clerk

library technician

administrative assistant

court clerk

librarian

Harris County

A typical day at work would be to see between15- 20 client in one day, and discuss thoroughly their court order, review the conditions completed, what they are missing, assigning deadlines of what has not been completed, advised client of conditions which are not completed and have 90 days prior to their full term to have all of the conditions completed along with financial responsibility with both the probation department and Court.
 Complete violation reports for court, start a motion and collect all pertain information that needs to be placed on the violation report or motions. Staff the case with Supervisor, call probationers that failed to report that day and send a rescheduled appointment for client and have them make contact via phone upon receiving notice of new appointment. Complete a field visit to the client who has failed to report after 30 days, review violation in home alcohol and ignition interlock reports, document violations, send copy to supervisor for staffing decision to court or set appt for client to meet with supervisor for supervisor admonishment, prepare case for court and prepare to go to court to testify. 
Organization/ documentation is not only required but extremely important in this type of job due to the caseloads and how quickly cases turnover for whatever reason. If it was not written it never happened. The information the client would share was very critical and could come as evidence later if there was a motion to file. It was also good to know things about each client, for many reasons, especially to know how to address each client accordant to their offense, behavior towards their offense to avoid the element of surprises that could place many at risk. This was very important and needed a learned technique that should never be taken lightly. 
Worked very closely with management as all of our work had to be review and approved to be typed or sent to court for Court Staffing. 
The various teams I have worked with have been good in working as a team, as we have to cover at times for one another and communication and supporting one another was very critical in our jobs. 
The hardest part was having to clean up cases that were not being taken care of by other officers, who appeared to not be engaged in the conditions of their clients, the courts and department. Those cases that were sentenced for longer than a year, had to be reviewed carefully, thoroughly, brought up to standards of what had not been completed, staffed with the courts along with ensuring any violations that had gone unreported or not detected were immediately addressed with all parties including the client and decision what steps were going to be taken to bring the cases back into compliance immediately. 
I enjoyed seeing my clients who were successful in finally mastering the knowledge that their offenses that they committed were not just against the law, courts, and on themselves; rather that the entire offense had direct and indirect effect on citizens, their jobs, society and their families, financially, emotionally, mentally and physically. My goal was to listen and get to know my clients, and document all they would say and during each office visit they were to share what had changed from the last OV regarding what they had shared with me and their treatment provider, and how they had put that to practice.

WORK EXPERIENCE:    2012 to Present: Harris County Sheriff’s Office Mental Health Unit
                                        2000-2012: Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, London, United Kingdom
1. LEADERSHIP
•	Provides care to increasingly complex patients and coordinates the interdisciplinary team
•	Identifies and presents areas for improvement in patient care or unit operations and offers solutions by participating in unit projects and shared governance activities
•	Identifies leadership opportunities for professional growth of peers
•	Provides input into the unit resource utilization including unit capital and operational budget needs
2. PATIENT/FAMILY-CENTERED CARE
•	Develops and updates plan of care in partnership with the patient and family using the nursing process, incorporating the patient`s priorities and abilities.
•	 Establishes mutual educational goals with patient and family, provides appropriate resources, incorporating planning for care after discharge
•	Supports patients and families in preventing/resolving clinical or ethical issues
3. CLINICAL JUDGEMENT/CRITICAL THINKING 
•	Follows the nursing process, modifies care based on continuous evaluation of the patient`s condition, demonstrates clinical problem-solving and critical thinking, and makes decisions using evidence-based analytical approach
•	Plans for routine events and anticipates/prevents and manages/elevates emergent situations
•	Contributes to meeting departmental targets for quality and safety measures on unit-based scorecard
4. COMMUNICATION 
•	Communicates in an active, positive and effective manner to all health care team members and reports pertinent patient care and family data in a comprehensive and unbiased manner
•	Uses therapeutic communication to establish a relationship with patients and families and communicates the plan of care
5. TEAMWORK
•	Manages usual patient assignment and other unit demands, completes patient care responsibilities in timely manner with accurate documentation, organizes multiple priorities and anticipates/plans for potential problems
6. SAFETY
•	Reports near misses and errors promptly and consistently to improve systems and processes and identify trends

