equipment operator

maintenance person

laborer

sanitation worker

police officer

City of Winston-Salem

The City of Winston-Salem Recreation and Parks Department is a horrible department to work for. It currently suffers from poor leadership, mismanagement, and severe staffing shortages (due to a high number of people quitting). The Director fails to know or recognize the departmental staff he oversees, the Assistant Director is an unprofessional, control freak that caters to those that suck up to her, and the District Supervisor is a habitual liar with a lack of leadership skills who cannot even train or properly advise the staff he 'supervises' because he doesn’t know how to do their job, let alone his own.

There is no ONE TEAM atmosphere in the Recreation Department. There is no team chemistry and cohesion because the upper management team is ignorant of their own shortcomings and unsupportive of their subordinates. This toxic environment and situation that has gone on for over 2 years will cease to exist when the entire departmental leadership team is removed and replaced with unbiased, qualified professionals.

Management aside, running a rec center every day is often an enjoyable experience if you are allowed to manage as you see fit AND if you have staff members that get along and stick around. However, many staff members resign over a lack of advancement opportunities and inconsistent working hours. Other staff members are moved around by upper management so that they "gain more exposure and experience." The community suffers for it though. They often fail to have a familiar face stick around long enough to make a significant impact.

Hard-working local staff members are often overlooked for young, inexperienced external hires from out-of-state or out-of-town that come and go within a year. At the same time, hiring decisions are strictly made based on gender, race, or biased favoritism, and not on hard work, community development, and integrity. Beware before accepting employment here!

The COWS is an uninnovative, uninspiring place to work. There is almost no opportunity for advancement with the exception of selected "special" staff who seem to be identified as soon as they are hired, or for professional development unless you are in upper management. There is a huge inequity in the number of low to medium low paying jobs versus top heavy, high paying jobs created for specific and totally unqualified people. Every time I turn around, some small new department is created, and then a new department head making a ridiculous salary to manage a few staff. The City manager needs to go, totally ineffective, does whatever Council says. The work facilities are all mostly outdated and run down. In the professional group, women are underrepresented. I find myself almost always in meetings where I am the only female staff person in the room/on Zoom. And, yes, I am hard working, very good at what I do, have a formal education and show up on time, am rarely out, and I cannot get past basically an entry level job. When a good opportunity comes along, I will happily leave the City.

If you work for their water treatment you’ll either get placed at a plant where you work 5 on, 5 off, 2 on, 2 off or 3 on 2 off, 2 on 3 off. It’s a very lazy job. I find myself bored 75% of the time. If you get a good senior operator you all will split everything on a shift. If you’re unlucky like me you’ll get stuck doing 90% of the work while your Senior does 10%. You have to do a lot of chemistry type work, and obtain your Surface “B” License in NC or the city will fire you. Because it’s municipal your employer will have a political agenda. Morale on my shift is low because my senior operator complains a lot, and is very temperamental. Unknown why management won’t address those flaws within him. Good pay starting out, but the long-timers are mad that newbies start out at such a high pay rate. Attention to detail is a must in this area. 
Unfortunately, don’t look for a pay raise. If the city doesn’t feel like it’s in the budget they won’t disperse one. Doesn’t matter how hard you’ve worked for the past 9 years. 

The Recreation and Parks Department is a poorly managed facet of the City of Winston-Salem. Deserving loyal employees are consistently looked over and are ripped from their advancement opportunities- most advancements are given to outside applicants which creates low workplace morale. Staffing is also a large issue- there is barely enough staff to operate but it is expected of you/staff to make due (two or less staff members covering 35+ after school kids while managing a community center).The atmosphere is relaxed and fun until you realize your management sets you up for failure. The lack of communication is comical and your are often left embarrassed when the public expects you to have answers on subjects/ issues you've never even heard about. Lead management is so sparsely seen they are unrecognizable to employees- many have no idea who is in charge or what they look like. it's frustrating because the City has a substantial amount of potential and money but without proper leadership this department will continue to fail.

As the title says I do believe this could have been a better experience if you are not a floater. As a floater you do not have an assigned truck, no assigned routes, and you are the bottom of the barrel. Now not having assigned routes you are given unexpected expectations to magically finish the route like the person who normally does the route even though you have yet to learn the route. There is little to no guidance how the management will run that day be prepared to be frustrated from being told to complete task and on the way to task they switch the task, kick you out the truck from someone else, and then make you wait for a truck mid day even though you have to complete a route. 
I worked for recycling a while ago and I never had an issue and enjoyed my job but Sanitation has a lot of work to do to change the job around. I would not recommend you work here as a floater and make sure to ask that in the interview. 

A typical work day is busy with elders hosting a program that mainly pertains to them. Then after 3:30, the youth and teenagers come in. The are many activites that are made for them. Their may be a self esteem program talking place, homework/study sessions, computer lab assistant with job searching and college applications. I work at Belview, the staff is wonderful. The center director has plenty to offer. He offers free guitar lessons to anyone willing to learn. I also work with teen girls on how to improve themselves from the inside out. The hardest part of the job is meeting people (especially children) that come from nothing. No one encourages them to be better in life and push to become educated. The most enjoyable part is seeing how much success you can have when you help one person at a time.

The City of Winston-Salem eats its young. You enter your new job with energy and hopefulness that you can make a difference while serving and meeting the needs of the citizens. However, the toxic climate, long hours, low pay and in most instances lack of advancement eventually take their toll. There are many talented people who work for the City but eventually end up leaving due to the stress and unnecessary drama that you endure to get your job done.

If the City of Winston-Salem does not make the necessary changes in the culture, environment, leadership and pay they will not retain the type of employees that can take City services to the next level.

The greatest thing about being in law enforcement is the fact that, even though times are difficult now, I am still able to assist those people who need help and are willing to accept the help law enforcement officers provide.  The particular city in which I work has a variety of these types of people, which can make it difficult to know what you are going to deal with during any given night of work.  However, the city I am employed by refuses to be competitive with other agencies.  This is very disappointing, especially since the other agencies are ones that are nearby.

A typical day at work begins with checking emails from sponsors, volunteers and board members and steakholders who send donations in for city/county events, make outgoing call to schoools, organiztion and companies for voluteer recruitment, assist with events coordinations, follw-up on leads, deposits, maintain company database, surveys for higway clean-ups, process applications for adopt-a-highway program, assit with public relations department, all administrative duties as requested,

The City of Winston-Salem works hard for the residents/citizens.  The employees strive to complete their day to day responsibilities and contribute towards the overall mission of the City.   The best part of the job is knowing that your efforts contribute to meeting the needs of the citizens of Winston-Salem.  The hardest part of the job is that the ability to resolve an issue for a citizen doesn't always happen quick enough.  However, the overall focus is to continuously find ways to improve the living standards and conditions for the citizens.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Equipment operator 88 salaries reported	$47,419 per year
Maintenance person 41 salaries reported	$40,108 per year
Laborer 7 salaries reported	$15.86 per hour
Sanitation worker 6 salaries reported	$40,709 per year
Police officer 13 salaries reported	$54,880 per year

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