New security officers at South Lake Hospital are being hired at $18.50/hr, while existing officers doing the exact same job are making $17.00/hr. This came after a ~6 month recruiting crisis where many officers were fired and staffing dropped severely. Some fired officers were even asked to return temporarily. New hires were reportedly told not to discuss their pay, and attempts to raise the issue with leadership are quickly shut down or redirected to recruiting internally.
Promised 3-month performance reviews never happened. I am approaching 6 months with the hospital (after previously working there through a contractor) and still have not received the probationary review or any meaningful feedback from leadership.
Uniforms are still incomplete nearly 6 months after hire. Most security staff have only been issued pants.
Emails sent to management frequently go unanswered.
Security career growth appears extremely limited. One manager directly told me there is essentially no path to promotion or raises within the department and leadership prefers employees to “stay where they are.” They just re-promoted the people who were already in rank from years ago.
The hospital is severely understaffed in multiple areas (not just security). I frequently saw departments such as ER and OB running with skeleton crews, with nurses handling 6+ patients at once.
There is significant interdepartmental hostility (ER vs Security, ER vs EVS, etc.). Staff often speak poorly about other departments. It depends on staff and is not evenly spread, but still cracks cohesion in the facility.
Some ER staff mentioned being under pressure to improve ambulance processing metrics compared to the main Orlando campus, which results in weird situations when documenting ambulance arrival times in order to 'beat' ORMC's campus.
Staff members with long histories of complaints for hostile behavior toward coworkers were reportedly kept on staff during departmental transitions due to staffing shortages and reassigned to less visible roles.
I personally overheard staff making age-related comments about a security guard’s competence. During the departmental transition, many older employees were reassigned to non-visible roles or not retained at all.
As of a few weeks ago, NPTO days are no longer accepted. If you have no PTO available, calling out results in a no-show.
