention efforts are minimal (e.g., small gift cards after years of service), and clinical feedback is often dismissed, even as burnout becomes increasingly common.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Leadership often appears disengaged, potentially reflecting the broader systemic challenges of the role. Frequent staff turnover makes it difficult to foster connections and continuity with coworkers. The scheduling demands are relentless, leaving no meaningful breaks throughout the day, and employees may be criticized for not participating in unpaid “team-building” activities outside of working hours. I had to advocate repeatedly to receive compensation for mandatory supervision and to have a session time blocked off in my schedule to attend it. Requests for necessary time off were frequently met with dismissive or punitive responses.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
The clinical workload was excessive, with expectations of seeing six clients per day, five days per week, including six evening sessions weekly. The time allotment for documentation, necessary reporting and clinical prep was insufficient given the demands. Sessions were often added with minimal notice (as late as 5 minutes prior to session start), leaving inadequate time for preparation, and open time blocks were frequently filled the same day, eliminating flexibility. Management was largely unsupportive, often attributing clinician burnout to personal self-care failures rather than addressing structural issues.

Typical day: Boring, events rarely happen.
What I learned: Nothing productive, only that there is poor management and no communication plus it is a toxic workplace.
Management: If I could rate less than 1 star, I would rate -5 out of 5. No communication, if you do your job you will be punished if someone complains. Management sides with client 100% of the time and will not listen to your perspective. If you make the most minor mistake (ex: 1 minute late from returning to break because you needed to wash hands, you will be reprimanded). Management also goes against their word and previous agreements, written and verbal.
Workplace culture: Toxic, you will be looked down upon. Management are demeaning to you and will point out every little fault. Borderline criminal harassment. The employer wants brain-dead people who do not think for their work force. Anyone that can think for themselves and question things will have their employment terminated immediately for any reason that management can find.
Hardest part of job: Trying to do your job according to policies, procedures, and LAW without being reprimanded. You are under a microscope every time you work. Regardless of whether you follow policy and law, if management does not like it, you will be written up.
Most enjoyable part of the job: On site dining, but you have to pay for it.
Wages: Poor, they claim to be above average in the industry... this may be true for SOME positions. Most of the money goes to management so they would rather pay less which means more for them to pocket.

Overall, the employer has been found to be in violation of numerous statutes such as contract, labour, criminal, and privacy laws. Recommend avoiding employment with this company if you value your honour, dignity and integrity.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Providing immediate, compassionate mental health support by phone to individuals across Canada. Collaborated with a strong team of clinicians united by a shared passion for helping others, supported by accessible and engaged leadership, with opportunities for professional growth.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
As a clinician, managing verbally aggressive or intentionally provocative callers. Supporting clients at imminent risk with little to no demographic information. Working on a call queue with unpredictable calls, requiring constant proximity to the phone to avoid missed calls (which impacted performance stats). As Team Lead, the role primarily involved monitoring and responding to emails, which over time became repetitive and less stimulating. 
Due to the unpredictable nature of the work, the one-hour break fluctuated, making it impossible to schedule appointments. Time-off requests were required but not always approved.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Overall, a great team environment with friendly colleagues, approachable managers, and opportunities to connect virtually.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
As a clinician, you log in and wait on a call queue (corded phone connected to the router) for transfers from intake workers. Daily calls range from 4–10 per shift—some clients may hang up or have shorter sessions, though the service typically reflects a one-hour counselling session. You have  ten minutes between calls for casenotes or self-care, and can debrief difficult calls with a Team Lead or colleague. At the end of each shift, there is time to complete notes; overtime is rarely needed except in unusual circumstances.

The Homewood company (telephonic counselling) provides services for people across the country suffering from mental health issues.  Sadly, navigating the lack of communication and support has revealed that the management of this division prevents, if not punishes, meaningful feedback, dialogue and engagement with qualified personnel.  It is structurally and culturally dysfunctional.  The work is meaningful but, as far as companies go, it is riddled with highly sensitive and unskilled managers when it comes to dealing with it's contractors.   Feedback and, heaven forbid, constructive criticism, is punished. This ultimately diminishes the quality of staff and support it offers to clients which is, ultimately, tragic.   There is no mechanism by which to seek help or support short of quitting the organization which leads to high turnover. As an example...there was a scheduling issue (lack of training) and the regional manager began complaining to upper management rather than being accountable, understanding or supportive. Quickly branded and therefore dread communicating with the very management in place to supposedly help. Very petty and unprofessional    I have spoken with five other local therapists who also provide occasional clinical counselling for their telephonic and the same, dreadful, views are universally shared regarding the current management in place.   Two others have already begun to separate from this branch of Homewood.  Quite a shame really as the potential to help is certainly there.   Given that they pay roughly 30-40% of a private practitioners normal hourly rate one would think they would offer flexibility and a supportive environment.

