highway engineer

program assistant

family service counselor

engineering assistant

director of social services

South-Dakota-State-Government

Favoritism and nepotism all over even when HR has set policies against it. They create rules then forget to follow them until it becomes a problem then they target some poor employee. 

Management styles are old and tired. Chains of command are not respected. Employees frequently bad mouth each other openly and while there are spots of teamwork in some agencies where I worked there was one person that grabbed all of the attention, made all other people on his team look bad but himself and management is in Pierre far away so they can't see what really happens. 


Benefits cost rise every year and cover less every year. Managers pound on desks and yell or chew people out for the simplest mistakes and there is no training on anything new. We were constantly told to start working with something without even a paper hand-out. 


Customer service is frowned on and a frequent source of desk pounding and chewing out. We were told that we don't train anyone, we don't explain anything to anyone and my favorite was "I'll start to worry when the complaints reach the Governor's office". 

Compensation time gets over used instead of overtime pay. We would get the inconvenience without any compensation except the time we spent dealing with a problem.

Overall, employee attitude, including those in management is more negative than I have ever experienced – caustic would be putting it kindly.  I expected that from inmates – oddly enough, with rare exception, that never happened. 
Scheduling, over the last several months has been confusing and haphazard with changes frequently occurring mid-week eliminating the ability to plan my use of non-working hours. Twelve hour shifts that start at 5:00 AM or 9:00 AM were assigned without any consideration of employee preference, or any sense of regularity, with scheduling for a subsequent week changing, perhaps, on only a few days’ notice.  
At some point over the last six months, daily duties and responsibilities that required two aids to complete in a shift, were doubled through the elimination of the second aid, which often caused the shift to run longer than 12 hours, always at the disapproval of management.
The use of annual is apparently not permitted – requests were always met with the requirement that I arrange another employee to work or swap shifts with, on those days that leave was requested – yet I had no authority schedule employees.

In my years of working as a contractor, only one organization was worse than the State of South Dakota. The management was incompetent and some of them outright lazy. The senior management was not sufficiently techinally competent to fully understand the nature of the mess that they have been handed by a former programmer. They will not listen to outsiders, regardless of experience and expertise. They have at least one system that utilizes Natural Construct models, yet they will tell you that they do not have Natural Construct. They may not own the product, but they certainly do have programs that use the models and the existing programs can not be rebuilt using the Construct tool as they have coded outside the exits and done pretty much everything else that results in the creation of an unmaintainable nightmare. I would avoid them like the plague. I found the management to be incompetent, rude, abrasive, unapproachalbe, and out of touch. The only real quality that I observed in them that had resulted in individuals being elevated to management, was a willingness to live in Pierre, SD.

There are some phenomenal people working for the agency and the state's natural resources are incredible. Like many small state fish and wildlife agencies, staffing is lean and budgets are tight in a time of declining hunting and fishing license sales, but our team works together to still accomplish fish surveys and stockings or small research projects. The high degree of staff turnover in the agency right now probably has less to do with pay and more to do with the current budget shortfalls and agency leadership. It's a lot of knee-jerk responses and there isn't enough thoughtful long-term planning to ensure that our programs and initiatives will be sustainable into the future since we don't accept any funding from the state legislature to fund the Wildlife Division. I love the mission and the people of GFP, but I cannot speak to the media without going through our designated media contacts or getting prior approval from the governor's office. Administrative chaos is the only reason I'm considering other job opportunities.

I have been a correctional health nurse for 9 years. I started out of nursing school as a way to just get a job somewhere, so I could look for something better. I am still here. I worked and did clinicals between both health systems in Sioux Falls, and found that I really liked working here. I enjoy working in a public health setting. Of course a prison is not where most nurses want to work. There are dangers, there are troubles, but the job and feeling is rewarding when you have to utilize your assessment skills and nursing judgement. The nursing staff provided urgent care type visits for the population. Daily treatments, medication passes, and an onsite infirmary in two facilities across the state ensure that your nursing skills will not go to waste. I worked as a paramedic prior to nursing school, and I am glad I had those experiences coming into this job. If you are looking for a rewarding career, with great benefits look no further. SD DOH Correctional Health Division just might be the right place for you.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Vacation… The superintendent does not have the workers best interest at heart meaning sometimes he puts them in danger. Many workers have found this out and the pay scale is very low for the intense work that is required with heavy machinery. He does not inspect the roads as he should. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Sometimes I have had to be in equipment with someone who was under the influence of something and should not have been driving. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very poor. Moral amongst the co workers is very stressed.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Driving heavy Machinery and trying to maintain the roads as best as the weather conditions allows.

Experiences may vary depending on which state agency you're dealing with, but my experience working for SD Dept of Labor has been incredible.  Six years in, and I've never felt anything other than support, encouragement, appreciation and consideration from management and staff.  Management is excellent and even the higher-ups take time to connect with public-facing employees.  Ample opportunities for skills development and personal growth.  If you make a mistake, it's not a big deal- somebody shows you how to fix it & helps you learn how not to repeat it.  If you have a problem, somebody helps you resolve it.  Work-life balance is unmatched, we get holidays off & ample PTO- and nobody cops an attitude if you actually USE your PTO.  I've never been more satisfied with a job in my life quite frankly.  

With a varied job description and responsibilities with the freedom of scheduling my territorial inspections and carrying out those inspections in a format arranged by me. I was able to really enjoy my career with the State of South Dakota because of that flexibility.

I was able to visit and work with many intelligent individuals over the years with great personal satisfaction!

My enjoyment came in many forms but mostly from what I was able to give the community and businesses in this State by way of educating them on the importance of being in Code and making their business safer and more rewarding for their customers!

I learned that some people rise to a supervisor position within the state government without the necessary people skills to be a proactive trainer of other employees. The high turn over rate in my department can be directly linked to my direct supervisor and the lack of acceptable ways to utilize the human resources department to resolve issues. It is not an ideal work environment for anyone who cannot advocate well for themselves. That being said, the work was challenging and fulfilling. The pay was competitive, and the benefits package was perfect. I was just unable to endure the stress of the work relationship with my direct supervisor long enough to be able to transfer out of the department.

Worked with the Department of Social Service on installing CNSI MMIS system. My role was to interface with the State Medical Management on identifying/mapping edits, and business rules logic from an existing mainframe system to CNSI MMIS system.
- Assist a team of programmer in the development of a VSAM/CICS Medicaid Claims System. Coded, tested, implemented Cobol/CICS programs. Assisted with a VSAM to ORACLE conversion that involved data mapping and analyzing impact to programs, coding and testing programs.
- Mapped and coordinate ORACLE tables against existing VSAM file for the State of South Dakota. Interfaced with CNSI staff with the status of the ORACLE tables

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Highway engineer 3 salaries reported	$38.20 per hour
Program assistant 3 salaries reported	$22.36 per hour
Family service counselor 4 salaries reported	$26.29 per hour
Engineering assistant 3 salaries reported	$34.08 per hour
Director of social services 4 salaries reported	$20.84 per hour

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