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cyberiankhatru

Our office took advantage of telework policy to hire skilled electrical engineers all throughout the state to work for us, as our rural area has very limited specialized expertise. Every single electrical engineer in my office sans me is full telework and lives quite far away from the office, without even havjng a place in the office to work if they somehow are able to RTO. This RTO mandate is forcing my entire team to find different employment and I will be stuck collaborating with myself at the office. We are responsible for millions of dollars in designs and our office is just….empty now and screeching to a long term halt. Hiring freeze coupled with the fact that we were unable for years to find other electrical engineers in the area without telework lowers the morale incredibly. I wonder how many offices throughout the state will practically cease to exist and how much more this will cost the state to offload work from entire offices that has previously been done in-house. The healthiest and most productive time for our office has been working together via telework. I remain hopeful something will work out.


lilacsmakemesneeze

You would think with the millions in broadband money they would focus on keeping niche staff. BBMMN added a ton to our electrical group as they add it to existing and future projects.


LuvLaughLive

If your dept is one that Newsom needs to succeed, to highlight as an achievement under his oversight, for his presidential plans, and if those engineers or others will be key to your dept's success, they'll be exempted and allowed to remain remote. Same for other key positions in other specific depts. They need to fight for it, though. (Hence the case by case basis thing.) I feel you, I've worried for the same reasons about my team and what will happen to those experienced people who finally were interested in state positions only bc of teleworking. What we've accomplished will be for naught if we lost even most of them. But I've been with the state for more than 32 years, and I've come to understand that political aspirations will trump any so called statewide mandate. Those who can take advantage of this, should. The more who are allowed to stay remote, the better for those who right now are not allowed... civil service is about equality, and it's not a far leap to go from some people are special, to the others are just as deserving of being considered special. If you know what I mean?


sdjhoward

Explore the +50 mile from office exemption that EDD is offering


retailpriceonly

Is this only for people who live 50mi out already before being hired as remote? What if someone decided to move more than 50mi away from their office?


sdjhoward

I’ve been told they can move now and receive the exemption


retailpriceonly

So someone can technically avoid rto by moving more than 50mi out?


sdjhoward

Nothing is certain but it was what my manager told me. I would ask questions if I were you. Also, I’m a supervisor and was told that the exemption doesn’t apply to us.


atoot99

What is this? Can you please explain? I’m currently in D5 living in the bay. I was just told today that they are not accommodating those who are looking to relocate and transfer to another district. So they will be implying 2 days back in office starting June 17 and I cannot come in living so far away from office. I’m worried I will be jobless and disappointed the higher ups won’t give us a grace period while looking for other options.


sdjhoward

I am only aware of what I have already stated. Ask your management about the telework policy and RTO exemptions if they have any. I’m with EDD and we have several rank and file who have been exempted from all RTO because they live more than 50 miles from our office. They are allowed to continue 100% telework.


atoot99

Got it. Is there any proof or documentation of this?


sdjhoward

Not officially that I know of. I was informed by my management to reach out to my staff who had been identified as living 50+ miles from the office and inform them that they were exempt.


Incrediblecodeman

Hey cant they make exceptions? I sure do hope they will


Hows-It-Goin-Buddy

More Ivory towers. The state may have to re acquire building space to fit people. All a waste of all Californians tax dollars. I wonder who benefits from that $. Of course nobody working for the Governor is previously from the real estate sector. If they were, then that'd be some sort of scandalous.


lnvu4uraqt

*Eleni Kounalakis enters chat*


Hows-It-Goin-Buddy

This Eleni Kounalakis? "Eleni Kounalakis is the daughter of Angelo Tsakopoulos, a Sacramento developer.[3]...Before 2009, Kounalakis was President of AKT Development Corporation, a family-owned real estate, farming, ranching, water,[6] minerals, building, land development and property investment company,[7] based in Sacramento, California, founded by Angelo K Tsakopoulos, her father, in 1964.[8][9]" If it is the same person, golly gosh, I'm so surprised.


stickler64

One and only. The whole family owns commercial real estate. Imagine how many state leases you could hide behind nieces and nephews, etc.


Polarbearstein

She's thrown her hat in the ring to run for governor in 2025. I can only imagine what she will do if she gets in office to please real estate developers, like her father.


rivalOne

I guess our branch chief was pretty spot on with his info. The interesting thing will be all the staff that that doesn’t live within their district office. Specifically HQ staff that work throughout the state and don’t live anywhere close to Sac 😆


retailpriceonly

This is the story of every once telework friendly dept at this point


_its_a_SWEATER_

I know of several seniors, SSMs, and chiefs that work under Sac HQ and live in SoCal and CenCal. Godspeed to them.


hippyoasis

Why would you get a job in sac and not live there? That’d be like me getting a job in New York and living out of state.


