analyst

general assistant

maintenance person

student assistant

technician

State of Michigan

Season typically runs from April-October. Working hours can run from 7.30AM-11PM, 7 days a week. 2nd shift generally starts at 2.30PM and comes with a small shift differential. Minimum pay is $15/hr at this time. They work with p/t to f/t availability and time off variables with adequate notice until you can finish out the season or need to be back to school. 1st paycheck can take up to a month to drop though.  Direct deposit can hit as early as Tuesday, but paper checks arrive in the mail around Thursday. There is a 401K program you may need to opt out of to avoid a small deduction. You get a few tshirts, a nice hoodie & ballcap. Also, safety glasses & work gloves. Cheap work boots are supplied if needed as is a small locker & lock. You wear jeans or khakis, ground maintenance people cannot wear shorts. The shirts/hoodie/ hat need to be turned in on your last day. Crop of rangers in the 2023 have been easy enough to work with. Every day can be different, so if you like variety, can work extra laboriously, deal with weather/bug factors, and enjoy being outdoors, this can  be a fun job. Lots of college students so there is young energy to vibe off of, but all ages are entertained to work, and do. Sometimes you work alone, in duo fashion, or full team. Standard tasks (for 2nd shift, anyway) includes lots of weed whipping, brush cutting, blowing with a handheld or backpack blower (there is a separate 1st shift mow crew), picking up loose trash on the beach, grass, & parking lot, pitch forking + dumping seaweed, cleaning out grills & campfire rings, laying gravel, (re)painting parking lot lines/markings, other easy maintenance painting, cleaning campground & day use bathrooms, running 55-gallon plastic + metal garbage barrels to the dumpsters. Weekend barrels can get pretty heavy, but are doable. A couple of months in & you will be stronger.  At times you need to inform rangers/guests of park violations (off-leash dogs, dogs on the beach, no alcohol) & deal with the occasional lost human+). You must use your own cell phone to stay in communication via text/calls. You also get to ride around in/drive a bunch of different vehicles, including J.Deere Gator (gas & electric), interact with the public & cute dogs at the dog park. You will receive training on most of the items you work with if needed, but it helps to round out your training on your own with videos online if necessary for those extra helpful tips. Generally Stihl gas and electric equipment is on deck. Sometimes it can be a little disorganized and you don't get a 100% of the info you need and/or the full required equipment list to do certain tasks, but in time you just learn to roll with it &/or figure out to just grab the extras to make your job easier. For example, it helps to check your equipment for gas or extra line before you take off &/or just grab an extra gas can & the whipping line spool. Pontiac Lake State Rec encompasses a day use/beach area, horse & people campgrounds (cabins are handled by another outfit), 5-6 spread out boat launches, and several hiking/parking outlets that require maintenance,  cleaning & garbage collection. There are some hybrid positions that have people working the booths at the boat launches, campground, and day use part of the time as well as maintenance.  Some positions are 100% booth. At minimum, upgrade your work gloves for better dexterity, bring an insulated water bottle ~32-64 oz to stay hydrated, bug spray & some kind of small flashlight or headlamp for night tasks. If you can swing it, more comfortable & waterproof  work shoes/boots, a boonie hat, portable rain jacket or poncho, possible head net & cargo type khakis with pockets may improve your quality of working life. Some just manage with all the straight issue gear, no extras. Antiquated non-digital timekeeping & schedule system (straight up paper).

