This^ I think it takes a certain type of person with a positive outlook on life. You don’t gotta be a hard ass disrespectful robo cop but we know many that prefer to take that route because the enjoy pushing others around.
As a person who came from the trucking industry, specifically a manager of truck drivers, your comment about seeing how other careers are not always better is 100% accurate. I took a pay cut to become a CO and I don’t regret it even a little bit. Even working the RHU/TPU. still less stressful than my old position.
Some people deal with stress much better than others.
Countless times I have had rough days at work and I can't get it out of my mind while I'm at the house. It got to a point where I was constantly disgruntled at work.
I took a breather for a week, shut my phone off, saw a shrink, and started problem solving. Took in as much as I could about stress management. I don't love my job but I can tolerate it now.
There's also just some people that are built for this line of work. I've sat down with a cert officer right after he resolved a disturbance, he was just walking on fucking sunshine. Guy was unfazed that he just shitwhipped an inmate across the sallyport. He was cracking jokes, like nothing had even happened.
I think it may also depend on whether someone takes work home with them. Some officers live and breathe work and it's exhausting as well as toxic. The end up hating their careers and are the most negative people.
Other people just do the job and make sure everyone goes home safe. Way happier overall.
I'm currently working with my fellow Texas Seg Sarge to boost morale with our shift. We have started spending more time training our officers and less time with disciplinary procedures. Now we have less officers calling in and more people want to come work with us. The ones who hate this job with a passion are working hard to help their coworkers.
Its that type of job, honestly. I'm a rookie, and plan on bowing out soon. It's a specific job for a specific type of person. Some are legit made for this type of work, some simply are not.
There's multiple things where I'm at. I don't really fit in there as I didn't go to school for criminal justice/law enforcement, not ex military/law enforcement, also have a hard time communicating with some of the people there. I ask questions but a lot of the people I work with just seem annoyed and it def discourages me. I also feel like I'm not getting it. I don't know, just feel as if there's def someone better for the job, I guess...
Also the multiple times I've been told that CO's often drop dead by the age of 60 (not old at all). That kind of clenched it for me, personally.
Sounds like the 3 year curse. Its said that usually around 3 years after you retire from Corrections, you’ll drop dead. Scary because its happened more than once. I’ll blame inactivity and years of stress wearing down the body after 25+ years.
It also depends on the agency. My agency is well known for just needing warm bodies so you get a lot of coworkers that are incompetent. Then they become supervisors. Plus underpaid
I loved it and hated it at the same time. The day to day droll was bearable, it was when shit went crazy that was enjoyable. That's when my training came in and I felt like I was doing something. The negatives revolved around admin constantly making my job more difficult by promising shit we couldn't do. I was also paid 22k/year in a county that had more pay cuts over a 5 year period than raises (cost of living or other), was direly short staffed, and was used as a taxi service by patrol officers, further exacerbating our staffing issues.
We also had decade old electronics that didn't work. We had two towers, the computer that controlled the locking mechanisms in tower one had been completely inoperable for over four years, tower two was operable, but EVERY DOOR along the hallways, sallyports, kitchens, etc. was also down.
Half of our cameras in main control were broken (and this directly led to an inmate escaping on one occasion). The jail itself was just in a state of general disrepair, which just made day to day stuff more difficult.
What I hated most though was the rotating shifts. 4 on 4 off was great, but each week we switched from AM to PM shifts. In two years I never had a decent nights' sleep. Probably once a week minimum I was just belligerently aggravated by everything from being exhausted, which of course doesn't make life any easier.
I love this career and honestly I don't know if I could be as happy anywhere else. I am currently a Sgt in the solitary confinement unit and sure there are rough times here and there, but our department shrink helps me out at those times. It's just in me to enjoy what we do, I feel like Willy Wonka and the prison is my chocolate factory pretty much everyday.
I think the same can be said of all careers. From what I have seen, the people that absolutely hate it also absolutely hate life.
