social worker

case manager

parole officer

administrative assistant

senior office specialist

Hennepin County

There can be a lot of variety at this job somedays, and other days can be very repetitious. I worked with some amazing people, and despite some difficult patrons- which comes with the turf when you deal with the public- the nice customers negate the difficult interactions. Despite Hennepin County government having an anti-bullying policy, which is spelled out pretty clearly, it seems upper management at the library seems to have never "gotten the memo." Middle management is rife with bullies, and upper management almost seems to encourage their behavior considering their action and inaction. This same upper management, for the most part, seems to hate the union, especially when the union draws attention to this bully culture. "Patron Experience Supervisors" are in charge of many of the branches. Many of them have no experience working in libraries before coming to HCL, and I even overheard one say that he/she never went to libraries before being hired, and they didn't seem to find libraries very interesting, but that they "just wanted a government job." Many of these PES's have no post high school education, yet they are telling librarians and other people with advanced degrees how to do their jobs. It's quite bizarre. 

I typical day is, getting to the site 2 hours before the crew, inventorying each building and supplies, making daily production and vendor goals.
Establishing subcontractor appointments to make sure sequential portions of each building is ready and I assign crew break down tasks, to obtain the most efficiency.
The crew arrives, tasks are assigned, comments and concerns are addressed, and production commences.
 Problems arise, I adapt according, shifting goals  as required. attending to personal problems, personality conflicts.
I prioritize employees wants and needs, address each but sort out between necessities and conveniences.
I meet with the DNR, and with Hennepin county to address concerns as required.
I very much enjoy the eyes of the customer when they walk into each building for the first time,,,I try very very hard to give the absolute best quality product i am able,
the challenges I meet throughout the project make the final product seem especially satisfying .
I do manage the entire aspect of these projects from the conception stage to the use of these products by the grateful public..




Pros:
If you have young children that are not in school yet, this organization offers great flexibility. Of course, this also depends on your job class, title, and work expectations. There is always room for improvement in the managerial department for my team, but for the most part, my supervisors are great people to work with. The work load is never-ending. There is a lot to do so there is never a complaint about not having anything to do or work on. If you do your job right, show up to work on time and are also prepared, and build a good rapport with your co workers and supervisors, you will enjoy your job as I do.

Cons:
The only thing I don't like is that if you are late, you have to use your PTO time to cover those late minutes. This includes coming back late from your break. You can't request for time off more than 3 months out. So, if you are planning to attend a wedding 6 months out, you cannot request for time off yet. There are lots of procedures and resources scattered throughout the county's internal Sharepoint sites so it's easy to get lost or be unsure of what is current information and what is outdated. It's possible to provide incorrect information to the clients. The county only offers 3 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Doing temporary employment a typical day could be busy or very slow depending on where and what kind of an assignment and company that you're sent to to help out. However, you gain a great amount of knowledge and experience that could allow you to gain permanent employment because you constantly have to prove yourself as being worth of that position. I have learned how to operate various machines press mold, magnetic card reading machine, enhanced my dictations skills, typing skills, 10 key, communication, customer service as well as retail skills. Along with quality control, inventory, working on a line and picking/packing orders as well as the process of shipping and receiving in an industrial and clerical environment. The hardest part in working for a temp agency is that you never know if you're going to get hired on as a permanent worker and the most enjoyable part about working as a temp is that you can have flexible hours.

The county hires Case Management Assistants to do necessary, underappreciated, and boring work as a way to avoid having to hire and pay more Probation Officers, Legal Service Specialists, Case Managers, etc. I worked with over a dozen other CMAs and every single one of us was overqualified for the work we did. The county lures people in as CMAs with talk of moving up the ladder quickly, then dumps the unsavory parts of client-facing work on CMAs, pays them far less than they deserve, and rarely promotes them. I was paid hourly but treated as though I was salaried and expected to be available hours after my shift ended with no on-call pay. But also, because I was paid hourly, I was instructed not to work late because the county didn't want to pay any overtime. Management didn't listen to concerns about these conflicting expectations and didn't help us come up with solutions to both meet business needs and pay employees fairly. I pictured myself working for the county long-term but became disheartened and left after seeing far too many people get promotions over others who were more qualified and worked harder.

