Episode 139: Don't give your spouse the leftovers

About this episode

The episode discusses the intersection of family life and public works careers, highlighting the sacrifices made during crises.

Winter maintenance is more than work plans, budgets, disasters and recovery. Your family plays a huge role in your public works career and public service often demands family sacrifice during times of crisis. Lots of times the two worlds of work and family overlap and sometimes collide. Mike Duffy is the Assistant Public Works Director at the City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Janis Duffy works for the State of Iowa Foster Care and Adoption Unit. During Mike's 16 years at the Ci...

People in this episode

Host: Rick Nelson

Guest: Mike Duffy

Topics covered

• winter maintenance
• public works
• family sacrifice
• work-life balance
• crisis management

Keywords

• winter maintenance
• public works
• family
• crisis
• work-life balance
• Iowa

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: City of Cedar Rapids, State of Iowa Foster Care and Adoption Unit

More episodes of Talkin Winter Ops

• Episode 146: First storm of the season · April 22, 2026 · 54 min
• Episode 145: The winter app that isn't an app · April 2, 2026 · 58 min
• Episode 144: Communicate, Coordinate, Cooperate - the I-80 Corridor Coalition · March 6, 2026 · 44 min
• Episode 143: Winter readiness, get your house in order · February 6, 2026 · 49 min
• Bonus Episode 142: Pacific Northwest Snowfighters 2026 · January 29, 2026 · 31 min
• Episode 141: Maintenance-If you think it's not important, just stop doing it · January 16, 2026 · 46 min