Great Pay in lieu of Free Time - Clinical Appeals RN Kaiser Permanente Employee Review

4.0
May 1, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

When taken benefits into account, Kaiser Permanente is probably one of the top three healthcare providers to work for in California. I was comfortably making around $140,000 a year when I left. My job was exempt and I did have weekends off

Cons

Exempt jobs at Kaiser Permanente pay well. But you are always going to work well over 40 hours a week. It has become the culture there. If you need time off because of a dental appointment or doctors appointment your manager can make life very difficult by asking for a note . They will even ask you to work after your appointment. Over the past decade management has had fewer leaders with clinical experience which has had an affect on morale and work life balance. Current upper management is the MBA type in which the only thing that matters is the bottom line. Workers morale and workers rights are not even a consideration anymore. Which is very unfortunate because For a brief time in the early 2000s Kaiser Permanente could have taken a different tack and truly been the leader in quality healthcare and led the way in treating their employees well. But leadership Chose the easy pass of “well all the other companies are cutting back why can’t we“? And that mantra of bringing Kaiser back to the pack persists today. The old timers who have at least a decade in aren’t gonna leave because the retirement benefits are good. But folks with less than a decade would probably follow my lead and find a much more rewarding less stressful workplace for just a little bit less pay.

Explore other reviews about Kaiser Permanente

5.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay, benefits & honestly an easy job

Cons

High school like environment, other than that its a great department

4.0
Sep 9, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Kaiser is a great place to work and build a career over time. In my experience salaries are above market for most positions, and the benefits are so good that many people become "lifers". The health coverage is extremely generous, and time off starts off adequate and gets better over time (18 days when you start, moving up to 33 after 15+ years - this does not include sick time). Employees truly believe in the mission of KP (at least, I do) and it's clear that this is a place where employees' contributions are valued. Although my role is not part of any of the unions, the fact that our workforce is predominantly unionized also places a positive role in KP's reputation as a good place for workers (although having unionized staff also presents many challenges). Overall, I enjoy working at KP and would recommend it to others, but understand that you are entering a big bureaucracy. A friendly, mission-driven bureaucracy, but still.

Cons

Cons: having lots of "lifers" means that innovative ideas and workflows are not always adopted without a fight. People have their roles deeply embedded here, and any threat to the status quo is seen as negative, even though we need to make some pretty radical changes given the new health care environment post-ACA. There's a lot of "not my job" attitudes here. It's hard to navigate the layers of bureaucracy, both in terms of personnel/HR/benefits, and in getting work done (there are often 4-5 departments at the regional and national KP levels working on similar areas, and no guidance on who does what.) Be aware that KP is not immune to reorganizations and layoffs -- they do make a good attempt to ensure workers are hired elsewhere in the organization, but there are no guarantees, and there can be a lot of turnover in certain departments. Benefits are currently generous but are always subject to downgrades in the future, so just be aware of that. Some changes to the pension and retiree medical benefits are about to hit, and with them a wave of Baby Boomers will be taking retirement, which should hopefully open up many new management opportunities for Millennials. Oh, and the biggest con of all: we still - STILL - use Lotus Notes for email. Shocking, I know, but true.

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