blood specialist

technologist

technician

inventory specialist

transportation specialist

Bloodworks-Northwest

I enjoyed the first few years and I was able to learn a lot. They definitely start taking advantage of you after you learn everything. 
I got the most recognition in this job during my 2 weeks before I quit.
Benefits are only great if you are young and healthy.
Management and senior leadership has their heads in the clouds.
They apparently don't have a termination policy, so people with poor work ethic just gets a free pass in this job.
They opened a new job role that was a higher title but not a higher pay grade.
Too much On calls and schedule switches, I felt like I was working 50-60hour weeks every week.
Regular techs are responsible for monitoring lab equipment overnight.
They really guilt trip you in to taking overtime because a patient is on the line, regardless if they have enough people that can actually do the job sometimes.
They never say no to clients, even if it meant being understaffed.
Management would rather put out fires than have actual planning and foresight to prevent said fires.
Regular techs had to step up into leadership roles but aren't recognized or compensated for it.
Regular techs in those pseudo leadership roles are then blamed for the failures that management didn't have the foresight to manage.
Management likes to gain control through unproductive meetings and micro-managment instead of either allowing regular techs be leaders or being involved in the team
Management still thinks they can perform tech duties when they themselves don't go through yearly competencies and testing
The training program is one manager making up rules without actual standards or tested competency
Bi-weekly one:one with a manger but they still don't know what's happening in the team
They don't give any recognition besides the pingboard applauses or a cheap sweater with the company logo, and only after 6 months or a year after the fact
I really like being able to work with people in the same age group.
They treated millenials like children and justified overtime because they didn't have families or obligations
Management can work from home while the techs are forced to work in office
No paid parking, parking a month is around $200
They can not pay you for the 30 min of lunch you didnt get
They can charge your on call pay to regular pay because you didnt reach 40 hours
They will call you on your day off even if you're not on call because managment can't handle it
Department has no clear policies to managment can gaslight you about their fake rules

Given how important their work is, it is scary that the company is full of bureaucracy and will not innovate and change the culture so it is failing fast. There is an alarming toxic culture that devalues people and creates outrageous high turnover. Others in management are cut throat and steal credit for others' ideas and work. There is no room for advancement, another reason great people get fed up and leave for better companies. They need to outsource HR and hire experienced professionals to change the culture and make it more positive. Pay is so far under average for comparable jobs and they cannot keep good people. Bad management and poor financial choices have put the company in a serious freefall. 

Pros
Caring coworkers  
Top notch medical staff
Impressive research
Does a lot for patients 
Great mission
Marketing and engagement team is friendly and talented
Things can turn around if you address the toxic culture, which is why your best people are leaving.

Cons
In a financial tailspin
High turnover
Toxic Culture 
Horrible hours and schedules in blood collections
Staff are screamed at if they don't hit numbers
Sued by a long list of employees due to hostile workplace issues and uncaring harsh HR who treat people like replaceable numbers  
The most talented people leave after being mistreated by staff and finding HR to be totally uncaring about dysfunctional staff ruining teams
Toxic staff are there for years and the innovative hard workers get fed up and leave 
A few bad eggs play political games and undermine colleagues to get ahead, but this comes from the TOP and the bad example trickles down 
Layoffs are used to balance books
Lots of blaming and taking credit for others ideas and work in management level 
Morale is terrible!!!!

This review does not apply to the research facility.

 BWNW suffers from very poor executive leadership. They don't possess progressive business minds. Many, including the former CEO, have medical backgrounds. Which is fine if you have business acumen, vision, and an innovative mind that makes wise decisions. I never saw evidence of any of that. What's worse, in the decade the CEO was there, he didn't seem to learn or grow in the business side of his job. And made over $1 million per year, public record. 

 Also BWNW solicits input from employees, then either takes the ideas and uses are their own, or seeks to find out who left honest, but negative, feedback, and does what they are not supposed to do. In short, there were consequences for those who wanted to have a discussion about the many negative qualities. When a facility has to have anonymous feedback, if there is such a thing, that in itself shows you have a culture of mistrust and fear of retribution. 

Many good people either left for better jobs, or were forced out. Many who only wanted what was best for BWNW and to discuss the negatives and offer solutions,  or at least propose a dialogue on how to make things better. many wise, innovative minds have left because of the culture.

In one of the most innovative cities in the USA, it is difficult to image how BWNW is so far behind all the other cutting edge businesses in their neighborhood.

BWNW serves a vital role in the community, here's hoping the new CEO can turn things around. I offer sincere best wishes.

If you are a majority, you work in HR or a supervisory position. There are NO minority supervisors or HR personnel you can relate to or trust. Diversity is a joke and often used as an advertisement ploy. Having a personality or being friendly is frowned upon. You MUST NEVER try to fix things or ask "why" or you will become an instant target. 5 people can have the same behavioral mistakes but one person will be made an example of. Do NOT be friendly. No one comes to work to make friends apparently. Most people hate their lives and make terrible conversation even though they see you 10 hours a day. And unless you are over 40 and have more than 10 years under your belt, your concerns are disregarded and your questions passed over. I really like some of my coworkers and the job is incredibly easy but I have never felt so inadequate, targeted and outcast. There is no positive reinforcement at ALL. You come to work expecting to hear only what you did wrong and which old employee is angry because you did something different. Critical thinking doesn't exist and morale is insanely low.Also, NEVER make a judgement call on your own. Always send the call to your supervisor who you rarely see and is rarely available because you will get blamed for EVERYTHING and immediately thrown under the bus. Don't be social... at all.

