Yikes - Plebotomist CSL Plasma Employee Review

Almost too many to name. Some are dependent on the quality of your specific center, while others are systemic. Center-dependent cons include: lack of upward mobility (only way up is to move centers), inexperienced management, consistently getting scheduled shifts during your off days (then receiving attendance points if you can't get someone to cover them), rampant favoritism from management, poor communication about upcoming changes (of which there are many). Obviously, your mileage may vary, but the center I worked at was considered to be one of the best across the fleet in both key performance indicators and audit evaluations. Coworkers who floated to other centers were always relieved to come back to our center as they said others were downright atrocious, so I don't think that other places have it any better. Some cons you can expect to see from any center: awful culture, disorganized operation, abysmal raises (barely above inflation), nonexistent HR, problem donors are at most given a slap on the wrist then allowed to return, application of policies is inconsistent, highly overworked, always understaffed by design, corporate constantly throws out nonsensical decisions without explanation, benefits are not as good as they're made out to be, managers are not given enough autonomy where it matters so they are unable to handle certain problems. I could go on and on and on. There is a reason why the staff nicknamed this place CSHell. What you can expect from this company: first and foremost, they will work you into the ground. Burnout and turnover is HIGH. Most new hires don't make it past the first year. But that is exactly what corporate wants as apparently they believe it is cheaper to constantly churn through the warm bodies than to make conditions tolerable enough to stay. Yet it is not possible for management to hire enough people because corporate frequently enacts hiring freezes to keep labor cost down. So even if a center loses half their staff in a single month, they will not be allowed to hire people to replace them. This means that there is a constant spiral to the bottom of how thin they can stretch people before they break. It is not an oversight; it is an intentional part of the business model. It is taxing on the body and the spirit, so call ins are insanely frequent. No one wants to come in. People would often pay others to come work their shifts. Scheduling is a nightmare. Getting a stable schedule is difficult. You never really know when you will be working, so it is hard to plan out your personal schedule for things like appointments. Yet they will expect you to keep your personal schedule from interfering with work. Most weeks, I didn't find out what days I was working until a couple days before the week started. There were many weeks where I didn't get my schedule until the first day of the active period. Yet they require 4 weeks notice if you want time off. Because of these things, it is near impossible to have a good work/life balance, not to mention very stressful. Availability sheets are routinely ignored, so you'll be scheduled on your days off if you try to have a stable schedule. You are also still responsible for the shifts, so you have to either work them, pay someone to cover, or take the attendance points. If you're off, it is likely that they will call and ask you to come if it is critically short handed, though there is no bonus or even appreciation for doing so. If you choose to come in, it will usually be for a few hours to get them past the rush and then you'll be sent home to lower the labor costs. During the slow season, it is common for people to be sent home early to cut labor cost. This is also when you have to take your vacation days if you are full-time. It's an unspoken rule because management will deny time off requests during the busy season. So if you're sick in August and want time off to go to the doctor, too bad. If you give less than 4 weeks notice, they will automatically deny the request. A big bone of contention around the workplace has been their stance on funerals. Those requests are automatically denied, so if you choose to miss your shift for a funeral, you WILL get an attendance point. They do not recognize that it is not possible to have a 4 week notice on when your relatives will die. This has only gotten worse with COVID. Let's talk about HR. The running joke around the staff is that it doesn't exist. There are no HR representatives in center. Instead, HR tasks are given to managers. Inevitably, this leads to a myriad of issues. For example, it took around 4 months for my direct deposit to be established even though I completed the paperwork on my second day. I had to badger them about it over and over. Eventually, I had to physically watch the person scan and send it in before it finally was done. Similarly, it took 4 months for them to switch me from part- to full-time. I worked full time hours during those months, despite getting none of the benefits. I was repeatedly lied to by management that it "was almost through, almost done, nearly there". When I finally snapped, they told me that it was because they were on a status freeze per corporate, meaning that no one could change employment status, whether it was part/full-time or changing job titles. If you decide to work there, keep a close eye on your payslips because I noticed they deducted "lunches" from my hours once. When I asked about it, they said they assumed that I forgot to clock out for my lunch and were trying to help me out. In reality, I had never gotten those lunches because we were too short staffed. After I called them on that, it never happened again, but I worry that they have "helped" others who may not have realized. The biggest issue with HR is regarding complaints. Since there is no in-house HR, conflicts are expected to be handled by management. Again, this causes so many issues. Unlike HR who is supposed to be impartial, management is very biased. You could have 3 people give the same story and they would believe the person at the center of the complaint if that person was a favorite. This leads to several employees who enjoy certain perks, such as less disciplinary action and more leniency on the attendance policy. Because