Love the kids, hate the upper management - Anonymous employee Contra Costa ARC Employee Review

Great job. It was a wonderful job and I only left because I finished school and wanted to pursue my career. Management support was great.

Could be stressful at times. It was a long day of standing.

If you love working with toddlers, and have an interest in autism and ABA therapy, you may enjoy the work itself. The children are very diverse in abilities, which could keep it interesting. There are serious behaviors, but that's why the kids are in early intervention. It warms your heart to see a child who had been struggling to communicate or to complete a task be able to do it finally. Playing with the children is great fun. Sick and vacation time are ok, and your birthday is a paid holiday.

Poor training and chain of command, conflicts of interest with management (blurry boundaries), favoritism and rule bending by management for under-qualified employees, and at times it was a hostile working environment. just a heads up: by nature of the field, you will be doing a LOT of repetition day in and day out--that isn't ARC's fault, that's how ABA goes. So if you've never worked with children with autism or ABA therapies before, you need to really look into it to see if you have the patience for it.