I was going through an awful experience at the time I was hired in so I was not myself. It took me a good year to start opening up and making friends. After I learned the Job...I liked what we did. And we worked a lot of weekend work too- which was a relaxed- come in shorts or Jeans kind of day! No one to see any of us- we took in food and ate together. There are a LOT of GOOD memories that I will always have and some people I will Treasure Always. I met such great people- and we made it fun. The only real problems that bothered me...was the WIDE Gap between management and the workers. My Unit had some very cold supervisors- and mistreated some people. I didn't like that, then it happened to me- and I was threatened by them, ridiculed and swore at in vulgar language- I ended up becoming SICK and in the Hospitalized for the abuse. I WAS SO THANKFUL- for our UAW Rep. that put a Stop to their Harassment of me! We had to File a Grievance and it wasn't fun- but I felt so GOOD because I WON ! And that set an example for the Rest too. The Management we had were really NOT good with people, and used Intimidation and abuse that made the Job hard.
I did have a Couple of Nice Supervisor's and enjoyed them so much. I just worry for the rest of the Good Working State Employees- If they Succeed in taking away our Bargaining Rights and the Union. That is ALL that the lower class workers- and jobs, have for Protection against what awful experiences I had. I Still will NOT let that experience take-away from all the GOOD ! And I was so Thank-ful to get a decent position, with Benefits and good Pay. If I hadn't RETIRED - when I did- my Benefits would be gone now. They actually force you out- or make it so bad on you- that they Scare you into leaving. There was the LACK of any way to communicate and just talk with management. They had no people skills or knowledge of how to talk and treat an Employee. They always left us all feeling like they were so far ABOVE us....that they didn't want to hear what we had to say. And...it didn't seem right to me- that the Supervisors could talk to you and treat you...anyway they want to! Like the Yelling and Swearing so Loud that the whole floor could hear it ! It was so Humiliating and uncalled for. Other than the Supervisors of our Unit....I did Love my Job! And I liked to just get lost in my work and be left alone working by myself. I did learn a Lot about Medical Terminology and using so many different Medical files Online now. So - That was interesting and I learned a lot. My computer skills are much better, as well as my use of the Computer and the Programs and Software. I was glad to go to learning classes and increase my knowledge as well as get College classes for Free !

as a female corrections officer the day you come in they automatically assume you are going to be overfamiliar.  I had to over many stereotypes they developed over the years as officers. If you are a woman that takes care of yourself and looks nice  other women will dislike you and mostly because you are taking the attention away from them because most of the men will try to date you   . Many senior officers aren’t willing to help you navigate through the struggles or train you effectively  because they are either burnt out .. don’t care because you are new .. or bring their outside life to the job or to worried about impressing you. It was mentally exhausting for me to drive to work knowing there would be drama yet as a new person  you are suppose to suck it up . they misjudge you before they even know you . if you tick off the wrong employee supervisors and even wardens will make your life miserable  . They hand out investigations like it’s CANDY . causes everyone to be paranoid and not trust each other . also makes you stressed and depressed .. i went through many days of depression because of investigations that were based on heresay or total lies. all it takes is one co worker to complain or a group of senior officers to hang up on you and make an accusation and it’s gold.. The inmates were the least of my worries.. working at a level 4 facility you would think they were the problem. i got more respect being a female officer from inmates than co-workers and supervisors  . .. and i mean respect .as a woman you have to put your foot down and not take any non sense. in the academy they trained us for handling prisoners .. it should’ve been more focused on handling your co workers . you have to be resilient and consistent to work in corrections. don’t spin people and enforce the rules .  if i could give any advice to new people .. go to work .. be cordial to everyone ur don’t try to make any friends until you are done with your first year probation. don’t go out with coworkers .. don’t go to parties or go on dates ! don’t give anyone your phone number . just do your 8 and hit the gate . take the year to watch everyone . who you think they are when you first meet them will surely ware off over time. trust me . you will know who to trust and who is manipulative. it’s a job that has a lot of time to socialize with coworkers . just keep it professional at all times be where you are suppose to be ... listen to your radio and be alert . you get long hours .. but you can always build up time and take days off .

Depending on which county, the staffing levels and pace of incoming cases is a determinant of how well an employee is able to manage the workload. In counties with a large, urban population, employees may experience severe deficiencies in work/life balance. There is a high learning curve and new employees are often slammed with cases prior to completing training. Turnover is high. Veteran employees scamper out the door at a high rate due to pressure placed on them to carry an extra load due to staff shortages. Most veterans transfer to other less stressful environments as soon as possible. New employees are overwhelmed with cases as soon as they complete probation. Employees take on a "I gotta worry about me" attitude and are not able to assist new employees as much as they would like. The fast pace of the workload places employees in a dangerous situation, particularly new employees, as they struggle to keep up with vast information concerning policy and law. Workers are required to enter the homes of hostile clients often with no assistance or partner, day or night. The potential for injury to an employee or getting caught up in a tangled web of policy violations is high; particularly in the event of a child death. Workers are required to carry an unmanageable case load and often must work weekends and holidays to keep up. Workers are stressed and many go out on medical leave and never return. The system is so dysfunctional that even employees out on medical leave are assigned cases. These cases sit on the employees caseload until they return to work, sometimes two to three weeks later! Child safety is vehemently stressed throughout the office, however, the system is so dysfunctional that management employs practices that place the worker and the child at risk. The impact of the variables mentioned differ from county to county, however, the nature of the job is the same county to county. Human resources must continually hire as a revolving door situation is in place in a failed attempt to maintain staffing levels. Management is largely unsuccessful in managing the  outflow of employees transferring, out on medical leave or quitting altogether. The best to you if you are hired to work as a CPS Specialist.

