Job Responsibilities
Kaiser does not link actual job responsibilities with the job
description. You are expected to be flexible. Under the rubric of
web coordinator, I provided project tracking and analysis for any
technology project handled for my department. I created and
maintained both Internet and Intranet web sites. I also created
Powerpoint presentations for any manager who made the request. I
wrote and edited training manuals as well as the Human Resources
guide for the department. For all these tasks I was expected to
provide a fake 40 hr./wk. schedule while actually working as long
as it took to deliver on my assigned tasks. I normally worked 11
hr. days. When I showed my manager the actual hours I worked, she
started to say loudly to other people that I was
"uncollaborative". This is "values" language within Kaiser, so it
is a form of threat that a manager can use to exercise informal
power over subordinates. When I put my actual tasks and hours on
my Goals documentation (one of Kaiser's formal workflow
processes), I was told that formalizing my goals would be
construed as being too "rigid" in a flexible environment. Kaiser
was the worst place I've ever worked. There do not seem to be any
oversight mechanisms at all to protect employees from managerial
despotism. Expect to be perceived as a slave who works infinite
hours (with no recognition of going the extra mile) instead of an
employee with a contract for services.
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Job Requirements
In the department where I worked, most of the employees were
highly paid friends of friends. They were called "project
managers", but no one had project management credentials. Only a
few even had masters degrees in various subjects. I was the only
"junior" member of the department besides the administrative
assistant, and I was only hired into the position after temping on
a week-to-week contract for a year. Like my actual job, my temp
title was a ruse intended for underpayment and under-recognition:
I was classified as a clerical worker, but I provided a number of
highly skilled technical services including office application and
desktop troubleshooting, web development, test server maintenance,
and graphics/publishing services.
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Uppers
I put up with a lot to get the job I had at Kaiser because it was truly the
career field I belonged in. You have to have a broad range of skills to work with
technical projects: you need to have strong reading, research, and communication
skills. You need to enjoy QA and tracking. You need to understand the
technologies involved so you can communicate with and earn the respect of
technical specialists. It's a great field for versatile, accomplishment-oriented
people.
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Downers
Unfortunately most business environments do not set up a hiring
system capable of recognizing and promoting these skills. As long
as the required skillset remains vague and fuzzy, managers are
rampantly hiring people for their potential as "good fits" - i.e.
friends, relatives, people like themselves. This hiring situation
amounts to the reproduction of incompetence. Nepotism and blatant
discrimination are currently rampant: this problem has been
exacerbated by the widespread use of contracting agencies that aid
companies in circumventing employment laws. Managers are given
obscene amounts of personal discretion (since the people above
them don't seem to know what they do) - and this allows corruption
and petty powermongering to flourish. I've seen this situation in
several major corporations, so I realize it has more to do with
insecurity about technology management than any specific employer.
However, Kaiser was by far the worst crucible of incompetence that
I've ever seen.
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Lifestyle
Upper managers at Kaiser, which are largely selected from local elites, have
quite a lifestyle. They work at home half the time, and they are given every
Sharper Image gizmo imaginable. They attend international conferences, and they
freely use Kaiser employees to promote and provide free labor for their own
business ventures.
If you aren't an upper manager, prepare to be treated like a peon under the
absolute discretion of the corner despot. You will work infinite hours and tie
yourself in knots, all the while praying your manager won't have the whim to
falsely represent you to others or undermine your performance reviews just
because they have the power to do so. I would have killed for just one day of
feeling like my manager saw and formally recognized my work: as it was
suppression and silencing was at least better than outright scheming to destroy
me through deliberate distortions and lies.
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Compensation
I earned 53k/yr. This was a good salary for me, but about half
what everyone else in the department earned. I was very happy with
my salary at the time. In perspective, though, it seems odd that
the person with the most skills and the same amount of experience
as everyone else was being paid half. The reason was that I got to
my position through my skills rather than through the normal
corrupt means.
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Advice to Jobseekers
I highly advise people to stay away from Kaiser. Even if the
initial salary seems attractive, it's not worth the price you pay
in overtime and incompetent and outright evil managers screwing
around with your head. Remember, you will need a good professional
reputation to get to your next job: Kaiser managers know that, and
they deliberately withhold recognition in order to maintain power
over you. Other hiring managers will see it as your personal
weakness if you try to explain how Kaiser managers act. Kaiser
will end your career.
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