public defender

law clerk

legal assistant

attorney

investigator

State of Minnesota

The nature of my job consisted mainly of conducting food and building inspection. Inspections were random with a guiding rule to inspect a high risk facility at least once a yer, a medium risk facility at east 18 months a year and a low  risk facility at least 2 years a year. 
The risk classifications were stipulated in a standard operating procedure (SOP) document. An inspection started with a review of the facility file to be inspected in order to be acquainted with the firm history. Then using a GPS, an inspector will head to the facility without prior announcement. Depending on the facility size and complexity, an inspector can spend one to two days at the facility. A facility could be a retail store as small as a convenience store or as big as a SAM's Club or Cub. It could also be a manufacturing like ConAgra or any wholesaler including warehouses.
An inspector is equally an educator who would provide information to a prospective food business operator about how to start a food business in Minnesota including the building requirements.

During my tenure as an inspector, I first and foremost learned to get to know the average Minnesotan as a person who respect the law and respect the person enforcing the state regulations, whoever you are. I also grew in confidence with myself conducting the customer service job (as a food inspector) on behalf of the state government whom each inspector is the face of, whether you are in a small town or in the metro.
In addition, I learned the job of tactful enforcement that you do not learn on campus and got to be familiar with constant change, territory , new way of inspecting etc.....

It was always enjoyable to meet new people and particularly help them when they had questions until you see their business up and running. This provided a tremendous feeling of making a difference. My employment allowed me to raise my children until my last workday.
I abstain from expressing a judgment about management. I would end though by saying that I was and remain grateful to the people of Minnesota for giving me a chance to serve  as an inspector for 10 years. I saw a lot of people come and go. I am grateful for for the privilege.

I’ve stuck it out for about 3 years and I’m only still here because I’m training for a new career in my spare time. The first year was extremely stressful trying to pass probation. The workload was insane for a beginner and the learning curve is very steep. There is a ton of information to get your head around and you only get taught the basics in training, a lot of it you have to pick up on the job, usually by making mistakes (which are not looked on kindly at all). 

It took me over a year to feel like I had a good understanding of what I was doing, and 2-3 years to not feel constantly buried by the workload. Even now if I’m not at the top of my game for a few days or *heaven forbid* actually use the paid leave I’m entitled to, I get buried again and get stressed out trying to catch up. I’ll never forget a union meeting where they asked a large room full of examiners to raise their hand if they hesitated to use their paid leave due to getting behind at work and almost everyone raised their hand. That’s how toxic it is. 

Most of the supervisors are not good at their jobs, and the overall management culture is highly critical, micromanaging and generally stressful. Best case scenario is to be left alone to figure it out for yourself. I do very good quality detailed work and rarely have errors but because I struggle to keep up with the insane production expectations I’m constantly criticized. 

The turnover is very high here, they constantly train in new people because most either don’t make it through training or don’t pass probation. I’ve observed that the examiners who meet production expectations tend to be those who easily separate their emotions from the work, don’t get engaged when talking to claimants or reading their medical records, and generally have poor people skills and lack of empathy. Which probably explains why the supervisors (who get promoted from within) are usually bad at working with their subordinates. 

Unless you have no other way to make this amount of pay (which is terrible compensation for the amount of required skill, knowledge, and stress, by the way) I cannot recommend working for this agency. 

CO-workers, office management, and district management were amazing and would have your back period.  Upper state level management, while dedicated to the mission of the agency, were very disconnected from the office level environments, did not seem to have much interest in the needs, ambitions, or desires of office level employees, with the exception of the main state office.  for example, the main state office employees seemed to get unlimited access to new skills training, conferences, input for new programs, and the manifesting of ideas to action and new programs.  While other district offices encountered alot of resistance to funding or support for new skills training, conferences, input for new programs, and the manifesting of ideas to action and new programs.  Essentially, it appeared that unless you worked in the main office, it was like pulling teeth to obtain even a fraction of the above mentioned items.

