nursing attendant

program coordinator

human resources associate

assistant professor

faculty

University of Illinois

The intermediate care ward was opened as a way to separate the critical and non-critical patients in the hospital, so the ICU could focus on truly critical patients. It sounds great in theory, but nobody put any thought into how it would actually work. Even the departmental structure was not thought through. ICU and ER are part of the Emergency and Critical Care department of the hospital. However, the IMC is not and then we were told it was, but now we find out it never officially was. So, IMC is left with absolutely no support, no administration, no backup if things go wrong, just the nurses and staff trying to take care of patients and being constantly battered from all sides. There is constant infighting, petty drama, overcrowding, understaffing, etc. There is currently no supervisor for the room. There can be anywhere from 4-24 patients in the room on any given day with 1-2 nurses responsible for them (sometimes up to 4 nurses during shift changes). These patients can range anywhere from a broken leg and healthy to immobile with multiple drains, catheters, etc. The staff are given little to no training. Oh, they are "trained" for 8 weeks, but the person who trained the current staff had them do worksheets and meetings for two weeks and then handed them off to wander around the floor for the rest of their training. It is learn as you go and, if you don't know something, you are ridiculed and/or disciplined. You are "encouraged" to do CE to learn, but none of the senior staff actually helps you or teaches you. The higher management has heard these complaints a million times and knows patient care suffers, but nobody does anything about it.

I worked as a dialysis technician in a hospital setting taking care of CKD patients in the ICUs of the hospital and also serving the chronic unit across the street from the main entrance to the hospital.  I monitored patients' statuses after initiating dialysis and reported any changes to the charge RNs on duty.  Management was good...we were unionized employees so the pay was pretty good and so were the benefits.  My coworkers were fun, thoughtful, appreciative, and respectful - AT ALL TIMES!!!!  Very professional, and took pride in what they did for a living, as well as made sure that they were as up-to-date as possible in their duties by pursuing certifications in this field.  The hardest part of my job here was leaving.  I relocated to another state for work because at that time, I needed to change my cost of living from higher to lower.  The most enjoyable part of my job was watching my patients learn about their disease and really try to make as much progress as possible when we were not with them.  I also enjoyed being allowed to train staff in this field, since I did have the experience to do so.  And I enjoyed knowing that the managers did not tie one person down for this special task, as they had confidence in all of our abilities to train new staff members.

I've been at the U of I for almost 12 years. Every school year is a little different. Due to different students and living environment. A typical day for me would start off with a meeting with bosses, then proceed to pull trash and start my daily job duties. When it comes to working with co workers we would work together depending on the job/time of the year. Typically I work Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30p.m. I have my own job/run that I'm responsible for everyday. When it comes to management I get along with them very well and seem to always be the one they ask for help with, any extra tasks they may have to be assigned. The hardest part about my job is it can be very physical such as times in the summer, there's a lot of physical expectations required. Such as, (going through all the dorms debunking or de-lofting beds, moving all room furniture, some buildings with no elevators, scrubbing and stripping floors with buildings with no air conditionings). These all things that can be hard about the job, but when you work with a good team of co workers it makes things work well together. The most enjoyable part of my is being around the students and getting to know them, because they come from all over.

A typical day at work was checking and replying to a LOT of emails, problem solving, scheduling project meetings, attending project meetings, working on deliverables, working on individual projects then absorbing the day and planning the next one.

I learned Tableau and Business Objects report-writing skills, as well as Business Process Improvement techniques.

My immediate supervisor was great to work with.  My manager, however, was a micromanager and not the easiest to please.

The culture was progressive, despite being majority white.  In my unit, specifically, it was white male dominated.  Very professional to/with our clients but laid back within the unit.  Nearly every employee is at least Bachelor's educated, with several having Masters and PhDs so I worked among some highly intelligent people with great ideas.

The hardest part of my job was keeping my manager happy, whose concerns seemed to often differ from my clients.  Budgeting issues kept upper management anxious, since we did not work in one of the lucrative departments.

The most enjoyable part of the job was working with my coworkers and clients.  People in general are happy at the university, and the benefits are very nice.

Whenever I'd be called in to work, I'd arrive at the mandatory pre-exam meeting, discuss important information that may be needed to relay to students, and give input as to how to better manage the exams. From this, I learned how to maintain a group as well as keep them organized, and a sampling of how to lead. The management worked well most of the time, but sometimes there would be circumstances out of their control. This was never really an issue as far as I'm aware.