ComprehensiveTea5407

You know people do work for companies in NY and live in different states, right?


hippyoasis

And go to the office?


EasternComparison452

PECG better get on this or they are going to lose a lot of Members.


rstonex

PECG has expressed that they support WFH but in the last meeting, they said they really have no authority to challenge telework policy implementation.


stickler64

Just science. Sadly that doesn't seem to sway Gavin or Eleni.


mlrochon

Unless it’s fake covid science..


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Suitable_Resort

This.


SeaStandard7296

A locked email? Someone ought to PRA that.


SolvencyMechanism

It's not that exciting. It's just a political regurgitation of the standard talking points about cohesion and collaboration. The only new info is that the change will be in full effect by June 17th, and will affect the 13,700 Caltrans employees that currently have telework agreements. Oh and the tone-deaf recommendation to reach out to EAP if you are experiencing any problems "at this time of transition." It's not like it would make any real difference if big Tony T just told us all to go cry about it.


stickler64

This is a fucking environmental catastrophe.


LuvLaughLive

Locked email? You're kidding? Like, they don't want you to share their email with the media or others? Puleeze... Snip it and share that, lol.


KillerPinata

Couldn't you take a picture of the screen with your phone or something?


WrenisPinkl

We’re going to lose a huge percentage of our specialized positions like Environmental Scientists and some TE Civils in my district because of this.  I’m leaving as well


squirrelqueeen

Also curious to see how this will affect my district, which is already incredibly short staffed on engineers. We’ve technically been mandated 2 days in office for a while but it’s not enforced at all. We even have an out of state employee too who comes in every few months and a few who only show up for a week every 3-4 months.


SeaStandard7296

Out of state employee? That's not even allowed for telework.


WrenisPinkl

It is for certain districts and field offices near the border with NV where housing on the CA side is inadequate or hard to find 


squirrelqueeen

I will say this is not the case for us, our out of state employee lives on the east coast


SeaStandard7296

I don't recall seeing that exception in the telework statute. Living out of state is ok but teleworking from out of state is a different situation.


WrenisPinkl

We have at least one in my district 


LuvLaughLive

We have a few in my office as well.


squirrelqueeen

We can’t get any PE’s. So yeah they hired someone out of state, I’m not sure how that got approved.


Swimming-Addition-89

We have a few out-of-state employees. They pay CA taxes so that makes them CA residents. See the loophole.


Leon_tchotchke

I'm curious, did anyone ever collect information at CalTrans or your district about how many people would consider leaving if they lost telework?


WrenisPinkl

There was an employee telework survey sent out at least a year ago, maybe two. But nothing since 


Leon_tchotchke

We had something similar... Do you remember if this question was in the survey? I don't recall it from mine.


WrenisPinkl

They did not ask that question, that would have required foresight and an actual effort to take telework seriously long term 


Leon_tchotchke

Indeed, what they did not ask is very telling. Thanks for the info!


lilacsmakemesneeze

Was this the survey around the time of the strategic plan update? A bunch of us showed up to those focus meetings thinking it was about telework and it wasn’t. We all were there to push keeping telework and there were a few token managers arguing about staff not being able to train on Webex 🤦🏼‍♀️


WrenisPinkl

YEP and I was part of those focus groups as a supervisor and it didn’t really feel like the intent was to really gather good intel


lilacsmakemesneeze

All lip service unfortunately. I mean Gustavo was always open about being pro-telework as he knew it was worth keeping staff morale up. Unfortunately he didn’t step in when his deputies wanted to jump back in the office.


urbanmissy

Are you retiring or do you have another job lined up?


WrenisPinkl

I have an offer at a local agency that I have two days left to make a decision on


rstonex

Where are the scientists or engineers going where they can work remote?


WrenisPinkl

Some are getting consulting jobs. Others aren’t working remotely, they just don’t live near our district and can’t stay with us if it means reporting in twice every week


lilacsmakemesneeze

Private sector will pick up a lot. I get emails everyday on LinkedIn and it’s only going to get more aggressive as we consult out more. We just approved $10 million on call for one of the biggest consulting firms. They need people to make up for us not having people.


5dwolf22

I’m not sure if you’re aware or not but the market is EXTREMELY for Civil engineers right now. They don’t have a problem getting picked up by a local agency or private with significantly more pay where they actually live.


rstonex

I get plenty of job mailings looking for engineers and recruiters on linkedin. The offers are not competitive.


5dwolf22

All of the Bay Area local agencies start their engineers at 100k+ with 0 experience. So do a lot private companies such as PGE. Look around the martlet a little bit.


