Would the Mayo Brothers be disappointed? Probably.
Pros
Mayo Clinic has many great things going for it. You have the opportunity to work with some world class minds and equipment. Making lateral movements within the foundation is a viable option even if it takes some time. The compensation is geared to keep people for the long term, the benefits are reasonable (provided you receive treatment at a Mayo facility), and the fact you are associated with the Clinic in general allows many perks with insurance, discounts, etc. On paper the mission statement that drives the direction of the Clinic "...the needs of the patient come first..." sounds wonderful. The "Three Shields" concept is motivating: Practice, Education, & Research. There are many people that are intelligent, driven, and truly do care about the direction of the medical field to enhance patient care, satisfaction, and experience. When you find those people, hold onto them, as they are your true resource to experience the vision that the founding Mayo Brothers had. While the location of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, itself is a little boring, it has the feel of a small town with some of the conveniences of a large city, which isn't such a bad thing if you have a family.
Cons
Mayo Clinic is a bureaucratic hell. There is enough unnecessary red tape to suffocate any and every respirating organism on the planet. At times getting access to equipment, funding, and personnel for clinical research can be a struggle, whereas another colleague can request the same thing and literally have it almost instantaneously. Mayo Clinic is very much a who you know community rampant with nepotism, favoritism, and other inequities. The "Mayo Mantra" is to speak up when you as an employee have comments, questions, or concerns. This can be to your detriment given the aforementioned, and I speak of this in a completely neutral fashion. You don't have to be forceful, rude, or considered a "problem" to be the recipient of severe backlash should your viewpoints contradict a member of management's or a consultant's (doctor's) opinion. Suggesting something, even altruistically, can come back to bite you the higher up you go in the Foundation's food-chain. Despite encountering intelligent, driven, and compassionate individuals for every one of them there are 20 who care nothing of innovation. People with whom I have spoken with that have been with the Clinic for decades and from my own experiences have shown there are plenty of hourly, salaried, and management staff members who care nothing more than to maintain the status quo and their paycheck. Some individuals get away with terrorizing other employees or flat out not working regardless of how many times they are reported. This has been observed in lower to mid level management as well. Mediocrity can be a problem, and from what I have seen these are the people that get promoted. The management system is stifling, where they have more say or pull than the scientists and consultants for whom the patients actually come to see for care. Having multiple people with whom you report to often leads to contradiction to the point where you spend more time finding out how to navigate around these confutations to finally get to producing something valuable to the Clinic. Do they have meetings to schedule meetings more than they should? You bet. Management of my department has admitted to having hour long discussions of words like "tardy." Really? Webster could define that in moments. We use the private donation and visiting patient's money for that? More often than not people that aren't even remotely your equivalent in experience or education level will be in charge of you, who will request you to do something that is either completely wrong or in some instances dangerous. During your time in research you may find yourself continuously baffled as to why people that would be perfect candidates for these positions tell you that they applied for "that job" only to be turned down many times. Mayo reacts like an overactive immune response to problems that could be solved with simply firing a issue employee. Example: if one employee is constantly leaving early and reporting they are staying much later Mayo remedies this by punishing everyone to a new time keeping system. What was once a flexible and amicably maintained perk in the interest of the patient and Clinic has now become almost completely inflexible. Mayo Clinic as a whole is in some respects still living in the past and riding on its name too much. The world is changing and Mayo's competition is growing in aptitude at a better price point. "Mother Mayo" seems to think she is the entire cosmos when in reality she is still a microcosm.
