sheriff

mental health technician

accountant

human resources specialist

senior dispatcher

Contra Costa County

I loved my job for the first few years. I was helping people and had made a number of friends. One clinic I worked at for 6 years became almost family to me...I am from out of state. 
Then I discovered some awful truth. It was unethical behavior. When I reported it, that is being ethical, I was retaliated against. And few came to my defense, leading me to understand that the County is not trying to be honest or fair. They claim there goal is to support the community and help those in need. To some degree this is true. But not 100%. 
The most important thing to Contrra Cost County is the protection of their BOTTOM LINE: funds, MONEY. 
I loved some of my supervisors, and I know some are as dishonest as any one you would meet  in prison. And some should be in prison. The point is that Contra Costa County is a powerful force in California and you cannot go against them without help. And their is no help. Do Not Believe any signs hanging on the bulletin boards. They literally will not help you. 
So, if you want to work for Contra Costa County-remember to be quiet and not report anything you see or hear. And you could be able to retire with a benefits package, and live happily ever after getting a check from Calipers and CCCERA. But. If you are ethical, go look else where for a job. They also use woman and it's like a boys' club where the women do the men's bidding. The last woman leader we had, literally ran off without giving notice.

My experience in working for almost six years at Contra Costa County Behavioral Health has been the worst of my 30-year professional career.  Senior Leadership are very old-fashioned in their thinking and perspectives.   They generally do not trust their staff; this, of course, varies by who your Chief (yes, they still call them "Chiefs"), Manager or direct supervisor is.  This is obviously another huge problem as it leads to very low staff morale because staff see other staff having more flexible, forward-thinking experiences while they are held down by a different supervisor who requires draconian processes, policies and procedures.  The pay is extremely low for comparable positions in the Greater Bay Area Counties.  A staff salary analysis to compare salaries with other Bay Area Counties and then make adjustments has not been completed in 20 years!  The cost of living here has obviously gone up exponentially in that time.  This has led to the vast majority of staff not being able to afford to live where we work or even close by.  Most staff have very length commutes, some up to 2, 3 or 4 hours one-way.  And yet, the Behavioral Health Department has taken the position that NO staff may work remotely!  Not even hybrid schedules are allowed.

I do love my team and almost all of my colleagues.  I love the program I manage and, of course, our clients and community partners.  Beyond this, I have little positive to say.

Multi-tasking with multi-departments was interesting and upward mobility was ever-present. I was basically autonomous so earning that privilege and responsibility allowed me to be creative and "think outside the box."

I discovered millions of dollars of redundant grant monies -- that was just a computer glitch. A new database query was formed and the county and state benefited. Community education concerns were managed on a daily basis -- from crime prevention presentations, to emergency preparedness procedures. 

The hardest part of the job was learning all the government acronyms and memorizing them. 

I learned to write press releases and polish collateral materials with different software on a hands-on basis that I would used to delegate and train and manage staff in the future. 

I enjoyed the job daily -- unusual occurrences or emergencies happened frequently and I fine-tuned my leadership skills. I was able to exercise my copy editing and writing skills and enjoy interacting with grass roots organizations.

Management is full of power hungry , ego driven people who don’t enjoy patient care so they make their way to management roles. Serval people working at the clinics are hired through friends and family members. If you’re not related to or friends with someone management good luck staying in the clinic. There’s a lot of back stabbing with employees talking badly about each other as well and it’s ignored of course by management who is often the center of major issues regarding bullying staff members (they ignore the bullying and also side often with the bully as long as the person is able to tattle tale on others). Feels very very childish. If you disagree with a manager or lead nurse you get retaliated on. There’s not much learning and staff does minimal work for the same pay as a hospital employee. Politics/NEPOTISM at its finest. And don’t forget the fact they preach diversity but actually enforce uniform thinking / acting for all staff which isn’t healthy. 

I was very particular about honesty, integrity and team spirit. I always led by example and always told my juniors, 'no job is too small; if I can do it then you can do it too'. Seniors were helpful and cooperative. I always found myself encouraging and training the younger staff. There was job pressure of course, but I had built a team of positive people and with me leading, 99% of the time we were able to meet deadlines. There were some difficult people as well, but slowly and steadily I single handedly was able to convert them. Lunch hour was always a time to unwind and share and I made sure at least once a week the entire staff had lunch together; this really brought out the best in people and they were always willing to share their experiences with others and built a great team and boosted everyone's morale.

I loved the work I performed and the satisfaction from my work was great. At the time we used bookkeeping machines and we had to balance all ledgers to the penny. We were central collection for Contra Costa County, so there were alot of accounts. We all worked together as a team.
Management was great and worked with us. The hardest part of the job was revoking individuals probation, with the courts. Or intercepting indivuals taxes. We also converted from the bookkeeping machines to the computer, which was quite a task. We did that twice. I was the lead in the office and could cover any desk in the office, which I loved the diversity. I was able to take classes
to better my career. We started out as collection for the probation
department, and when we did such a good job, we became central collection for Contra Costa County.

I really appreciated the staff at WCCAS Mh program.  I also appreciated my direct program manager and my colleagues who supervised interns and other staff.  I appreciated the Mh managers meeting weekly and thought that information went up to upper level managers very well.  At times I felt somewhat of a  disconnect or perhaps not fully understanding how much direct line staff make a difference In so many lives and to more fully support direct line staff so they remain curious, open, can appreciate learning experiences, and help create positive change in the clients lives   

Standards vary a lot from manager to manager. You are lucky if you have one that wants you to succeed, most of them think they are making you a favor when they give you an answer for something. I do like the job I do and the impact it has on people. But the work environment is very tetric. The expression  "welcome to the county" is used a lot anytime a process, obsolete mechanism, or in general, anything that is unproductive and useless still needs to be done. There is a lot of competition among everyone there. They like to tell on you/everyone so that it's them who gets the promotion. You have to be very discreet or completely trust someone if you need to vent about work-related frustrations.

I finally found a great team to work with! Everyone at county is down to earth and friendly.  Relaxed atmosphere.  Patients can be scary at times, just keep your head low and show them respect.  Inmates and 5150 patients are here on a daily basis but the deputy watching the inmates are very nice, protective and helpful of the medical staff.   Psych nurses are a little too laid back though, wish they looked more confident at times.  Some psych nurses are great, others, not so much.  Remodeled cafeteria serves delicious food and starbucks coffee and espresso machine.  Employees get discounts and also free meals when working OT.  OT hours are in abundance at county due to co workers constantly using their sick hours, so if you need extra dough there's always hours available to pick up!

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people I work with. My supervisor and unit are amazing people. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The micromanaging and constant pressure to complete the overwhelming amount of cases assigned to you. 100+ cases assigned monthly with 8 phone days is unmanageable for even the most seasoned workers. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
High pressure. Management doesn’t care about the employees. You are just a number to them and are treated as such. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Log in and process as many cases as possible. On your phone days your constantly monitored and managed every bathroom and break is noted. If you take too long it’s reported to your District Manager who questions why your bathroom needs are so long or often.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sheriff 7 salaries reported	$7,657 per month
Mental health technician 5 salaries reported	$10,826 per month
Accountant 7 salaries reported	$10,025 per month
Human resources specialist 2 salaries reported	$10,659 per month
Senior dispatcher 2 salaries reported	$8,740 per month

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