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So I am interning right now at a probation department. I am wondering what are the hours like? Do most start late? They say you can start at like 10am or 9am, but could get out at 7. I am not sure if that's the truth or not.
Also, do most probation officers have families and kids? Is it a job better for ones who are just married?
It is up to each Chief Probation Officer to run the dept. as he or she sees fit, which includes setting work hours and rotations. You are interning at a probation office and you don't believe what they are telling you? Why is that? What difference does it make to your career plans if one chief has his folks report at 0800 and another chief in another county has his people report at 1000? POs primarily work days but certainly may find themselves working nights, weekends and on-call. Some probation departments are pretty high speed and work closely with the police on raids and searches while others are social workers with the authority to lock people up.
What difference does it make if POs have families and kids?
Depends on your location, here it is all just 8-4. Yes, POs have kids and families, just like anyone else working in law enforcement with shifts. Yes, it can be rough on childcare which is why I got out of the field until they get older. You are working there, why not just ask them?
In Texas, the hours can be really long. You usually have the freedom to set your own hours within limits, but you'll end up working well over 40 hours a week in order to make the minimum number of contacts if your caseload is high. Oftentimes, you have to make your contacts outside of business hours depending on the probationer's schedule and whether you want to meet him/her at home or at work.
1) You are in college, so let's use some critical thinking skills
2) How in the hell would anyone know if most POs are married and have kids?
3) Obviously some POs are married and have kids and manage to have a family life.
4) You are interning in a probation office and you are here asking us questions about probation officers?
Last edited by joe from dayton; 11-03-2013 at 03:00 PM..
You would probably get better answers from the people you work with. The probation officers I know pretty much worked M-F, 8-5. There may have been some on call time on top of that.
It depends on the region. In my area, probation officers start off at about $30k-35k a year.
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