How to move ahead in a County Public Service Job. Decide quickly if your "Job" is a step toward a life that is best for you! There was a time when fire rescue was low or no pay and a highly respected activity. A Government may be growing at a pace th

Working for Government is a great launch pad.  Every public service job has a long line of willing workers ready and willing to take the job.  Understanding how long to stay is key because public service can wear you down and use your best years.  Follow the top management moves.  If the top three management jobs are "stepping stones", your entry level opening might be a great stepping stone to your next more rewarding job.

Write an Analysis List to determine if you are appropriately paid, benefits are actual and not "virtual", and will retirement be there when you arive. 

My heart goes out to Public Safety workers because most enter their job thinking everything will change once they get their job.  Most think it is an effective strategy to hire on and then try to change the pay and benefits once you have the job.  Many  public servants feel victimized and under appreciated. This is fertile ground for union representation that further drains resources from these "public servants".

Decide early if you are trying to make a long career out of a startup job.  Look past the "hero, glory hype and decide if you are actually overpaid for what you can produce in a public servant slot.

Remember, not all public service jobs are "Dead end", Some people can hold out until they reach management and receive a fair, livable wage.

Any job has a service component.  Don't get hung up on serving anyone.  Just meet needs for a fair cost and charge as your go.  Government services often underperform delivering unnecessary services to customers who have no choice about doing business with you.

Very likely you will spend most of your time with dissatisfied, disgruntled customers who think you over promised, under delivered, and should be compensated for having to deal with you.  Decide early on if you need this level of abuse.  Notice your bosses move on if they get a better deal.  

Are you really Public Servant Material?    Servant Status may be more about hype than real rewards.

Do Servants usually achieve hero status, high pay and glory?  You must decide for yourself.  Don't ask your union representative.  He may need you more than you need him.  Think about it, sooner rather than years from now.
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The secrets to achieving your best progress results, if you work for Marion County, or any county.  Never become a victim!

If you are not happy leave!  Be Happy!
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You will have to decide for yourself if your job is a dead end startup even if it is advertised as a career position.
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Many county employees feel they are underpaid and underappreciated, especially in the public safety sector.  

There is a long line of willing applicants for most Public Service jobs.  The promise of liberal benefits and secure employment are attracting many young people to government employment.  Beware, all is not as it seems.  Do your research on the disappointment of many county employees.  Most Marion County employees feel they are underpaid and must be represented by a union group in order to get fair treatment.

The idea that government work is easy to get into is not true,  Years of study and training is needed just to be considered, and the pay is low.  Yes promised benefits sound inviting but look at the broken promises of current retirees in the public service sector.  

Some Firemen, EMS and law Enforcement applicants think that if they fight for a low paying, low respect, dead end  job, somehow it will become a high paying, high respect career once they get hired.  It doesn't work that way.   Respect for those promised high benefits is actually low evidence shows.  Newspapers are filled with articles on broken promises and poverty of lower level public servants.  Union membership is needed just to keep up the low pay and low actual benefits.  Like a marriage based on marriage first and then successful changing of your partner, it never works.  The change never comes, amid disappointment and struggle.

Decide early to showcase your skills and use public service as a stepping stone. Never trade your life for a promise of benefits and status.  Don't become a victim.  Low pay and low appreciation will not change once you are hired.  The rose colored picture of "hero status", high stable pay, exceptional benefits, early retirement and a fair chance for advancement will fade quickly as reality sets in.   

Like a "retail sector job," low pay and poverty might be the outcome.  Hero, high respect, and wealth might not be part of the picture.   Recently I heard, "if you want to live your life asking the question, "Paper or Plastic", don't go to college."  If you suspect that you may end up blaming the community and commissioners for your servant status, don't become a public "servant". 

 Reality Check List
1. Government size has grown exponentially over the past 30 years and we are seeing evidence that taxes and a shrinking private sector can no longer support the burden.  

2. Look closely before jumping in or staying in a "public Servant  job.   It is clear that many government workers, even at the high management level and union level will end up scammed.  Bankruptcy is becoming an easy way out for governments that promise more than they can deliver.

3. After government gets all they can individuals will be tossed on the rubble heap of broken promises.  Interview some retirees and evaluate their results.   rather than promises of great things to come.

Please Email us about your experience.  Everyone can benefit from your experience.
If you moved on to "greener pastures", and left your "county starter job" for a new "entry level person", please let us know why you moved on and bettered yourself.  Make Comment and let your fellow County Employees benefit from your thinking.  

Key: I have had over 50 jobs over the years, some were low paying, but most were a key to my eventual success.  I learned how to work in a Sunbeam factory in Chicago in the 60's,  during summer break, all while living in my car, an old '53 Chrysler my sister gave me.  These low paying jobs taught me skills, how to work hard, with real men.  In most I worked alongside people who would spend their whole career in that job and I still look up to them.  

