Based on your overall experience regarding employee

morale, how likely are you to recommend working for

Environmental Health to your friends and colleagues?
0

6
Unlikely
15

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Somewhat Unlikely
Unsure
48 Somewhat Likely
18
Likely

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How would you rate overall morale within
Environmental Health?
60 56

50

40
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30 25

20

10 7
0 0
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0
Lowest Below Average Average Above Average Highest

To what extent has stress in your workplace affected

your life outside of work?
30 28 27
25
20
20

15
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10
10

5 3

0
Not Affected Mildly Affected Moderately Strongly Affected Extremely Affected
Affected
 How strongly do you agree with the following How strongly do you agree with the following
statement: I feel I get adequate recognition statement: I feel I get adequate recognition
from my direct supervisor for my work. from Environmental Health Management for
my work.
25
20 60
50
15 40
10 30
20

e
5
10
0 0
Strongly Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Strongly Strongly Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree Disagree Disagree Agree Agree

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How respected do you feel in your workplace?
30

25

20

15
St
10

0
Lowest Below Average Average Above Average Highest

80
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70

60 How much do you feel

your supervisor cares
50 about you?

40
How much do you feel
30 Environmental Health
Management cares
20 about you?

10
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0
Lowest Below Average Above Highest
Average Average
 How well do you know and understand the
organization’s expectations of you?
35
30
25
20

e
15
10
5
0

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Lowest Below Average Average Above Average Highest

How realistic are the work goals the organization has

set for you?
35

30

25

20

15
St
10

0
Completely Mostly Unrealistic Moderately Mildly Unrealistic Completely
Unrealistic Unrealistic Realistic
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How confident are you in being able to meet your
work goals?
30

25

20

15
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10

0
Lowest Below Average Average Above Average Highest
 How satisfied are you with the salary,
benefits, and other compensation provided in
this organization?
35

30

25

e
20

15

10

at
5

0
Lowest Below Average Average Above Average Highest

70

60

50
St
40

30

20
ed
10

0
1 2 3 4 5

How much do you think your peers value your opinion?

How much do you think your supervisor values your opinion?
How much do you think Environmental Health Management values your opinion?
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 In the past 6 months has the How strongly do you agree with
department failed to provide this statement: EH Management
you with any supplies necessary supports me and the work that I
to perform your job? do.
50

Yes 40

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23%
30

20
No
10
77%
0

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Strongly Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Strongly
Disagree Disagree Agree Agree

Which supplies have been unavailable to you at work?

(88 respondents)
50

45

40

35
St
30

25

20

15
ed
10

0
Business Health Alcohol Pool Test Kit Letter Office Policies/ Gloves Masks PPE
Cards Officer Prep Pads Grade Cards Supplies Procedures
Badge
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 How strongly do you agree with this statement:
Environmental Health Management micromanages staff.
80
70
60
50

e
40
30
20
10

at
0
Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Neutral Somewhat Agree Strongly Agree

How strongly do you agree with this statement: 90

minutes is an adequate amount of time for me to
complete my office work.
70
60
50
40
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30
20
10
0
Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Neutral Somewhat Agree Strongly Agree
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In the past 6 months, have you considered
leaving Environmental Health due to low morale
and/or stress?

22% Yes
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No
78%
How would you describe your communication/relationship with your supervisor? (Highlights):

1. I love my direct supervisor/chief. My life and the life of my chief is made absolutely miserable by
idiots, morons, buffoons, and sadistic dictators in management. I hate management with all my
heart and soul.
2. Communication with my direct supervisor is great and I feel supported by my chief.
3. My communication and relationship with my supervisor is extremely uncomfortable.
4. Communication is good- respectful and professional regarding work. There is a lack of
communication regarding administrative processes- such as approval of covid time when

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requested.
5. My supervisor is ill equipped to talk to people and is constantly disrespectful to me and treating
me like I’m not capable when previous supervisor had nothing but praise.
6. Supervision is respectful of my requests and returns response in timely manner (most of the
time)
7. It's good, although sometimes my supervisor is so busy that it can be challenging to speak with