Far too much middle management who do nothing and far few nurses and it is only getting worse with not replacing staff who call in sick or aren't available. Patient care is suffering. All they care about is profit and accept totally unacceptable people for the programs. Safety for staff is seriously lacking. There is no professional development as when nurses want education we have to either pay for it or can't do it at all due to staffing issues. Our benefits are terrible. If you needed to come to Homewood for treatment of something our benefits wouldn't even cover it. How nice is that? They violate collective agreements constantly. Our contract took two years to negotiate. Basically this place is just a money making machine that cares nothing for its staff or patients. All you do is take ++ abuse from patients with ZERO support because it is all about the $$ being made with a body in the bed. Not worth working here. No Occ Health nurse with no replacement in sight. This is the only hospital I have worked at that has a "central staffing" department and let me just say it doesn't work. If you want to work another job while doing this one they will make ZERO accommodations for that. Basically, look somewhere else. The turnover rate in the departments is RIDICULOUS. We try and tell management our concerns and they don't listen.

While I worked there, I was hired as a front desk receptionist, but the contract indicated that "other tasks might be required." It turned out that this was their sneaky way of allowing themselves to assign you tasks in half a dozen different departments. By the end, on top of my initial position as front desk receptionist, I also became a Crisis Management administrator and a Provincial administrator. When I indicated that the workload was too much (I would have needed a 60 hour work week to do everything!), I was told I had bad time management. So, to help me... they made me take a one-hour counselling session to help me manage my time... Right! Because when there's already not enough hours in the day, let's take some more away to sit and talk about how to be efficient! 

The funny thing is, I was placed through an agency, worked there for 3 months before applying to be an official Homewood employee and was there an additional 8 months before being terminated. I had GREAT feedback from all my immediate coworkers (within the office. The main headquarters are in Ontario.) Home office didn't seem to notice that my work became poor once they began dumping more and more on me.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with management and felt that, for a company who's all about mental health, the don't give a shine-o-la about their employees' mental well-being. I wouldn't recommend!

Hypocrites.

Very unprofessional Management and they actually don't know what they are doing. They don't train the new hire properly and once the vacation period of permanent employees are over they will tell you to sit at home giving some weird reason's.
  They talk lots of safety and the common place they work to prepare food are never sanitize. They will rotate you everywhere when short staff and later will say you didn't do well.
  To the HR and the Union if you reading this message. Get your training streamline and don't blame new hires for not learning. You need to proceed one step at a time and not try to train in every field in a day and end of the day the new person is confused. Do a surprise visit in Kitchen and see how the sanitizer process is being followed. Your supervisor doesn't know the difference between cooking temperature and serving temperature. Get them trained.

I would never recommend this place to work. This is the reason they are always short staff. Unprofessional and confused supervisor and Manager. 

Get yourself sorted first before you comment on others. 

I worked at Homewood for a number of years and I finally came to realize one day I was completely miserable and decided to leave. You are expected to work yourself sick day in and day out, for little pay and no extra compensation for taking on extra work that was just dumped on you. Constantly having to take on more work from other departments who don't have enough staff either and instead of spending the money and hiring new staff they just expect the bottom feeders who are paid the least to pick up the slack. You get a fair amount of time off but there's no point in using it because when you come back to work you will just regret having taken the time off when you get in trouble for something that happened while you weren't there. Management plays favourites and takes sides. One person gets told no you can't do that but their direct coworkers gets told yes for no reason. One person gets in trouble for doing something that certain other people will just get away with. It is an OK place to start off if you need experience but there's little for advancement and people do seem to get let go quite suddenly for no apparent reason.

I was hired the Chef made great claims that he had menus, recipes, and that the kitchen was well run. My first day I could see none of this was true. Even after the center has been opened for a year the kitchen every day was kayos, different times while following the Chefs orders to use rotten ingredients or products that were not Food safe part of his efforts to be IN charge and IN control. Loud angry child like out bursts when small problems arose, kicking carts, slamming down pots and pans ,throwing things around ,cursing and swearing, If someone appeared tired as they were working the Chef made comments about them drinking too much because they are Aboriginal Natives ( racist comments) , ( this worker is a single mom, three kids, one grandchild she is raising, and she is busy in the community and tries to run a small home based business). I my opinion the person that chose the Chef for this facility either did not have any suitable applicants and took what was offered or did a very poor job interviewing the Chef.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Registered practical nurse 23 salaries reported	$36.53 per hour
Registered nurse - acute care 19 salaries reported	$36.62 per hour
Support worker 7 salaries reported	$27.22 per hour
Delivery driver 10 salaries reported	$21.13 per hour
Housekeeper 7 salaries reported	$22.86 per hour

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