Pros
The vast majority of my department as well as my customers are fantastic, dedicated, intelligent people that make work challenging and fun. I just try stay away from the few that are less pleasant :-)
Cons
Benefit package gets worse every year, this year is no exception. To raise the rates by $30/pay period means most people see little to no increase in their check IF we get COLA this year. They are never more than 2% and I have seen that once i think. More common is 1% and for a couple years recently it was zero. Sad for the Junior Analysts making entry level pay, I bet they actually lose money since even 2% might not make up for the increased payroll deduction. Add to that promotions for questionable, sometimes clearly undeserving staff, while 8 and 10 year employees don't even get a raise, and HR and management are mixing up a batch of very disgruntled employees. New hires from outside the organization are being brought in as Senior Analysts with only 5 or 6 years experience while people like me have more then that just with Evergreen. There are also a lot of long time employees who usually get no raise at all when promoted from Tier 1 (Helpdesk) to Tier 2 (Analyst). They have maxed out their pay in the lower tier and then, despite doing first level support of the same application they will now be supporting as an Analyst for the past 6 years, HR and management tell them they have to come in as Junior Analysts at the bottom of the pay band because they have no experience as an analyst. Ridiculous...they know the software, they know the organization, they even know the other analysts supporting said app because we ask them for help w/software installs, desktop support, and perpherals on a daily basis. But Evergreen puts so little value on their loyalty and experience as to discount it entirely?! Honestly I'm not sure why any of them even take the job once they see the offer. No more over time pay, 24/7 call rotation, more responsibility, and no more money. Bless them for coming to Tier 2 anyway.... But hey that's the kind of people I work with, and the sole reason I haven't dropped my badge off at HR on my way out yet. The rapid acquisition of satellite clinics and even some fairly large Physician groups has created an environment where we are supporting dozens of disparate systems because leadership refuses to make them adopt Evergreen systems. They say they don't want to and our leadership says well, ok. Eventually these clinics get annoyed that they have to access multiple apps for a complete pt record (could have told you that was coming management) and demand they are migrated to ours. So guess what happens next? You got it...now we have 3 months to move an entire specialty service line, and inevitably they want all records moved images migrated, etc. Did I mention none of the other projects in the works are allowed to be put on hold? We are expected to "just get it done". Despite miserable engagement scores most years, it continues in this downward spiral. My group alone implemented 3 new systems in the past 6 months, added to the 6 or 8 we already support. But no new staff is added to any team except Cerner, and then it was only a couple FTEs. In fact, our CEO was recently interviewed and made statements about how appropriately staffed IT is, maybe even padded a little so we should not be affected by the technology changes and advancements in Healthcare. I don't know what benchmarking tool they are using, but it is either broken or being tweaked. We all know how statistics can be manipulated...include the Helpdesk staff in your # of Tier 2 analysts and your percentage gets a lot better. There is a lot to say on this topic, but I think feeling under valued and taken advantage of is the biggest problem right now. People tend to overlook things like bad business decisions that create work when their leadership team listens to them, values their opinions, and treats them with respect rather than like slaves. Even middle management can be heard saying things like "if you don't like it, quit. Otherwise be happy you have a job". True or not, it's wholly unprofessional and demoralizing when your direct manager says something like that (luckily it wasn't my boss, he is one of the few bright spots in Evergreen management and would never say anything even remotely close to that).