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her on the phone when in the field or getting her to respond to certain emails.
8. It’s alright…I know they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place cause they have upper
management on their back but some more support from my supervisor would be great
9. My supervisor is okay, its the upper management that is out of touch.
10. I can communicate freely with my supervisor and they usually listen, but it's also evident that
she's hamstrung by directives issued by management and there's only so much she can do.
11. Relationship with immediate supervision is very good. They are all realistic, friendly, and
supportive.
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12. My supervisor is friendly, competent, and a pleasure to work for. I feel like I can come to my
supervisor with personal issues that may affect my work, and that I can trust my supervisor's
judgment with more sensitive cases. Most importantly, I feel like I can trust my supervisor to
have my back when it comes to matters involving my safety, integrity, or trustworthiness.
13. I mostly communicate via email. The majority of emails I receive are about very minor errors I
have made on my DTAR or reports. The rest of the emails are neutral. Zero emails are positive,
where my work is acknowledged.
14. communication with my direct supervisor is good but her voice and opinion falls on deaf ears
15. Supervisor is also under top level management pressure
16. I have an amazing relationship with my supervisor. I work hard in the field, and she works hard
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by providing tools and guidance for us. I highly respect my supervisor.
17. We have a great relationship. My supervisor is very organized, knowledgeable, has great
leadership skills, and aware of assignments and priorities
18. Little to none. But if you meaning forwarding a bunch of the same emails from management.
Then we get a whole lot of that.
19. Direct supervisor provides constant support for the field staff. Provides understanding when
dealing with unrealistic requirements set out by upper management.

How would you describe your communication/relationship with EH Management? (Highlights):

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1. None, I don't feel they are approachable and feel they prefer we work through direct supervision
and not bother them.
2. Non existent They don’t interact with us little worker bees which is why I think they are so out
of touch with the reality of being a field inspector
3. Completely one-sided. Directives come down from up high like the Word of God, forcing us
lowly mortals to interpret to the best of our abilities and obey. There is no way to offer mutually
beneficial suggestions/ideas to upper management, even though Liza claimed in the last
 meeting that she always has an open door. Frankly, a lot of the friction that has occurred over
the last 3 years could have been avoided by working together instead of against districts. If
management wants something done, that's one thing. But it serves no one to overlook a
problem that is obvious from the view of DSE, drag out even acknowledging that it is an issue,
and then roll out a half-baked fix.
4. Besides my EH Manager, I don't have any relations with top-level mgmt. I forgot what they
looked like in person because no one from BP HQ ever visits our office.
5. Non-existent. There is no relationship with upper mgmt because of this "chain of command".
Our grievances are never addressed because they don't hear from us directly and if we do have

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meetings, they rather do it behind a chat instead of face to face.
6. There is no relationship with top level management. They micromanage as much as possible
and the moral is the lowest I have ever seen in my 20+ years if service.
7. None at all. Management’s Only priority is number of inspections done ie quantity not quality.
Expecting an inspector to do the job of more than one inspector knowing that we are short
staffed. They have created so many types of reports that they can run and still they want an

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explanation as to why numbers are not met. Some district offices are very hard offices due to
the areas that are covered. They don’t understand that. They do so much micromanaging.
8. Upper management is quick to make demands of us with little explanation, and has been
gradually increasing our workload over the past 3 years. We have had 3 "top level" priority
projects in 3 months, and each time, have been presented with a completely arbitrary list of
things that must be done at the expense of everything else. The latest "housing" top priority
project includes pools, food, and pet stores, and includes brand new permits for buildings built
within the past 3 years (ie: during the worst of the pandemic, when our focus wasn't housing).
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It's been described as a list of housing sites that haven't been done for 7 years, which is
completely disingenuous. I feel like I have to document everything on top of what I'm already
being asked to provide, not because I'm concerned about producing good results or having my
work speak for itself, but because upper management has repeatedly demonstrated not just a
lack of trust, but a strong tendency to blame inspectors for anything that goes negatively, and I
need to protect myself from them. The above also has limited effect, because it is clear upper
management does not actually review our documentation or DTAR (time card) lines, and asks
questions for activities that are already carefully (and time-consumingly) recorded.
9. Not good at all. They don't understand what my job entails, and it's unbeneficial to the
department and my productivity to not allow me to telework (this was supposed to be fulltime
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telework position when I was hired). Top-level management has no clue what my department
does, thinks we walk around with a clip board and pencil. All they can do is included me in
emails regarding new KFC chicken fryer protocols.
10. I learned the hard way to avoid communication. In the past, brining up issues has lead to a “deal
with it or stop working here” situation OR has placed me in an even worse situation. Calling
attention to a problem only leads to management protecting themselves and has never lead to a
“win-win” situation.
11. very poor. If i did not have a mortgage to pay, I would have walked out this job right now
12. No relationship at all! Worst management in my almost 30 years of service.
13. Very poor. There is an unspoken sense and feeling of being retaliated against for expressing
our concerns. They are out-of-touch
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14. management is out of touch of the reality outside in the field

