registered nurse

nursing assistant

nurse

shift leader

philanthropy manager

Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

I worked with a team of Community Relations Officers, Nursing staff, Admin staff and donors and worked autonomously.  My job entailed being organised on a day to day basis to ensure appointment lists, correspondence and scheduling of donormobiles, contacts followed up and general information were compiled and sent out prior to start of sessions or in due course.

The donors were an important part of the Blood Service, service excellence and customer service was a priority due to ensure the blood was collected for recipients.

I was given the opportunity to upgrade my computer skills first aid certificate, continually updated with marketing and work environment strategies and what an important job I was involved in.

My Manager was always there to encourage and support.
A great work environment and a lot of support and backup from my co-workers to  ensure my job was performed well, even under stressful moments. 

All staff were my friends, I loved my job and was disappointed to be made redundant.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Loved all the interactions with the donors including the challenges. Make sure that you are on a permanent contract, don’t have ANY medical/family issues and whatever you do, don’t bring up staff or donor safety……..byyyyeeeeee. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management and once you have made a challenge you have a permanent target on your back. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The job is very repetitive and often times employees are subject to RSI type injuries/ailments. So staffing can often be an issue with working around injuries. Having a Donor Mobile Unit also brings challenges, having RN’s available for each site can be problematic. 
As explained previously don’t make a name for yourself pushing back, they don’t like to be told/challenged. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Getting to know regular donors and following processes and procedures. 
Very repetitive.

I started at various times of the day picking up groups of blood donors in the CBD and outer suburban areas of Melbourne and transporting them to the closest donor centres and using the skills I have learnt over the years to relax the new  donors before they got to the donor centre. As I was out of the office most of the time I found the management were always inclusive in letting me know what was going on and making sure I was included in any after hours activities. The culture was great and I enjoyed every minute I worked there and was disappointed the shuttle Program was ending. As I was dealing with many various personalities and work place cultures it further enhanced my customer skills. I didn't find any part of the job hard although it was a challenge to find the best route around the various road works and traffic jams.The most enjoyable part of the job was meeting new people and working with the other staff at the Blood Bank.

Where do I begin?

Management are KPI driven and the bar is constantly being raised to unfair and un achievable targets. The management style is dictatorial and anyone who challenges the business model is pushed out

Management don’t listen and shut down any suggestions that don’t benefit the business, they lack any empathy and common sense.

Rosters are inflexible and forget family friendly shifts.

Staff performance measurement is highly unfair and basically you need to keep a record of what you do and what went wrong so you have an answer when asked to please explain.

Training is way too quick, new starters are expected to be performing at top level 2 months after starting and if you are not performing at their level you won’t pass probation.

Culture is basically if you don’t like it there’s the door (this was the exact words of an area manager)

I could go on for ages but might run out of space.

It is rewarding working for the Blood Service as you know you're helping to save lives, however it is very targets and numbers based. There is more focus why we didn't meet our blood target for the day, instead of looking at staffing and seeing that the centre was incredibly short staffed and run off their feet and couldn't collect to the target. There is no regard for staff, it is constantly short staffed and management continue to increase targets and don't understand why sick leave is so high and why a lot of people resign in their first year. 
Work/life balance can be really difficult as all centres are now open 7 days and it can be hard to get a roster in which you have 2 days off next to each other. You work evenings, early mornings and weekends. 

The people you work with are usually really lovely and helpful, but management are dreadful.

After working 9-years at this organisation I can honestly say the following:

- The pressure from top-down to perform is INTENSE. Compounded at every level.
- Upper-management make knee-jerk reactions and expect the lower-levels to conform or-else,
- Communication is dismal at best. You could log-in one day and the media know more than you do.
- Management at every level is toxic, are not accountable, and will blame everyone but themselves for results
- The NCC is especially toxic with Operations  Leadership pushing KPIs over quality of work performance
- Nothing is ever good-enough, coaching is an opportunity to put you down and they always find something despite your excellence to put you in your place
- Advancement is a joke and NCC management groom those who brown-nose above others with actual skill & merit

What started out as a fun and strict workplace became a stressful and strict environment that wears thin over the years. The donors mostly were great and the work did feel very rewarding.
Management and some of the up and coming "Champions"of the centre became extremely painful to work with!
It's a good role for a few years but as a qualified nurse you lose a lot of skills in clinical practice.  It's ok perhaps to finish out your career as an older nurse but it becomes very monotonous, unless you're a rising star who is power hungry to climb the corporate ladder, and in the meantime walk all over colleagues, 
and demean them in a bid to win favour with those higher up in management, which seemed to happen all the time.  In the end it was just too toxic to deal with all the wannabes who were power hungry and spiteful.

The centre I worked at was great. Fellow workers and in-house  mangers are very supportive. A great team overall. 4.5 stars. As for upper management and HR I'm affraid its very disappointing. Serious issues are not dealt with and allowed to fester. They do not follow their own policies and procedures for example they made a big deal of the RU OK day and to contact them if you are not OK. This was done and I never received a reply, let alone help. This is not an isolated incident and many staff have had the same experience. In conclusion if you are lucky enough to get a job at the centre I worked at you will be fine, just don't expect any positive outcomes from HR or upper mangement

Pressured every shift to meet key performance indicators. Monitored regarding performance of time to couch, how many assessments attended, % of successful venepuncture, % of successful collections, meeting targets for collection. 
No thanks for working under stress everyday. No cover for sick leave, or annual leave. Same amount of collections targeted with skeleton staff as full staff. Management constantly pushing for more collections in a quicker time frame, more collections = more plasma to CSL.

Horrible company to work for!!! Treat their staff horrendously, including the ones that have been there for several years and dedicated a large portion of their life to the company. Cliquey management drama creates poor workplace energy and does not encourage good team morale. Continued complaints and grievances lodged about this and still nothing to show for it. Cons: Ineffective management, inside hiring of staff and friends to ensure that the hierarchy is biased, mental health affected, no work/life balance at all, horrible colleagues 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 120 salaries reported	$41.88 per hour
Nursing assistant 124 salaries reported	$32.70 per hour
Nurse 18 salaries reported	$35.96 per hour
Shift leader 10 salaries reported	$47.07 per hour
Philanthropy manager 12 salaries reported	$121,686 per year

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