Dont get me wrong I really like my job overall, but working for the juvenile corrections system sucks in a lot of ways.
I have been with the california juvenile system for 19 years. In this time I have observed a lot of change, some good and some bad.
First of all you deal with negative attitude form the clientele 80-90 percent of the time. No matter what it is it is always your fault in their eyes. This makes for a relatively constant volatile and violent workplace. That being said the worst part, yes worse than that, is the constant and undue pressure from upper management.
In 19 years I have observed an extreme amount of negative pressure and threat of reprisal from management for wrongdoing as well as right. It has become an extremely vengeful orginization, and when I say begun, I mean it has appeared to get worse as it has always been present. The unfortunate part is that as upper management, they appear to be untouchable regarding their WRONG decisions and WRONG treatment of staff. They regularly make judgemental decisions based on bias as well as racial motivation. It is hard enough to deal with the racial discord among our clientele but when it is so evident from upper management, you can see how it would be hard to deal with in the rank and file realm. Hopefully we will begin to see these upper management personel become more adequately regulated with some sort of check and balance system that would motivate/force them to change or be weeded out.
