Inspectors may experience unpleasant, stressful, and dangerous working conditions. For example, mine safety and health inspectors are exposed to many of the same physically strenuous conditions and hazards as miners, and the work may be performed in unpleasant, stressful, and dangerous working conditions. Federal food inspectors work in highly mechanized plant environments near operating machinery with moving parts or with poultry or livestock in confined areas in extreme temperatures and on slippery floors. The duties often require working with sharp knives, moderate lifting, and walking or standing for long periods of time. Park rangers often work outdoors in rugged terrain and in very hot or bitterly cold weather for extended periods.
Many inspectors work long and often irregular hours.
Inspectors may find themselves in adversarial roles when the organization or individual being inspected objects to the process or its consequences. State governments employed 30 percent, the Federal Government chiefly the Departments of Defense, Labor, Treasury, and Agriculture employed 31 percent, and local governments employed 19 percent. The remaining 20 percent were employed throughout the private sector in education, hospitals, insurance companies, and manufacturing firms. Inspectors and compliance officers who work for the Federal Government are employed by a wide range of agencies. Some consumer safety inspectors, for example, work for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but the majority of these inspectors work for State governments.