Pros
There's no doubt that LifeLegacy makes a positive contribution to improving healthcare by furthering scientific research. This difficult job was made easier knowing that we were turning the loss of life into something beneficial for society, and easing the loss of a loved one for families of donors. LLF employees are all incredibly kind to donors and their families, respecting the recently deceased was always a top priority. Most of the per diem employees are pre-med students aiming towards a career in healthcare, in this sense LLF provides unparalleled experiences. This job is incredibly demanding and complex, but I learned something new everyday. The full time employees in the technical services department are fantastic, they are the main boots on the ground and the true life blood of this company. They are overworked, underappreciated, and HIGHLY underpaid, but are invaluable mentors for the per diems. The per diem schedule is incredibly flexible, at this point you can basically choose how many hours a week you want to be on call (mostly graveyard shifts though). If you look at the case pay in dollars per hour, this job pays way more than any other college kids are making, guaranteed. There are other options for transporting donors/remains and office work on the side, but this never interested me as the pay isn't substantial. The work environment is pretty laid back but focused, unless you make a significant mistake you probably won't see the manager more than once a month in person. Besides a couple individuals, most coworkers are very easy to get along with and fun to be around.
Cons
While LifeLegacy is a well-intentioned non-profit organization, every move upper management makes seems money driven. The priority of tissue recoveries and clients revolve around money. The usage of per diems to do cases has probably diminished at least 75% in 2015, in favor of having salaried full time staff perform recoveries. In the past, if there was a donor in house, someone was unquestionably working on it. Nowadays, management routinely pushes cases unless they feel the per diems will "earn their paycheck" from a complex fresh case. To say there is a "Revolving Door Policy" here would be an understatement. From the per diems to the department coordinators to the managers, faces are constantly changing. Many people use LLF employment as a stepping stone to something bigger, but the technical services manager position is clearly one where you work under high scrutiny.There was a time when I thought I could possibly make a career out of working here. However, this job is no longer a steady source of income unless you take an underpaid salary position. I would highly suggest the motivation for applying here to be gaining experience. Although the case pay is reasonable, it was cut in half years ago, and has stayed stagnant even when the recoveries have become more complex and tedious tasks were added to each case. My paychecks were plagued with inaccuracies way too often. The multiple individuals in charge of the checks would routinely short me case pays, and they literally forgot a zero on one of my coworkers checks once ($100 instead of $1000). They did always fix their mistakes and fairly compensate me however, through nagging and complaining. Department meetings were never useful, they were more so a display of how upper management doesn't understand how technical services operates. There is also little sense of appreciation via positive reinforcement for per diems, the only feedback we received was in the form of quality control emails pointing out our mistakes. Performing recoveries is scientific but gruesome, absolutely not for the faint of heart. There is a constant inherent risk of bloodborne pathogens and injury that is never really talked about (until you accidentally cut yourself), but this can be avoided with attention to detail and safe sharp usage. This job is incredibly difficult, it will push you to your physical and emotional limits, and eventually most techs burnout. I would be lying if I said I didn't wake up with work related nightmares numerous times.
