Jolene Cardinali, Medical Technologist Tina Dibble, lab manager Do not work in her department Hartford, Connecticut

After graduating college, I interviewed at several hospitals in the Greater Hartford Area, Boston Area, and Phoenix. At the time, I lived in Phoenix. I was offered an exciting position in flow cytometry at Hartford Hospital. During my two hour plus interview, I met Jolene Cardinali.

The position seemed interesting and new, not mundane as med technology had become. I also felt I found a job where I could constantly learn new things and work with intelligent pathologists. I was very excited and enthusiastic.

To ensure I was making the correct choice, I discussed my employment with Marge Abels in HR at CLP and Tina Dibble, CLP HH's Lab Hematology Manager. I was informed that I would be given a sign-on bonus upon hire and that I could use that to move across country. I spend approximately $2500 moving from Arizona to Connecticut. When I went to orientation, I was informed I would not receive the sign-on bonus until after my 90 day review. Neither Tina Dibble or Marge Abels informed me of this over the phone or via email after I specifically asked if there was anything I needed to be aware of before moving.

Regardless, I entered the special hematology laboratory after orientation. Tina Dibble informed me that Jolene Cardinali was responsible for my training on Monday Feb. 7th 2011. Jolene was very obnoxious and difficult to understand. She talked incredibly fast and unprofessionally with her hands, giggling and making remarks like, "oh, you don't know how to do that?". Because Jolene was responsible for training me, I needed to ask her repeated questions about what to do. I had no previous flow cytometry experience and this was verified with Tina Dibble and Marge Abels during the phone conversations, interviews and emails.

After a few days, Jolene refused to train me any more. She said Tina expected me to know the processes and I needed to ask other techs. She said she had other things to do, so I was left on my own. At the time, I had confidence and did not see this as a set-up for failure, assuming the Procedure Manuals were well-written. I went into the Standard Operating Procedure Manuals and found them incredibly disorganized and outdated. However, Tina instilled in me that I needed to follow them word for word. When I had a question, Jolene seemed annoyed, frustrated and as if I were interrupting her. Still, the other personnel answered my questions and showed me how to process specimens and run them. 

One Saturday when Jolene was working on her own, I believe she intentionally mixed up running specimens on the analyzer. Because I had set-up these specimens, Jolene recognized her own mistake, threw away the evidence, and blamed me for "mislabeling". The reason I believe Jolene did this is because not only did she feel threatened but also because she knew she could get away with it. In any other fair and equal opportunity laboratory, when someone makes a mistake like that, most people would keep the tubes and show the evidence. Instead Jolene disguised the mistake and "threw them away". I have never mislabeled a specimen before and continue to believe that I am accurate and precise and follow HIPAA to the tee. On another incident, I was watched when labeling iron stains during training with the incorrect marker, then Jolene blamed me for the names rubbing off after they had a methaline fix. Tina decided she could see some of the names still, but neither would listen when I could read all of the names. These mistakes, that could have been easily prevented by a good trainer or someone who was not "out to get you" caused me to have a poor review.

Extending my probationary period, Jolene continued to mis-train me then nit-pick my mistakes. Apparently, there were two techs before me who Jolene did the same thing to. She apparently caused someone else to have a nervous breakdown when Jolene acted like her friend then went behind her back. She caused another employee to hate her job and loose it as well. Needless to say, I did not stand a chance. Without updated procedure manuals that made sense or a proper trainer in the department (who was supposed to be Jolene) plus Jolene nit-picking and exaggerating all of my minute mistakes, I was out in a few months.

After I left a few days ago, I realized that Jolene was playing games with Tina at my expense. I was not there to fulfill a job role as much as I was there to satisfy Jolene's psychotic needs. Because Jolene is "in" with very intelligent pathologists, she is not at risk for loosing her job. Because she gets away with so much,  I advise anyone wanting to work in Special Hematology at HH to give it another thought. If you think you want to work with her, you will be her next victim. She cannot work with other people, and I believe if she had a really good psych eval she would be found to b be a true psychopath. She will warm up to you and stab you in the back. She will say one thing but mean another - for her own benefit. You do not want to work in this department. It cost me credit card debt and loss of a job. There was poor, if any training from Jolene and she was always available when I made a mistake.

Unfortunately, there is no separate title for Jolene, for if there was then it would be easier to explain the complaint. She is not the manager or trainer, but she gets to call the shots.

Because I moved out here on credit and took a pay cut when comparing the cost of living (I was doing it for the interest) I feel responsible to let anyone else know that you do not want to work with Jolene Cardinali. If you are intelligent, have flow experience, love learning about antibodies cancers and cells, like working with your hands, and think this job will be great. Forget it! I am positive that because I was enthusiastic about learning, I was a threat to Jolene (because Jolene also does special research projects on the side and probably either gets compensated for them or gets more authority in the department). She knows that because I don't have kids or too much outside responsibility, I have time on my own to read and research and learn flow. In fact, that is what I was doing. There are excuses for letting me go, but they are not good enough. Excuses include: Jolene believed they needed to have someone from the "inside"; Tina believed they needed to have someone with more hematology? experience (like regular clinical hemo has anything to do with spec. heme, right?); And Tina remarked that one of the pathologists believed I did not have enough background knowledge.

Instead of any type of remedial training, education, or proper training at all, after my initial performance review, I was made to work everyday, just like any other tech there. I was even left alone one evening from 6pm until 11:30pm where I made two very minor mistakes. These again were exaggerated from Jolene to Tina and the pathologist in the office and because she acted the way she does - unprofessional, silly, giggly, waving her hands around and whatever- she made a huge deal about minute things while telling me they were very minor mistakes. At one point, Jolene even said, "Well, [my name] is on the fast track here!" While she was really just waiting to get me fired.

Luckily, it was somewhat of a relief not to have to deal with that political mess in there. Too bad because the work itself was pretty interesting and the pathologists are really smart, educated and super nice to be able to work with. Its too bad that Jolene has to run the show. There is so much potential for that lab if she wasn't there. I can understand why she is there though - because she had absolutely No! people skills whatsoever and only a good manager would be able to notice the difference in how nice it can be working in a Team Environment versus working with a psychopath aka Dictatorship Jolene.

Can I have my money back now?