Also, unless you were an attorney, there was very little to no opportunity for advancement.  There was a very "Us (Attorneys) and Them (Support Staff)" culture within the agency. To explain, the attorneys always came first in every aspect, regardless of the fact that, without support staff, the agency would come to a grinding halt, and could not function. Attorneys received new funding and new positions first, Attorneys had opportunities for advancement, Attorneys received opportunities and funding for training.  Support staff on the other hand were often left by the wayside, and not shown any attention as far as career development. 
Support staff were also very unappreciated and rarely mentioned or payed much attention to. 

In short, great people, great local management, but unless you were an attorney at the public defenders office, you were unimportant, and would never go anywhere careerwise.

** A wonderful organization that supports an amazing cause. 

** However, a typical day at work involved managing multiple projects with no scope or executive clarity. Projects were rushed, without requirements.  Executive leadership changed scope on almost a daily bases. 

** The IT Service Operations Manager was the most wonderful person in the world. Warm, thoughtful, interesting, this person clearly had a vision and an understanding of how the organization should operate, but was far overworked and under staffed. Leadership did not recognize this and caused undue duress for the staff. 

** The employees were amazing people with a dedication beyond compare, but they were consistently under pressure to perform by a CIO who led by fear as opposed to lifting up his teams strengths.

** The CIO repeatedly quoted lines from books like 5 Dysfunctions of a Project Team, but did not realize these very quotations were this person's own weaknesses and thus projected them upon his staff, and consistently used them to leverage the threats of discharging them from the organization. 

** Hardest part of this job was trying to manage projects with no tools, processes, any methodologies.  A competing consulting company threw roadblocks up on almost a daily basis, committed to derailing every project in the pipeline in order to gain an upper hand to secure a consulting project long term. 

** The best part of this job was the full time team. Their commitment was unsurpassable. They were a truly remarkable staff within the organization.  They knew their stuff, but regrettably were relentlessly oppressed and micro managed by executive leadership.


Due to poor senior leadership and implementation in 2013, MNsure was failing to meet its goals and objectives. Non-management employees were expected to put in the work hours to "get the job done", while director level managers went home at 4 or 5 p.m.  This resulted in many employees putting in 16 hours days and working through weekends for 2-3 months straight, without getting paid overtime. I observed many ethics and integrity issues within the organization. Work environment was at times hostile and there were several complaints about bullying behavior and aggressive behavior on the part of contractors we were required to work with. In addition, coworkers in my business area were generally not supportive and acted like they were  contestants on an episode of "Survivor".  I generally find it easy to trust people, but by the time I chose to leave MNsure, there were very few people I trusted because I had learned not to do so. i regret investing so much time and effort in an organization that lacks in values and integrity, where top and middle managers excuse their inability to fulfill their responsibilities with the phrase "Oh well, we're a startup". Managers need to stop making excuses for themselves and definitely need to stop treating their human resources like commodities. If you're interested in finding work related to the Affordable Care Act, please hear me when I say there are far better places to work.

Summarily speaking, working for the State wasn't a BAD  job, 
there were many perks.
In the particular sector I'd worked in, colleague and client relations were vital, as it was a very diverse atmosphere.
I'd learned many things, many of which, in the food industry, I'd had little exposure to from prior employers that the Chef-Instructors handily and readily addressed, such as state guidelines for dry and cold storage, 
The contact with students and co-workers in the cafeteria was exemplary, and I enjoyed interacting with and assisting the student body and other cafeteria Visitors.
The job was 50-50
:
50 percent physical, and 50 percent mental- especially when it came to priority food and supply orders, and  on load days ,

I would also take time out of this already hectic schedule to assist my direct Supervisor,who ran Catering  operations, or my colleagues in the kitchen,dining area, and , if needed , I'd assist the dish staff-

-wherever I was needed , i'd help.

If there was anything bad to say about the job, it was one person in management  who seemed rather complacent with things "just as they were"- 
A department with, really, no camaraderie, no team ethic, and he seemed content with that.
In the time I was there, our department went from 9 disparate individuals,4 chef-instructors,about 30 students, and 2 supervisors , into a somewhat cohesive team; each department or staff member working in tandem with the others, while assisting the student body-
-the primary role of anyone working in the Education or Education-Support fields.

