phlebotomist

mobile phlebotomist

inventory manager

manufacturing technician

laboratory technician

Oklahoma-Blood-Institute

The Little Rock distribution center was extremely poorly managed.  Because of the poor management inventory representatives were trained on the fly and asked to perform high level tasks without adequate support. Many, many team members resigned (or were terminated) and were not replaced in a timely manner- or at all. This created increased stress on the remaining team members, mandatory overtime in a 24/7 environment, unrealistic expectations, accidents, and unhappy hospital customers. 

The company only hires once per month and for some reason, many people who were hired failed to attend onboarding (6 hours away) and thus were terminated before they even began. This set hiring back another month each time this occurred.  Rather than hire several people and hopefully have a few who actually go through onboarding, the company would only hire one or two employees at a time.  

As the team crumbled and went from about 15 employees to 8, you would have been hard pressed to find anyone in management with either the authority or desire to bring in extra help from other centers or allow new hires to begin work immediately in a limited capacity before onboarding. If you brought a concern to management about not having the correct tools or being over worked, your dedication to "the mission" was questioned. 

All of which was very unfortunate because the job should have been great.  When appropriately staffed the job was fast paced, but manageable and saving lives does give a sense of accomplishment.

Good job in a sense the you do make a difference and can see how important blood, platelet, and plasma donations are. 
Now for the bad:
The pay is not cometitive at all for what inventory managements representatives (IMR) actually do. They are pretty much delivery drives, but administration expects you to learn all SOPs on what to do when there is a emergency like the fridge going down/quarentining blood for example. So as a delivery driver how are you supposed to do computer work when you are out driving 80-90 percent of your day? They either need to make drivers just that, drivers, and IMR handle the documenting, technical side of the BPS department.
Staffing in the BPS department has a very high turnover rate due to multiple issues. Of coure there is on-call shifts which arent too bad but the amount of overtime you have the leads to driving while tired is worry some.
Insurance is very bad. They decided as a company to penny pinch.
Work life balance is very bad. The push and ask alot from employees without any compensation.

Overall the employees make it semi berable and with the high turnover rate you have a chance to move up but there is a high turnover rate for a reason.


I was a Blood Inventory Specialist (Blood Delivery Boy) and I initially had a good time. I learned a lot about Blood....  :-P
Unfortunately, you could end up working way more than you should due to blood related emergencies at local hospitals or the refrigeration or freezer units “going down.”     What really sucked about working all the extra hours was how it felt like you lived at work or on the road, but you were making $10.75 an hour??  Who cares about over time when it’s such a lowing position...    If you’re the new guy or younger than the older and less capable co-workers, you’re gonna get screwed over with the worst shifts...  There’s “paying your dues” than there’s FIRE THE SUPER OLD AND BROKEN PERSON or move them somewhere else in the company...     I loved the snacks and drinks and helping people with an important necessity, but heck... Unless you’re rich or needing to develop some kind of work history....  Don’t do it.   You could make just as much, if not more working as a security guard with 1/4th of the work load and crazy hours...

I arrived at the laboratory at 8 every morning and immediately could determine number of donors as well as non donor samples for testing and begin the workday.  I would packing the containers for shipment and notifying the lab receiving the samples.  I received the flight agenda and scanned and packed the up to 1000 samples into boxes for mailing,

I was expected to keep meticulous records of all samples sent out of OBI,  I then began unpacking received samples from outside clients and hospitals and making sure each sample was prepared for testing from our lab. 

When organ transplant samples were received I was the responsible party for the samples until they were in their particular lab. I always had a lead tech for any questions or concerns.

I learned an enormous amount about team work and organizing skills.

The workplace culture was accepting of all people and everyone seemed relaxed.

The hardest part of my job was trying to be perfect which is noble but frustrating at times.

One of the most enjoyable parts was our pot luck dinners where everyone had an opportunity to relax and remember what we meant to each other.

