Sub-minimum wage pay.
Everybody deserves a fair wage. The minimum wage in NY is $15/hr. This company expects 40 hr work weeks. At minimum wage your pre-tax pay should be $2400. This company pays $2000, post-tax take home varies but the average is $1800. There is a supposed $6000 bonus segal award for those who complete the program (read third con category below).
Micromanagement.
You are sitting in a small classroom with 5-6 other people while working with your students and a manager with you. Everyone can hear everything you say and see whatever you do. If you do not get along with one of your teammates then you are stuck in that room for hours everyday. Every week you are observed on how you do your job, then debriefed on how you did. Most of the time the feedback is picky nagging because your manager doesn't like your teaching personality. Keep in mind, half the managers do not have math teaching experience.
A big part of your time will be spent planning lessons. On text that sounds ok, however you have strict deadlines for when you must submit them, and if your manager does not like your teaching style expect picky comments on specific parts of your lessons.
You are also expected to fill out surveys everyday. How was your day? Comments? List a highlight, a shoutout, and a quote from someone. If you ever give honest feedback on any of the surveys expect communications from your superiors. It is not constructive, rather they make you feel inferior and stupid.
Ok, but schools have long periods of vacations right? Not Saga. Those long weeks without school are filled with menial assignments you have to do "to make up for the hours you would have been at work". The assignments have repetitive questions and obligate you to answer each part in hundreds of words each. Saga promises team culture and claims everyone is part of one big family, yet the front they give is: your superiors are always right.
Crippled leadership.
I mentioned that $6000 bonus for those who complete the program. That reward is taxed and only to be used for your education (i.e. loans or tuition). This is a new addition since the Americorps and Saga coupled. To achieve this reward you have to complete the entire contract without any deficiencies in your hours. Some of the ways you can fall behind on your hours are: being late more than a couple of minutes, not completing your “assignments” during school breaks, leaving early and not completing extra hours of work from home. That last one is strange. Not all of the NYC schools have the same school schedules. If you are lucky enough to be placed on a school that ends its day earlier, you are expected to do work from home assignments and busywork to prove you made up for that time.
SAGA does not take ownership for its mistakes. The year that I worked for this company they committed an archival error that led to many employees not getting their hours recorded. The company leadership visited the school sites and broke the news to these employees that despite it being an Americorps and SAGA error, they were expected to make up for those hours. For a handful of employees this meant making up over 130 hours for a mistake they did not make.
Dozens of leadership left the company midyear. Sometimes 2 or 3 leadership employees left in the span of a day.
No benefits.
Read the fine print on job descriptions. There is a hint of a medical benefit and a transportation benefit. These benefits are not offered by the company, rather you choose to deduct a set amount of your pay to acquire those benefits.
The managers get double your pay and medical benefits. They do not teach and you are expected to do the heavy-lifting.
Not considered an employee.
Your expectation with this company is to work 40 hours a week, yet legally you are considered a volunteer. Thus Saga does not pay social security or unemployment taxes. You are treated as a full time employee but the catch is it is nearly impossible for them to fire you. During my year of service there were two tutors on my site who were clearly bad fits at working with students. Despite numerous complaints and reprimands, they stayed in the program until the end.
There are tons of problems with this company's structure. Do not be fooled by their responses or the company culture they promise.
You are looking for a job and need the money, I get it. Just don't come here.
