Pros
1. There is free Folgers coffee that has been sitting on the hot plate forever, with some scorch marks from parched spills, to make sure you are hyper-alert so you can do more work, even after working all night yesterday. The burn out aroma is in the atmosphere. 2. I guess you just might get paid to post Pros here. 3. Your get to meet new people. The burn and churn business model has created such a high turnover that you get a lot of practice making introductions. 4. There is a so called Hope Fund to help employees who have an emergency. It is fully funded by employee donations. The pay is so pitiful that any unexpected event will throw people’s finances out of balance and in need of assistance.
Cons
Senior management incentives are mostly based on cost per registration, cash collections, hours per registration, employee engagement. The cost per registration means how much it costs to provide service to the patient, outside of the medical services. Cash collection is how much copay is received from the patients and insurance payments. Hour per registration is how many employees or hours are used to provide service to the patient, outside of the medical services. Employee engagement is measured in an annual survey. Looking at all these factors, it is obvious why the pay is way below other companies. Similarly, they squeeze as much work as they can out of every person (over time for exempt and part time for hourly workers), while at the same time cutting benefits. They pull arbitrary and unrealistic deadlines out of thin air to put pressure on you. In addition, some leaders “outsource” their tasks to other departments in order to reduce their own cost and get their bonus at the expense of others. They make sure to leave out a few details so the other departments can be blamed because they are still figuring out how to complete these unfamiliar tasks. Here are the finest finger pointers and back stabbers. They will even complain about the way you dress! The outdated computer systems are also a reflection of this cheap mentality. If it breaks when you need it, you’ll be working even more unpaid overtime. In order to keep employees engaged, there is a lot of pep talk, appreciation cards, casual dress days, spirit bucks that can only be redeemed for cheap company merchandise, meetings for employee to vent, birthday balloons, etc. but no cash (keep the cost down). There is also a lot of talk about values and care but this does not apply to employees as management don’t put their money where their mouth is. The talk about serving patients well also does not apply to employees because it is just another way of saying to work more in order to complete all the patient accounts and do it correctly after working all night yesterday (drink some more coffee and receive ZERO work-life balance). Just search your heart for kindness and do it for all those sick people (and don’t ask for money). They are just looking out for themselves and their bonus and don’t care who burns out or who they run over. Smart people do not last very long. They figure out this “death march” scam, get the experience on their resume, and quickly find something better. If there is no effort to retain these critical people, imagine what it would be like for the rest of the cogs.