Abbey Piehler

I want to leave an impact behind the community, because I mean, one day I'm not going to be here, but my work is going to be here, and that is the most meaningful impact that I could leave behind. At the end of the day, you take money out of the idea, and you're working towards something greater. One of the biggest things is standing firm on affirmative action and making sure that women coming into such a driven field know that our ideas matter. I build that into our orientation as well, as well as internal job postings, because even if you're starting small and you're wanting to move up, there's always those options, and we always want to help move people into the right direction. That is why I want to be where I am.

It is absolutely okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. Everybody makes mistakes, and I've been in so many job positions where I have been told that mistakes can't happen, especially when you're in a banking role, which is very understandable, but what's going to happen when you are told no mistakes? More mistakes are going to be created. So it is okay, and you are human at the end of the day, and mistakes are going to happen, and it's okay as long as you learn from those mistakes. That's advice that I have gotten from my boss.

I would absolutely give them stand firm on affirmative action, and there is no stupid idea. Every idea comes from a place within her or him, and everything needs to be spoke about, everything needs to be communicated. Ideas is what has grown Racine County and has grown our HR department. I'm very proud to work for Racine County because my director is a woman, our human services director is a woman, our finance director is a woman, so we understand each other and what we want to bring to Racine County regarding that.

The biggest challenges are that public service isn't always the easiest path. Resources are very limited in counties, but expectations are very high. Everything we work on in Racine County goes through the board, and they're the voice of the citizens of Racine County. We recently had an increase for tax so we could get more money back to Racine County, which has been a very high struggle with a lot of eyes on the functions of HR, because we are currently under a salary study right now. My current challenge with merit increases is that when you give an increase to an employee, that may or may not change within the future salary study, and that has been very skeptical towards a lot of citizens. I need to make sure I'm nailing everything I'm doing and getting every number crunched correctly so we can bring that to the board and they can see the true fact of what this would do for Racine County as a whole. As for opportunities, there are so many. The value of what I'm doing is collaborating with other departments, making sure they're getting their say-so as well, and we support one another and stay focused on doing what's right for our community. What we're aiming towards with HR, finance, and corp council is to increase that profit so Racine County can progress over time. With that increase in progress, we're going to have an increase in value as well, building things around Racine County that will bring tourist attraction. That's something you can't see in a private sector, but it's definitely something you would see working in a county or government operation, and helping bring more tourist attraction to Racine County by improving what we're improving within Racine County government is a goal of mine.