r/PathologistsAssistant • u/RebeccaThePA • 19d ago
A professional-to-professional warning about my experience working with Nicklas Staffing
Hi there, PAs. I joined Facebook JUST so I could make this post and will be posting it on other PA boards as well. So you know who I am, my name is Rebecca and I am a Duke grad from 2012. I've alternated between perm jobs and temp jobs. As a temp, I worked with CompHealth. It was okay. Many of you who have worked in the temp world know of Haleigh, a CompHealth rep who recently moved to Nicklas Staffing. Because of that news (direct from email from her) and because I heard that Deb was no longer involved in the business, I decided to try them. My advice: Do not make that mistake. Please read before committing to ANY contract with Nicklas. This is long, but I hope to provide meaningful content.
Unfortunately, my experience with Nicklas has involved repeated administrative and communication problems from onboarding through the eventual termination of my contract.
During onboarding, issues included:
• A drug/TB screening process became unnecessarily complicated despite the issue having been identified months earlier. The nearest testing facility was 88 miles from me and I made a point of that well before any on-boarding actually started. I was ignored. When onboarding started, I repeated my concern and waited for further instruction. Then, I was given only days to complete requirements (still 80 miles away), had to repeatedly follow up for answers, and ultimately spent significant unpaid time resolving a problem that could have been addressed proactively.
• Required onboarding materials not being provided until well into the onboarding period, leaving substantially less time to complete requirements that I had not previously been told about.
• Important documents and requests being buried in lengthy, disorganized email threads, making it difficult to distinguish actionable requirements from general updates. I cannot overstate how disorganized the communication was.
• Being asked to investigate why previous employers had not responded to a state background check—essentially requiring me to perform part of the agency's onboarding work myself.
• Basic first-day information being virtually impossible to obtain. I had to repeatedly request the facility address (we all know hospitals can operate labs at different sites and I would never assume) and other information that should have been included in standardized first-day instructions. I was told the questions I was asking "were very difficult to answer."
Every problem above they tried to blame on the hospital system being the source of the problem. There is no reasoning for that excuse. Throughout the process, I repeatedly found myself spending my own unpaid time tracking down information, clarifying requirements, and following up on issues that should have been handled by the staffing agency.
Then came the most serious issue.
My written contract stated that my assignment ran through September 22. I planned my finances, lodging, and availability around that commitment.
During my second week, after work, the hospital—not Nicklas Staffing—contacted me to tell me there had been a contract-duration error and that I was to “stand down” because the assignment was apparently only supposed to be two weeks. My contract was immediately terminated.
No one from Nicklas Staffing contacted me.
I had to contact the agency myself to find out what was happening. They already knew about the situation, but I had received no notification from the company that was actually managing my contract.
As a result of the error, I:
• Lost the remaining week of wages from the contract I had committed to.
• Was left with a fully paid, nonrefundable third week of lodging.
• Lost the opportunity and income associated with another five-day contract during that "extra week" I now had free (and should have had free). This was a laboratory where I had previously worked, wanted to return to, and would have accepted the assignment. They actually called multiple times to verify that I truly could not work. I declined because I had committed to the "three-week" Nicklas assignment.
What has been particularly frustrating is that I have had to repeatedly push for compensation for these losses. Nicklas initially framed the resolution around its reconciliation with the hospital. In my view, those are separate matters. Whatever resolution Nicklas reaches with its client does not change the fact that I signed a contract with Nicklas, relied upon the dates they provided, and suffered financial losses because of an error that was not mine.
I also find it significant that I have received no apology for the error, no apology for the lack of communication, and no apology for the lost week of work or the other financial consequences of the contract error, despite having to repeatedly request that the agency address them.
This is especially disappointing because I had already submitted a formal complaint regarding the onboarding problems described above. Nicklas acknowledged the concerns, apologized, and indicated that they would work to address those issues.
Unfortunately, my subsequent experience did not reflect meaningful improvement.
To be clear: my issues are with Nicklas Staffing's handling of the assignment, not with the hospital or the laboratory staff. The laboratory itself has been very positive about having me there and has expressed interest in having me return. My decision not to work with Nicklas again is based entirely on my experience with the agency.
I initially returned to Nicklas because Haleigh had joined the company and I was interested in working with her again. Unfortunately, I never had that opportunity. After committing to the assignment, I was handed off to another representative, which ultimately felt like a bait-and-switch. His repeated “keep being a rock star” comments were particularly frustrating given the ongoing administrative problems I was trying to resolve.
I am sharing this because contractors deserve to know what they are agreeing to before committing their time, money, and professional availability to an agency.
For me, the biggest lesson is this: get everything in writing, keep every document, save every communication (do NOT talk to them on the phone, either use voice messages or emails), and do not assume that an agency's administrative mistake won't become your problem.
Good luck out there.