Where do I even begin? Look up signs of a toxic workplace and compare it to your time at Epic. Think VERY carefully about the risk you are about to take. Here are some observations:
Stress, overwork, exploitation…
- Hours: To scrape by, expect 50 hours/week for a PM. To not actively BS your work, I’d expect 60 hours. There are some weeks where, yes, 70 hours are required. This is borderline exploitative and highly unethical. Some of my more tenured colleagues had visibly aged and looked chronically sleep-deprived to the point at which I was genuinely worried for them. That said, I know some AMs had hard cutoffs and signed off on time, but then the burden falls to ACs.
- Mental health and wellbeing: My health plummeted while at Epic. Chronic overworking, figuring out 90% of your actual day-to-day work on your own, and dealing with mean customers with no recourse is immoral. The stress led to nearly falling asleep at the wheel due to lack of sleep. Everyone I’ve worked with has cried multiple times from their desk due to the working environment.
- Salary: While it is high for an entry-level grad, when factoring in a 55-hour work week and annualizing that salary, I was really making ~$47k.
Poor preparation…
- Training: While it is thorough, it is mostly self-directed during which you’ll be waterboarded with information with no context to prioritize. You could potentially be learning the basics of your application WHILE being staffed and asked insanely difficult questions on this application. Little to no training on what the actual day-to-day will look like. The learning curve is massive and the software is genuinely not easy to use, lacks intuition, and is riddled with exceptions and poor UI. I know people who cried out of frustration trying to figure out the lack of logic.
- Customers: This is a total roll of the dice. They could be nice, they could be absolutely awful. Be aware of what it is actually like to work with real clinicians. Many are stressed as it is, and many are bullies who are unafraid to tell you how dissatisfied they are with you during large group meetings. This is embarrassing and Epic leadership generally does nothing to intervene to create a healthier environment. Additionally, you could be staffed on a customer about to go-live after only being at Epic for a week. Sound fun?
- Unethical: All of the above always made me feel like what I was doing and how I was being treated at Epic is highly unethical. When you have so many liberal arts majors with no clinical experience advising on how to configure Epic and little oversight, this often involves creative BSing, long hours to research things you’ve never heard of before, and at times flat out lying.
Poor structure…
- Corporate structure: There’s really not much progression at Epic aside from AC > AM > ID > IE, none of which are tied to compensation. To be a more effective company and distribute workloads and responsibilities more fairly, Epic should’ve adopted a more standard Implementation Analyst > Sr. Analyst > Manager > Sr. Manager > Director > Sr. Director > VP model.
- Lack of oversight: For a field as regulated as healthcare, Epic has barely any oversight for its employees. This could be seen as “empowering” to some, but I found it dangerous. You cc your AM on all customer-facing emails, but there’s no guarantee you won’t accidentally send off incorrect info that could cause a massive escalation later on.
- Inefficient: Epic prioritizes working harder over working smarter. Massive inefficiencies in training, ways of working, and processes that are unlikely be corrected.
Lack of psychological safety…
- Team Leads: Your supervisor/manager/TL has their own expectations that may or may not align with what’s actually expected at the company. TLs have power over you and can make your experience awful with no oversight. Despite that, they have no power to actually effect change in the company. Expect any genuine complaint to be filed away and potentially ding you and your progression.
- Voicing concerns: Any division meeting offers no platform for voicing concerns. TLs can't help, and escalating can make things worse (e.g., "what can you do to make the situation better?" rather than giving real support and intervention).
- Upper management: Never takes responsibility for their mistakes. CEO runs the company like a workhouse where human beings are treated like factory parts to be used, then disposed of. Also the whole COVID nonsense. Very immoral moves against employees speaking out against genuine concerns. I thought I would be unaffected given how far removed they are, but upper management has so much control over the company that it will impact your time here.