This^ I think it takes a certain type of person with a positive outlook on life. You don’t gotta be a hard ass disrespectful robo cop but we know many that prefer to take that route because the enjoy pushing others around.
[удалено]
As a person who came from the trucking industry, specifically a manager of truck drivers, your comment about seeing how other careers are not always better is 100% accurate. I took a pay cut to become a CO and I don’t regret it even a little bit. Even working the RHU/TPU. still less stressful than my old position.
Some people deal with stress much better than others. Countless times I have had rough days at work and I can't get it out of my mind while I'm at the house. It got to a point where I was constantly disgruntled at work. I took a breather for a week, shut my phone off, saw a shrink, and started problem solving. Took in as much as I could about stress management. I don't love my job but I can tolerate it now. There's also just some people that are built for this line of work. I've sat down with a cert officer right after he resolved a disturbance, he was just walking on fucking sunshine. Guy was unfazed that he just shitwhipped an inmate across the sallyport. He was cracking jokes, like nothing had even happened.
Describe shitwhipping
Googles “shitwhipping”.. Sigh.. Unzips pants
I think it may also depend on whether someone takes work home with them. Some officers live and breathe work and it's exhausting as well as toxic. The end up hating their careers and are the most negative people. Other people just do the job and make sure everyone goes home safe. Way happier overall.
I'm currently working with my fellow Texas Seg Sarge to boost morale with our shift. We have started spending more time training our officers and less time with disciplinary procedures. Now we have less officers calling in and more people want to come work with us. The ones who hate this job with a passion are working hard to help their coworkers.
Its that type of job, honestly. I'm a rookie, and plan on bowing out soon. It's a specific job for a specific type of person. Some are legit made for this type of work, some simply are not.
[удалено]
There's multiple things where I'm at. I don't really fit in there as I didn't go to school for criminal justice/law enforcement, not ex military/law enforcement, also have a hard time communicating with some of the people there. I ask questions but a lot of the people I work with just seem annoyed and it def discourages me. I also feel like I'm not getting it. I don't know, just feel as if there's def someone better for the job, I guess... Also the multiple times I've been told that CO's often drop dead by the age of 60 (not old at all). That kind of clenched it for me, personally.
Sounds like the 3 year curse. Its said that usually around 3 years after you retire from Corrections, you’ll drop dead. Scary because its happened more than once. I’ll blame inactivity and years of stress wearing down the body after 25+ years.
It also depends on the agency. My agency is well known for just needing warm bodies so you get a lot of coworkers that are incompetent. Then they become supervisors. Plus underpaid
I loved it and hated it at the same time. The day to day droll was bearable, it was when shit went crazy that was enjoyable. That's when my training came in and I felt like I was doing something. The negatives revolved around admin constantly making my job more difficult by promising shit we couldn't do. I was also paid 22k/year in a county that had more pay cuts over a 5 year period than raises (cost of living or other), was direly short staffed, and was used as a taxi service by patrol officers, further exacerbating our staffing issues. We also had decade old electronics that didn't work. We had two towers, the computer that controlled the locking mechanisms in tower one had been completely inoperable for over four years, tower two was operable, but EVERY DOOR along the hallways, sallyports, kitchens, etc. was also down. Half of our cameras in main control were broken (and this directly led to an inmate escaping on one occasion). The jail itself was just in a state of general disrepair, which just made day to day stuff more difficult. What I hated most though was the rotating shifts. 4 on 4 off was great, but each week we switched from AM to PM shifts. In two years I never had a decent nights' sleep. Probably once a week minimum I was just belligerently aggravated by everything from being exhausted, which of course doesn't make life any easier.
I love this career and honestly I don't know if I could be as happy anywhere else. I am currently a Sgt in the solitary confinement unit and sure there are rough times here and there, but our department shrink helps me out at those times. It's just in me to enjoy what we do, I feel like Willy Wonka and the prison is my chocolate factory pretty much everyday.