Time tracking for every minute of the day is heavily scrutinized, even for salaried positions, and you will be hounded by management until corrected.

I worked at a county building and our floor shared the restroom with the public.  We did have the option to use a "worker only" restroom on another floor.  One morning, I had the beginning of a stomach flu, and needed to use the restroom on the other floor.  When I returned to my desk, my manager was there shortly after asking where I was.  I told her the restroom.  She said that I was offline for 20 minutes.  Never mind that I had to walk to another floor (both ways, obviously).

My position required a lot of travelling.  One time I was travelling to another city and that city got a huge snow storm shortly before I arrived.  The entire city wasn't even plowed yet.  Upon entering the facility where I was to report, another vehicle was stuck trying to get out.  Myself and 2 others helped push the other vehicle out.  When I tried getting into the facility, I also got stuck.  I was pushed out and ended up signing into my computer 20 minutes after my start time.  Unlike corporate America, you can't make the time up by working late.  Because I was so concerned about being late, I hurriedly signed in and began working.  Later that day I received an email from my manager that I needed to take 30 minutes of personal time because I didn't notify her why I was late.  Never mind that I was driving in horrendous road conditions.

This is the only job in my entire career where I quit without giving notice.  I was either going to have a heart attack or a stroke.  It was that bad.  The benefits are unbelievable.  But even with those benefits, it still isn't worth the stress.

I want to stress that this isn't at all of the State, but my department.  I know others who work in other departments who couldn't believe what I was going through because their work environment wasn't anything like what I was experiencing.

MDHHS train Services Specialists (Foster care & CPS) for 9 weeks. This sounds like a long time, but the training is a joke and you don't learn anything helpful. The lack of relevant training is very frustrating. Once you are out of training, you are able to get the same high caseload as workers who have been there for years. There were many situations I felt I was not prepared for what I was doing in the job.

A typical day is spent out in the field working with families or in the office documenting everything you did for the day. You are expected to have everything handed in on time while also getting a new case a day. It's the luck of the draw when it comes to cases. You could get an extreme abuse case right out of training that requires removal of children or get cases that were called in with no actual abuse going on. It's very anxiety-inducing. You are required to do on-call every other month for a few days. The policy for on-call is ridiculous. You could be out all night dealing with complaints and you are expected to come in to work at 8AM the following morning. 

I always found my co-workers very helpful and understanding. My supervisor was not as helpful due to being new to the area. I feel there is a lack of communication between supervisors, managers, and the director. Policy changes are being implemented to help these things, but I don't think it is happening quick enough to keep people around. 

Compensation-wise, MDHHS pays a lot more than similar jobs. With a relevant degree, I started off making $43,000 gross. On-call can also add a large sum of money. However, I do not think the money is worth it for the stress. To put it in perspective, being a Services Specialist for over a year is considered a veteran. Most people start in CPS or foster care as a stepping stone for other state jobs.

In today’s work environment being able to afford healthcare is a privilege not had by many, but the State of MI offers multiple options that are affordable and good quality. They offer ample time off and allow for flexible work schedules as well as remote work days. I can only
 comment on MDHHS and MDMVA departments. Lower level staff are mostly great people that want to do quality work. 

Workload is often heavy, as caseloads are high and retention of employees low in a lot of areas. When someone leaves, it often takes many months to fill the positions, which leads to their work being delegated to other staff, sometimes permanently. 

