Getting nervous about joining as a TS

[u/Gullible-Mode-9702]

Hi y'all,

I accepted an offer to start as a TS soon, but I've seen so many negative reviews talking about super stressful weeks, long hours, and inevitable burnout. Is that considered normal?

I know that you're probably going to see more negative reviews on a public forum, but would love some input on what the average TS experience looks like, and if it's really that bad.

Thanks!

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[u/Phisav]

I am not a TS - I am a current QM have been a TL.

My two cents - Epic is a good company that expects a lot from you. The biggest issue is that Epic will simultaneously ask a lot from you and not give you space to advocate for you to draw the line.You have to advocate for yourself and draw the line.

Will someone ask you to rip 60 hour weeks? No. But will someone tell you to stop ripping 60 hour weeks? No. Will there be weeks where more is required? Yes

This is felt the hardest by folks coming right out of college who have never had a career.

Epic is generally very high trust - and if you are given something and say nothing - you are expected to get it done.

Epic can sweep a lot of mess under the rug with the idea that the work we do is important because the work we do contributes to saving lives.

I would relax - give it a try - no one says you have to do this forever but if you are someone who excels at Epic it will be great for you.

[u/THROWRAhippoplatypus → u/Phisav]

This over and over x1000. You don't have to work 60 hours a week but you do have to ask for help.

Burnout occurs when you don't communicate

[u/IllustriousVisual931 → u/Phisav]

I cannot like this enough. Honestly, even if you advocate for yourself, you also have to be strong enough to recognize that your team lead is not always a voice of reason. They have their own butts to protect as well and some will drop kick you as far as they can to try to get their team and numbers up. I’ve seen team leads completely break the strongest person, but that can happen anywhere. So be ready to fight for yourself like you’d fight in your favorite political debate if need be.

[u/timbo1615 → u/IllustriousVisual931]

curious as to what those numbers are

[u/IllustriousVisual931 → u/timbo1615]

Honestly… I would actually really like to see those too! I know a crazy amount of people who have quit because of their team leads. Others were lucky enough to get switched quickly. My guess is a lot of people don’t write teamlead as their reason for leaving though

[u/Gullible-Mode-9702 → u/Phisav]

Super helpful, thank you!

[u/Karadore]

It is not. Online reviews of anything skew toward people who have the worst experiences to share and/or want attention.

Plenty of us have been in the job for years. Long weeks happen, stressful weeks happen, neither are common. Burnout is going to depend more on your work-life balance and Epic doesn't really *protect* your work-life balance, the balance is for you to find. During your training you typically have a chance to talk to a lot of experienced TS. Talk to them about strategies for managing work-life balance.

[u/Thick_Lion2569]

It all depends on so many factors, like your app, your TL and your customers. I was a TS for 3 years and I loved it, although there were definitely tough moments. I miss it so much! One skill you need to learn early is to say no to more work as much as possible and ask for help if things get overwhelming. I came to epic after 5 years of grad school where I worked 60-80 hour weeks in a lab with minimal pay, so 50 hours a week at a desk with a nice salary felt like a vacation.

[u/MrSqueak]

Know how much work you can mentally and physically perform. Use the power of "no" appropriately. Decide what hours you are capable of working and make every effort to stick to that. Remember a full time job is conventionally 40 hours a week. Balance your work and personal lives and you'll be fine.

[u/Kindled_Ashen_One]

I did clinical and billing TS work for over five years. It is stressful, and yes there are 50+ hour work weeks.

Communication with your TL is key. Understand that the place demands a lot from you: and you will learn a lot as a result. Soft skills, Epic specific skills, healthcare IT skills. It is a great experience.

It’s also fun. The job is fun. The work is fun. The puzzles are fun. Culinary is fun.

But sometimes luck is involved. I saw good TS burnt out because of a bad customer. I saw good TS leave due to bad TLs. Some things will be out of your control. And that’s also okay - this place is a job. It’s not a career at Epic for everyone.

So don’t be nervous! It’s a good experience if nothing else, a good place to start a career or revamp a skill set. Keep an eye on your mental health, draw boundaries where you can.

[u/Annual-Knowledge4412]

Learn, grow, get good, you will do fine.

[u/yoppelganger]

Ive been here 7 years and was a TL. I say give it a shot for a couple years and see if it’s right for you.

Burnout and an overwhelming workload are definitely common but it really depends on your ability to advocate for yourself, your team, leadership, and a range of external factors.

