A company that saves a significant amount of money for schools at the expense of substitute teachers
The job offers an easy way for daily substitutes to get plenty of jobs if the substitute lives in South Jersey where it is based. The pay is generally lower than elsewhere, but it allows substitute teachers to easily apply for jobs.
Now that the positives are done, I will describe the negatives. The Human Resources department is very incompetent. It took several weeks for them to invite me to a introduction meeting and then took several weeks for them to approve my documents. I have had several problems such as the system not allowing me to see any substitute jobs when I did not change any settings. The human resources department could never help me the first time I called. I needed to contact a different human resources worker to get help. When I resigned, I had to talk to many people to finally get my health benefits canceled even though I was told it would automatically cancel.
The company makes substitutes pay for training even if they are certified teachers. The training is basically get to know you exercises followed by very basic tips such as do not fall asleep or touch a student. They offer certified teachers training that takes half the time, but they still have to pay the full amount.
Long term substitutes are the main victims of this company. The law says that long term substitutes that work more than two months must get a starting teacher salary. This is a fair law considering long term substitutes are in fact teachers. However, if the school
ProsAccess to schools to substitute teach at
Conslower pay for daily substitute teachers, appallingly low salaries for long term substitutes, terrible benefits, paying to be "trained, " horrendous human resources department, negative effects on the entire substitute system
A decent job to start or retire with. Not excellent for long term.
I think for those looking to gain working experience in classroom management or whatnot, this job is a great springboard! The hours are very flexible, allowing you to pick and choose the schools you want to sub in. For example, not interested in during elementary school? Well with ESS, so many jobs opening up for all types of schools that it is an easy task to traverse through the website and get the job you want. Plus, for the amount of pay you receive, the benefits are also quite decent. But these qualities are muddled somewhat the longer you stay as a sub.
One main issue that never got better was the process of getting a job for the day. With ESS, jobs just open up randomly throughout the day, with barely any warning to figure out if it is the task you want. The problem arises when it is a job you do not want; the website and the Aesop app does not have a way to curate through the jobs you want to apply for, so unless you get lucky and a bunch of jobs opens up that day - which rarely happens from my experience - you are essentially out of a job and have to try again tomorrow. What makes things worse is the fact that teachers can cancel at any time, meaning that you can be at the school, and a job will be cancelled 30 minutes before you start, which effectively wastes your time and your money. (By the way, I am not blaming the teachers for deciding to come back to work.)
The job is flexible sure, but it is not easy to get the job you prefer and is often down to luck if you
ProsFlexibility, the benefits, teachers and staff are good to work with and gain connections with.
ConsPay scale, lack of compensation during breaks, creating your schedule can be a massive pain, lack of communications after the first meeting.
ESS Gets your foot in the door, very flexible hours
ESS merely gives you a system to find jobs as a substitute teacher and is the administrative employer. HR Service Group LLC pays you.
99% of the work experience is with the schools you sub for. Take it seriously, and you'll find a school that will want you back again and again. My suggestion is to find a school you like, and stay there. If the office staff like you and find you dependable, they can just schedule you without the need to get up early and hunt for open jobs. Again, very flexible hours as you schedule yourself.
However, you need a level of patience and awareness to avoid trouble. Kids WILL push your buttons and test your limits, and if you can't handle that properly, you will quickly find yourself blacklisted from a school district.
ESS provides a system for schools to get subs quickly, however, schools are not forced to give you all the details about a particular job. You may show up to a job to find out you're needed elsewhere, or that it's a special needs class that you are not equipped/trained to care for.
Pay is per diem and determined by the school districts. The pay is not the greatest, considering more places are starting to offer $15/hr for much less stress. There are no raises, a day off means no pay.
Covering long terms assignments long term usually pays a higher rate, and is great work experience, but expect there to be days where grading, planning, communicating with parents/administration will keep you working 2-6 hours a day lo
ProsGreat Experience for those looking to get into teaching, Make connections within school districts, Flexible hours, You get to interact with and help students.
ConsNo real path to advance, Some schools will push you to your limits, Long Terms give you most the responsibility of a full teacher but 1/2 to 1/3 the pay.
Decent if you're a certified teacher, sucks if you're a PCA.
Overall, it's a decent place to work and the pay is good if you have a teaching degree and are in a good school with supportive administration, like I am. That said, the health benefits are AWFUL and I have yet to find a doctor near my home who will take my obscure, unknown health insurance (I live in UPMC vs. Highmark land), so if you can, get on your spouse's or partner's insurance. In some schools, you do have the inside information on potential contract jobs within the unit or district.
