corporate

Over Reading Week, I got the chance to hang out with Mag's older brother-from-another-mother Paul. Paul works for this company doing some financial/engineering crossover, and somehow we started talking about the corporate environment. I think at that time we had just left a delicious $2 hot dog dinner from Costco and were en route to his sparkling Audi and the conversation was struck up.

We started comparing the different environments hospitals have and the corporate environment his company presents. His company is this beautiful facility, lots of glass and beautiful designer work with a basketball court and a heated smoking area. They have a billiards room and a workout center. We have decrepit rooms with broken and finicky beds, lots of bleach and yellow gowns where smoking is allowed in small zones like three blocks from the hospital. We have an underground pulse generator that combines mole living, cardiovascular fitness and claustrophobia.

I suggested that perhaps a perk of hospital life is the good benefits. Then I remembered how much we pay versus how much a corporate health policy likely is. Hospital employees don't get company stock nor do we get bonuses that we can use to buy new furniture - we just get abused and half our paycheque taken away for taxes, union fees and the aforementioned benefits. We get our jobs threatened by our CEO and are addressed by our boss through his blog posts or via impersonal intranet newsletters. When Paul's boss wants to talk to everyone, he stands at the top level of their building and everyone circles around their built-in auditorium, "The Thunderdome" as Paul lovingly describes.

My observation is that AHS doesn't really seem to want to keep its employees. I don't understand why a hospital cannot foster an environment that makes its employees feel welcome and safe, like a home away from home.