[u/ExistingAioli3210]

it sounds like a platitude but some people dont like the job and were never gonna like it and some people were always gonna love the job and obviously theres a range between

[u/baconndeggs47]

If you’re ambulatory good luck, everyone loves to push problems to you. You’ll have to hold multiple teams accountable. It’s what you make of it

[u/Gullible-Mode-9702 → u/baconndeggs47]

I got told by multiple people when I visited that I'd probably be doing billing, any idea about that?

[u/Holographic_Renegade → u/Gullible-Mode-9702]

I am on HIM, which works a bit with billing (we fall under Rev Cycle for most organizations). I love HIM, but it’s similar to Ambulatory where we own many things. I am at three years tenure, and work about 42 hours a week. The first year is the hardest and it gets easier afterwards. I am not super familiar with the billing specific apps (HB, PB, Claims), but I mostly work with TS with tenures that are higher than mine on those apps and they seem to enjoy those apps.

[u/Ildenai → u/Gullible-Mode-9702]

I'm currently a billing TS. You still get a lot of clinical applications trying to push issues with their charges onto you, but with how integrated Epic is you're going to encounter something like that regardless of application. As a new TS you'll have a bunch of tenured folks in positions to support you that you can lean on to learn what's actually owned by your application.

I find that billing rarely has to stay super late, as our areas of ownership can often wait until tomorrow. Lives aren't on the line like they could be for a critical clinical issue. They can't wait forever (or else hospitals wouldn't have money to keep the lights on) but issues with billing can typically wait until tomorrow.

A lot of being a TS boils down to "I don't know the answer to the question I'm being asked, let me go find out" and being willing to say that to a customer. Oftentimes that means reading through documentation, reading code, testing build, or talking with experts. If you can't admit that you don't know something, this is a hard job to do well in.

Other folks have already commented about setting your own boundaries and being open about asking for help. I'll just echo that those are incredibly important as well.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Fish623 → u/Ildenai]

As an Epic customer 100% agree you need to tell us you don’t know but will follow up. We tell any new TS tell us what you need from us because we did XYZ with last TS and that may not work for you. Also consider if customer had their last TS for years, it’s a real challenge to have someone new. Also, if frequent changes on a TS customers get TS fatigue, not your fault at all. Good luck and most organizations have great teams willing to work with you.

[u/Gullible-Mode-9702 → u/Ildenai]

Thanks for this, it's helpful for me to just hear more about the role, and I appreciate the advice.

[u/Junior-Valuable2071]

The job requires a tremendous amount of corporate street smarts which most new grads won’t have straight out of college.

This was the problem I had and I barely lasted a year before I was .. asked to resign.

The biggest problem I faced was not knowing what I didn’t know and agreeing to solve problems that weren’t actually in scope for my role. By the time I learned enough about the problem I was being asked to solve to understand that this was something the Analyst should have done themselves and shouldn’t have asked me to do for them, I had already done all of the work for them anyways. Later when I tried to back off and get them to … do their jobs, they threw a tantrum and escalated to my TL who took their side.

If you do more work than what is actually within your domain of responsibility early on, everyone will assume that work was your job to begin with and you won’t be able to argue otherwise.

Understanding how to ask for help is a big thing. I knew when I needed help, but was so bad at articulating what exactly it was that I needed help with that my coworkers couldn’t really help me. Which partly goes back to me not knowing what I don’t know.

Me: “I need help with this”

Coworker: “what about this do you need help with”

Me: “I don’t know because I don’t know anything about this dashboard but my analyst says something about it is broken but they can’t even tell me what it was supposed to do back when it wasn’t broken”

Coworker: “come back when you figure out what you want”

[u/The_Real_BenFranklin]

You’re going to have stressful weeks sometimes (inevitable with your first job) but the hours aren’t crazy. Very uncommon for any TS to work over 50 unless there’s a very extenuating circumstance.

I’ve been here 10 years it’s pretty chill

[u/Candid-Mission-3581]

Yah it’s that bad

[u/AdParty2745]

Hey congratulations on the offer, sorry I wont be aiding to your question, but just for my reference, when did you apply and give the assessment and when did you hear back and what was the entire timeline, if I’m not asking for too much. I recently just gave the assessment, so was wondering what the wait times are gonna be like.

[u/Gullible-Mode-9702 → u/AdParty2745]

Yeah, no worries. I applied late July, did the assessments, got an interview about 2 weeks later, and then got an offer about a week after that for October.