This is honestly the worst company I have ever encountered. The worst thing about this company is the paperwork, the amount if it and the way they deal with it. As you will read elsewhere (please do your research online—almost every review by an employee you see elsewhere will be negative), this company will stop at nothing not to pay you.
For example: One month, after having turned in my paperwork, I received an email saying that the computer programs I decided to tutor one of my students with was unacceptable, and that I needed to choose a different program (meaning I had to fill out more paperwork, which means more lesson planning, and then I had go to the store to fax the new paperwork in, etc.). This program is listed as acceptable in the company handbook and I was also told it was fine to use in my orientation. I emailed several different people about this and even faxed the sheet that says it's okay in the handbook I received from the company. Just in case, I also sent in the changes they wanted me to make on my paperwork because I needed rent money and needed to be paid on time. Despite the many emails and the fax I sent out, they went ahead and approved my newly "corrected paperwork" anyway. Only much later (this company is terrible at getting back to you) do I receive an email from someone from the company who said it was okay to use the program I had chosen in the first place. The company knowingly approved something that was wrong (as there is no way they did not see the faxed sheet from their own handbook) and in this case I feel free to say that the Academic Advantage committed fraud. The company handbook said that if I did all my paperwork correctly, I would be paid on time. I did my paperwork correctly and did not receive payment on time, and therefore the Academic Advantage committed a scam.
By the way, a blogger was threatened with court action recently, by the company's lawyers, for calling the Academic Advantage a "scam" (and actually, it was an indirect statement). Though the law firm was fired by the company for doing so, this is a reflection of the company culture. "Academic Advantage scam" currently pops up as a suggested search option when you type it in to your Google search bar, and for a good reason. I don't care what I signed in the contract, not being paid for your legitimate efforts on time is illegal.
The example I've provided is one of many. I'll include one more. One number I had written on one piece of paperwork was just slightly darker than the other numbers next to it. The first time I wrote the number, it came out very light, so I went went over the number again (retraced the number, with a bit more pressure on my pen this time) to make sure it was legible. Guess what? They called it a mistake and made me drive back to the people's house (very far away) where I tutored to have them put an initial next that number. Unbelievable? Believe it. These things actually happened and I have copies of the paperwork and the emails to prove it.
And yes, there are many other issues. They provide no training whatsoever if you decide to work with their 1-on-1 Learning With Laptops program (or the tutoring without computers for that matter). Many of the 1-on-1 Learning With Laptops programs are ineffective and hard to tutor with. They threaten to make you pay if you do not fulfill a certain amount of hours with the students that were given to you. You are not compensated for any of the gas you use while traveling to your students' houses. You are not paid for any of the time it takes to do the paperwork or lesson plans that you create for your students. And as most of the children can only be tutored after school, it is hard to tutor more than one student a day excepting weekends. Don't be optimistic about getting many hours. Also, as it is worth mentioning again, there is a lot of paperwork and unfortunately this takes time away from the time you could be spending to make great lesson plans and work on your skills as a tutor.
Don't be impressed by the endorsements they list that they've received from various members of the government of California. I'm sure if they knew how this company operated, they would be disgusted.in fact, I plan to make them aware of the way this company operates so that this can be changed for the better. It is a shame that government money, especially since it is for a program that is supposed to help children learn, is being spent on a bureaucracy that pays its employees to fabricate any mistake they can to make sure that its other employees do not get paid, or at least to make sure that they are not paid on time.
With that said, I understand that the California state budget is dealing with a massive amount of debt at this time. However, cheating employees out of their hard-earned money is not the way to fix this problem. I would understand if they offered lower wages or cut down on the number of employees in their bureaucracy to save money, but cheating your employees is not the right way to do this. It is also a massive waste of time for anyone involved.
Need I say more? Do not work for or support this company as it is. Your time is better spent looking for another job.
0 comments