I feel, the biggest reason for the high turnover is management that lack leadership skills. Often the right people are not put in leadership roles.  They are mostly type A, white people, with many narcissistic tendencies. 
Directors/Managers may be knowledgeable in their niche areas of policy or content area but very
 few know how to lead staff or motivate employees in positive ways. Many are micromanagers that lack communication skills, transparency and the mindset needed to build positive/ healthy relationships with staff, or prioritize growth and/or opportunities to use their skills to create positive changes in best practices. There is zero accountability for management and lower level staff is often the scapegoat.  

Onboarding of new staff is terrible and needs so many improvements, as it negatively impacts agency morale and culture. There are no mentoring programs in place and new people are thrown into the deep end  from day one and made to sink or swim to keep their jobs. 

The best part of the positions I have had are the ways you get to help fellow citizens  of your State to improve their lives. 

• Performed Requirement Gathering & Analysis by actively soliciting, analyzing and negotiating customer requirements and prepared the requirements specification document for the application.
• Adopted J2EE design patterns like Business Facade and Singleton and DAO.
• Implemented STRUTS Model View Controller architecture to develop presentation tier and business layer.
• Implemented Struts framework (Action and Controller classes) for dispatching request to appropriate class.
• Used simple Struts Validation for validation of user input as per the business logic and initial data loading.
• Developed SOAP based JAX-WS Web Service Components deployable to websphere application server and implemented Web Service Client using Dynamic proxy Model.
• Developed Session beans by using EJBs for business logic at the middle tier.
• Developed presentation layer using JSP, HTML, JavaScript, JQuery, Ajax and CSS.
• Worked on the persistence layer using Hibernate to map the java classes to corresponding data.
• Implemented the JMS for communication between the applications.
• Implemented the JMS Point-to-Point queuing model and developed Message Driven (MDB) beans to consume messages from JMS queue.
• Involved in configuring and administration of Connection pools, Data Sources, Queues, Connection Factories, and Listeners for development environment.
• Created new Streams, View’s and Activities for new releases and updated code using Clear Case for implementing configuration management.
• Used Rational Clear Quest to track the change management.

What is the best part of working at the company?
PTO & Sick time are about the best things offered by the SOM.
Working for the SOM is no longer the badge of honor that it used to be. We have a union but it's so pathetic that we may as well not have one at all. The majority of the departments are overworked and underpaid. One person is usually doing the job of about three people. And again our union does absolutely nothing to support us or make sure that we are taking care of. The employees don't even really get a say in what they should be bargaining for that the employees want. Now if you have a higher degree (bachelor's, Masters, PhD) then you might be lucky enough to get a job where you get awesome pay and barely have to do anything. That seems to be the norm.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being overloaded with work. Hard workers get rewarded with more work while lazy workers get to sit back and barely do anything without penalty. The majority of state workers are doing the job of three or more people because the state of Michigan will not hire the proper staff to accommodate the departments and the workload.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It depends on what department you work in.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Handling calls from courts, attorneys, sos branches. Processing paperwork, doing the work from other departments because our bosses want to look good so they are always volunteering our department to pick up other departments slack.

If you like a challenge every day. Something different and unexpected from time to time. This is the job for you. Supervision is there if you need it, but most of the time your are working with your partner(s). 
You will learn allot about yourself and about others as well. In the start of the job. There is so much to read and learn on the job that you should be a sponge. Over all the job is on your own and communication skills is very important to have or learn. Deescalating techniques and use of non lethal tools paint ball gun, Taser, and tear gas may be used from time to time. Physical confrontation and injuries can also happen. 
You will work with great people from a vast amount of back grounds. Who are willing to help you and others if ever needed. They are kind and authoritarian all at the same time.
The worst part of the job is the unexpected mandatory over time at the end of your shift. Also working with rouge supervision and being treated like a convicted felon by them. Promotion and evaluations are few/ biased not really on the skills or abilities that are brought with you. 
The best feeling in the world is when you are out and about. An ex-felon comes up to you and says something like because of you I have turned my life around. I have a job, a home, a close friend, a car and I am happy with my life now. Knowing that because of what you said or did helped another human being. Is really hard to top that!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Analyst 123 salaries reported	$33.70 per hour
General assistant 144 salaries reported	$24.37 per hour
Maintenance person 67 salaries reported	$25.19 per hour
Student assistant 134 salaries reported	$20.78 per hour
Technician 77 salaries reported	$28.06 per hour

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