office assistant

community service officer

assistant

master control operator

deputy sheriff

Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has been chronically understaffed with one of the lowest officer to citizen ratios in the nation for three decades or more.  The Tampa Bay area has experienced explosive growth and the HCSO and County Commission have failed to plan and respond to it.  It is not unusual to have four or five deputies working a 12 person area on any given shift.  It is also not unheard of to be the only deputy logged on in an area if you are an early shift deployment.  Vacancies are chronically left open.  There is no opportunity for advancement, transfer, or promotion unless you are related to staff or your family is a major campaign donator.  Serious misconduct by certain employees is routinely swept under the rugged while minor infractions of rules (being late to roll call once a year, an unwashed car, paperwork from the shift on your dashboard) are harshly punished.  Staff members are vindictive.  Middle management is only worried about the next rank.  Frontline supervisors are either negligent in their duties as they chase rank or condemned to a life on patrol if they do anything to stand up for their employees.  The technology used was outdated back at the beginning of the 2000s and still largely is.  The current Sheriff has no moral compass or backbone and bends whichever the way the wind is blowing when it comes to politics.  The only positive things that can be said about HCSO are the pay and benefits, but even that comes with an asterisk.  The Tampa Police Department, for all their faults, pays over $15,000 a year more for a maxed out officer, has a better retirement plan after 20 years (instead of 30), and can pick and choose when they hire because they are constantly maxed out for authorized personnel.

The two main positive things about the place are many of the regular guys and gals you work with and the citizens.  A good number of patrol deputies are some of the hardest working, humble, and down to Earth people I have ever met.  They do the work of two or three or more people and get it done everyday.  The average citizen still appreciates deputies and the community has a good relationship with them.  They are happy to be helped and the deputies do a good job to keep them blissfully unaware of the house of cards that is the office.

Constant change and challenging environment sometimes from one day to the next literally. Have to show up for shift, not have a complaint about the preferential treatments and the high school social scale of the cool kids. If you are lucky enough to get on a good shift it is an awesome place to work, but more likely you are left to carry the weight of the slackers and without any positive reinforcement from those in charge. In the beginning of my career I was so excited and ready to rush into work every day, in the end it was only about making it through the shift and getting out of there. IF the agency would treat everyone fair and equal along with improving communications among all divisions maybe they could get better quality of people to come and stay.  Also their unrealistic beliefs that the road and the jail should be held to the same testing standards is beyond ridiculous. I do miss the job, but not the politics or the yearly physical abilities test that had little to do with my actual duties in the jail facilities.

Our shifts were Monday through Sunday on a rotational basis to keep days on and off equal. We processed several hundred people on any given day for visits with their inmates. It was brisk and we had to be on our toes at all times. I love being busy! I learned how to deal with people who were in our facility to see loved ones who had been arrested and incarcerated in the Falkenburg and Orient Road Jails. Their demeanor could be anything from the nicest people you have ever met to those who lost all control and on rare occasions were either escorted off property, trespassed, or arrested and booked by the on site Sheriff's Deputies. Team work was the key from the Captain of the facility down to us the civilian employees. The hardest part was dealing with troublemakers trying to push us over the top so we would be reprimanded. The best part was at the end of the last visit check in when we all gave a collective sigh of relief. That was when we could comment about the day. Everything from who had the quirkiest visitor to what was going on in our home life. I miss the job and I miss the people.

There is no typical day at work when you work at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. You never know what your next call will be, or what will happen. I learned a great deal of patience and compassion. I've talked to people who have just had their home broken into, parents whose son or daughter hasn't come home, to individuals who want to end their life. And they are calling because they don't feel like they have any other option. Those calls are definately the hardest part of my job. My coworkers are all amazing and each one of us is trained for 6 months or longer to be able to do our job correctly. I'd say the most enjoyable part of my job is when working the radio position, and if deputy keys up and you can tell something isn't right, getting the right help to him quickly and efficiently so he or she can go home to their family after their shift, or talking to a suicidal person and calming them down and helping them realize that is not the path they want to take.

I worked as a Child Protective Investigator for 4 years. It was hard to plan my day. I could have a plan but get a case where the children had to be removed and nothing else gets done. Some days I worked in the office but most days I lived out of my car doing home visits. This is a hard job. You deal with mostly unstable, uneducated, dysfunctional families with drug abuse issues, domestic violence issues, poor discipline methods and mental health issues. For a lot of the families these issues are generational and the cycle is never broken. The workplace culture was negative and stressful. The hardest part of the job was caring a case load that was high and not feeling like I could protect children with so many cases. The most enjoyable part of the job was knowing I was saving a child from abuse and neglect by removing them from the parents.

Going through the Chain of command is required for everything yet nobody ever does anything to assist.  The job itself was such a perfect match for me and utilized my 20 plus legal experience.  I loved my actual responsiblities and I was awesome at the job.  My direct supervisor was awsome, if I could have kept the job and only had to deal with her, I would have retired there but the Director and entire chain of command is simply just putting their time in to either retire or get to another position and everybody is out for themselves.  I went through a year from applying for this job, getting called for an interview, going through background and criminal checks, drug screenings and actually starting the job.  I took a pay cut to have this position and it would have been worth it had management not been so horrible.  The turn over in the probation division is insane.  Roughly 10 people left in my short time here and people I'm still friends with are still trying to find other employment.

What is the best part of working at the company?
This is a top notch agency; salary, equipment, training, clean working environment and best of all the fellowship and camaraderie. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Dealing with the criminal element of society, lack of support from the states attorney office and politics. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Para-military and political. The Sheriff is a voted official thus favoritism can play role in advancement. The rank structure and uniform tradition are military based yet progressive. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Case management, public interaction, leadership duties, traffic and criminal law enforcement, computer and written documentation.

So while working as a probation officer, the other departments did not know we were even apart of the sheriff's office. I love HCSO to death and wish I would have started my career in a different department. Probation or detention specialists get 150-200 probationees a month. All who have to be seen in the first 20 days of the month. I know they have a budget they have to abide by but they legit have/had 20 detention specialists with a crazy caseload. Most in the department are just putting in their 2 years to transfer to another department. Better training would be the main thing I would suggest, as well as get better supervisors. When you have someone telling you every day that if you make a mistake you are going to jail it causes a very stressful work environment and that would be the guy with the intials PP

Although my departure was unexpected, I'm grateful for the time I spent there. The other secretaries are fantastic - they really are the backbone of that division. The litigation attorneys were very kind and always willing to share their knowledge and expertise. Unfortunately, the high stress environment and the opinion of management matched what I'd been told and overheard, in and out of the agency.

Regarding the agency as a whole, overall the benefits are decent, but the insurance in my opinion is not worth what you pay - minimum $600/month for the most beneficial health plan. And you may have to pay more if you don't participate enough in their group exercising plan. I guess it all depends on personal preference, and the division you work in.

Great place to work and gain insight to what law enforcement and corrections have to deal with on a daily basis. Management requires at least a two year degree and is involved with their employees. Your coworkers are from so many different walks of life and each brings new ideas to the table. Maintaining self control and mental stability is the most difficult self-management aspect of the job. You see and experience situations that most people will never see their entire life. The most enjoyable part of the job is the true friendships that are made. Every day you depend on those you work with it, your life may depend on it!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Office assistant 12 salaries reported	$23.97 per hour
Community service officer 2 salaries reported	$24.18 per hour
Assistant 2 salaries reported	$35.73 per hour
Master control operator 6 salaries reported	$26.21 per hour
Deputy sheriff 4 salaries reported	$70,250 per year

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