Pros
CAMH Research is not a nice place to work. Abusive management and no career advancement. I joined CAMH with the goal to help people and to perform scholarly work before my graduate studies. After years of working at CAMH, I realized how toxic the workplace culture was. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you value your mental health or your dignity, RUN for the hills. CAMH will leave a shell of your former self and they will kick you to the curb once they’ve finished with you.
Cons
ZERO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Kiss your career goodbye. Absolutely zero room for advancement and high turnover rates - anywhere between 2-4 were leaving the department each month. If you have a PhD or a Master’s and you’ve been hired on the bottom of the Research Analyst scale, you’ve been played! They have you doing graduate level work for an undergraduate’s pay. If you believed that the union won’t allow them to pay you more money, you’ve been played! The union has no objection to employees being paid a wage commensurate to your experience. BAD MANAGEMENT. In your absence, some managers are known to damage the reputation of staff they dislike by bad mouthing them in one-on-one meetings with your scientist and with your peers. Or they’ll do it to your face – telling you in performance meetings that “people in the department enjoy their jobs… and then they talk to you, and they stop enjoying their jobs” and that “if you smile more and keep positive, then good things (i.e., promotions) will happen to you” - oh, and that you “should be grateful that you even have a job” because you “make a lot of money for what you do”. Direct quotes. NEPOTISM. If you stay long enough, you'll notice how anyone who advances in CAMH knows somebody on the inside (daughter of doctor, family friend of a prominent family). The smart ones get their reference letters for graduate or medical school and get out. Staff who cozy up to management and remain silent on abuse get extra treats and belly rubs. Friends of the manager get quick promotions, special privileges, or accommodations to go to school. Outsiders get kicked to the curb. TOXIC CULTURE A carefully curated public perception of a gracious and caring CAMH is part of its culture since the only thing the organization has left is its public image. Those who do not drink the kool-aid are ostracized and further abused as an example. I've consoled countless new graduates who stay after hours and cry alone at their desks, in filing rooms, in stairwells. One staff was literally told, "you are not paid to think" in response to pointing out the clear misdirection from the manager. Research scientists openly and repeatedly referred to us as "research monkeys" and that "a monkey could do your job". Direct quotes. BLAME CULTURE. Within 3 months, our manager was screaming at staff in group and one-on-one meetings. CAMH's solution? Give the manager a promotion! Numerous staff complained about that manager and that department – no disciplinary action. CAMH prefers to pay hush-money disgruntled workers who are discriminated against, harassed, abused, then terminated. Their advice? “Just leave”. If you don't like your manager, “just leave”. If you can't take the abuse, “just leave”. Again, direct quotes from research managers and scientists.