Groza Learning Center OVERCHARGING, FEMALE DISCRIMINATION, SUSPICIOUS REVIEWS Pacific Palisades California

If you are a parent considering sending your child to Groza Learning Center, a prospective employee, or a former employee considering joining a class action lawsuit against them, you all deserve to know the truth about the place. It appears that Scott Groza has gone to great lengths to hide the following about Groza Learning Center, and I will provide evidence of each claim as a well-documented, legitimate grievance. In order:

1. Overcharging of parents for the types of services rendered.

2. Systematic discrimination against female employees.

3. Suspicious reviews organized to hide negative comments.

4. Bad company culture and work environment.

Claim #1: Overcharging of parents for the types of services rendered.

Parents are routinely charged $100-250/hour for services like homework help, tutoring, and test-prep. Meanwhile the employees are paid about $15-20/hour. This type of 10-20X markup is quite high, especially since the main services are being provided by the tutors themselves. Furthermore, tutors are often mismatched with clients. Why? There are many theories, but the most reasonable conclusion is that the goal is to fill slots to maximize revenue. Here are some reviews with links to the original sources:

"Parents are charged over $100 per 50 minute session, while the tutors see about $15 of that, no matter their experience level or skills. Further, the tutors are forced to tutor in subjects they know nothing about. For example, I had to tutor Latin, while I have never once had a Latin class"

"PARENTS! Not all of the tutors have experience in what they are asked to do. I was asked to tutor a middle school kid in a foreign language that I didn't even know. That was an uncomfortable tutoring session..."

"I was looking for a tutor for my 8 year old and was quoted $125/hr by the front desk. I heard this was a prestigious place so I asked who would be tutoring my child. I looked up the young woman on linkedin, who by all accounts seemed very nice, but she only had less than 1 year work experience and was just out of school"

"The worst tutor center I have ever been to. While the owner, Scott Groza, was incredibly nice and friendly at first, it was all a farce. He promised my child would be paired with a tutor that knew the subjects and could give my son Chase the attention he needs, especially for Latin. However, I soon found this not to be true."

"Advocate for the tutors, for christ's sake. We pay your bills. We do all the work and get an insulting hourly wage"

Claim #2: Systematic discrimination against female employees

There are many comments online from employees of the Groza Learning Center complaining that Scott Groza prefers male to female employees. To provide background, in the United States there is a requirement of equal pay for equal work. More recently, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 further protects the rights of women in the workplace.

"Scott not only pays guys more than girls, but he also has favorites and they are all guys. Example: When a guy left the center for something new, Scott threw him a party. When a girl left the center for something new, Scott ignored it and we threw her a secret party in the back."

"Every single female tutor is paid LESS than every single male tuor, and when women from the office approached Scott, he called women overly emotional and ignored our fight for equality. He lies to parents, employees, and is a secretive, destructive man." (See image for source, is currently cached)

Claim #3: Suspicious reviews organized to hide negative comments

Following a number of negative reviews to expose the legitimate grievances above (and claim #4 which we will visit shortly), Scott Groza retained lawyer Aaron Minc to repair his reputation (i.e. to hide it from prospective clients). Here are a collection of "reviews" which are highly suspicious.

First, Groza Learning Center released a book called "Roots Booster" on Amazon which has five "5-star" customer reviews. Compare this to the business reviews left for the learning center itself. The reviewers "Ellen LaFlesche-Christian", "Angie Lynn", "Kira Thompson", and more were all given free gifts with some monetary value (mostly free copies) and instructed to cross-post their review, almost verbatim, to the business address on google in order to hide negative reviews. These are not legitimate reviews for Groza Learning Center itself, and were clearly orchestrated as part of an intentional campaign. Otherwise why would nearly a half-dozen individuals all cross-post from Amazon to Google after receiving an incentive with monetary value?

Second, in response to mounting negative reviews on glassdoor (following the confrontation referenced in claim #2), someone posted numerous reviews saying how great of a place it was to work. Whereas the beginning posts referred to Groza Learning Center as a "hell hole", there were nearly a dozen posts within a short period all with 5 stars. These posts contain strange language referring to "facility costs" justifying their low salary (which tutors would not be privvy to and why would you list a low salary as a positive?), saying Scott has a "great business mind," and other targeted keywords.

Claim #4: Bad company culture and work environment

Last but not least, the most concerning grievances have to do with the work environment and high employee turnover. The word "bad" is used intentionally because many employees felt mistreated and communication/negotiation was minimized. Below is collection of quotes. These are collected from other online reviews left by former employees and written samples from the management staff of Groza Learning Center. The samples from the management are taken verbatim from the employee handbook published in 2011 ("Copyright 2011 Groza Learning Center. All Rights Reserved."). Another review I found picked out some useful quotes, so I'll use them here:

"No lesson planning should be done 'day of' or right before your session with the student." -Employee handbook

"My schedule was overbooked, and I was given zero time to prep between session." -Former employee

 "How you leave is just as important to us as the work you do while you are with us. This is reflected in recommendations to future employers or lack thereof." -Employee handbook

"Your social plans mean nothing to us." -Employee handbook

"He is catty, retaliatory and generally immature". -Former employee

 "...when you ask for a raise you are asking us to take a paycut." -Employee handbook

"If you are uncomfortable with the philosophy as stated above, do not hesitate to put in your resignation immediately. We are more than happy to part ways." -Employee handbook 

Scott Groza is a selfish, money hungry, and generally uncaring employer. He overworks, overuses and under appreciates his staff. Every single female tutor is paid LESS than every single male tuor, and when women from the office approached Scott, he called women overly emotional and ignored our fight for equality. He lies to parents, employees, and is a secretive, destructive man. -Former employee

"At the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility for the company, the students, and our personal reputation (yes, the reputation of Scott and Christy Groza) is on our shoulders. We accept nothing less from ourserlves than to own a thriving business regardless of world economic affairs." -Employee handbook

"The boss pretends to care about students' needs, but is really only concerned with collecting their parents' money". -Former employee

Most businesses in the education field will make their mission statement about helping children, achieving results, or something altruistic. However, it is refreshing to see the honesty in internal documents that reveal the main goal is to "own a thriving business regardless of world economic affairs" as the top objective. It provides useful and informative context as to the decision-making processes employed by the management for Groza Learning Center.

 Concluding Statement

I hope that the information above helps shed light on the nature of Groza Learning Center so that you can make an informed decision on whether to do business with them. If you're part of the prospective class-action, please don't be afraid to join forces and please leave as many reviews as you can online. Too many women have fought too many battles to stand idly by while rights are being deprived.