Pros
#1) Culture and people: I came to Providence from outside the healthcare industry, and it has been quite a culture shock - mostly in a good way. There's a noticeable lack of in-fighting, back-stabbing, and undermining by one's colleagues here. When conflicts arise they seem like pillow fights compared to the political intrigue I've dealt with elsewhere.
Not having to always worry so much about the CYA factor allows people to act based on what's best for patients and the organization instead of acting out of fear of what might happen if they take the initiative to do something new and innovative. There is more acceptance of the basic fact that everyone is human, and each person is assumed to be doing their best work in good faith.
#2) Benefits: You'd expect to get good healthcare benefits working for a provider of healthcare services, but they're even better than I had hoped for. I chose a plan that has zero monthly premiums (for me as an individual) and a high deductible, but the deductible was offset by a generous health incentive that was simple to earn, and now I've got a health savings account that I'm contributing to on a pre-tax basis. If I get sick, I'll have all the coverage I need, but if I stay healthy and don't need to dip into the healthcare savings account, I'll be building up tax-free savings for a future time when I'm older and more likely to have big healthcare expenses.
Combined with compensation that is right in line with what I'd been making in the tech sector and fairly generous PTO, I'm very happy with what the HR types call the "total rewards" for my job.
#3) Opportunities for growth: The organization has grown a great deal and recently announced another big partnership that increases its size and geographic footprint. The expansion creates amazing opportunities for advancement and professional development. The work culture is very amenable to working remotely (for non-medical jobs like mine) and there's an openness to letting people transfer within the organization if they find a better fit in a different department or facility.
#4) Mission and values: Most every organization has a mission statement and their "core values" are posted in the break rooms. In my experience, those mostly consist of empty words, and no one in leadership asks "Is this proposed action in keeping with our core values of (for instance) transparency and honesty?" when making decisions.
It's different at Providence. The organization's mission and heritage are woven into daily life here, and while there are exceptions, by and large the big decisions are in keeping with its values of justice and respect and being of service to the poor and vulnerable. The organization's heart is in the right place, and that has made all the difference for me - I'm not working in order to make a bunch of shareholders rich, but rather doing my small part to support work that makes a real difference to real people.
#5) Diversity of thought: Providence at its core is a Catholic health system, and if you work in a Providence ministry (as each facility is referred to), you're going to see crosses and pictures of the Sisters of Providence on the walls (this only applies to Providence proper - read on). But there are big portions of the organization, including Swedish and the recently added entities PacMed and Kadlec, that are secular, and that secular heritage is respected. It creates a bit of confusion sometimes but the organization has mostly figured out how to be both mission-driven and inclusive, and people from all walks of life and faiths, as well as the agnostics and atheists among us, are welcome here. Frankly, there are for-profit corporations out there that are way more uptight and conservative - my preconceived notions about what it would be like to work here were all wrong.
Cons
#1) Consensus-driven decision making: The downside of a kinder, gentler culture is that more people need to be consulted and more points of view must be considered before big decisions are made. That can lead to bureaucracy that impacts one's feeling of being productive.
#2) Change: While a few things seem like throwbacks to the past, most everything else, especially anything related to technology, is changing at a whirlwind pace. The pace of change is really picking up in healthcare, so this is not the industry or employer for you if you're afraid of change.
#3) Ambiguity and complexity: Providence is very large and very complex. The work it does is complex and the ever-changing laws and policies that govern healthcare make things even more complicated than in the for-profit world. On top of that, the organization is in the process of changing and evolving to meet the challenges of the crazy world we find ourselves in, and as a result this can be a difficult place to understand. New hires often find the ambiguity difficult to deal with, but I've found that that kindness and grace of the people here make up for much of that 'con.'
