phlebotomist

senior phlebotomist

medical technologist

licensed practical nurse

medical assistant

Quest Diagnostics

If there is any chance for Quest Diagnostics to completely fall of the boat, it is to have a subsidiary as ExamOne. This place is ridiculous. It is some sort of telemarketing company, that is responsible for life insurance applicants’ medical exams at their homes. It is a good merger, because Quest has the lab necessary for testing the blood specimens. The problem is that since the lab in Louisville is responsible for Kentucky and West Virginia, hiring of Mobile Examiners has to be done in a semi virtual form. Plus, since they cannot guarantee any work schedule, they don’t hire full time or part time phlebotomists, but they very creatively call it “on call” position. This also means that they can call you and rely on you all day long, but they will only pay you if work is assigned to you and completed according to very questionable rules.  It is very stressful job. No one knows how much work will be available, when and even if there will be anything, because sometimes applicants do not show for the appointment or they cancel it. So, you don’t make much money at all. The company compensates you a very a small amount for canceled appointments, but it is not worth it and you have to fill out forms and wait for someone’s approval, which wastes more of your time. This is why they call it “on call”, because they do not want to pay you for your time working for the company. 
   They have a lot of employee turnover, but they do not disclose it and keep looking for lost souls who are clueless about the working conditions and lack of decent pay. That is how the company operates, by deceiving people and not disclosing anything in advance, so they can use your cheap labor for as long as you can take it, then they switch to the next one if you don’t like it.
  When you go to work for a new company, you would expect that that you can count on your manager when issues arise or at least for an advice. Not here. When you apply for the position, the manager calls you for a short interview, and this is the last time you will ever hear from him. He neither has time for you, nor has the desire to deal with employees. He immediately gets rid of you by transferring you to HR for a difficult hiring process. If hired, in about a month, you might receive a short email from him telling you that you are assigned to someone else. If you are naïve enough to ask him a question, he will always email you one and the same new employee packed, so you can find the answer yourself and live him alone. 
The whole plan how employees work is actually not so bad if the pay was worth it. You give the company a window of availability during the week, at time of the day convenient for you. If you give them a very wide window from early morning to late evening, you will not be given more work, but a couple of home visits will be spread throughout the day. So, you might work early in the morning, then again around noon, and again in the evening. Your whole day will be kind of assigned for work, but you only get paid per case, which is not much. Support stuff who actually work in the Louisville’s office, disappear at the end of their shift and you can never reach anyone. They are not insane like Examiners to accept per case job offer. They are the lucky ones to have work schedule, get paid, and enjoy their lives after hours. 
   Since, you are using your own car and the company refuses to compensate you adequately for gas and wear and tear on the vehicle, this is all on you. They justify this by telling you that you can claim the mileage in your tax return next year and get the money from the government. They pay per case, instead per hour, which is not in your benefit at all, but it is for company’s profitability purposes. Training with the company is online only, support is very poor and rules are very blurry. No one in the company cares about you and your success. The chance of mistakes is very high and when you make one, then you finally hear from the useless manager. He sends you an abusive email saying that you made an error, and you will not be paid for the case until you fix it, and your name is sent to quality assurance department. Of course he sends you this email just before payday, so you don’t have enough time and you don’t get paid what you worked for.  There is no other way, but to hate the manager for stealing from you, but this is how the company operates anyway.
You never know when you will work, and how many cases you will be assigned. You will be able to see your schedule in advance, but it is never fixed. There are different exams and you are paid accordingly, but there is not a huge difference. The average pay is slightly higher than $20 per case. You might be assigned two or three cases per day or less. You are using your own vehicle and you have to have a good computer with a good printer, because you print a lot of paperwork. After vehicle and other personal expenses for company benefit, considering the time needed to drive to peoples’ homes, complete the exam, fill out paperwork according to very shady rules, and preparing everything for shipping, you make about $5 to $6 an hour.   It is very stressful job, support is very slow and unreliable, and you are on your own. You will feel like you hit the bottom in your life and you will end up broke.

The first bit of this review is to satisfy the indeed prompted topics. At the end you will get the message I want to share to prospective hires. I would recommend reading the full thing, but if you can only read one portion, please read my final review and its bullets.