Meeting clients from all levels of life needing help the worst of the worst that have been downtrodden.  Folks came to see me because they believed they were done wrong.  Whether "we" the employee in the building cursed to them or determined their benefits incorrectly First and foremost was to calm the persons down and allow them to speak and talk about what happen to them and deflate.  Along with gathering all the facts and reviewing their application, by reviewing the programs on the computer programs on two computers to determine what happened whether we were disrespectful.   The worst part of my job were the times when I found out our employee was disrespectful to the client. It happened more times than i want to remember. Many times employees made mistakes but not on purpose. I was authorized to correct mistakes and later would go see the employee to go over the error to help them learn. The absolute worst was when a baby died in the nursery a mother brought her baby in while sick and it died while in the nursery.

I miss my job at Hennepin County. I worked as a Human Services Representative. The training was intensive and if you can get through the probation period it's a great place to work. Unfortunately I was let go due to some problems with an undisclosed disability when I was without my needed medication due to a doctor/pharmacy miscommunication. If given the chance I would go back in a heart beat now that everything has been cleared up. It's enjoyable to be able to help get people the help that they need when they have fallen on hard times. It was hard at time when regulations prevented you from giving benefits but there were alternative resources to give to clients. A typical day at work included processing new applications and benefit renewals, as well as meeting with clients in person.

A typical day at work is very busy, which is what I like. I get to assist a large diversity of customers. There is always work to be done-a lot of inner workings that people do not think about when they think about the library. We perform data entry, cash deposits, complete reports, fill orders, solve customer complaints, fufill phone requests and assist customers on the public floor with computers, printers, copiers, scanners, ect.

The entire library system is managed ok. However, I'd like to see some of the policies change towards a more strict guideline instead of letting customers get away with so much. The last couple years they have been working on restructuring the entire management department and moving a lot of supervisors around who do not want to leave their present location. I lost both my supervisors to this.

My co-workers are diverse and a great group of people. There is opportunity to move around and up if you so choose.

A typical day at work is typing assorted letters and making copies, sending and receiving faxes and scanned documents.

Utilizing  computer applications. i.e. Word, Excel, Lotus Notes etc.

I learned how valuable this organization is and how the community uses and needs the resources.

Management is a hard working, fair entity with a heavy work load. in spite of that, management always recognizes it's employee's for their accomplishments.

Co-workers are a dedicated group of people constantly working to bring comfort and ease to the less fortunate on a daily basis in so many levels.

The hardest part of the job was to reject  a client due to non qualification; knowing that the client really needed our resources.

The most enjoyable part of the job was the pot luck's at the end of the month, when all departments came together breaking bread and having great conversation.

I have worked with Hennepin County for 14 years in various roles. My current role is a Human Service Senior. Hennepin County has been a wonderful agency to work for, however, I am ready to learn and grow and utilize my skills to its highest potential. I believe my experience within Hennepin County has helped prepare me for further growth to be of service for your agency. I have worked on various projects within my position specifically involving the hospital, the new healthcare system (curam) as well as working on the healthcare restructure within the Eligibility and Work Supports department. I love working on challenging tasks and figuring out how to complete tasks efficiently. 

The hardest part of my job is when I run into system issues and I am unable to assist my clients. The most enjoyable part of my job is to be able to assist many people with obtaining health insurance as well as assisting the hospital staff with processing cases for them.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Social worker 18 salaries reported	$86,268 per year
Case manager 4 salaries reported	$57,488 per year
Parole officer 2 salaries reported	$79,667 per year
Administrative assistant 4 salaries reported	$66,486 per year
Senior office specialist 4 salaries reported	$57,334 per year

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