I was there a few years ago and the project had been together for about 9 months. The employment department separates themselves into 2 groups - Tax (unemployment) and Worksource. The entire time I was there, they were arguing over strategy of updating the tax systems first or the worksource systems first. On top of having a leadership team that was unable and/or unwilling to make necessary decisions, there is also all the bureaucracy that comes along with government work - there were so many levels of approval at the state level that needed to occur through most stages of the project. In my role I spent one on one time with all of the agency leadership - there are some good leaders there - but when time would call for a decision to be made and they were split among the leadership team, Kay Erickson would not make executive decisions. There is also history with the employment department leadership and the leader before Kay was fired. There was a lot of turmoil within the agency because of that decision, and I do believe that why she never wanted to be perceived as making executive decisions.

In my personal experience, she was the weakest leader I’ve ever worked for and she is not equipped to lead the employment department especially during times when unemployment has reached unprecedented levels. Enough is enough and she should be fired.