15. Never met them face to face.
16. Director and assistant directors, BDs and Managers are too busy to communicate well. Many
tasks and projects are left half-done, employees on the dark as to the outcomes or feedback of
work produced. Lack of vision is prevalent.
17. Top level management is out of touch with the current day to day requirements they put into
place. They enforce/pose requirements that look beneficial on paper, but is nearly impossible to
accomplish in vita without excessive workload/mental burnout.
Do you have any comments regarding employee morale that you would like us to convey to
management? (Highlights):

1. Stop micromanaging your workforce. The goals set are unrealistic.

2. This use to be the best job in LA County and the current regime has turned it into the worst. The
only way this can be solved is if everyone that is currently in management is removed.
3. Listen to our opinions. Make us part of organizations. I feel like we are losing good employees
but management do not care.
4. Every day we are waiting to see what kind of email we will receive regarding changes in our

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work duties and new rules
5. Stop harassing your inspectors, treat with professionalism and back off on strict time in office
protocols that just humiliate us.
6. When they make changes to our workload, workflow, or work environment they more often than
not either fail to explain why, or when they try to explain why the reasoning doesn’t make sense.
Their decisions are not based on reality.

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7. Remove the point system… give us enough office time to complete our tasks, train, send
emails, discuss issues with peers and supervisors… stop micromanaging… value our opinions,
put yourselves in our shoes…
8. Our telework time was taken away based on a reason that was irrelevant to field inspectors.
Telework days provided less stress to commute to work and drive straight to the field and get
more work completed. Less stress resulted in less sick days of employees being out. Many
agencies continue to telework if not 100% of the time at least 50%. The office work that we do
can be easily completed during telework hours, actually more sufficiently.
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9. Have more trust and confidence in your inspectors by providing them with high quality training.
If inspectors are not properly trained, they will be lost in the field.
10. Have faith in your employees. This micromanaging style is not effective. Be more transparent.
Don’t shy away from employee concerns and questions.
11. We are not your enemies. Communication is the key to any relationship. Tell us about
your ideas and needs, and work with us on how we can meet those needs. And get out of
Baldwin Park every once in awhile and see what it's like in the field. My breaking point
came when Liza said in a DTAR meeting that drive time over 15 minutes from door to
door would require supervisor approval, even as supervisors were objecting in real time
to that direction. Frankly speaking, if the drop in over staff numbers isn't enough to tell
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you something, then we need an outside consultant/audit.
12. It seems like EH mgmt doesn't have a clue when it comes to employee work-life
balances... at all. Mgmt could care less if you needed to telework for your sanity or God
forbid try and protect the environment. What ever happened to freely asking staff what
they truly wanted in their agency? It's really a narrow one-way street of management with
no awesome opinions from rank-and-file going up-stream to their ears. We should be
leading the country with some amazing accomplishments -- instead mgmt is
micromanaging stupid stuff like employee work hours or telework. Get rid of branch
directors and program chiefs because their salary is wasted.
13. Hint: Low morale = high turnover rate and staffing shortage. Set more realistic expectations
and do things that make employees happier. Treat us with respect. Just because we are not
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high on the totem pole does not mean we are incompetent and need to be micromanaged.
14. Our Director acts like she is unaware of the lowest moral ever in our department and we all feel
things have been getting worse day by day since Lisa Frias became the Director. They create
new positions in upper management for the past 15 years and yet we currently are around 40
percent vacancy in EHS’s. Look at how many positions there were 15 years ago compared to
today. Why do you think we are so short staffed and so behind with inspections since Lisa Frias
started here, never been this bad before…??? Wonder why????
15. Increasing workload and expectations for inspectors when EH is severely understaffed doesn't
improve employee morale.
16. I understand the need for accountability for inspectors, but you are choking the life and morale out of
this organization and making everyone suffer in the meantime. Your best and brightest (and younger)
workers have been leaving due to a lack of morale. I personally know at least 5 exceptional inspectors
who had previously expressed an intent and dedication to work for Environmental Health for the rest of
their career, who finally hit their breaking point and left in the past 3 years. Also, when you have EHS
I's who worked through COVID Night Shifts (some of the most dangerous and grueling work possible)
quit AFTER being assigned to an office with the promise of more stable work, that says a lot about how

