Pros
The one pro is that MSK is a place you can be proud of saying you work at, but that's because the hospital itself does such a good job. The HR team at MSK used to be ahead of the pack within the healthcare industry in NYC. It seems they're stuck in 2015 with outdated benefit options and poor technology. It's a very old-school department in an innovative organization.
Cons
I could write a book on this. First and foremost, you have absolutely no opportunity to grow in the HR department at MSK. One entire department gave out "promotions" to everyone, where half the team was given entirely new jobs without any warning or discussion about what their career goals were. All of these people are miserable now, but they have nobody to talk to about this because HR has no HR. In another department, the same three people have been promoted every single year since they started at MSK, while other people are left in the dust. There are no guidelines or metrics in place to determine if you're doing a good job, so promotions are given with absolutely zero explanation. I asked my boss every single time what someone did to get a promotion and how I can improve (asking for feedback, training opportunities, mentorship, more responsibilities, greater projects... literally everything you could ask for) and the response I would get every time is "I have no idea, I didn't know anyone was getting promoted". Technology in HR is poor. Some teams get cell phones and Surface Pro tablets, meanwhile I had to make all my business call from my personal phone. I called 25+ people a day outside of the organization - it's inexcusable to expect someone to make these calls from their personal phone. I lost a lot of personal privacy and my work-life balance went out the window because I would get calls and texts on my personal number 7 days a week between the hours of 8 am - 10 pm. Management refused to listen to us about this being an issue because the VP of our department spent our entire tech budget on personal goods - you make more than enough money and you didn't need to buy yourself multiple computers and a new desk and chair off of company money during the pandemic while your employees are STRUGGLING. There is also absolutely no recognition for hard work. I regularly worked 12-16 hour days during my time at MSK and did really innovative work, but during my performance appraisal, I was told that my work was invisible and nobody saw the impact - even though all my partners throughout the hospitals were getting promoted for being a part of projects that I planned and executed for them. HR teams took a huge hit in companies during the pandemic, especially in healthcare. Leadership did absolutely nothing to recognize the hard work people were putting in. For the full year after the pandemic started, I only heard the CHRO speak once. She couldn't even bother to send an email to her teams. After bending over backward for this department, I felt like my work was entirely pointless. Totally demeaning. There is a total lack of communication between leadership and their employees. Before covid, my team had meetings once a week. During covid, we have meetings maybe once every 6-8 weeks. Not only does this mean that we get no updates from our leadership on things that are going on, but it leaves our team entirely siloed off and isolated. This was a terrible direction to go during the pandemic when nobody sees each other in person. Compensation and benefits are incredibly poor here. In the years I worked here, the largest raise I received was about 3.2%. When I left MSK I received a 45% increase in my salary and in return had *better* benefits and work-life balance. The health insurance plans are not good enough in today's world. Other hospitals have free healthcare options if you stay within the hospital system, which obviously MSK can't offer, but you still have to pay unreasonable healthcare premiums. When I started interviewing at other companies, every organization either had no premium and a low deductible, or incredibly low premiums on a PPO healthcare plan. Outside of healthcare, there essentially are no benefits. Tuition reimbursement only works for people who have the money to pay for school upfront, which most employees cannot afford (low salaries) and the retirement savings match is just industry standard. Nothing to brag about.