Typical day: My main duty as a contract specimen processor was to enter data that processed COVID-19 samples. I had some other duties related to this, but generally my job can be described as putting barcodes on test tubes 400-600 times a day.
What I learned: I didn't learn any valuable technical skills in this role. I became very efficient at my job, putting up "astronomical numbers" according to multiple supervisors. This won't particularly translate to any job that isn't specific to data entry.
Management: Simply put, I empathize for the supervisors and shift leads who serve as messengers, because they have to deliver very poor messages from upper management to the processors. The supervisors and shift leaders who serve mostly as day-to-day supervisors and messengers for upper management were hit or miss (the three in this role when I left were fantastic!), but once it got above them, it was pretty universally unfortunate.
Workplace culture: You work, you get your breaks, and that's about it. No culture in this position besides the 30 second conversations you give to other processors because you crave any human interaction after staring at a computer all day. The face of Quest isn't horrible though, properly advocating for health and human rights.
The hardest part of the job: The job wasn't really difficult. It was mostly mind-numbing data entry. 
The most enjoyable part of the job: Some of the coworkers were great, and tried to find ways to make the job more enjoyable. Also, you get to listen to lots of music, audiobooks, and podcasts, so if you enjoy that, you will get plenty in this role.

Final review: I would not recommend anyone to take a contract position within specimen processing, and I would be hesitant to recommend a permanent position as well. Below are some of the issues that really make it not worth taking a contract specimen processor position at Quest Diagnostics.
- There were instances of promised bonuses that were taken away from us. These bonuses required an additional 16 hours of work over the course of a month, and upper management sent this message as "be thankful for the opportunity." This is a horrible message; if we are doing the extra work, and you need this work to be done as such due to the urgency, a compensation should be fair. It's especially wrong if you then take this away.
- Growth opportunities were limited; I was offered a permanent position after putting up 150% of daily target numbers, but for a worse shift. This was a day after they hired a permanent employee taking the same job during my shift. Reading between the lines wasn't hard here; they were hoping that I was desperate enough to take this worse job because it was an upgrade from contract to permanent.
- Onboarding was horrific; when I arrived for the start of my contract, they didn't even know I was showing up. They had me do filler tasks while they figured it out, and I didn't really get to start my training until the end of my first week. I know that I am not the only one that has had these issues.
- My biggest issue was the lack of growth within the job. This is independent of growth from contract to permanent; this is learning all the duties that can be filled under this contract. Because I was a fast learner with excellent numbers, I was given the opportunity to learn basically every facets of the job. However, once I knew these duties, upper management not only did not look to train other contractors in these duties - they actively instructed shift leaders and supervisors to not train others. Instead of having specimen processors be cross-trained in all aspects of their jobs, many were explicitly told that they were not allowed to be trained for the sole reason that upper management did not want them to be. If this isn't a red flag for a job, I don't know what is.


What is the best part of working at the company?
The benefits were good if you have dual coverage. Prescriptions were always lower in cost if you have medical issues. They would price match you on your contribution to your 401k.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They expect you to be an octopus and tolerate verbal abuse from out of control patients. They always have a high turnover due to people using them as a stepping stone in the medical field. They are constantly adding on testing kits with no solid training foundation to where you feel confident enough to complete the kit without it coming back to you incorrectly. They overwork their staff with minimal incentives. They hire newbies at a higher pay rate than the ones who have been their longer thinking the company would value them more for their dedication which nowadays that mentality ceases to exist.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is stressful. If you don’t have thick skin or you’re not able to adapt to your surroundings every time you turn around you will not last long there. The amount of times you think you’re doing the right thing will always turn out to be not good enough for the company. The don’t properly staff and the high turnover makes it more stressful in addition to trying to get the patients in and out. The patients are a number to this company. It’s more of herding cattle in and out with out trying to make mistakes along the way. When you do make mistakes they will grill you on what happened and make you feel as if your job is constantly on the line.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You come in and they want you to clock in by dialing a long number instead of using a time clock to swipe in and out. You get bombarded by patients trying to ask you questions as you’re walking in to clock in. The waiting rooms are always packed to the brim. When you place your items in the break room you have to get a lab coat turn on your computer that has a million passwords to get through. You take your first patient back hoping they only have one order instead of five that they have from different doctors along with asking the patient for their insurance information and collecting money before you draw them. If you get a patient who is hostile you’ll have to cater to them in hopes that they’ll turn their attitude around after they’ve yelled at you for asking them to pay up front before services rendered. If you get a patient who only has one order you’ll wait for your specimens to clot before you spin them. You’ll need to process your specimens correctly and the paperwork as well. You’ll be expected to see more than 25 patients in your shift along with helping patients sign in at the kiosk instead of having front office staff. Or patients yelling about how there is no front office staff to ask questions. You’ll be expected to give a smile underneath your mask and ask patients to wear masks in the facility!

