The IT Division uses an autocratic style of leadership and the culture is set in stone. You can provide ideas, constructive criticism, and innovation, but it will fall to death ears. Perhaps the worst thing about working at YRMC, is the lack of communication. Extremely poor communication between management and employees as well as between departments within the IT Division. If you like being micromanaged, told in public you are wrong and your opinion doesn’t count, this is the place for you. IT leadership is completely dysfunctional due to the CIO and the immediate directors. The CIO is passive aggressive and always plays his happy game face when he meets you. Behind closed doors, you will be in for a ride. Everything you put together from reports, executive summary reports, Power Point slides, will be securitized top to bottom for proper grammar, formant, and tone. If he sees one spelling or grammar mistake, it will be rejected and you will have to wait another 2 months before your funding or project to be approved. If you have a question for him, typically the answer is, I don’t know or it is too early to think about it. So, if you are the proactive type of person, this isn’t the place for you.
If you liked being lied to or have the “rules” changed midway in the game, this is the place for you. They will promise you this and that and then all of sudden, they will deny what you are talking about. A good example is your job description. They will use “other jobs as assigned” to their advantage. Don’t be surprised you will be required to perform a another job role without additional pay or change in job titles. Oh yeah, once you get sucked in and then want to bring your case to HR, think again, they have already said in public they side with IT leadership. Not enough staff, too bad they will say and will tell you that you signed up as an exempt employee or the job offer said you will work overtime as necessary.
How about training opportunities? You will receive training with one caveat, you are required to sign a contract. If your training is over a certain amount, you will be required to stay with the organization for 2 years or be forced to pay back the training costs (training cost, material, flight, car, food, etc). So, can you decline training? Nope, if your job requires specific training, you either sign the contract, quit, or be fired. Will my employment offer have this spelled out? Nope. How about the competitive salary they advertise and they look at market trends. Nope. It’s all a lie. They say they buy market data and make sure everyone is compensated fairly. Coming into any IT department, you will be offered the lowest end of the pay range and you will not be able to negotiate. If you really want to work here, I advise you to talk to recruiters for salary ranges before you accept that offer.
Okay, you are probably thinking, this guy must be really disgruntled? Nope. I just want to save you the trouble from going through the pain that everyone is suffering in the IT Division. As of this writing, approx. 23% of the 100+ staff have left after 1 year. Most of them have been voluntary terminations and small handfuls have been fired (mostly supervisors). The departments in the IT Division are so short handed and now are hiring contractors. When people leave an organization, it says volumes that something is not right. As YRMC’s CIO will correctly say, people don’t leave organizations, they leave their boss. Will the HR recruiter say this. Nope. Her response will be, YRMC has many employees that have been working here for several decades. This is true but not of the IT Division. And why do the other people stay at the hospital for so long? YRMC is one of the highest paying employers in Yuma, the only hospital, and their family lives in Yuma. YRMC has no competition and that is part of the reason why hospital leadership in general is poor. There is no incentive to change organizational habits or culture. The current CEO is the former CFO. Well, guess what, everything is the organization is financially driven. Patient safety and quality takes the back seat.
In summary, if you just like being a lifer, don’t like making decisions, like being micromanaged, have no potential to grow, have to sign your life away to attend required training, earn a below market salary, enjoy ridiculous challenges, spending hours on end and having your work being scrapped, endless buffet of meaningless meetings with no agendas, no project plans, high employee turnover, chaos, assignments due at EOD, working lots of overtime, being demeaned, and no support, this is the place for you.
