investigator

receptionist/administrative assistant

administrative assistant

service technician

family support worker

Department Of Family And Protective Services

It's a bit challenging at first. You go through Basic Skills Development (training) for about a month. They could be a little better in preparing you during BSD for what you should expect on the floor but they're not wrong in saying you learn a lot more when being on the floor.

At the beginning, you should expect to be slower and have much longer reports. After all the staffing, you'll start to distinguish what is pertinent to assessing a report and what's background.

They have you on a payscale so after 9 months of working there as an Intake Specialist I you can advance to II and then another 9 months to worker III and then it's two years to IV. The paycheck increase is 10%. A shift outside of M-F, I think if you stay after 11pm is where you see a shift differential. If you work a Saturday or Sunday, you'll get about 2.5%. The later into the evening you work, the higher the differential. I've seen 11% as the highest and that was for an overnight schedule.

More on pay, after deductions and taxes, you should expect your paycheck to be about 1800-1950 for a month of work. At a II, about 2100, and a III about 2300. You should consider the area of living as well.

Upper levels are focused on getting people to reach minimum expectations so incentives to go above or be competitive feel kind of minimal. I didn't hear about incentives until about a year in when I was switching units.

It's not easy to get paid OT. Usually, they'll offer OT for time off. If you have a bunch of OT hours, you can apply to get it all paid out but I've heard it's rare for that to happen so it feels kind of discouraged. You do get a day of annual leave and a day of sick leave each month which can accumulate. Certain leave awards do expire.

This is a place where you'll want to keep an eye on all your paperwork, when you miss work, how often you miss work, that you aren't late 20% or more of the days you work in each month, and that you have documented who told you to do what. Sometimes a manager or coworker may tell you to process a report a certain way and if you don't have their name on the report or have it documented somewhere, it can come back and bite you in the butt.

I've also noticed that even with the network instant messaging, some workers will take a screenshot of conversations. You really need to cover yourself.

They offer several benefits. Healthcare, dental, vision insurance definitely helpful. They enroll you in Employee Retirement Services.

In terms of work culture, there are a lot of people who will joke around to cope. It's helpful. EAP isn't the most helpful. The department itself will usually offer secondary trauma seminars to help each month. A lot of the workers have been in other departmental fields like CPS and APS and switch over to deal with less. A good number of the folks are more around 30s to 50s and 60s. Some were schoolteachers and some have done social work their whole lives. People also seem to really like potlucks. And there is a push for employees to pay attention to their health, probably because you hear some crazy stuff occasionally and you are sitting for 8 hours, 40 hours each week.

Because they want you to work your 40 hours, it's easy to have a life/work balance. You don't typically take work home with you. Personally, I did take time out of my day to make helpful charts for processing reference. Sometimes it takes too long to find something in the handbook and if there is a heavy call volume you could be waiting a while to ask a supervisor. Plus, supervisors get bugged if you're asking the same question over and over. You could also just ask other workers about what they're using and then make copies of those too. Sticky notes are helpful for any little things you might forget like certifying your time or editing your time and leave.

They offer telework so you can work from home but it's offered like once a year and you shouldn't expect to get that unless you have something in your favor, like tenure, and you're meeting all requirements and not on any sort of probation. Some of these people have been here for 5 years, 10 years.

No one is hovering over your back all day long which is nice. But depending on your office location, your supervisor, your admin and your PD, you could get very UGLY cases that require you out at all hours of the day and night in dangerous parts of town, by yourself in attempt to save children. DFPS is incredibly understaffed and with that said you MUST have great time management skills and be very thorough during all of your investigations. ALWAYS refer to, and know policy, ALWAYS!!! And when one person at your office location quits, those cases are then absorbed by the rest of the office, regardless as to whether your caseload is already high. This is demanding work, agency workers are not always professional, and you have to endure a lot with the service providers, families and children you work with while still submitting all of your paperwork and documentation on time. I learned so much as a level I investigator but I could not even take the necessary classes to get to level II because I had absolutely no time to do so. There was a 3 month period where I worked 7 days per week for at least 10 hours per day and that was when my time management was in great shape - but there simply was just too much work that needed to be done. My pay checks were nice even as a level I but I had no time to even enjoy the money I was making as I could not really take days off and even when I did not physical go out on a case there was always so much documentation and paperwork to do. The job would not be that bad if it were not for certain supervisors, and PDs and RDs. I can and will say that offices are primarily run by people who are unprofessional, catty, envious, and all around haters. It is imperative that you make connections and network with people from other departments because you WILL NOT be able to do the whole job alone. You will need the help and support of others but not everyone will have your back nor your best professional interest at heart. It can be pretty dog eat dog, especially if and when a child dies on a case. The emphasis is often on the numbers and less on the time and sacrifice it takes caseworkers to reach said numbers. DO NOT work here if you plan to quit because that simply makes it harder on current caseworkers. Instead think long and hard on it and reach out to current investigators to get a feel for whether this type of work is right for you. Trainers and recruiters will lie to get you in the door because the agency is extremely understaffed and they really need people but this job, while fulfilling and internally rewarding is challenging, and is real work. 

