This might not fit perfectly with the sub but I wanted to post about my experience working for just 1 care home, it's a lot but it's still not anywhere near everything.
I was on an early shift (7am-2pm) and the manager was complaining because she didn't do the rota correctly, but hid away in the office till after we left so we couldn't see the new rota until she had gone home (so we couldn't complain about the worst shifts possible, or illegal shifts) so at 13:50 I said to everyone on my shift let's leave at 2 on the dot and get out asap as they're short staffed and make her do the shift, I ran straight to the pub on the corner and waited for my call, she was fucking furious about everyone already ignoring/being too busy and when I told her “I can't, I'm in the pub down the road” she said “so you're close enough to come in then!” I replied “yep, I'm not even 5 minutes away, but I've already had a pint and on my second with a whiskey, I'm not allowed back in, you'll have to figure something out” and hung up.
I was on shift the next day and got called into the office by the acting manager and she said it was very unprofessional how I spoke to the other manager, how they where short staffed and they both had to stay and work until 6pm until they finally got cover and that neither of them should have had too (acting manager would usually leave anywhere between 2-5pm but always filled in her timesheet to 6pm, and the manager wasn't meant to be for our home so she only came in for 3 hours a week to fuck up the rota and hide it until she left) when I said that it was unprofessional to try and get someone to come in that is already over the driving limit, she questioned what I meant and I told her that I explained I had already been drinking and, I wouldn't be able to come in but manager kept trying to get me in and trying to guilt trip me, she for some reason completely changed her tune about it, which is completely out of character and said I was right to refuse to come in but if I could leave it a bit to start drinking just incase (my shift ends when it ends, I'm not being on call everyday for a few hours after work because the managers refuse to do their work).
It was a complete shit show of a company, we didn't have an actual manager, the acting manager would just lie, start arguments, blame everyone, throw her weight around and do nothing, the manager from another home would just do the rota and the district manager would come in and say everything is running fine and he's still trying to get us a manager.
Throughout my probationary period I pissed off a top manager for talking back after he started shouting at me for something that wasn't even my fault and threatened to fire me for telling him “don't raise your fucking voice at me, you want someone to blame and I'm telling you that it's not me”, fun times, after that I realized that the house was so understaffed I could get away with anything as long as it wasn't illegal.
I would do all 20 shifts (maximum amount) as soon as possible within the month with usually completing them after 2 weeks, throw in some unplanned overtime and get away with a lot more, they tried giving me a warning for a shift that I didn't go to because it wasn't on my rota and they changed it while I was off for 5 days (the day I didn't show up to was day off number 5) I told them I have a picture of the rota that was taken after my last shift ended and I had no calls, they tried to gang up on me and even pulled the “5days is a lot of time off” and I had to tell them I already did more than my maximum amount of hours, and if they want to add more they're going to need me to sign the rota change.
They kept trying it until I told them I am not accepting any overtime that I haven't said yes to so after my 20th shift you will need someone else to cover, they had to find around 15 shift covers that month and all the managers where called in to cover multiple shifts that I refused to do.