My wife has worked for an independent senior living facility for a few years, as a front desk clerk.
Until recently the place was owned by ProMedica, a company that owns several hospitals in the Great Lakes area.
She’s been struggling to get ahead, taking advantage of their training program; it is a Medcerts program through Guild, in order to get her Certified Medical Assistant training. ProMedica covers the $5,000 fee for this, as long as she works for them.
Employees were warned about the upcoming buyout about a month in advance, and my wife has been scrambling. The HR director of the building has checked out, and isn’t doing much in light of the fact that she won’t be working here any longer. We have had a painfully slow back and forth with someone in central HR, trying to find a place for my wife to transfer to so she can continue her training. At the very least we don’t want to be on the hook for the $5,000, when my wife had no choice in the matter and didn’t get fired.
She’s put in several applications and applied for transfers to other spots, but most places either:
- Require her to already have her CMA and clinicals done.
or
- Don’t want to hire her if she is going to be moving to another position as soon as she’s done training.
Other hospitals and doctor’s offices in the area we’ve spoken to seem very reluctant to help, as they already go through their own training schools for new hires.
Now she is no longer a ProMedica employee, she’s about a month out from completing her courses, and has no place to take her clinicals or do her pokes.
My wife has been schooling on top of a two part-time jobs for months. She is frustrated and ready to give up, but I’m trying to figure out away to make it so that all of her work isn’t for nothing. Any ideas?
Comments
Your wife is close to finishing and should try contacting local clinics or smaller practices that might accept her for clinicals. She can also ask the training program or Guild for help finding a placement. Consulting a labor lawyer about the training fee is a smart move since she didn’t choose the buyout. She’s almost there and her effort will pay off.
Sounds like your wife’s in a tough spot. Have her reach out to Medcerts directly and ask about their job placement assistance or if they know of any facilities that might take on her clinicals. Maybe Guild has some connections too. Also, she should document everything with ProMedica and the new company, might need to escalate this or negotiate a settlement for the training costs.
Really sorry she’s going through this. Try to get written proof from HR that she didn’t quit just in case the $5K comes up. Also, smaller clinics or schools nearby might be more open to helping with her internship. She’s almost done, don’t let this setback waste all that effort.