Let me start off by stating that this job is very stressful. You will be welcomed to the mental health club. Your work will take over your life. Your weekends will become worries because you will not know if a child on your case load may die and you could have done more. You will have to be very intrusive with this job and get in people's business and really invesitigate. Dont let people lie to you because they do lie all the time. If you have children this may not be the job for you. You must have someone to care for your children after hours a lot becauae this job will have days where you will remove children and finding placement may take all day and go into the night. Dont plan anything on fridays because most likely it will be a long night. This job is suppose to be mobile but supervisors dont like for you to work from home and document your cases. They want you in the office even thought at the beggining they tell you its okay. The supervisors talk yo you as if your a child. They tell you they are there to teach you but yet thats not true. They want you to learn everything at first hand. This job is very fast paste and you must be smart to do it. I am about to be here one year and i can tell you it has been a rough  year. I love the fact that i save children who need to be saved but some supervisors exagerate and want removals done when we dont have a case in court. Try to be on your supervisors good side becuase if your not they will make your life miserable. I can say since im a work a holic i can handle this job but if you only like to do the necessary and dont like to go above and beyond to do the job then this is not for you. I have a good support system at home so the hours are not a issue for me. If you have children they will ask you why do you have to work too much. They will ask you to stay home with them. They will ask you for time. You will have to find a way to explain your job role and what you do. You will have to explain the reason why you work so hard. You will have to tell them the storys of the children you save. You will have to show them more love and affectionate with this job. You will have a break down at one point and say i cant no more but it gets better. If you have a husband he will ask you to quit many times.  He will ask for more time ad well. He will tell you how you are neglecting your own children to save other children. You must explain the requirements to him clearly. You must tell him that you love your job and that you love what you do i  order for him to understand why you work so hard. This is just some things i have gone through being here a short period of time.

You'll typically work at 15-16 hour day. Many times I would work 18-20 hours a day. You're expected to spend all day meeting with families, coordinating with local resources, law enforcement, and management with no time to document anything. Most of the time everyone has to spend their free time entering documentation into their system just for it to crash when they are at home. They don't let or want you to claim the overtime because then you have poor time management skills. But they expect you to leave your home after hours to deal with emergencies. When I originally interviewed for the job they mentioned there were occasional days where I might have to work outside of the normal 8-5 timeframes. Sometimes as much as 24 hours and sometimes weekends. That ended up being the normal. I rarely went home at 5pm.  One of my coworkers caught COVID and they were expected to continue making phone calls and documenting their caseload while they were supposed to be home recovering. They say they are all about the work life balance but when you try to take some time off it's almost never granted. They care more about the mental health of the clients than for their own employees. Can't call in sick with the flu without being provided a task list of things that have to be done while you are out sick. People who do halfass jobs are allowed to skate by but people who put in the work are overworked to the point of severe burnout. There is no room for advancement. Some people will spend 10 or more years in the same position with no options for advancement. The people who do move into upper management do so because they are friends with somebody or have connections to other people higher up. 

The job has it's good days, and then most of the time it's the bad days. It can be rewarding and it can be troublesome. It's so much more than people know. The investigation in it's self may seem easy, but meeting deadlines, documentation, court hearings, writing affidavits, dealing with legal teams, offering services, and planning are things that take time. There's not a lot of time with this job. Just when you think you may be caught up, your workload fills up fast. The work life balance was good in the beginning, but now it's definitely not balance. Overtime is expected to get the job done. Removals are hard because there's so much that goes into a removal, and one removal of one child can make you fall behind on your workload for weeks. The types of situations, people and environments you put your self in are often questionable and law enforcement assistance is needed. We are the bad guys or so they say, it's a very hard, complex job b that requires several different skill sets. You have to be good at critical thinking, time management, people skills, problem solving, documentation, and it's not for everybody. The pays okay I guess, but definitely not enough for all the blood, sweat, and tears that come with the job. You never get ahead, your always pressed for time, management is not worried about making numbers than the quality of the case it's self. Lots of travel, and continuing education trainings throughout your career. Lots and lots of documentation, phone calls, court orders, and deadlines. It's a hard, demanding, life sucking right out of you career. You can't take time off because when you return, you get slammed.