Coworkers were mostly useful, canvasing through the room of students with me to ensure that everyone was maintaining fairness and helping students when necessary. Sometimes, however, the coworkers I was assigned to for an exam ended up sitting in a corner and working on their laptops, often making it more difficult for the rest of us to watch over students taking the exam. This ended up being the most difficult part of the job, but to be fair, it didn't affect our abilities that much, and they were usually working in their own coursework too.

The best part of that job was helping the students out with understanding their questions. That helped me stay on my toes and remember my own education, as well as giving me a better perspective on how other people approached certain physics problems. And I don't deny that I felt pleasant being useful.

Working within the University of Illinois with Extra Help, Civil Service has broadened my opportunities and taught me what the office life is all about. I have never enjoyed a job as much as providing for administration and contributing to a team of Academic professionals. I've learned to work with a diverse group of adults. I believe being young myself and working with older adults has strengthed my ability to communicate with others. 

The hardest part of the job is that I am a temporary civil service worker. I enjoy being invited into new experiences and new duties with different departments for the experience. As for job stability, I am always on the fence of if a job could turn into a potential permanant position. This is why I have choosen to search for new opportunites off the campus as well. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is the great team we have here over at the university. I love when theres events where we get together as administration and can be proud of what we have accomplished and what we can do to better the college.

Additional Information regarding the rating of the job:  I rate this a 5 star overall , The website would not allow me to rate this job as I would like to give it credit for.

I am one of 2 IACUC Specialists handling about 600 active protocols, about 200 active research faculty and about 2000 active personnel. Much of my time is spent conducting prereviews of animal use protocols involving agricultural animals and wildlife (my colleague handles most of the lab animal projects). I spend some time researching issues that researchers or IACUC members have questions about. Recently I have become involved in assisting programmers with design and implementation of an on-line protocol submission and management system. With 2 IACUC Specialists and an administrative assistant, we generally feel rather overworked sometimes, but I do get satisfaction from being able to assist researchers in getting protocols approved in as little time as possible. I miss doing hands-on research, but I am pleased to remain involved in science in this way, and am happy to be doing my part in ensuring that animals used in research have superior treatment at all times.

There's no support for farm staff whatsoever. Have been here many years and have had to put up with straight up verbal abuse and harassment from the research assistant, who creates a hostile work environment so toxic that most people leave because of it. This person has been reported to HR multiple times with no action taken against them whatsoever. 

Additionally, management is extremely poor. They hired a new manager who literally does not have any experience working with poultry. As a result, the new manager has to constantly ask the director of farms (who manages all department farms and works from an office) how to do things. The directions being given on how to run the poultry farm are from people who have never worked with chickens before and have no idea how the farm runs. The new policies being implemented such as forcing people to work 10 days in a row have had a hugely negative impact on staff, considering it's not necessary and it's only being done because "that's how the other farms do it."

This place could be an amazing place to work and a fun and productive work environment, but due to the people running it and the lack of support the farm staff recieves, it is the total opposite.

I had the opportunity to work as a Teaching Assistant (TA) at the University of Illinois while pursuing my graduate studies. This role was highly rewarding, both professionally and personally. As a TA, I was responsible for leading discussion sections, grading assignments, holding office hours, and providing academic support to students. The experience significantly improved my communication, teaching, and organizational skills.

One of the highlights was collaborating with experienced professors and fellow TAs, which allowed me to gain deeper insights into effective teaching methods. I also appreciated the flexibility of the position, as it allowed me to balance my research and academic responsibilities with teaching.

The university provides a diverse and inclusive environment where students and staff come from various backgrounds. This helped me to improve my interpersonal skills and adapt my teaching style to meet the needs of a wide range of students. The role was challenging but extremely fulfilling, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to gain teaching experience in a university setting.

It was a new lab 3 years ago, and do to an extremely high turnover rate there are only a few people that have been employed since the beginning. No protocols for field or greenhouse operations were ever made, so every new person had to re-invent the wheel, making everyones job more difficult. Everything from watering to data collection to harvest has been done different every year. I have to work extra hours every week for which I don't get paid just to keep us from falling so far behind that we have to dump projects. All of the graduate students are overworked and under compensated, as are the rest of the lab employees. I don't feel that it is the fault of any one person. Lack of communication and poor work ethic during the early years of the lab most likely set the standard seen today. However, experiments are run well and the papers written from them are quality, but at the expense of the grad students and employees well being.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Nursing attendant 27 salaries reported	$37.50 per hour
Program coordinator 1 salary reported	$43,000 per year
Human resources associate 15 salaries reported	$71,665 per year
Assistant professor 15 salaries reported	$88,717 per year
Faculty 14 salaries reported	$147,500 per year

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