Like many DCYF workers in Washington, Taylor Andrews-Garcelon loves her clients but has felt her job get more stressful and dangerous in the last few years.
As a fish hatchery specialist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1998, Kurt Spiegel was lucky. He had a good state job, and even better he had a great coworker—a friend to learn the ropes with as they navigated state service.
The COVID-19 pandemic arrived at a time when our nation’s health care workers were already experiencing burnout. The National Academy of Medicine, in a report from 2019, said that 35% to 54% of nurses and physicians in the United States had “substantial symptoms of burnout.”
Thanks to engaged WFSE members and a robust union contract, we don’t have non-merit staff providing unemployment insurance or employment services within our state. We don’t contract out.