On a side note PCAs are EXTREMELY underpaid for what they have to put up with (student behaviors, changing student's soiled diapers, etc.) and their turnover rate is ridiculous. If they paid their PCAs better, they would probably have higher quality employees with less turnover.
ESS management is not typically on location at the schools, so you have to email or call them to get any questions or concerns addressed. It's always a gamble whether or not they will actually respond to you.
Additionally, they pay per diem at the school level with no sick, PTO, or vacation time, so if you don't work due to being sick, for personal reasons, or because of a holiday, you don't get paid. However, you do qualify for unemployment during longer periods of time off such as summer break (at least in PA you do). There is also no room for advancement or promotion when employed at the school level. The plus side is that you do have the inside track on job openings in the district / unit. If
ProsGood work/ life balance, pay great if you're a certified teacher, summer unemployment benefits
ConsPay is awful if you're a PCA, no PTO or sick days, terrible health insurance
Great part-time job but only if you enjoy working with kids
If you don’t enjoy working with children, this job isn’t for you. If you do, you’ll most likely enjoy it. During my time, I enjoyed working at different schools with different ages and getting a sense of what being a teacher in a classroom was like. The pay wasn’t near as much it should have been, especially for what substitutes go through. I was called demeaning names by middle and high school students and in one elementary school I got hit in the eye with a pencil, and another I got grabbed and spit on by a child. I would feel bad if I forgot to put in a “non work day” while I went to school because the people would call and text me asking to fill in and then would go to the remind app to say we need to put in a non work day, even if we had just forgotten to. I was told it was flexible/work when you want but then they would be upset when I didn’t fill in or accept assignments. Once this COVID stuff began, the schools shut down so I wasn’t working at the time. Once they said schools were opening up and the substitutes could work again, I was all of the sudden kicked from the system and haven’t been able to find any way to contact anyone to see why I was kicked from the system! I had a good rep as a substitute and I’m not sure why I was “fired” or kicked from the system and haven’t been able to find out why either. The pay isn’t worth what you go through but gave me a excellent opportunity to see what the classroom was like, it even encouraged me to change my major o
ProsWorking in the classroom, Part-Time, Flexible hours
ConsNot enough pay, no clear communication, kicked from system for no reason
A typical day involves picking up classroom attendance sheet from office receptionist and breakdown of what you need to know for the day(room #, any classroom changes mid-day), after school duty...
It's nice to be in your own little world(just you and the students) if you don't like constant customers in a line or management watching your every move in service industry jobs as is commonplace.
I wish there was more time, opportunities to get to know and converse with other teachers, gain insight from their classroom experiences, teaching/lesson strategies, classroom management/behavior tips...
Pay is part-time compensation for full-time hours.
Flexibility to choose which days you want to work or not is a plus especially if you have accounts, phone calls, or health/doctor appointments that are very important and must be done during normal business hours.
Hardest part would be if you're tired and can't get students to tone their voices down and focus on their assignments.
Most enjoyable part is when I have "heart to heart" REAL TALKS about life, what matters most, and tough love correction about how we should treat one another with respect(Honor, integrity...) when I see behavior that has become normal but is unacceptable and gives me the chance to be a mentor and teach core values I've been taught for a moment!
ProsTeachable moments, weekends/evening off, no physical harm(nerve condition)
ConsCompensation: full-time hours- part-time pay, must deal with effects of enabled behavior common in public school system, travel to different locations
I was told I could work as many jobs as we wanted but once hired I was told I can only be assigned to one school as a SCM only receiving 15hrs per week minimum wage. I was placed at Phenix Elementary in Hampton, Va...majority of the teachers, students and staff were rude and disrespectful. There were only a handful of teachers/staff I would deal with because of them being so nice and respectful. Other teachers would get mad if you said anything to their students to correct their behavior. Cafeteria staff would watch me and a coworker while we worked. Everyday was a headache. Teachers would ignore students half of the time until me or my coworker would go to see whats wrong, then they would go see why we were talking to their students. The staff never address any issue they had or notify me or my coworker about any changes, so communication was terrible, everyday was something different. For the pay and hours it is definitely not worth the stress. The staff would look down on you as if they are better than you in which they are not. I am only speaking of my experience there and it was my first and last time working with the company due to the horrible experience at that school nor did I want to be reassigned to another school after being offered.....so, I resigned and never felt so great about leaving a job.