Only good thing about this job is the Donors and the mission.  The company itself is amazing. They just need to do a better job hiring serious people that actually have a “team” mentality vs dramatic all for myself mentality with no idea how to function outside of their own personal anxieties.

Some of the employees I witness are cutthroat, eager to get ahead of each other unethically; by lying and spreading rumors. Why?  Isn’t the goal here to save lives?   Why are they hiring drama Queens/ Kings?  You lose good employees that ways . 

A lot of Younger employees  (out of HS)  that need a better understanding of what it’s like to work with other people that think and believe differently than them.  Stop being so easy to offend.  Also, I would hear a lot of complaints about people talking about their wage on the donor square. Comparing why so n so makes more then them. That is unprofessional. 

Often the young pride buckaroos get so offended when their feelings get hurt over little things that shouldn’t even be an issue or focus. Butt-hurt generation need to focus more on saving lives vs hating your team members and comparing your wage to others. 

Bloodworks is a good place to get your foot in the door when starting in the healthcare field. The pros include: full benefits, easy PTO accrual, and many locations to choose from to work at, many positions to change to/from throughout the company. The cons: they call you constantly on your days off, there is no family-work life balance because hours vary significantly from week to week, the schedule is not released in a timely manner, you have to be an advocate for yourself (days off, sick time, checking PTO used accurately, NOT overworking yourself), they also emphasize perfection which is unrealistic and out of human control. Overall a decent place to work with good benefits, but you must be an advocate for yourself or they will take advantage of your time and commitment to work.

I learned a lot working here, it allowed me to enter into Phlebotomy for the first time. Co-workers will keep you sane. Management will strip that. If you haven't worked under SOPs before, you will learn how it works very quickly. You'll learn how to do your job one day, and then the next day there will be mandatory training for a new process that makes no sense, and forces you to learn an entire new process to remain compliant. Your work life will 100% depend on the type of person your direct supervisor is, they can either guide and help you or make you feel like you're under surveillance and scrutiny at all times. Never be afraid to ask your fellow techs for help, they are all happy to assist you. You will be required to travel a lot, either with your own vehicle to a different center, or in the truck/bus for mobile drives. Your shifts will never be the same week to week.

As soon as I started many people warned me of all the overtime I’d be working, getting called on my days off at 515am to cover a Sick call. And how the pay rate I got hired at was just as much if not more than some techs that had already been there for 3 or 4 years. They constantly would work us short staffed at centers making things miserable. It’s a reasonable place to get lots of practice in phlebotomy. Pay is not so great. Workers are trying to unionize to protect themselves over the last few months and over the next couple months I hope that does work out the way they want it to. I was not impressed by upper management the ones who over saw my direct supervisor. Because they never saw our work ethic or our day to day work conditions. Some centers were more difficult to work at than others. You are sometimes sent to another location as you’re driving somewhere else. Understaffed, no longer allowing overtime but not enough staff to cover so many people are having to do overtime and getting emails about having overtime.

I started working nights part-time in the phone room contacting blood donors at home. Was quickly promoted to full time day shift contacting people at work. I was then promoted to a DSCIV position, where I helped find donors to donate for HLA specific platelets, plasma, white cells and coded red blood cells for donors. Typically for patients with cancer. I loved this job and was passionate about it, but the two managers were unabashed bullies towards me (and also to select phone room staff). It got to the point where even my co-workers would point this out. Any issues with this attitude brought up by a subordinate typically ended up with them coming up with a reason to terminate them. Eventually, I had to say something to HR and shortly thereafter I was let go for something that I know I did, but they said I didn't. It's a shame, because I was really good at my job and felt a sense of purpose every day I worked in this position.

Starting off with the things I liked about working for this company include lots of PTO, paid training, and most of my coworkers were good people. However, there were always issues with management higher up in the company. Bloodworks is greedy and doesn't care about their employees and I say this for a multitude of reasons. They fired our entire receptionist staff and also the call center staff. They make the phlebotomist's do basically everything (manage the front desk and register donors, answer the phone, monitor the canteen if no one was present, drive the blood buses, etc). In fact, this company is so cheap that they began recruiting volunteers to do things for free after they laid off over half our staff. When Bloodworks began to take over, we lost over half of our donor base. This is a prime example of the inherit greed that comes with a larger company taking over. To them, we are just four digit numbers that can easily be replaced. Glad I won't give them anymore of my time and contribute to a horrible company.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Blood specialist 62 salaries reported	$29.99 per hour
Technologist 23 salaries reported	$42.30 per hour
Technician 8 salaries reported	$31.25 per hour
Inventory specialist 6 salaries reported	$32.57 per hour
Transportation specialist 3 salaries reported	$31.40 per hour

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