care coordinator

research technician

senior research scientist

mail carrier

health screener

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

First off, the job advertisement says they are looking for a phlebotomist with a varying schedule. When you get there it's for a TEMP position with the hospital. They'll tell you it's a very busy department and they need help which is true, but what they don't tell you is they mainly need help to work the shifts of their lazy, unreliable employees. Dress code is business casual which I find ridiculous since you are handling blood. I don't know how OSHA can allow people to handle specimens in dress shoes, what if an accident were to happen with one of the tubes or needles?  I never knew four inch heels, leggings, and short dresses were acceptable lab attire. They "train" you to record vitals by having you watch another phlebotomist take blood pressures, height and weight then you take a quiz. There were some answers I didn't know and when I asked the nurse that had to sign me off she just circled the answers for me and said it's ok don't worry about it. Co workers are awful, extremely nosy & unprofessional.They go from one floor to the next distracting each other from their work just to talk about each other. There were a few of them always asking about my position if I was hired as a regular employee, asking me about my hair, my clothes....the list goes on and on. I have heard some of the most unprofessional conversations take place while patients were in the room.
 The supervisor is no better, she thinks that because you are new that you are her personal slave. She expects you to change your schedule for her at the last minute because she's short staffed nearly every single day, and if you say no then you're a "problem". There were times when she was down 8 people a day for over a week. How can management allow this when some floors are scheduled to see over 200 people a day??? I had to deal with one too many sarcastic remarks and petty behavior from the supervisor just because I told her I couldn't work a holiday for her. This is another issue with that department, she makes a list of people to work holidays at the beginning of the year but once those holidays come around guess what, none of those people listed can work. This however, was not my problem I started months after this list was made. I didn't get paid until almost a month after starting because she did not give me a timesheet to fill out. I asked her repeatedly how was I supposed to get paid and her response was to not worry about it. When I didn't get paid and mentioned it to her, she said I should have reminded her, I thought that's what I was doing when I kept asking, guess not. I never knew I was supposed to remind a supervisor to do her job within my first couple weeks of being there. You will definitely get a workout being there, since the department is always short staffed you spend your day going up and down from one floor to the next helping out as much as you can. I did encounter a few nice people there, but not in the phlebotomy dept. Many of the other employees in the building act as if they're hanging out in the streets of the ghetto they grew up in. 

If you get called for an interview from TES (Temporary Employment Services) run! Working 50 hours a week on mostly short notice, with no benefits or decent pay is not worth it. Even if you do get hired as a regular employee you have to complete a six month probation. I was told to apply for a permanent position, but I was not interested. This is my first and last time ever working a temporary position. If I knew what I know now about this horrible location I would have stayed at my previous job, this place was a total waste of time.

Sloan Kettering is very selective in their hiring, they expect from you the highest standards as an individual  to come and work for them, you must be well educated, and this does not mean having a college degree, but educated in your manners and in your demeanor no ghetto attitude, and no attitude period with staff or patient's .You work in a cancer patient environment and the best hospital in the world for cancer and the hospital has a great reputation, so patient's go first before you. Any constant complaints about an employee they don't play they will fire you in a blink of an eye!!! So if you have a  9 to 5 attitude and you are lazy and don't take that extra step in everything you do, don't apply for any job here because they do work you!  And you won't last working here. If you like to be late or call in sick, don't apply if you can't be prompt with your job, again they don't play 3 strikes and you are out. MSKCC is a private hospital and you don't have a union to back you up, it doesn't matter  if you just started or have been working there for years! 

Pros: they have they state of the art facility, best working equipment, good training, and ongoing through the years, they pay for college 80% reimbursement! this is if they haven't changed. Good benefits. Employees are normally very good it's mixed between, Whites, Latinos and blacks, but I would say employees they hire are great co-workers everybody is respectful of everybody like a family. 
Other departments staff and doctors, nurses are courteous and very respectful, great working environment, always room for advancement if you are hard working person. If you ever leave the experience , knowledge and background and the hospital reputation will take you far.