I worked as a senior financial analyst at Quest Diagnostics. During my time there, I encountered several significant challenges, primarily related to management practices, which I believe are worth highlighting for current and future employees. 

Firstly, the communication from management was often unclear and inconsistent. Important decisions were frequently made without consulting or informing the relevant teams, leading to confusion and inefficiencies. For example, on multiple occasions, project priorities were changed abruptly without any explanation, causing disruptions and delays. Secondly, there was an extensive lack of support and guidance from leadership. Despite repeatedly seeking direction and feedback, I often found myself navigating complex tasks without adequate assistance. New roles were created to address these scenarios; however, even the person in that role just referred to Google in a lot of their “training”. This lack of mentorship and support contributed to a stressful work environment and hindered my ability to perform at my best – COMPLETELY. Furthermore, the management style tended to be overly authoritative, with little room for employee input or collaboration. Constructive criticism was rarely provided, and when feedback was given, it often lacked actionable advice or encouragement. This approach stifled creativity and made it challenging to foster a positive and innovative work culture. Additionally, there seemed to be a disconnect between upper management and the day-to-day realities faced by employees. UNREALISTIC expectations were set without considering the available resources and the time required to complete tasks effectively, leading to burnout among staff and impacting the overall quality of work produced.

You are allowed unlimited PTO; however, managers (the ones I was under) wanted to know everything about why you were taking your days off. By no means are they obligated to know; however, these managers definitely lacked proper etiquette—one other obnoxious trait in the management team there.

The only important things I learned from this company were that you are on your own, management throws you under the bus for their benefit, s£xual harassment incidents are considered nothing when management is involved, and document EVERYTHING you can to make sure you can back yourself up and don't, by any means, don't ever let anyone in on your advanced skills - they will use it against you or exploit it, and you get no credit.

Utterly, it was one of the worst places I've ever worked. 

I worked in the Quality Assurance Department.  At first things were great but I soon learned that I worked for the worst department due to the two-faced petty and ridiculously moody managers that were on power trips like I'd never experienced before.  I am a woman, and honestly it was the first time I had female bosses and boy did I learn some unpleasant lessons.  Up until I worked there, I had always had male bosses and I can say without a doubt that working for the two female managers here was the worst 6 months of my life.  They would talk about other people behind their backs (one manager would put jelly beans out in the department and then she would talk trash about other women that she thought were eating too many jelly beans!  The pettiness doesn't end there! Even though she took it upon herself to buy the jellybeans and put them in the MIDDLE of the department, she was so petty she put a sign up requesting donations to refill the jelly bean dispenser!  This woman made more than $90K a year and was petty and would talk trash about a nice lady from the lab over JELLY BEANS!  She would also write down the exact minute others would leave for lunch as well as the minute they returned.  If they were 3 - 5 minutes over she'd talk about them behind their backs and if she felt it was becoming too frequent (we're talking literally 3-5 minutes) she'd snidely mention it to them.  Meanwhile, she would take LENGTHY lunches, come and as she pleased, and stand around the department eating her precious jelly beans chatting for lengthy periods of time but she was the manager so the rules didn't apply to her - either that or she was completely incapable of seeing herself for who she was.  I made the mistake of feeling as though I get comfortable enough to relax and be more of myself (instead of the "professional robot" behavior required in a lot of office settings).  One day, I'd completed all of my work and I said "What do you want me to do?" I said it in a friendly way with a silly tone.  She gave me the nastiest look and I didn't understand why.  More than a week went by and she called me into her office and ripped me a new one over my "What do you want me to do" comment.  She said she'd never been spoken to in such an unprofessional manner in her life.  I was flabbergasted and realized I could no longer work in such a toxic environment.  It had gotten to the point where I literally felt ill when thinking of going to work.  