these people are untouchable, they stay longer and occupy many of the leadership positions, making them even more untouchable. In mediating conflicts, management does not keep information confidential. There have been several instances where I've said things in private to management only to hear them circulating the next day, some of which included my medical information. The people you submit complaints about today are your enemies tomorrow. Because of this, there is a strong disadvantage to take problems to management, so they fester and escalate. Additionally, retaliation is VERY much alive at CSL, especially is you submit a complaint about a manager. I made the mistake of doing that. One of the most infuriating things is the handling of sexual harassment. If it comes from a donor, then it will most likely result in a warning for the donor. They could potentially be deferred from returning, but as my center manager told me, "plasma is plasma". Corporate wants those collection numbers as high as possible, so there is little incentive to limit the donor pool, especially if they are a regular donor. If they're a regular, be prepared to be regularly harassed. The staff at my center was mostly female and we eventually developed a system for swapping each other when we'd see certain donors. That only worked if the donor was a creep to specific female employees, though. Most are equal opportunity. Even then, at least there is the illusion of action being taken if you're harassed by a donor. If you are sexually harassed by another employee, there will be no action and no illusion thereof. My center has one male employee with at least FOUR sexual harassment complaints against him from all different people, and those are just the ones I know about. That's not including all the female employees who were too afraid to submit a complaint. I personally watched what happened for two of those complaints and verified to management. The offending employee has not had a single disciplinary action. Every time someone complains, management says "okay we'll talk to him". Once, they recommended that I talk to him instead because they said they weren't having any luck getting through to him... When I probed deeper into why they weren't doing anything, I was told that it's too hard to fire him because even if they got it approved by the center manager and the center manager's boss, corporate HR would have to approve it. So every time there's a complaint against this person, they go through the process only to have HR tell them to work it out. What makes it even worse is that he will get zero sanctions for sexually harassing coworkers, but if I warn one of my trainees (his favorite target) to be careful around him, I could be fired for "spreading rumors". As of now, I know of at least 2 female employees that quit solely because it was easier to leave than end the harassment. We lost another one because when she verbally told a manager that a male employee told her she had to kiss him for him to let her get in her car after a closing shift, the manager told her that the male employee's career could be affected by accusations and she didn't want that. There's also the handling of COVID. Mask wearing is supposedly required, but donors often choose not to wear them in the lobby. Reception is supposed to monitor, yet they often don't have the staff to do so. CSL also permits donors to wear face shields instead of masks, even face shields do nothing to prevent the generation of droplets. As a phlebotomist, I've had two donors in the past two months pull down their masks to sneeze and cough in my face. I don't believe that they had malicious intent, but CSL is certainly not the safe place they make themselves out to be. Donors routinely pull their masks down during their donation. Officially, we are supposed to remind them of the rules and end their donation early if it continues being an issue. But again, "plasma is plasma" so employees who did that were reprimanded for lowering our numbers. At the beginning of the pandemic, people working in the office refused to wear their masks until the entire production staff threatened to walk out after one of the office people tested positive for COVID, was symptomatic, and proceeded to work. Additional cleaning procedures have been implemented by corporate, but there's not enough staff to properly follow them when it's busy. I was reprimanded once by my manager for not seating donors quickly enough. When I explained that I hadn't had a chance to clean the beds yet, I was told that getting the line down was my job. If you test positive, official procedure is that you get a paid 2 weeks off to quarantine. One of my coworkers tested positive and stayed home for the required time before returning for work. Her leave request was later denied, so she did not get paid for that time. She ended up having to scramble and take every shift she could so that she could still pay her bills. As far as the vaccine goes, employees were expecting that we would be provided them since we work in a medical setting with occupational risk. Nope, corporate sent out an email essentially saying that we were welcome to get them on our own but they would not make efforts to provide them. Many employees have gotten COVID, but management always claims that they acquired it outside of CSL. Whenever complaints are made to management about our working conditions, we are told to be grateful we have a job. If you choose to work here, be prepared to have all the "we love our essential workers" messaging crammed down your throat while their actions say everything but. Finally, this place will break you down emotionally. I think the thing I regret most about taking this job was how it took away my empathy. You have to really harden your heart to make it in this environment. You become desensitized to people's pain, their hardships. You start to look at donors as numbers. This kind of business does real good for people who need the treatments plasma is used for. But it is also incredibly predatory, both on employees and donors who are often too poor to stop donating. If you choose to work here, have an attainable goal in mind and get out as soon as you meet that goal. If you find out your goal is not attainable, get out then.