A typical job as a Forensic Investigator Assistant or Forensic Investigator III would vary from day to shift, now day is the same. Some days you might be in the office answering phones, but 99.9% of the times the job requires you to go either alone or with another coworker to pick up bodies at hospital, scenes like highways, freeways, houses, under bridges, under trains, automobile accidents, bayous, airports, plane crashes, boats, lakes, you name it!! The ones no many people like are decomposing bodies, specially if it is inside a hoarder's house in the summer, children, and floaters or drawing etc... The difficulty of the job is when the deceased is heavy and you have to carry the body down the stairs, from attics, roof, so many weird places. It's difficult to explain everything in a short paragraph. The position for Assistants are pretty much picking bodies, triage calls and other morgue related duties. FI III take photos of certain scenes and have to do what Assistants do. Assistant's make around (14+/HR), Fi III around (16+/HR). Fi II are the ones that go to scenes with Assistants and Fi III, but Fi II only take photos and write the reports and make around ($18+/HR). If you are skinny, you might not want to apply for Assistant or Fi III, they are usually big people that do the job because of the amount of lifting required, like some said: this is a muscle job.

Benefits? Aetna provides health insurance and it's free for you, no overtime is paid, instead they accumulate that, and if you ever resign, you receive a big check if you have a lot of comp. Time. Raises are very bad, pretty much pennies a year. 

PD: make sure before you apply that you will stand seeing dead people in many different ways, decomposing, hanging, dawning, chopped into pieces, and so many unthinkable ways to die. Be prepare to stand odors, the heat, the cold, the rain, etc.. Don't think you're going to be working under the rain with an umbrella. It's a dirty position, but rewarding for some.

The work itself was and is easy. A typical day for me would be to report to a court that needed coverage and run it as if the clerk of the court was not missing. You are told to question what you are doing and then told to not question what you are doing. Yes, contradictory.  The trainer basically decides who she personally likes or does not like. Favoritism is at its highest and for the talk of inclusivity is all whom you know not what you know, or who's __ you kiss. Well, what can I say other than politics at its finest. Advancement like House of Cards, it is who you do a favor for. I gotta say I learned a lot, that lies run deep in politics, corruption is in the house. Due to the election, a lot of people got let go of. If you are looking for job security this is not the place you'd like to work, sure medical and retirement benefits are great but, that's only if you make it and only those who are in a particular group seem to get in on it. I give it this much you will learn about the law, if you are observant as I am you will learn whom to trust and whom not to, and if you are good at keeping yourself quite you'll last longer than I. ;) I stand for people, I treat people with respect and I don't see the point of being ugly for no real reason but, in this place you'll discover that this is not the case. A big warning is to be wary of snakes, they roam the halls. One more warning gossip is high in the halls people know things about you, you never knew about yourself!  Other than that you'll make great connections some will take the time to guide you and they'll become people you never knew you'd needed in your life. Overall, it was a learning experience and in a sense, it made me grow up a bit, just a bit. Enjoy

I would arrive at work at 7:15 AM and log on to my computer in order to check emails on the status of two overnight computer production jobs that produce District Court orders and notices that are to be mailed out to the attorneys and parties involved in lawsuits in our 34 District Courts. 

Providing this function performed as expected I would next check other emails and then voice messages for any other problems that may have occurred or requests for information. 

Next would be performing my daily duties such as interacting with the coordinators who work for the judges and even the judges themselves. They may ask for various statistical information regarding their court, such as incoming and outgoing case numbers, or even more specific items such as how many jury trials they conducted. 

My co-workers had one of the hardest jobs at the courthouse. Having to deal with the multitudes of  attorneys and parties on a daily basis, as well as with their Judge. 

To me there was no hard part of my job, except for maybe when I would have to deal with equipment failure or computer data file failure, which meant a delay in getting the users their work product on schedule. 

The most enjoyable part of my job was everything running as expected and not having to deal with any issues other than the day to day operation.

The typical day starts off by logging onto company computer and preparing logs. As work comes through, which will be in hard copy format or via e-file, our duties are to verify that every legal document inspected is at it's best quality, free of mistakes and we ensure that each document includes proper stamps and strips that are placed on the last page of each leagal document before it is sent out to customers. I verify at least 3000 plus legal documents a day using company computer and Microfilm readers. I also inspect e-file documents through Harris County E-file system. I have learned many aspects of the company such as collaiting, scanning, running the archive machines, sorting mail, weighing mail, and running the mail machine. I aslo learned how to utilize the micro-film readers, I used County Datatbase to search information, learned how to scan Real Property and Condo Maps, make certified copies, and learned how to use the e-filing system. As far as co-workers, we worked in a team environment, where each individual's daily assignment is rotated and we helped eachother out to execute daily work. The most enjoyable part of the job is that it is easy, non stressful, and we work under little supervision. The most important of part of my job is to inspect and ensure quality, as well as pay attention to details. The pay is good, but room for growth and advancement is hard to come by.