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much they dislike the current state of Environmental Health. The fact that upper management has
promised to enact even more new policies (ie: micromanagement) in the upcoming years is personally
dismaying, not just from concern over my own workload, but because you can see Ultimately: the
roster numbers should speak for themselves. From dialogues with my co-workers, they are not going to
improve. Also please keep in mind: this is not COVID related quitting. The inspectors I know who have

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left are finding jobs in other less stressful positions, not just quitting.
17. The productivity demands are too high, the tools given to do the job are subpar.
18. The expectation of achieving 100% perfection is humanly impossible. All our errors, regardless
how minor they are, are being tallied and we are working through the fear of making one tiny
error because we will be notified by our immediate supervisor within hours. Consistent and daily
emails pinpointing what we did wrong do impact the morale of even the best employee.
19. EH Management needs to stop micromanaging and improve communication. In particular they
should listen to program Chiefs. EH management is solely to blame for the low morale amongst
staff.
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20. Perform the job yourself for a week. Its not so much the number of inspections as it is so many
minuet different details that eat up time, management dosent know exists until they do it.
21. Short staff not enough time to reach expectted goals , constant changes without proper training
, Complete lack of trainings , lack of providing documnets and policies for staff
22. It was surprising and disappointing that Liza Frias indicated that she had no idea that morale
was low in the last all EH staff meeting when there was a vote of no confidence being passed
around by staff, and when none of my peers are happy. She stated that her doors are always
open, however in reality that is not true and staff below Chiefs are not listened to. Also, no
consideration for work-life balance is given to employees like placing as many people as
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possible close to their homes or taking into consideration input from employees as to where
they might be happy working. Expectations from management are unreasonable.
23. We are severely understaffed and expected to complete the work of 3 inspectors in my program
alone. The complaints are endless and the intake of the complaints is not properly managed.
Myself and coworkers are beyond stressed, tired, and overworked. We cannot complete our
required office work and paperwork, or training due to constantly being forced out to the field.
Emails get ignored/forgotten. Training is overlooked. Myself and coworkers are beginning to
hate our jobs. We need more support, more office time, more recognition and more staff.
24. I feel supported at my current DSE OFFICE. I have a great relationship with my supervisor. We
get the job done and she is flexible when Inspectors are in need of help and support. I feel great
about my coworkers. I really like working with all my Office colleagues in [my] district. I have no
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complaints about my DSE OFFICE. Morale has gone down because of micromanaging for
sure and unreasonable expectations with THE 90 MIN OFFICE TIME. I feel there is no
recognition for employee's efforts by upper management. 😕😕
25. Change in work schedule - the need to start at 8:00 and end at 5:00. For over 30 years, 4:30
was always considered close of business so that was always an option, if we elected to be 5/40
or 9/80. The approval process of ordering supplies takes too long. Anything OLR or PO # takes
too long.
26. Management doesn’t ask employees affected by their decisions their feedback or opinion on
upcoming changes directly affecting them. Lack of clear expectations and duties for certain
positions creates frustration.
27. It seems that a genuine concern is lacking for us- If a coworker cannot complete assignments it
get dumped on to another one who can- creates more work/assignments to the unsuspecting
worker- a lot of blame in this organization- guilty until proven innocent - culture of Environmental
Health needs to change- Equity-Absent here
28. I haven’t spoken with bureau director. They are aware of employee shortage. One has to
question why this is. Why there is no retention and why low applicants.

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29. Increase salary, communication, promotion rates… stop increasing expectations due to the
disappearance of the pandemic without someone testing out the system prior. Get rid of Liza
Frias.
30. talk to inspectors before implementing changes; new SOPs; don’t dump everything on
DSE.Have inspector’s backs, respect and recognize the quality not the quantity of work. Don’t
make chefs to defend themselves in front of the management. we love our job. Don’t make

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more difficult inspector”s work, they need to feel appreciated, not thinking about leaving the
work
31. Please be more reasonable in expectations

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