Cons:  Management, is not always supportive of you, you can do a million things right, and one day you make a mistake your in trouble, they don't account for your overall work.  They are by the book, it doesn't matter if you are right, it's what they say, so if you are a person who holds a grudge think about it. If you take your complaint to HR well they will listen, but favor management, it's like why did you even go there, so go with flow mind your business, do your best and you will survive as I did for 29 years, but I guess you find this in all companies.  It's hard to get the vacation time you want because only two employees can get off at the same time, so if you are 20 it's difficult so if you had Christmas last year off you may not get it in a couple of years, you know what I mean. Your sick time has to be very justified, and if you are late too many times they will Changed your working hours, if you are still late you will get written warnings after 3, you can be fired. 

Last but not least: I learned a lot at MSKCC because you get a lot of training and technology , patient interaction skills,  and they do keep you up to date with everything from your work to patient responsibilities. I owe my livelihood to MSKCC, and I met so many beautiful co-workers, staff members, doctors that are the best in what they do! And so caring!!!!!So I'm proud to sayI was Part of the MSKCC Team and I have a ton of education and the best work ethics anyone can get by working, so if your looking for a great hospital to work and your serious go for it!!!!

I hope this was helpful!!!!my review!!!

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Memorial Sloan Kettering is good depending on your position. If you have a non-exempt position, then you will probably have a good work-life balance because then they would have to pay you overtime for any additional work you do after your scheduled time.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Memorial Sloan Kettering are okay, it could be better, I was definitely getting paid more outside of memorial Sloan Kettering. But my benefits  somewhat make up for what I'm not getting in liquid asset.  But having both would be nice.

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Memorial Sloan Kettering, I think that memorial Sloan Kettering definitely retains employees which is a good thing but most of those employees will stay in the same position throughout their lives at msk. that's actually very discouraging. I don't think enough paid internal training is done for their employees to actually grow. Some of the people I've worked with been in the same position for over 20 years or in the same level. It's great that they retain employees but I wish that those employees were in roles of leadership.

Management
In general, managers at Memorial Sloan Kettering are okay but don't exactly have enough power to make the overall changes that are needed in the corporation. Some of the managers have more qualifications than the supervisors. The nepotism is real. The revenue cycles department needs to be restructured and reorganized. The company definitely lacks the organization that I thought it should have for a company at this scale.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Memorial Sloan Kettering is wonderful. You get to meet a lot of colorful people at memorial Sloan Kettering, I will say that the people there are nice to me at least.

Overall
My experience working at Memorial Sloan Kettering was different than what I expected. I definitely had different expectations before I got into memorial Sloan Kettering. My expectations were higher, and I was slightly disappointed after two years. However it's not a bad place to work, it just needs to be restructured. This is coming from someone who works in the revenue cycles. I'm not sure how the medical component of the hospital works,  I'm sure it's better.

My overall time at MSK was a positive experience. As an Office Coordinator, you are "behind the scenes" of the doctor's practice which includes tasks like answering the phones, scheduling appointments, requesting medical records, and basically being the liaison between the patient and the clinical team. The hours are Monday-Friday from 9-5, so there is a nice work/life balance. You are paid hourly so time and a half if you work overtime is nice.

Some negatives - there is little room for advancement at the regional sites. Most opportunities for growth are in Manhattan, so it's something to keep in mind if you plan on staying at MSK long-term and want to really move up the ladder. I've also found that if you are a good worker, management isn't very encouraging when you try to apply for other positions and will try to convince you to stay. However, I will say that management is supportive and helpful if you ever have any questions or run into any issues with patients, your co-workers, clinical team, etc.

