No raises in 5 years - Environmental Specialist New Mexico Environment Department Employee Review

Great coworkers, great place to work

No work from home options anymore

• Meaningful mission — The environmental work is important, and many staff are passionate and dedicated. • Talented colleagues — There are knowledgeable, committed people across the agency who genuinely care about public health and environmental protection. • Opportunities to learn — If you’re self‑directed, you can gain strong regulatory, technical, and program‑management experience. • Flexible work options — Depending on the bureau, telework and flexible schedules are available (but only after you’ve served a one year probation)

• HR controls hiring and salary — Hiring managers do not determine salary. HR sets the offer, controls the variance process, and can deny a hiring manager’s request without explanation. • Salary depends on résumé formatting, not experience — People with less or no environmental experience can be hired at higher salaries simply because they submitted a fully detailed résumé with MM‑DD‑YYYY dates for every job. If you didn’t know this rule when you applied, HR will lock you into a lower salary and will not correct it later. • Slow, inconsistent hiring process — Variances can be denied late in the process, forcing positions to be reposted and candidates to re‑interview. Timelines can stretch for months to over a year. • Leadership inconsistency — Some managers are excellent, but others rely on performative oversight, unnecessary double‑checking, and inconsistent communication. Staff can feel second‑guessed rather than supported. • Internal communication gaps — Decisions affecting workloads, hiring, or timelines are often communicated late or not at all. • Bureaucratic culture — Processes can feel more focused on optics and control than on efficiency or trust. • Emotional fatigue from inconsistent leadership — Staff may experience frustration when accuracy and initiative are met with unnecessary scrutiny.