mental health technician

office specialist

mental health therapist

deputy sheriff

senior clinician

Marion County, OR

If you want to help the community and public health, do not work for the health department here. 

Everything there is controlled by the board of commissioners. Even though there is no explicit power granting them the right or ability to meddle in policy, since they control the purse strings the administration is filled with sycophants who bow to their every whim. The current crop of commissioners does not care about public health, improving the community, or saving lives during a pandemic. 

Middle management is filled with micromanagers who have zero interest in their employees' ideas or abilities. They spend 100% of their time in meetings and committees. 

Any "work" you do will be solely to check off a box on a grant or accreditation form. The lives of the people they ostensibly serve and the community's health are secondary.

If you truly want to make a difference in the Salem area, I recommend you volunteer for a political campaign to unseat the current commissioners because that is the only way anything there is ever going to change. 

Terrible managers. They expected executive secretary level work from an Office Specialist. They expected mind reading to find out what high level managers wanted, and got impatient when asked for confirmation or clarification. There was micro-managing go on as well by the head of the admin group in Public Works. Turnover for this position has been high.  

The job was not a good fit, but that was not the problem. The problem was that I broke my ankle a month before the end of my trial period. A week later I received notification that I was no longer working at Public Works. They did not discuss my temporarily using my short term disability benefits or letting me go at the beginning of the month so that I could continue to get the ankle surgery covered by insurance. Not cool. Run, if you can, from this employer.

The department struggles to maintain good people. This is not because the department sucks, but I believe it's because the County doesn't listen very much to the people that work for it. It's been a challenge keeping people because other organizations have taken steps to ensure their employees have options during these interesting times. Our biggest pain, is people not feeling like they're being heard. 

The workplace culture is meh. People gossip A LOT which creates trust issues and a toxic work environment. It's not like this in every department, I'm sure, but the one I worked for was. Communication and priority setting is another big issue for the department. Neither of which happen very consistently with the department leadership.

While this was a good place to start as a new graduate, it is clear that leadership at the county level is regressive and blocks any efforts to improve even while department leadership has good intentions. The draconian policy against remote work during the height of the pandemic with no clear safety measures for staff has brought morale to an all time low and naturally, many staff are leaving. The BOC cares more about political posturing than they do about creating a workplace where staff are empowered to provide the best services they can to the public, and that means having a cohesive structure and on boarding process, investing in training and continuing education, and allowing staff to work remotely.

Some of the Supervisors do no know how to manage people very well and should not be in Supervisor positions. The Supervisors that are very supportive and have employees backs are the ones that the others either have throw under the bus, or they have been pushed out because they have "rocked the boat".   Morale has never been as low as it is right now.  Hopefully, the morale will come back up to what it used to be and people will start caring about the team again.  Integrity, honesty and truthfulness goes a long ways when running programs, managing people and being supervisor over others.  Getting both sides of a situation is of utmost importance, instead of listening to one side, and making a decision bassed on that, without hearing the other or all sides.  This is what has taken place in recent years which has brought down the morale.  I am hopeful this can,  and will, be turned around. 

It really depends on the department you work in.  Health Department is incredibly suffocating and micromanaged.  Provides the services for the most vulnerable of our community while not seen as a human with needs and individuality.  You can be there 5 months to 15 years and can be let go for the most ridiculous things.  No security and no flexibility.  Contributions are not rewarded and new ideas are squashed.  As well Community services is run by Director and Board of Commissioners solely based on re-election prospects and appearances.  Employees have been lied to, ignored and punished.  Huge turnover due to horrible management and not valuing the Frontline staff.  Some departments have actually competent management that understands the purpose and values their employees.  Do research on a department before committing.

Upper management is openly hostile to employees and play politics with their policies. They refuse to allow any flexibility to work from home. They are openly disdainful of concerns about Covid safety and have told employees "be glad you have a job" and "if you don't like it then leave". Which a lot of people have done. So departments are critically understaffed and overworked.  Some divisions are down by 30%. And their comparably low pay and benefits, refusal to allow work from home and zero tolerance towards cannabis means they can't fill any of the open positions. I worked here many years and when I started, this was a healthy company. But that is no longer true. I would never recommend working here

Not many can make working here a lifelong journey. The job gives you great experience, however you won't be paid fair for the amount of work and heart you put into your job. You make great connections with children and foster parents and you'll love your coworkers, but management will never value how much you put into the job. The interviews to get this job are timed, specific, and extremely stressful as you are up against so many other applicants. If you do work here you will need to practice self care and it might be a good idea to visit your therapist or counselor regularly as what you see, hear, and read can put quite a toll on you mental health. This job is not for the faint of heart. 

For a portion of my employment I was in the union and it did offer much more protection from HR and upper management. When I was in a management position it really became unbearable, there are major systemic issues in the county and it is a top-down issue. There are so many unhappy workers at all levels, in multiple departments and most tolerate it for the benefits. Be warned if you are not in a union position there are no ethics or support from HR or Management; unfair practices and so much more. I would never take a position with the county if you are a sole provider. 
The good I can come up with is the excellent benefits and there are a lot of good people working there, also they seem to be trying to change, but so far very unsuccessful with the HR crew they brought in. It could be so much if they can turn things around.

I've worked in several different departments of health and Human Services and some areas are better than others. Generally speaking, management is undertrained which has a trickle down effect. High caseloads with variable levels of support from management. It's easy to feel bogged down when you can't provide quality care to those you work with because of high caseload, ridiculous documentation standards ( under certain management), and supervisors that expect you to drop everything when they believe they have more pressing issues (i.e. data gathering when you had appts with clients scheduled). 
The union is amazing and will have your back. Unfortunately, management often sees it as an attack and will make your life more miserable if you file a grievance.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mental health technician 20 salaries reported	$35.38 per hour
Office specialist 20 salaries reported	$25.39 per hour
Mental health therapist 40 salaries reported	$39.51 per hour
Deputy sheriff 12 salaries reported	$38.95 per hour
Senior clinician 34 salaries reported	$39.14 per hour

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