Soft money jobs are unstable and unprotected - Laboratory Research Analyst I Duke Health Employee Review

2.0
Sep 24, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great benefits for FT salaried employees if you don't get paid on grants. Great opportunities to brown-nose because Duke is so politically-oriented.

Cons

Soft money employees are treated like second-class citizens (or more like contract workers). 30 days notice is all you may get . No internal support exists for you to move laterally or to help you find a job. These changes have come about over the past 6 years por so. So build your network and brown-nose all you can. Very little support for cross-training. Each department must pay for this service and that cost is not liked by the business managers. All hirings are currently frozen at Big Duke. 100 people are about to get their severance offerings. The company picnic was scrapped last year for the first time ever. Don't expect to get by on your merit. You need to be well-liked. I was a FT employee, working my way up the tech ladder for 18 years, finding basically no opportunity to move sideways or up. I got laid off twice within a 2-year period because of mismanagement of funds and lack of the ability for finaqnce to release research money because they were busy shoring up finds for their own staff. That is probably illegal. That doesn't matter at Duke. Fair warning.

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5.0
Jun 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The best place to work, supportive management

Cons

No cons a great place to work

3.0
Jun 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It's a pretty good starting point if you are wanting to get your foot in the door working on the administrative side of healthcare. Engaging with patients can be very rewarding and if you enjoy customer service (especially hospitality or food service) this can be a great role that feels similar to interacting with patrons, but you don't have to work weekends, there's very good benefits, and you don't have to work 12 hours a day.

Cons

There are a lot of issues both with Duke Hospital and the Eye Center itself. Duke University Hospital is on the college campus so you will have to pay for parking. You aren't paid well, even with the $20 minimum wage increase, it's still only about $40,000/year but with having to pay for parking... even the cheapest garage at $95 a month, that's $1,140 a year gone from your check. There is no "free" parking even close to the hospital, so they really screw you there. The Eye Center has struggled with processes in the clinic and management is run ragged. There are too many employees that don't care much for the job they are doing and Duke makes it incredibly difficult to hold those employees accountable and for management to make proper layoffs.

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