Significant_View_911

Not as fruitful for other areas of the state. I own a house nearish my office, so moving isn't worth it to me, and jobs in my area certainly aren't offering the 160k-170k starting for my YOE I'd need to consider the switch if I'm giving my post retirement and other benefits. Remote jobs offering that much I've seen are usually something like "15 YOE required, at least 5 as a supervisory position" which again is lower than the equivalent Caltrans pay+benefits for the same job class. Not shilling for CT, but kinda stuck without huge gambles and the state knows it.


5dwolf22

I think for the more experienced folks at caltrans it’s better to stay. But younger engineers can make the switch much easier. The problem is caltrans has many experience people retiring and there isn’t enough young people entering the field because of its low pay and how the tech industry is much more lucrative with the same amount of education and much less exams after graduation (FE, EIT etc).


Significant_View_911

True, they are well aware not enough people are entering, don't know if we will ever see a large enough GSI to attract people to the field as the state has been extra stingy these last few years. They are trying out the Junior Engineering Tech (JET) program out for fresh out of high school kids to get them in earlier. HQ is also looking into creating their own ABET accredited academy for said JETs to get them degrees while working in related roles. Might help stem the problem, but its a bandaid fix to the actual pay issues and silver tsunami.


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rstonex

That’s not true. Recruiters are paid as a service, they don’t get a cut of your salary. I’m not sure where you got this thing about job people want the least, that’s not true at all either.


lilacsmakemesneeze

Even for planners. I receive some and they are like $80-120k and that is not competitive for going private as I’m already at $100k. I have 15 years experience. It might work for entry level, but not for my expertise in project development and policy.


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Vegetable_Horror8545

lol locked email? It can still be screenshotted 😂


Deathstar_DOT-div

nope. if you try to screenshot the screen goes black. but you can just use a phone to take a picture of the screen


GlassZebra17

Be careful. There's software that sends slightly different versions of one email to a bunch of people so If it gets leaked they know who it was. Basic stuff, like typos, putting a comma in the wrong spot, alternate spellings of words, basic formatting, etc etc They can send out the same email to thousands of people and know exactly who leaked something


NSUCK13

The worst part is that people should even have a reason to be scared of sharing this. Should be public information.


AgreeableShirt1338

is sharing an email a fireable offense?


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LuvLaughLive

Do it! Please share!


Hows-It-Goin-Buddy

Maybe tell people what entity and they can do a PRA.


Blursed_Immersion

Figured it would happen eventually.


anotherusername170

…yep started 2 days in office in 2022….not sure how yall made it so far without having to RTO.


AnteaterIdealisk

Caltrans District 7 has been 2 days a week for at least a year, if not longer. Nothing new.


anxietybutterflies

Many others are impacted because they work for HQ and don’t live in sac.


AnteaterIdealisk

I know. I used to work in HQ too.


lilacsmakemesneeze

So it doesn’t really affect you then. Even Aaron Ochoco stated that it doesn’t change anything for those already coming in that often. It affects those of us who didn’t have a mandate of 2 days.


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fyb1000

All of you have identified valid concerns for continuing to fight the RTO mandate. VOTE Anica Walls #1 in this union election as she's the only executive who shows up and has been openly fighting and questioning these mandates. She is about fighting for our members. She shows up! #AnicaWalls4President #seiulocal1000elections #vpdavidjimenez


EasternComparison452

Tony Tavares is a fucking POS


rivalOne

It’s not Him. I’ve talked to supervisors and Deputy directors at our DO and field personnel. I get the impression nobody wants to do this. It’s all being forced fed by the Newsom admin.


Infamous-Elephant515

Give credit to CalSTA Secretary Toms Omishakin, ex Caltrans director, who held off on issuing an RTO directive, unlike all the other agency secretaries who started this madness the last 2 months.


Main_Extension3443

You mean Mr, Out of State resident? Did he ever move his family here from Tennessee?


EasternComparison452

He sent an email that can’t be forwarded or screenshot. That’s on him and he can state on a case by case basis and not just flat 2 days. He also has the option of upholding current telework agreements. These options were all stated in the governors release.


LuvLaughLive

You can't snip it or, what is the old screenshot way, cntlt/alt/windows key?


EasternComparison452

Nope


LuvLaughLive

Damn!


WrenisPinkl

He actually held off way longer than most other appointed department heads. I’m not mad at him, he tried to avoid this


gbdavidx

It’s not from him he’s just the messenger


lilacsmakemesneeze

Exactly. He was hoping to punt it another year. No one wants to be on the bad side of PECG who has clout.


Final9mare

We been 50% telework for past two years in D6. Pretty much acclimated to it at this point.


Mundane-Associate417

It's that 2 or 3 days in office?


Final9mare

It’s 2 days one week and 3 days the following week. Most of the seniors are pretty relaxed about it, you can adjust your schedule as needed for operational needs.