There are no bonuses and little gestures to show appreciation for employees' hard work are few and far between. More recently, MSK has followed the "woke" trend that most of corporate America seems to be following and essentially sent an email out that they wanted to meet a race quota for certain upper-level managerial positions. Myself and other co-workers noticed recently that promotions were being given to people based on their skin color and not on merit. Race should never be a deciding factor as to whether or not someone gets a job or promotion. If the best person for the job happens to be a person of color, then great - give it to them. But if the best person happens to be white, then that shouldn't count against them. Apparently now it does though.

I would absolutely not recommend this job to anyone. It simply isn’t worth it. 

MSKCC creates an extremely toxic environment by over working and under paying their office coordinators. They bring hundreds of new people on every month with the promise of growth: but there aren’t enough positions to grow into, which creates an environment where your colleagues throw you under the bus to enhance their chances of promotion. 

The training team is extremely great but unfortunately their training really doesn’t prepare you for the role- all it does is make it take far too long to bring employees into vacant positions. Positions remain opened for months. 

The amount of work is unreasonable: my coworkers were constantly doing voluntary, unpaid overtime to finish their tasks and try to appease management. There is also little supervision from management after your mentorship- even though they knowingly hire people who have had zero hospital experience. As a low level employee, you also take the blame for everything. Even if something else was clearly someone else’s fault, since you’re the low level employee, it becomes your fault. There is conflicting instruction from various senior level employees. Many of the managers also started as OCs so they play favorites in not only a personal manner, but also a professional manner. 

MSKCC is actively aware that their OC turnover rate is unmanageable, but rather than hiring more employees to lighten the workload and paying them more, they just keep doing the same thing and benefiting off of those that they’ve falsely promised “growth” to. 

There are many care providers and higher level employees who are extremely kind and understanding in the learning process of getting acclimated to the role, and it would be nice to see the same thing from your direct supervisors. The benefits are good but a disappointingly high deductible when you’re working for a “world renowned” hospital. 

A typical day at work at Memorial Sloan Kettering normally consists of fast paced movement and tasks to be completed at a reasonable time. My day usually starts out with staging equipment for delivery to be shipped out to different locations of the hospital and off sites. I also identify and relate assets to the appropriate tickets and stage them for delivery. If I am preparing a workstation computer then I have to include additional software. I also complete deliveries around the building I work in to users and technicians. I close out tasks that are completed and always made sure that I carefully read and completed the tasks the way it was explained to me in the ticket. Multitasking is key to do the job and I believe I have learned how to do that efficiently and correctly with very little to no mistakes. Management at Memorial Sloan Kettering was overall well directed. Their is plenty of moments when management is not exactly on the same page with the other workers. A lot of times management has the habit of overloading only a couple of workers to do the work of six workers and its only two workers. I am always a team player I can work well in groups because my goal is to do get the job completed and efficiently with the work evenly distributed. I can take charge when I am told to work with another co-worker or a group of co-workers. I don't believe in loading the work on one person while the others are not participating. The hardest part of the job is keeping up with the amount of all the jobs and projects that come in while making sure everything is ready for delivery. The most enjoyable part of the job is completing difficult tasks in timely manner and completely a large number of tasks to ease up the work load for the next day. That way the next day will not be as chaotic as the day before. 

This is usually a wonderful place to work. Unfortunately, due to decreased staffing, and a shortage of healthcare workers, the dedicated staff are overworked, and  frankly, unable to provide the quality care that they’re re accustomed to. Employee satisfaction and morale are low, which I believe is trickling down to patient care. Of course, I don’t have any quantitative proof,  just my opinion. I can’t imagine that patient satisfaction scores have increased over the last year. It’s difficult to care for patients with complex needs with less staff, especially since COVID.  The employees really do care to make cancer less scary for patients and still try to provide above and beyond care. There have been many resignations because  morale is low due to the high volume of patients and long hours because of inadequate staffing. I just hope  they improve staffing since this will improve morale. It’s hard to feel good about what you do when patients are complaining  (valid complaints) frequently about wait times and unable to get follow-up appointments, testing, procedures, and treatments in a timely manner. Management is inadequate with positive change, and not providing additional support is an issue, however middle management isn’t given a lot of support from new executive/director level leadership. The leadership at MSK needs to find a new vision because the current one is ineffective and certainly lacking. 

