Very clique-y along with a High School mentality, and rampant with favoritism. - Senior Health Information Management Assistant Kaiser Permanente Employee Review

1.0
23 Sept 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The Pay. I was(or I was supposed to be) part of the Union meaning better pay and benefits. Great health insurance, meaning I didn't have to "leave work" to see my physician. Received mileage for training.

Cons

I was very excited to work here in the very beginning. However I should have taken heed to the negative reviews from former employees as well as the legal trouble Kaiser is ALWAYS in. Kaiser is always being sued by either a patient or a former employee. I was terminated during my probation period over hearsay. The 70-something days I was there, I only saw my supervisor TWICE for maybe a few hours. Yet she claimed she received all these complaints about my attitude and my work attire: she claimed someone said I was wearing jeans and a mini-skirt. Yes...a mini-skirt. And she was so convinced that this was true, despite only being at my work location twice. How would she know if I violated dress code if she was almost NEVER there? I had never heard a word about anything I was doing wrong until the day I was fired. Nothing. Now to my coworkers: lazy. I was left to my own devices many times due to my coworker either picking up her car at 3pm (not allowed, by the way), and holding long conversations with her husband or other employees while patients are waiting to be served. Day after day, I was handling the window and the phones on my own because my coworker didn't feel like working. Yet no one complained about that. Not to mention, on one occasion, we "lost" a patient's school form. My coworker did not document where she left the form and the patient made a complaint to my department manager. After some research, we found it upstairs in another department (as the patient was coming in over the weekend for some other business). My department manager actually blamed the front desk clerk in the OTHER department for not giving the form to the patient....and NOT my coworker, who failed to document where she put the form in the first place. That should have been my first red flag, because documentation is EVERYTHING in a Medical Records department. I did file a complaint about HIPAA violations to OCR. Maybe that had something to do with my termination. But hearsay does not hold up in any court, INCLUDING unemployment. Which of course I won because Kaiser could not produce any evidence of my wrongdoing. The shock and the pain of being fired has worn off, because I hold myself to a high standard, and I do not operate well in a high-school work environment that is rampant with favoritism. Despite losing my income(which was GREAT) I am glad to be gone.

Explore other reviews about Kaiser Permanente

5.0
3 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Collaborative environment, opportunity for career growth, flexibility.

Cons

Unions can create union workers.

4.0
9 Sept 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Kaiser is a great place to work and build a career over time. In my experience salaries are above market for most positions, and the benefits are so good that many people become "lifers". The health coverage is extremely generous, and time off starts off adequate and gets better over time (18 days when you start, moving up to 33 after 15+ years - this does not include sick time). Employees truly believe in the mission of KP (at least, I do) and it's clear that this is a place where employees' contributions are valued. Although my role is not part of any of the unions, the fact that our workforce is predominantly unionized also places a positive role in KP's reputation as a good place for workers (although having unionized staff also presents many challenges). Overall, I enjoy working at KP and would recommend it to others, but understand that you are entering a big bureaucracy. A friendly, mission-driven bureaucracy, but still.

Cons

Cons: having lots of "lifers" means that innovative ideas and workflows are not always adopted without a fight. People have their roles deeply embedded here, and any threat to the status quo is seen as negative, even though we need to make some pretty radical changes given the new health care environment post-ACA. There's a lot of "not my job" attitudes here. It's hard to navigate the layers of bureaucracy, both in terms of personnel/HR/benefits, and in getting work done (there are often 4-5 departments at the regional and national KP levels working on similar areas, and no guidance on who does what.) Be aware that KP is not immune to reorganizations and layoffs -- they do make a good attempt to ensure workers are hired elsewhere in the organization, but there are no guarantees, and there can be a lot of turnover in certain departments. Benefits are currently generous but are always subject to downgrades in the future, so just be aware of that. Some changes to the pension and retiree medical benefits are about to hit, and with them a wave of Baby Boomers will be taking retirement, which should hopefully open up many new management opportunities for Millennials. Oh, and the biggest con of all: we still - STILL - use Lotus Notes for email. Shocking, I know, but true.

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