First the positive: I have enjoyed working here as I enjoy the field of psychiatric nursing. The patients are challenging. The benefits are good. The cons: The job can be dangerous as there are assaults or attempted assaults on staff almost daily. This can make it a stressful environment. However for me, it’s not the patients that make the job difficult. It’s a lack of support from management who are out of touch with what happens on the floor. Decisions are made by people behind desks in St. Paul or at least that’s what we are told in meetings and that is frustrating. The schedule is terrible. Nurses work 8 hour rotating shifts 7 days on-2 off-3 on-2 off. You can expect to work until 10:30pm and be required back by 6 am 1-2 times every pay period. Mandatory overtime is frequent, you will be forced to work another shift due to sick calls probably at least once every two weeks. I have been there several years now and can tell you 7 days in a row every other week with the most mentally ill and dangerous patients in the state of Minnesota is exhausting. Especially when forced to work overtime. Management and the union does not support the idea of 10 or 12 hour shifts so nurses can have more days off. The last union rep I talked to about it laughed at me saying it’s not possible because of how short staffed we always are. There is frequent staff turnover. The schedule is not family friendly. You will not be told any of this in your interview or orientation, the mandatory overtime is always a surprise to new nurses.

The constant turnover of great employees is really hurting employee moral. I have seen the WORST micromanaging I have seen in my life here. The 3 supervisors who sit upstairs in administration are vile. They do not know how to do the job, they take long breaks, constantly on personal calls, no questions ever get answered, they do not help train and the sit in their offices ALL DAY on Skype calls with each other trash talking employees. Only good part about this job is the people. The Judges don't know/don't care what management is doing. They have a huge job and these issues should be dealt with by the administrator. The Judges and their teams will treat you with dignity. In the courtroom everyone is happy and works well together. Once you go back to your desk in the office.
...nothing but stress. The Judges and all other employees (besides supervisors, HR and the administrator) at Anoka are some of the best humans I have worked for/with. I hope management sees how much more costly and stressful it is that we have to continue to train new employees while they sit and pick at people, making everyone not enjoy their jobs. Almost all of us here have one foot out the door except the handful of grand fathered in County benefited employees. They are stuck. Every week it seems there is an opening here. Run from Anoka like the rest of us have been doing. Go to any other County. You will be happy you did. 

I enjoy most being able to connect with the commercial vehicle industry and interpret the laws and regulations that need to be followed and be in compliance on  daily basis. My most difficult part of the job is explaining to all parties involved in a Data Q challenge the hows and whys of the process and decision making on a particular subject. I have learned many skills over my 33 year career involving federal and state motor carrier laws; statute and regulation applications and interpretation; motor vehicle inspection clues and operating parts of a commercial vehicle; general requirements for a motor carrier in order to operate in both intra and interstate commerce; first aid skills such as CPR and AED operations; Hazardous Material transportations; and offering presentations to motor carriers as needed on subjects of their choosing. I do not have a "typical" day at work because commercial law enforcement is never boring or consistent. I also have assisted with many post crash inspections in which I offer to the investigating officer and their department an overview of the legal operation of the commercial vehicle(s) prior to the crash event. My co-workers through the years have been friendly, helpful, and very professional .

Further distinctions:  4* for research unit job, 3* for ops/management job.

In most natural resources positions you'll likely be disappointed if you think you'll be primarily fishing all day in great weather or handling cute creatures.

Job work has too much influence by politicians and squeaky wheels.  However, knowing that and knowing most coworkers are good and there for the right reasons help in an "us vs. them" way.  You need that support, because supporters, advocates, and leaders/bosses step up for the organization and employees too infrequently.

Did like the variety/seasonality, some interesting challenges at times, and hours/work-life balance.

You sacrifice salary and ability for advancement (esp. in same office/community) for good benefits and stability.  A decent, real pension and not-bad HSA severance await if you can meet full-retirement criteria.


Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Public defender 106 salaries reported	$119,860 per year
Law clerk 4 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Legal assistant 13 salaries reported	$69,470 per year
Attorney 10 salaries reported	$168,028 per year
Investigator 10 salaries reported	$90,437 per year

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