Good:
-Had some fun work events (though my department was so busy we couldn’t participate, or if we did it would add to our already extreme amounts of overtime)
-Nice Coworkers
-Sometimes they would bring treats
-Training program improved after we got a new team lead

Bad:
-Production environment encouraged unethical cutting of corners and would praise those employees.
-Training was nonexistent when I arrived.
-Expect between 30 minutes to 3 hours overtime every single day.  Then, after consistently working hours overtime everyday, sometimes going 12+ hours without eating drinking or using the restroom, you might be denied the yearly bonus that gets smaller every year. 
-There are 2 types of successful supervisors: 1) Knows the job extremely well and is great at troubleshooting, training and answering questions.  2) Doesn’t know the job of the employees under them very well, but are great at managing people.  The Screening Toxicology supervisor was neither.  You couldn’t ask her help with a question about the job.  You couldn’t ask her for any help of flexibility with your hours.  She was chaotic and inconsistent, pulling the department this way and that because she reacted to everything any employee told her without even trying to look at the big picture.  Which was also confusing because at the same time she treated her employees like lying children trying to get out of work.  If you were sick, she would assume you were lying.  She would talk to other employees about OTHER employees, speculating whether or not an employee had been lying about someone.  She would ask employees to be her eyes and ears about the lab, and she wanted to know if anyone was talking about her.  She would take credit for any good outcome, but not take any responsibility when things went wrong.  She would not stick up for us, but would throw us under the bus.  She was forgetful and unorganized so supplies would often run out in the middle of a bad day.  She would make promises and dangle the proverbial carrot for things like less overtime, or an advancement/pay raise that she never intended to keep.  
She doesn’t try to improve herself/education but is satisfied staying at her level.  Makes many mistakes but very critical and discouraging of employees almost to the point of bullying.


Quest makes everything more complicated than it needs to be. They have mandatory trainings online that you have to do that aren't worth 2 cents... if you fail they bring in a stranger to retrain you in that area. There are frequent changes on how they want you to collect specimens without warning. The phlebotomist are expected to act as a lab tech and know how to do things that they really aren't qualified to do. The psc centers are staffed with one phlebotomist and no one to greet patients or assist with questions. They converted to a check in tablet for wait times that many patients have trouble with. This is supposed to reduce wait times for patients but is often frustrating for them and the staff. If there are questions about orders you're left calling doctors and helplines which is stressful and time consuming. Managers are spread out and if you have an issue it's hard to get a hold of them unless you use your personal phone to txt which is not paid for by the company and is an unacceptable form of professional communication.  Wellness screenings are done on one system,drug screens on another ,and most everything else on the care360 program which is awful. They also ask for a credit card at the time of service for the estimated insurance amount that insurance will not cover as a way  to get people to pay down debt. If they have a balance and can't pay they will be refused service until it's paid. That shows that they care more about profit than patients that may need neccessary tests. Even if you aren't a float they will send you to other locations as they see fit,and if you refuse you're not a team player willing to meet business needs. There are also mandatory monthly meetings at a site of management's choosing but they do pay mileage. It is difficult to get time off and they ask that you plan your life 6 months in advance,yet you'll most likely not get what you've requested based on a lottery system that employees are left wondering about. Get used to working weekends because there are no schedule guarantees. This is why quest has such a high turn around rate. Way to many hands stirring a kettle that is constantly boiling over.