The IT systems are glitchy and frustrating to navigate. Once they fix staffing and the IT issues, this institution is a dream workplace for your career as a professional in oncology related healthcare. 

The Pros-It is a diverse workforce with a positive & professional workplace culture. There is plenty of opportunity for professional development. Most employees are extremely skilled, helpful, supportive, and knowledgeable. 


I learned a lot about Dermoscopy and Dermatology.
During my time at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, I’ve worked a variety of positions. I helped to set up PDFs that would act as a new system to submit photo equipment repair requests to Canfield. The PCTs use cameras to document moles and lesions although they did not previously have any camera education. Some have come to me to answer questions, help fix a setting, and/or hand their cameras off to me so that I'll be the one photographing a patient’s skin while they prepare the necessary items for a biopsy procedure. I was able to observe some full body photography in addition to the dermography and dermoscopy. I had some experience working with the Plastics & Reconstructive Breast department where patients were photographed in a few poses. A comparison was made on one patient’s chart to compare her first reconstruction (saline), when her saline implants ruptured, and her recently reconstructed chest with silicon. I was pulled into the MOHS department where a PCT, two full time pathologists, one doctor and two doctors in training had never heard the term Kohler lighting. I set up their microscope for them and taught them to white balance to the white light and not the H&E stained tissue on the slides. I also observed a single case of Confocal Microscopy. I felt all along as if working at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center was a professional environment and as if my input was taken into consideration on matters.

The company has great benefits as well as tuition reimbursement they encourage you to use which is generous but most staff have Master either through the tuition assistance or on their own dime yet there is no opportunity for growth especially for minorities and women there is nepotism and infancy management the work is very tedious and taxing as it’s a place to start but don’t stay past a year or two get out asap as there is no benefit to you working there other then working with the lovely patients as the organizations as a whole pretends to care about their employees; however, the truth is they do not you’ll be overburdened and overworked and if you are a great employee your manager will block you from opportunities it’s really a juvenile work place I feel it’s best for young adults straight out of college as the mentorship they provide is for young impressionable adults not well versed individuals.  I’ve see a lot of people leave out sick from anxiety, depression and burnout including myself. It’s the least diverse hospital it feels segregated as there are clicks amongst staff no viable relationship between lower level administrative staff, doctors, nurses, and management and the environment & atmosphere is border line depressing. The best thing that came out the pandemic was being able to work a hybrid work schedule as it saved most employees from leaving I’m sure.  Most people are still around because they’re stuck as they’ve stayed too long.

I was excited to begin my career at Memorial Sloan Kettering I've only heard good things. That shortly changed a few months after accepting a position there. I believe if maybe I worked for a different department or location my experience wouldn't be so bad. First off, The Basking Ridge site is extremely difficult to work for. You are Micromanaged every second of every day. You can never do anything right because management is constantly complaining how everyone needs to do better. There is no appreciation at this job. I felt like cattle most of the time getting the patients in and out of the facility. They always rushed you but then they say their priority is patient care? How can I provide efficient patient care if I am continuously being rushed?  There is also no room for advancement at the regional sites so if you are looking to work for MSK Long Term I would apply to Main Campus in Manhattan. The only benefits to this job were my wonderful coworkers that kept me through the day and the patients that we served. It was a great experience connecting with the patients. Also, the benefits are very good. Another situation is that they have tuition reimbursement but you can never use it. If you want to go back to school good luck because my schedule was constantly changing everyday when I had told them I cannot work after a certain time. 

Like I said I really believe my experience may have been different if I did not work at this site and in the position I was in. I'm sad that this was my experience with MSK.

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