The purpose of this job is to ensure that the safety and well-being of children and family come first. It’s hard to ensure that when quality Of have work Is secondary to quantity. It is hard to guarantee that your investigation on your cases have a long-term purpose of successfulness when you are rushed to complete your cases. Working at CPS has proven to me that the system has failed due to the fact, that the quality of the work is diminished Because of the over worked environment and underpaid employees. To ensure a balance of work life and personal life one is to be well compensated, and limited to the amount of work and individuals are given. Cps has overworked and is overworking their employees to the point that one quits or has a physical and mental exhausting breakdown. Like I said before we are dealing with children and parents and the work should be based off of quality of work not the number of cases that need to be completed.How is one supposed to be effective and proficient when they are bombarded with case after case and not given enough time to ensure that the cases investigated are with quality.  It seems to me that the departments main focus is documentation completed in A timely manner. To me I feel each case should have more investigative work, to ensure safety and security for the children and family, instead of focusing on documentation. I am aware documentation is very important in the legal system but also giving your all to ensure equality, safety, security and well-being of the family long-term is a tad more important.

You arrive early and leave late. I would typically spend the night there due to lack of personnel to watch the children. You will work 60 + hours a week and not be paid well for it. If you need time off, forget it, you have tons of cases and no one to help work on them when you leave for a few days (if they give you the days off). The work place is passive aggressive. The hardest part of the job is seeing horrific things and not having time off to relax after seeing those terrible things, much less being able to sleep before you go back to work. The most enjoyable part is helping the children that you are able to help. If you want to experience difficulty of the real world, start here. You won't last long, not many people due. The ones that do, have great supervisors and the ones that don't, have awful supervisors. You will see what I mean once you start, give it a few months. I learned a lot about myself, and had to overcome many obstacles. I left here believing I was an awful investigator, and I thought I made the wrong choice in my degree. I received a job at a better organization, that lifted me up and made me realize, "no DFPS was just a horrendous place to work". If you want to develop thick skin, then work here. I hated it, but it destroyed me just enough to rise from the ashes.

I would not come back to this agency. You have to complete child watch , late visits, on call, documentation and very long summaries and overall no room for balance. Very stressful and supervisors are not very supportive. If you are planning to be on leave no one will assist you even in Austin, TX. The mentor program is terrible and didn’t get much experience but rather everyone seeming they needing to have authority. You will receive monthly statuses from providers on weekends and have to make sure you document within 24 hours. Cannot talk to program directors as they will believe your supervisor before you. Hostile. Overall, there’s no room to continue in school. You will have to complete removals, letters to parents who are in jail, closing, communication with dfps investigators with new cases,  assessments and documentation of visits depending on risk levels. Sometimes court and also deal with technology problems due to constant changes. If you plan to get a raise, you will have to complete training and classes some are in person. This is not a healthy environment and you cannot trust anyone. This agency will also hire anyone that is a friend or relative or when desperate for a worker ! 

My typical day of work is coming in checking emails and returning telephone calls to clients. Some mornings we have trainings or meeting with our team and supervisors.  I work on reports and documentation until lunch. After lunch I go into the field to conduct home visits with foster parents and foster children, or recruit for foster/adoptive parents. On certain days/weeks, I am scheduled to be on call after hours.  

I have learned that I can be in the position of any family we serve, to be grateful and humble.  I have learned time management, improved my people skills, and how to accept change. Working with the State things change quite often.   

My current workplace culture is family oriented, we work as a team, we cheer each it other up on stressful days and cheer each other on through hard projects.   

The hardest part of my job is seeing the children after they have been taken away from their family. Trying to reinsure the children they will be placed in a loving home that will care for them while their family work on making it safe for them to return home. 

I love to see the children reunited with their families, or a child find a forever family.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Helping children and making sure they are safe. Reuniting families once we know they have truly changed for the better 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Constantly working 60+ hours a week…. Over loaded on cases and being made to do impossible tasks in such short timeframes because there are too many cases and too many kids and parents to see in a month every single month. Working with higher up’s who have bad attitudes and think they know everything and refuse to listen. Working CWOP with children who threaten our lives or assault us and we aren’t allowed to defend ourselves and the police don’t do anything.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It can be a vibe if you’re working with the right people. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Busy busy busy…. Hardly time to eat because every minute counts. Though you’re encouraged to take a lunch. I skip mine or eat and work 99% of the time because there is too much to do and not enough time unless you want to work overtime all the time. Not all supervisors let you work overtime so you can only do so much in an 8 hour day.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Investigator 543 salaries reported	$4,696 per month
Receptionist/administrative assistant 3 salaries reported	$2,282 per month
Administrative assistant 135 salaries reported	$3,141 per month
Service technician 114 salaries reported	$3,452 per month
Family support worker 154 salaries reported	$4,607 per month

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