ProsGetting paid weekly
ConsPay rate, the minimum hours, dealing with unprofessional staff and disrespectful students at the schools you are assigned
Lack of Guidance and support, Thrusted into a position with little to no training
I am very displeased with the environment at the Environment. ESS management provides lack of support , lack of training to its employees, and is disorganized. ESS stands for Education Management and Staffing Solution which is an educational temp agency that employs those searching for a substitute, paraprofessional, aid, nursing, food service etc. work in various districts affiliated with its company across the nation. The description of assignments that ESS provides you with are convoluted and you go into an assignment without preparation or proper navigation of the tasks. The customer service representative who work there are incompetent and have bad attitudes. The Aesop frontline absent management portal has technical difficulties and is troublesome to utilize. The pay is low and not a good enough salary for the duties that its workers perform. I feel as if they do not care about you as an employee and undervalue your role in their workplace. If I was thinking prior to being hired by them, I would have attained employment solely with a district. The only benefit is that you get to contribute to the students' learning and give back to the community.
ProsYou get to chose what assignments you want to fufill, The students are a joy to work with and appreciate your assistance in their academics
ConsLow Pay, Lack of Support, No Training, Lack of Guidance
Company is Careless with Substitute Teacher's Re-Certification Process
The have a department that lacks organization and proper management and terrible Customer Service for when you need important paperwork. Terrible company. They were extremely late in helping substitute teachers to re-certify their licenses. And if there are any error issues that they didn't act like a "Specialist" to handle, the charge you for the error and destroy careers irresponsibly Do not trust them as they are EXTREMELY IRRESPONSIBLE with substitute teachers's licenses. Shockingly weird even... at one point, one of their Department Specialists" .never Followed up and in fact let credentials evaporate and harm employees incomes. A specialist in particular seemed a dim witted or a narcissist attacking the person for making their own mistakes with subs....the person did NOT listen to educated teachers expressing their opinions and are repsect others being upset and/or communicating metaphorically...So ESS employee decided to attack a substitute teacher with defamation of their character.... They are a disorganized company and beware they are not to be trusted with an important job of licensing and employment. Extremely bad Customer Service - seems like they hired a bunch of Millennials that are puppets for covering up Administration's mistakes and then their own communications are like high schools students screwing up your State Licenses.
I believe ones experience with ESS somewhat depends on the school district you're in but the criminally low pay is universal. The pay is barely above minimum wage and you do not get compensated more for a long-term position unless you are a certified teacher. Additionally, they do not properly vet long-term substitutes and give you more work than is reasonable without further compensation. I agreed to a week long position (my first week of subbing ever) on the condition that I would receive a full lesson plan and just had to administer it. When I arrived I was given bare minimum lesson plans and expected to find activities, grade work, etc. on my own time. When I approached ESS with my concerns they downplayed my feelings and told me to stick it out. At another school, I was in a long term position as a TA at another school but was asked to step in for teachers as well. I would have students for two teachers in my room simultaneously and only got paid for one job (despite asking ESS for further compensation). I started subbing for a neighboring school district and made DOUBLE THE HOURLY RATE and had a much better experience. Don't work at ESS unless you're willing to be underpaid and overworked.
ProsDecent training, can make your own hours, regular pay schedule
ConsPoor pay, unreasonable work load for long-term positions, poor communication with schools, supervisors won't advocate for you
Questions And Answers about ESS Education
What is the interview process like at ESS Education?
Asked Aug 14, 2016
It depends on the position you are applying for
Answered Jun 16, 2021
Checking your educational level information
Answered Nov 21, 2020
How would you describe the pace of work at ESS Education?
Asked Aug 8, 2017
Pace is usually slow. Almost never teach , usually assignments are on computer. Depending on school and teacher you may work as little as 2 hours , yet get paid for 8 since you follow the absent teacher's schedule. In NJ teachers average $80,000 a year. Through ESS you can make as little as $16,000+ a year. You can't collect unemployment either during the summer because most likely you will get called back in September.
Answered Oct 17, 2020
Depends on the kids and the envoronment
Answered Nov 28, 2017
If you were in charge, what would you do to make ESS Education a better place to work?
Asked Jul 5, 2017
Find ways to support teachers with challenges with dangerous and disruptive students.
Answered May 15, 2020
The education is fine. I would change the pay rate for individuals who have an higher education and for the schools that are on the site to also be paid. Especially if we are accepting the job.
Answered Mar 1, 2020
Are you allowed to work 5 days a week?
Asked Jan 13, 2017
No guarantee as to how many days you can work. Source4Teachers has flooded the market with teachers so it’s highly competitive to get hours.
Answered Feb 7, 2018
Yes, you can!. However, have an App or check the site often for schedules.
Answered Nov 16, 2017
How are the working hours at ESS Education?
Asked Aug 17, 2016
Working hours are good because there are always teachers out for many reason