I served hamburgers, and was the local high school janitor during my college days, I learned humility.
Don't make the first few steps on your career ladder permanent.  Keep advancing and enjoy the view.
If you stay on the first step, that is alright, just enjoy yourself and be willing to move on if and when it might suit you to grow.  Government work can be rewarding but likely the tradeoff of opportunity for lower pay, and promises of benefits and security won't be worth the cost.

The best time to decide how you want to be viewed by bosses, your family, friends and your community is as early as possible.  County work can be fulfilling and rewarding but if it isn't, get out quicker than you would a burning building.  Think about it, only the captain goes down with the ship and that is old style.  The higher up the chain of command the more likely "abandon ship" will be whispered in the board room.
Google Marion County Administrator leaves the county to his assistant, Assistant County Administrator leaves asking Assistant FireChief, to close the door as he exits, but I will bet you didn't get a notice to go with them.  We keep losing our Chiefs because they are underpaid with few benefits!  Don't believe it.  

Sorry, I had to say that because I see a lot of lower paid folks asked to stay and play the victim role wasting their lives.  Leaving is good, coming back a millionaire is even better.  You can achieve what you want, and I know.  A few years back I would occasionally travel to Scotland and play golf at Open Venues with a great group of about 30 guys.  By far most were ex-firemen who started a business while working at the fire department.  Each would tell me how fun it was to have a base job that allowed a second job during the day.  Each was more capable than the next.  I believe to this day firemen and EMT folks are some of our most talented citizens and great entrepreneurs.  

Early in my career, I noticed some employees were really good at working their way into favor with the bosses.  When it came to promotion it seemed that even poor performance did not slow down these few favorites of the bosses.   In my position as an elected official and Fire Commissioner, I saw firemen who worked hard preparing themselves for the job as did many of their coworkers, however, all too often the worse performer in the field would somehow get credit for "best performance" efforts.  

Some of the firemen felt that they were seen as complainers trying to "feather our nest" if they spoke up, and so, we came together to make things right.  This was before government unions were commonplace, and as elected officials we could step right in and work out fairness in the workplace.

Today it is a little complicated getting directly to the problem because of the Union Separation that is in the system.  

We introduced a debrief session that was not bragging about the job, but more creating a record of just what took place in the field real-time  We connected performance to the actual record created by video, written records, request for supplies or anything else that could set the record straight. 

3 Key ways to avoid wasting time year after year while others progress in their careers.

#1  Don't be a Victim

Take responsibility for your position, and actions.  Let's suppose for a moment that your credentials are worth $40,000 in startup pay and there is a long line of applicants that you have to beat out just to get in the door.  Going in you understand that the job is the realization of a lifelong dream.  You now can help your community and operate on the front lines of the action.  For a while, your dreams are realized but soon you see some jumping ahead and you feel the pinch of a low salary benefits package.

Don't be a victim.  As you look around you realize that just a few miles away fireman are receiving 25% more for the same hours, and rather than just go there to and take the higher paying job, you are encouraged to feel victimized by your situation.  You're asked to pay for union representatives who ask you to complain about your status in the hopes of gaining the benefits of other employment while not actually moving to the other location.  Victimization is a waste of your time.

A Better strategy, Work with department management.  Work with county management.  Keep an eye on other opportunities to display your talents.  Come back in a few years to see your coworkers still complaining about their poor situation, read the newspaper accounts as to how unfair your old friends are being treated.  Check the pay of some of the worst performers and notice that they have been promoted, as have the Union Bosses.  Ask around and see unhappiness, crushing fear, inability to speak without fear of repercussions.  More victimization, drive your old coworkers deeper into the victim role.

Don't accept a life of misery playing the victim game.  Blaming the Community, the County Commissioners, The world for your lack of responsibility for your own success.

#2.  Never seek or accept the role of a hero instead of adequate pay. 
 Hero status is not what it is promoted to be.  Yes, in the course of time circumstances come together to bring forward a hero, and that is fine.  Poor pay and unfair treatment by a closed group is a difficult way to earn a living.  Doing your job has its rewards, but don't be fooled into trading your life for the chance at benefits, retirement, and hero status.  Likely you will be cheated out of one, two or all three.  Notice that the strongest unions usually drive the employer into bankruptcy and the loser is the employee.  Watch Chicago over the next few years.  I lost a small fortune on the good name and unions of Eastern Airlines.  Don't fight to lose!  Fight to win, and vote with your feet.  Then perhaps circle back and take the top job at top pay, or perhaps run for commissioner and help solve some problems.

#3.   If you're unhappy, take what the job and the location deliver, and move on at the first opportunity.
  
Follow the example of the people who tell you that your pay is too high already.  Read about your recent county administrators.  They move quickly to a better county or city, at the drop of a hat!  They make many times more than they will pay you, yet they move on to higher pay and more opportunity.  Try on the starving artist lifestyle for a while, and move on.  My personal limit on suffering is maybe a couple of weeks at best.  Then I stop complaining, stop whimpering, and take responsibility for my life and prosperity.  Never pay someone to represent you unless you find yourself charged with a crime.  Why would you need union organizing?  You know how good you are at what you do, so suck it up and leave the winning to victims.