12-16 hour shifts, always short staffed, always on the news in a negative form, sargents & supervisors are rude lack of care for employees life. If you have appointments or children you will hardly make appointments or have energy or time to spend with your children. Over worked & under paid, if you work over time you have to argue & wrote grievances in order to receive your pay. Upon hire you have to work 240 hours of overtime before you can actually receive overtime pay, once you reach 240 hours, you have to continue to work overtime in order to receive your pay. Benefits are not great, if you are injured at work, workers comp will not cover your expenses and they will take your hours out of your 240 while your out injured to pay you, when you return you’ll have to work your way back to 240 hours before getting overtime pay. If you report any fellow officer for not following policy or endangering you or an inmate be prepared for retaliation. It is not a safe environment, they start you off at nineteen dollars an hour, you will work some holidays and if you haven’t reached your 240 hours you will not get holiday pay. If your are late they pull hours from your 240 hours. Highly stressful environment, no one never know what’s going on, other officers do not pay attention when you make rounds walking into inmate cell blocks, your life is literally on the line daily for only nineteen dollars per hour 

I will be speaking from a Patrolman's perspective, this job is very informal, and officers can learn a lot within their first year because of the number of calls for service within Harris County.  This job is very dangerous at times, but mostly rewarding if you're into community service and protecting the PEOPLE.  The work culture fosters employees to treat each other like family, and I think that is what keeps officers from leaving and moving on to a better paid SO/PD.

Pros: Great benefits package and can be very expensive (300-400+/Month), Patrol assignments can be near home or close to it,  a take home/car sharing program; working with great coworkers

Cons: Low salary compared to other agencies in Harris County, Officers with high education (B.S, M.S, like myself) are passed over for higher positions because of favoritism or "the buddy system."  No mentoring program for officers who wish to promote to the supervisory position, no employee engagement and most supervisors are habitual fault finders, so they only talk to you when THEY think you done something wrong (Monday quarterbacking at its finest), seniority based system (younger guys/gals with less than 5 years of experience) favors older employees, and a lack of INNOVATION

If you need a job with good benefits, then HCSO can help provide the security you need.  My advice is to stick to your training and follow the policy, and you'll be okay.  

I hope this helped!

Working as a Detention Officer gets your foot in the door for all things law enforcement, you can move up within detentions or you can apply to the peace officer academy and go that route. It can be very stressful depending on what shift you’re assigned. Obviously you have to work with inmates so you need to have very tough skin/mental. You will see a lot of things within the jail that will prepare you for the streets. Working at the jail is not difficult. Some days are very calm and easy and some days you are responding to calls every hour or are buried in reports you need to write before your shift is over. But none of it is difficult, sometimes it can just be overwhelming. If you’re scared of confrontation or are easily intimidated I do not recommend working here only because you will make the officers who aren’t scared work alot harder. 

I would strongly caution anyone considering employment with this agency. The work-life balance is inferior, and there is a consistent expectation that employees will work excessive hours, including overtime. In many cases, overtime is compensated through comp time rather than paid time, and employees must accrue a significant number of hours before receiving any payout 240 hours to be exact.
Supervisory support is also a major concern. Leadership often appears inconsistent and shows favoritism, with advancement opportunities seemingly influenced more by personal relationships than by merit or performance. There also seems to be a lack of accountability, with a “do as I say, not as I do” culture present throughout management. Overall, the workplace environment feels highly toxic, dehumanizing, and difficult to navigate. Additionally, employees who become ill may experience intrusive questioning that can feel inappropriate and disrespectful of personal medical privacy. Based on these experiences, I would not recommend this agency as a healthy or supportive place to work, and I would encourage prospective applicants to explore other law enforcement opportunities.


Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Clerk 32 salaries reported	$20.24 per hour
Library technician 14 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Administrative assistant 16 salaries reported	$50,736 per year
Court clerk 27 salaries reported	$21.33 per hour
Librarian 28 salaries reported	$24.91 per hour

Working at Harris County: Company Overview and Reviews

Harris County

Harris County Ratings

Popular jobs at Harris County

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected