TESH: Resigned due to poor management

I am writing to correct some inaccurate claims that were made in the article about the recent events at TESH. I was an employee at TESH for nearly eight years, but last week I couldn’t stand to be there anymore. Leadership made my workplace so uncomfortable and intimidating last Friday that even clients were calling parents to be picked up and taken home before the day was over.

TESH was more than a workplace to the approximately 20 employees that have since resigned due to poor management. It was a family. We didn’t care that we were underpaid. We understood that this fantastic nonprofit put clients first, and we believed in the mission. The average tenure of a TESH employee was 13 years, virtually unheard of in the nonprofit sector. Sadly, a management change shifted the focus of our mission and things came to a head last week. Employees brought the issues to the attention of the Board of Directors, but our input was ignored and they sided with new leadership. So with heartache, staff decided to walk away.

It is a travesty, when a service like TESH is one of the only resources for our clients and their families, to have such a total lack of leadership running the ship. Not only has our mission been completely dismantled, but staff felt deeply and personally attacked. New management’s communication was poor, they never showed up to staff gatherings, pictures of clients on our website and social media were replaced with stock photos, and hurtful comments like “you’re replaceable” stung.

I’m a young employee, just turned 30. I would’ve worked at TESH until my own retirement.

ANDREW DALEY

Post Falls