Typical Day at work: Fast paced and high turnover.
What I have learned: Short Story: The ability to change a blood product and the impact it provides to patients is truly amazing, as well being able to mulit-task numerous different deadlines/staff training and where they are at with training/working with different labs etc.
Managment: Inconsistent leadership training also high turnover with management during my time of employment.
Workplace Culture: Unspoken rules exist. Open to diverse backgrounds (including jail time don't be scared to apply) with extraordinary open arms to anyone willing to learn from nursing students touring campus to previous blood product recipients coming to see how its done. 
Hardest Part of Job: To not speak your opinion when its in the best interest of the company and at times patient or customers as well.
Most Enjoyable: Helping to provide that lifeline for hospital to patient transfusion, working in fast paced environment and helping to provide quality training and improvement to lab needs.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Loved the job, loved the donors, and learned so much! 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Hours are crazy and not anything close to normal. No time for family or children. Also a lot of bullying from senior staff and no accountability or fixing issues by going to management except. “We know it’s a problem but our hands are tied.” 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Rewarding job  but not pleasant atmosphere. No support of each other and not a positive environment. Policy’s are set to punish you for small mistakes with harder make up policies to make the wrong stick count positively instead of negatively on your numbers. Unfortunately, every stick is a number and treated as such. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Depends on the crew your with it is either amazing positive vibes with great people. Or a stressful day where you don’t want to come back.

This company stands for a good cause but the way that the company treat their employees is ridiculous. The company has a very high turn over rate. some days are good days but the majority days are very stressful. You work a lot of hours and every weekend. If your schedule says that you are to get off at 5, you may not get off til 7. Your off time always changes.The management there is very petty, also they do not keep matters confidential. The co-workers, there are about a handful that are really cool and easy to work with. The rest of the co-workers are annoying and will tell anything that they see. The hardest part of the job is the physical part of it and dealing with unprofessional management. You can make a decent salary but their is a lot of negative things you have to put up with. The most enjoyable part of the job is being able to meet a lot of new people and know that your helping save lives.

Typical Day at work: Fast paced, catching up for high turnover/short staffed in this particular department for several years.
What I have learned: Short Story: The ability to change a blood product and the impact it provides to patients is truly amazing, as well being able to mulit-task numerous different deadlines/staff training and where they are at with training/working with different labs etc.
Managment: Poor Managment and poor leadership training.
Workplace Culture: Unspoken rules exist, fall in line and don't speak your opinion even if its in the best interest of the company.
Hardest Part of Job: To not speak your opinion when its in the best interest of the company.
Most Enjoyable: Helping to provide that lifeline for hospital to patient transfusion, working in fast paced environment and helping to provide quality training and improvement to lab needs.

You get to work every day and you had to make sure that you had everything you needed to make the blood drive you are scheduled to run goes successfully. Loaded all the equipment into trailers or vans depending on what kind of drive it is. Everyone that was scheduled the same blood drive as you helped unload and unload all equipment, and helped set up and pack up all equipment. At this job I learned how to be more professional, punctuality, and improved my phlebotomy skills. For the most part all the co-workers were very nice, welcoming, and helpful. There was alot of manual labor involved and that would have to be the hardest part. The most enjoyable part of my job was getting to meet some amazing people and knowing that everyone I get to donate with us Im helping save the life of three people, and that feels good.

You go in to work every day at different hours, load the vans with your equipment for the day and head out to your blood drive. Benefits and PTO start from day one, so you can accrue time off immediately. Only bad part of that is you can't use the pto until 90 days after hire. The hours may be a bit much for some, but you get used to it fairly quickly. It's like your 2nd home, so your coworkers become like family. And just like family, you've got your favorites ...aaaaand then you have the ones you'd rather disown lol. The days are still great because everyone is pretty laid back. It's nice getting to meet new donors every day as well. Overall, it's a great place to work.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Phlebotomist 198 salaries reported	$18.03 per hour
Mobile phlebotomist 10 salaries reported	$19.00 per hour
Inventory manager 42 salaries reported	$15.85 per hour
Manufacturing technician 44 salaries reported	$17.41 per hour
Laboratory technician 9 salaries reported	$22.44 per hour

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