FrameFlux

Review of YMCA Windsor Essex County

I did their Y-Works program and while yes, they do...

I did their Y-Works program and while yes, they do land you a placement ultimately if you're willing to work... their responsiveness is the most abysmal I've ever seen.

It quite often takes them upwards of a week to reply to you on any email or text that they constantly encourage you to contact. Think of a robotic customer service line that takes two hours to get you to an actual human being - except they are human beings and I guess just don't care about their jobs.

Now, I am by no means a racist, but it really seemed like unless you were of eastern descent, their patience level for you is held very low. One minor slip up on your part often results in them thinking you're beyond help - at least as far as their outwards expression is concerned. Maybe they think us white folk have had it too good for too long or something but dude, I'm just a run down guy living a ghetto life my whole childhood. I don't think anyone there has had it much worse than me in this god forsaken city.

Then there's the course itself... the thing is I can't really say it was... bad... but it just felt so unnecessary. You get paid minimum wage for a few weeks at six hours a day (weekdays) for a couple weeks. That's all well and fine by me, but it's beyond my comprehension how this works because besides the occasional lesson, most of the program was, I kid you not, playing UNO. Not like that was a choice I made. There were actual, genuine UNO sessions. That or JENGA. I don't really care for either of those games, but I mean if you're getting paid for it then... okay!

The environment varies based on the day. Sometimes it's like a madhouse. Next door was a language exchange class, and I swear this one student or whoever had the vocal performance of an opera graduate on hot peppers. My god this guy was loud. You could often hear him over the teacher. God forbid we make any noise we were told to be quiet because there are other classes in the building. That made me laugh - what's the deal with this place?

The teacher I had was actually fine though, and that's why I'm giving this place two stars rather than zero. She actually seemed to care about us to a degree - even for this one dude that couldn't stop making blatantly inappropriate sexual remarks about the students in class from time to time. The unfortunate thing is that she's moving on to better things - and good for her! She had worked at other places beforehand in Windsor and I think she understood this place was kind of whack. She was a little hard on me a couple times, sort of at random too, but overall I still had a lot of respect for her at the end of the day. I think she was the only worker involved in the program who if even slightly cared - she did a fine job. I have remorse for the next line of students... for their case, hopefully they find another poor overly qualified sap to teach 'em.

At the end of the day, they'll get you a placement, but enjoy trekking through a new kind of hell to get there.