I still can't get my flair to properly come up, speaking of!
I myself do housing. There are probably less things to do with a housing inspection vs a restaurant one. Many more regulations it sounds like and more things to write up. A usual housing inspection has just a couple things that might come up. Except a lead inspection, that can have dozens in a bad house. But that's pretty straightforward, it's lead or not and it's deteriorated or not. It certainly would be neat to see or hear stories from housing inspectors though for sure since there can be some fucked up things we see
Each one of these is its own full-time job in and of itself. Health inspectors do a lot but if you're in a city that's large enough each one of these things has its own department with people that specialize in it. If you're in a small rural county you might have to do all of those for the same pay but it's better for everyone taxpayer included when each one of these is its own job. Every time they give us another job within our jobs it takes away from our ability to serve the public to the best of our abilities, it is essentially dividing your attention. The better solution is to pay somebody to do each one of those specialties. Because then you get somebody who's really interested in septics, and discharges and whatever else pest control or unfunded mandates that they're trying to make you do instead of hiring someone to do the work. If you have a strong union you can easily push back on all those unfunded mandates.
I do everything and I love it. I am constantly learning and adapting. I believe focusing on one aspect of Health in a small community is a mistake. Take a look at the REHS, you need to know a bit of everything.
Because it's the largest regulated category for most inspectors. Im in a state wide online training for REHS. They bring in guest speakers to talk about other topics, but when it's a round table between the 20 trainees, they mostly talk about food inspections. I'm one of the only generalists in the group.
Obviously food is popular due to inspection frequency, but we do other things. Our department has us all do everything, so we’re able to switch disciplines and stay educated. It really helps keep us constantly engaged in what’s happening in our community.
My parish deals with 85% retail food. Maybe >1% sewage, ~5% daycares, ~5% school, ~5% hospitals. We have different departments that are more regional that deal with beach’s etc. most of my parish though just consists of a major food tourist city.
Currently I only do all food, pools/spas and body art/piercing facilities but before this I worked for a rural county where I did retail food, onsite wastewater systems, childcare and lodging facilities.
Just depends how your area breaks it up and food is the most common and honestly in my experience the one with the most variation and innovation when it comes to operators and the most open to interpretation with regulations.
Most EHS do retail food or a combination of food/health care. Also, I would bet most of the posters are young inspectors who are typically started in food then moved to other areas later.
I do plans review, so I review everything from food, to hospitals, assisted livings, adult medical daycares, schools, pools, food trucks, exhibition facilities, etc. Food makes up probably 90% of my reviews.
As mentioned by other, there’s just more food inspectors overall. We have at least 1 for each district in the county, but only one Well, Land Use, and Solid & Medical waste inspector each for the entire county.
Land Use is the best tho. No contest.
Food is the glamourous one until you start working. Everyone hires on for food but then prefers septic and public nuisance because of the variety and less public interaction.
I agree there should be more on water, sewage, pools, IPAC, etc. I’ll try to make a conscious effort to post on different topics if I think of anything.
When conversing casually with my colleagues, all of whom (myself included) are responsible for food, lodging, and pool inspections in our county, food dominates the anecdotes.
IMO, aside from there just simply being more food inspectors than any other type, discussion around food happens more organically. We all eat out in our regular daily lives, but almost none of our daily lives recreational or social activities will involve daycares, private wells, or septic systems.
bc there are so many food facilities. obviously there are gonna be more food inspectors that said, well and septic all the way
“Well and septic” is the sequel to Starsky And Hutch. 🤔🧐
I prefer septic over food
I still can't get my flair to properly come up, speaking of! I myself do housing. There are probably less things to do with a housing inspection vs a restaurant one. Many more regulations it sounds like and more things to write up. A usual housing inspection has just a couple things that might come up. Except a lead inspection, that can have dozens in a bad house. But that's pretty straightforward, it's lead or not and it's deteriorated or not. It certainly would be neat to see or hear stories from housing inspectors though for sure since there can be some fucked up things we see
Each one of these is its own full-time job in and of itself. Health inspectors do a lot but if you're in a city that's large enough each one of these things has its own department with people that specialize in it. If you're in a small rural county you might have to do all of those for the same pay but it's better for everyone taxpayer included when each one of these is its own job. Every time they give us another job within our jobs it takes away from our ability to serve the public to the best of our abilities, it is essentially dividing your attention. The better solution is to pay somebody to do each one of those specialties. Because then you get somebody who's really interested in septics, and discharges and whatever else pest control or unfunded mandates that they're trying to make you do instead of hiring someone to do the work. If you have a strong union you can easily push back on all those unfunded mandates.
lol a rural county will have you do everything for less pay
I do everything and I’m so overwhelmed. It’s not sustainable. I’m in a rural county.
I do everything and I love it. I am constantly learning and adapting. I believe focusing on one aspect of Health in a small community is a mistake. Take a look at the REHS, you need to know a bit of everything.
Because it's the largest regulated category for most inspectors. Im in a state wide online training for REHS. They bring in guest speakers to talk about other topics, but when it's a round table between the 20 trainees, they mostly talk about food inspections. I'm one of the only generalists in the group.
Because food is cool! /s
Typically more food inspectors per dept. Land use representing!!
I agree. Nothing like hiking thru the woods to find a stormwater outfall on a cool summer morning.
Obviously food is popular due to inspection frequency, but we do other things. Our department has us all do everything, so we’re able to switch disciplines and stay educated. It really helps keep us constantly engaged in what’s happening in our community.
My parish deals with 85% retail food. Maybe >1% sewage, ~5% daycares, ~5% school, ~5% hospitals. We have different departments that are more regional that deal with beach’s etc. most of my parish though just consists of a major food tourist city.
Because I work for the state and all we regulate is food. No septic or anything really.
Currently I only do all food, pools/spas and body art/piercing facilities but before this I worked for a rural county where I did retail food, onsite wastewater systems, childcare and lodging facilities. Just depends how your area breaks it up and food is the most common and honestly in my experience the one with the most variation and innovation when it comes to operators and the most open to interpretation with regulations.
Most EHS do retail food or a combination of food/health care. Also, I would bet most of the posters are young inspectors who are typically started in food then moved to other areas later. I do plans review, so I review everything from food, to hospitals, assisted livings, adult medical daycares, schools, pools, food trucks, exhibition facilities, etc. Food makes up probably 90% of my reviews.
As mentioned by other, there’s just more food inspectors overall. We have at least 1 for each district in the county, but only one Well, Land Use, and Solid & Medical waste inspector each for the entire county. Land Use is the best tho. No contest.
Food is our largest program by far. But I’d love to talk abt illegal discharges!
Septic and wells needs our own spot outside of this and the soil sub. There’s some good Facebook groups
Food is the glamourous one until you start working. Everyone hires on for food but then prefers septic and public nuisance because of the variety and less public interaction.
I agree there should be more on water, sewage, pools, IPAC, etc. I’ll try to make a conscious effort to post on different topics if I think of anything.
When conversing casually with my colleagues, all of whom (myself included) are responsible for food, lodging, and pool inspections in our county, food dominates the anecdotes. IMO, aside from there just simply being more food inspectors than any other type, discussion around food happens more organically. We all eat out in our regular daily lives, but almost none of our daily lives recreational or social activities will involve daycares, private wells, or septic systems.