Planned Parenthood Employee Reviews about "staff"

Pros

Before I began working at PPSO I has a high opinion of PPSO and Planned Parenthood in general. I had dreamed of working with Planned Parenthood in some capacity since I was in middle school. It took less than 2 months for me to lose all respect that I have for Planned Parenthood and the individuals who work at PPSO. During my interview process, everyone I interviewed with was extremely polite and friendly. All the staff members I met seemed to be genuinely excited about hiring me onto the team. During the interview process I was very upfront about the fact that I didn't live in Oregon, and would have to relocate myself and my family for this position. I was repeatedly told this was not an issue, and was even guaranteed relocation assistance as part of my offer letter. My manager even connected me with their sister-in-law who is a relator to help my family and I find a place to live. I began working for PPSO remotely, as I needed time to finalize my moving plans and secure housing, and at first, everything seemed great. The team I was a part of was (in the beginning) extremely friendly and helpful. I was even emailed a week before my start date by my manager who said “If there is anything we can do to support you. You are our community now.”

Cons

Not even two weeks into my employment I was pulled into a meeting, under false pretenses, with my direct manager and my assistant manager. I had requested this meeting, as there was a section in my offer letter that I wanted some clarification on. Instead of discussing this, the meeting almost entirely was my manager and assistant manager telling me that I needed to consider the ‘feasibility’ of my continued employment at PPSO. I was told that I would most likely need to adjust my hours to better meet the organization's needs and account for the time zone difference. I told both individuals that I would be willing to be flexible (within reason) and that I was extremely committed to my position and work at PPSO. Following this meeting, I requested, via email, that my managers relay to me what hours they would like me to work in order to best meet the needs of PPSO. I was never given any information regarding what changes they wanted me to make. Regardless, I continued to do my work. Even after the aforementioned meeting, I was consistently praised by my lead manager both in private and in team meetings, for the quality of my work and how crucial the work I was doing was to the organization. Despite the hiccups and a few odd conversations, everything seemed to be going well. On January 10th, 2023 I had a meeting with my manager so that we could discuss some questions I had regarding a specific task I was working on. My manager clarified some information for me, once again praised the work I was doing, and thanked me for my diligence, and then we ended our meeting. 3 hours later I had another meeting with both my manager and my assistant manager; this was supposed to be one of my routine weekly check-ins. However, as soon as the meeting started my manager told me that “this isn’t working out”. They never said the word fired, they never said I was being let go, they said ‘terminated’ once in the whole meeting and just kept repeating that “this isn’t going to work out”. I asked why, if there was something I had done or a reason I was being fired. The only explanation given? “This isn’t going to work out”. My manager looked at me as I was crying and shaking and asked me if I still had the boxes my equipment came in, and proceeded to ‘think out loud’ about how they were going to get me to ship the equipment back. To the issues I raised regarding equity, all they said was, in a monotone voice, “you may not believe it right now but we are sorry”. I was told during onboarding that PPSO's retention rates were low - this is why.

Pros

Amazing to work with fellow clinicians and support staff who share a passion for reproductive health access

Cons

Corporate style Senior Leadership Team that is constantly in flux and is extremely out of touch with the needs of patients and staff. They focus on profits over people.

Pros

Great place to learn, especially if attempting to get into nursing or medical school.

Cons

Senior management need to visit clinics to understand how overworked and underpaid those staff truly are.

Pros

It’s great to know that I’ve contributed to keeping health care access available. The mission of the organization is something that I think everyone agrees is important.

Cons

Poor work life balance and lack of recognition for employees that deliver big work. Management and division leaders are disconnected to staff and don’t listen or make decisions inclusively. They claim to value diversity but not all people get treated the same.

Pros

The learning experience was awesome. I loved getting to work with staff of all levels - nurses, doctors, clinicians - and gaining skills working with patients from all walks of life. It was the best feeling to be able to help someone and to make them feel comfortable and welcomed in what was usually a very vulnerable or anxious visit for them. Most of the staff was wonderful and the Center Director is an awesome person to work with. The learning curve is pretty steep, but once you go through enough training, it's awesome to do this job and be able to help people!

Cons

PP prioritizes quantity over quality. Patients are rushed through their visits, there is always a line, and patients get angry about waiting. I dealt with plenty of people yelling at me or storming off when I worked at the front desk because of the wait time. Not to mention the flow coordinators were always hustling me and at times even insulted me when I spent more than 20 minutes in a room with a patient. This clinic is not able to offer real, compassionate care because the emphasis is on efficiency rather than human connection and serving from the heart, and you can feel it when you walk in. Even the internal lobby, where patients sometimes wait, is an ugly plain room with plastic chairs and a radio playing Top 40 hits. I was incredibly disheartened to see the state of mainstream reproductive healthcare working here. There is a lot of pressure, a lot of stress and emotion with patients, and some pretty catty behavior from the senior staff, and all these combined influenced my decision to leave.

Pros

A great non-profit organization that is dedicated to quality women's healthcare especially for disadvantaged populations. Fulfillment comes from working with amazing providers and support staff and engagement with the women of the community.

Cons

The hours of service are limited to the clinic hours, therefore not as flexible if part-time position needed due to other obligations like school.

Pros

Great center manager always had a good attitude! Very clean clinic and very private for patients. Great clinicians that were very good with patients needs.

Cons

People forget the true meaning of planned parenthood. A lot of responsibilities and not enough pay. And some people who work there were very unhappy which made other staff members unhappy.

Pros

Amazing, driven, passionate staff. Ability to learn a lot because departments are typically short staffed or mostly junior staff.

Cons

Very little direction is provided from management. Structure of the organization (affiliate model) makes efficiency difficult, if not impossible.

Pros

The mission was one that resonated with me. Their intentions are, I believe, good.

Cons

The title says it all. The manager at the Minneapolis clinic is gossipy by all accounts and has no ability to maintain a staff. After just over a year working there, I was one of 3 employees left and a few months after I left I heard that all but one of the remaining had departed as well. While I was still there, the one employee who had been there for more than a year or so shared with me that the turnover had always been that bad. The atmosphere was truly the worst I have ever worked in - management is trying to shove patients into ten minute appointment slots to maintain a business model that flies in the face of the mission and values this organization claims to embody. Seeing providers in tears because they were being forced to choose between revenue and patient care, or because they were dealing with snarky attitudes from other employees who were dealing with the same, was a daily occurrence. Security is nonexistent in every way, despite the very real danger that exists while working at an organization of this nature. The overall feel of this workplace was very much like a middle school hallway.

Pros

The greatest benefit gained from working at PPGP was the connections and relationships I made with front line staff. The organizers, educators, and clinic staff are by far the most dedicated, hard working, bright, empathetic, caring, self aware, and powerful leaders I've ever had the privilege of working alongside. Other than that, through trial by fire, I was grateful to eventually learn that PPGP is NOT an organization that should be representative of what true reproductive justice advocacy should look like.

Cons

Inequitable pay structures; the CEO made a quarter of a million dollars while front line staff often made nearly poverty level wages. Classism was often upheld by promoting folks into leadership with little to no leadership experience but with advanced academic backgrounds. Leadership often employed bullying and emotional manipulation/abuse. The only gender and race diversity that exists is among front line staff who are coincidentally paid the least. The organization as a whole continuously failed to further the community engagement and allyship that is essential to reproductive justice activism. Overall, this organization taught me what a repro organization does NOT look like.