OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to identify health workers' labor environment satisfaction in several oncology services from a tertiary referral center and two second level-hospitals at the Social Security Mexican Institute (IMSS). METHODS A cross-sectional and descriptive study was performed within the IMSS in Guadalajara City, Mexico. The health workers were interviewed using the work environment scale (WES), this questionnaire contents 90 items through dichotomy answers (true/false) to evaluate medical staff satisfaction among several item: involvement, cohesion, support, autonomy, organization, work-pressure, clarity, control, innovation, guidance and comfort. All workers interviewed attend mainly oncology patients. Internal consistency was evaluated through Cronbach's alpha and ANOVA to obtain statistical differences between health workers responses. This questionnaire was previously validated in Mexico. RESULTS Eighteen physicians, 27 nurses, 7 medical assistants and 8 radiotherapy technicians were interviewed. The mean response for all health workers interviewed satisfaction level including all items was of 49% (23% to 78%), the lowest satisfaction level was for the comfort item (39%) and the highest was for the clarity item (59%). We did not find differences between medical staff specialties, with exception of nurses, whom were the lowest satisfaction level group (38%; p= 0.001). However, statistical differences among all the hospitals studied in the assessment were found. In the tertiary referral center physicians showed the lowest work environment satisfaction in the cohesion item (40%; p= 0.09) followed by nurses giving services to inpatients (38%; p= 0.01). In second-level patients the lowest work environment satisfaction level was obtained in medical assistants in clarity items (37%; p= 0.03) and guidance (39%; p= 0.08). CONCLUSIONS Using the WES scale in three Mexican hospitals, the analysis showed that medical staff that attend oncology patients, are dissatisfied with their work environment. The less satisfied were nurses and medical assistants.