there was alot of brown nosing by employees and management showed alot of favoritism. I had a supervisor lie to me about getting a raise and making me believe it for 6 months then finding out hr never approved of her and my managers proposal. In fact people that made too much in my department kept their pay which two other supervisors stressed to me that was not right for them to be there. Also certain people could work poorly and get away with it because she was a good brown noser. Alot of flirting with married supervisors from other employees that was very noticeable especially when this young immature 19 yr old would brag about what they were doing behind this so called happily married supervisors wifes back. emailing, texting and him telling her about personal information about everyone in his department. If we are to respect supervisors they make it very difficult especially seeing this kind of behavior. DO NOT WORK THERE IT WAS FRUSTRATING THE LAST 5 YEARS OUT OF 13 THAT I WAS THERE. Clinical processing was like a circus very poor management and working alot of overtime because of stupid meeings that took away from our processing time. It was ridiculous to especially have fortune 500 say "Quest is one of the best places to work". This is making fortune 500 look pretty bad they obvious dont get the inside story on this place. My friend who was pregnant was going to get fired because it was so hot in the department she thought she was going to pass out because the air conditioning was broke. They said if you leave you will be fired. How considerate they are. She left because she cared about her baby. They of course did not only concerned about the work getting done. DO NOT WASTE YOUR LIFE AWAY THERE GIVING UP CHRISTMAS EVE AND RUINING YOUR THANKSGIVING ITS NOT WORTH IT. This is a very discriminating place and they only care about your butt being there to work and not I repeat not about any of your personal matters or being treated fairly on any level.

What is the best part of working at the company?
 Collecting  blood from patients in.a compassionate and caring  way. Obtaining the collection correctly on the first stick while easing patients fears and calming apprehension with professional and friendly nature. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
What they call short staff is a chronic issue and they do not open more positions that are needed. They depend on competitiveness for a constant sense of urgency so that tensions build between coworkers  and this should not be the case. You are expected to perform a sprint for years on end without much thought to the fact that our customers are human patients and run it like a factory job. I came to quest 20 years ago because I believed in their core values and was extremely proud to be apart of the quest family. Now it doesn’t seem that patients or phlebotomist are valued as humans   

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture is work work work. You can not possibly have a chance to get to know the people you work with or even the time to simply find out what benefits you have or how to use them. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
One patient every 7 minutes to register, collect insurance, demographics, payment and blood, along with scanning in cards and collecting signatures. Processing  the samples for shipment
and on top of this you must order all supplies, clean, call fed ez for special pick (not aloud to use computer system for this part)and do testing modules. Quickness and accuracy are not rewarded. Great customer reviews does not equal even a small amount of praise and on the other hand you are given a corrective action even if the computer resource tells you to do it in  the wrong way. If you ask for vacation days or must be a year in  advance and it’s a round Robin system so your not very likely to get it. Long weekend or family vacations are nearly impossible to get approved for because the entire year is filled up by November of the previous year. They have an option to change this but refuse!

I worked for Quest for 4.5 years in two different regions. My last position was a Float in the San Gabriel Valley. My first 1.5 years was great. I was a part-time then full time employee. I started at a infectious disease clinic in Northern California. I must say although very fast paced, it was one of the most rewarding jobs I have held in 32 years as a Phlebotomist. I had one of the top 3 supervisor/Lead in my career. They helped me excel at customer service and were always there for you, instructing you on the way Quest did business and what the expectations were and gave you the knowledge to not only meet them but exceed them. Again this time was so great.
After my transfer to the metro LA area, it was a nightmare of a job, not the duties, but the Supervisor and the Lead are at the bottom of any managers I ever had, so disorganized and created internal strife because of their lack of management skills. Impossible to get any time off, it took me three years to get a vacation, for one week. Working open to close with 2 hour lunches, that were split and given no notice of this. Told my work schedule by text with less than hour to report, or no message and just went to my previous days assignment, as a Float you do not have a set schedule it's day to day, again I knew what job I took, it's not how this is supposed to be done though. Unbelievably incompetent supervisors who had 5 employees that they gave anytime they wanted off too. I worked six days a week with no notice of if I could get a Saturday off, went 9.5 months working like this, it took a toll on me physically and mentally. The supervisor hardly showed up physically and telecommuted most days. 
So to wrap this up. This can a be fantastic company to work for. Help you develop your skill set and give you what is the highest customer service training you can get in this industry of PSC's, and you can advance to management. You just need to get in the right area with a good supervisor and lead, and then you will see how great and rewarding a job can be.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Phlebotomist 60 salaries reported	$19.15 per hour
Senior phlebotomist 99 salaries reported	$21.07 per hour
Medical technologist 10 salaries reported	$29.50 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 40 salaries reported	$31.90 per hour
Medical assistant 153 salaries reported	$23.58 per hour

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