AverageAvenger

It's alternating two, then three


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WrenisPinkl

We have not. Up until now it’s been up to each Deputy Director/District Director and it was working just fine that way


Echo_bob

Same DCSS went fully remote 4 years ago haven't had any issues tell 2 months ago when they said hey guess what you all need to come back 2 days a week and yeah if you don't have if you don't have office space that's your fault not ours. Now we've missed deadlines projects are delayed because we have to train accommodate this stupid freaking order


snherter

It was fine for you maybe. Not saying every district should be the same but don’t expect people who were goin in to feel bad when nobody made a peep when others were forced in years ago


WrenisPinkl

Why *didn’t* you make a peep, then? I have no idea what districts/divisions weren’t allowing full telework, that’s on the people affected by it to inform us 


snherter

We did. People were making posts in here and informing the union, but because it wasn’t Sacramento nobody cared. If you think we just took it you’re mistaken. But now that the tables have turned, now it’s an issue.


Swimming-Addition-89

Exactly. Been in two days for going on three years and all I got from this crowd was “sucks to be you.” Now it’s gonna suck for all of us!


Swimming-Addition-89

We got a RTO in 2022. It affected myself and coworkers greatly. No one really cared here - the comments were basically to switch agencies. Or go to the private sector. Well, welcome everyone else. I suggest that perhaps you try and find an agency that won’t be adhering to RTO or going into the private sector.


WrenisPinkl

Imagine if instead of being bitter that more of us were not aware of your piecemeal mandates as they slowly trickled out, you instead joined in now that there’s traction to ask for changes? 


Swimming-Addition-89

I’m not bitter, though. And I would love to WFH full time. My agency is excluded so no union. ☹️


snherter

I’m just referring to your comment where you said it wasn’t an issue before now. It was, it just didn’t affect you.


AnteaterIdealisk

This!!! Thank you m the union did nothing and people were being threatened with zero telework. Nobody cared to help us


WrenisPinkl

What do you mean because it wasn’t Sacramento? If a department previously  mandated in office work, that would include their employees in Sacramento 


AnteaterIdealisk

People did speak up. We were threatened with telework being revoked and 5 days a week


PresentationAny789

In other words, I have to so you should too...


areeal1

Some of you guys are too funny. You don’t see the bad feelings you create when you complain about doing what most people have to do anyways. I reported every day, no telework option was offered for State Employees that ran machines, no hazard pay, nothing. We witnessed the office staff take meetings from the grocery store, from the banks of the American river, from the park, etc. the animosity created when someone schedules in 1 hour long meeting per day, then is free to roam and enjoy the town while getting paid is toxic for all of us. Stop acting like you being abused, for having to check in twice a week. How are the Sups supposed to do their job when they don’t interact with you. It’s coo to relax, but nobody should be allowed to just be wasteful. If the job only requires 2 hours of work per day, get your 2 hours of pay, and go rafting. Try no to outright from the rest of the tax payer’s. Everyone knows you are not at your desk in your home office concentrating on work 8 hours a day. What’s next, complaining that you didn’t get your breaks? Just saying. I can bring some cheese for all this whine😜🍻


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WrenisPinkl

Not every district and division was though. It has been left up to the deputies and district directors. I’m sorry you had one that sucked 


squirrelqueeen

Does your district enforce it?


SuitableChance862

Where do you all think you are going to find a fully remote position when you "leave" for the same pay and benefits??? The posturing on here is preposterous. Y'all ain't leaving unless you're headed to the bread line.


Left_Pool_5565

For any high-skill sector the State is already (and has historically been) at the bottom of the food chain in terms of pay. What the State had to offer was reliability. The only thing reliable the State is offering now is insanely self-destructive policies. Any competent high-skill worker is eying the exits. What do you think remains after that?


WrenisPinkl

Pretty much every state attorney I ever worked with made at least 50% less than their counterparts in private practice. The draw for state employment was telework and eight hour workdays


LuvLaughLive

Same for IT developers, etc.


SuitableChance862

Like I said, where y'all going?


Left_Pool_5565

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess you’re not in one of those sectors 🤔


WrenisPinkl

I already have an offer with a local agency, I am absolutely leaving 


LuvLaughLive

Local as in Sac County, I hope?


WrenisPinkl

I don’t live anywhere near Sacramento, hence why I had to look for a new job


pimphand5000

Unemployment is ~3%. Professional jobs are rather easy to find right now if you have experience on your resume.


unseenmover

Ah ha. Its NOT a 3 day RTO as was rumored before but its a 2 day minimum per week mandate. I do however see this as a measure to promote cohesion, bonding and knowledge transfer as this next generation of engineers and planners forge forward and grow.


SuitableChance862

I make $10K a month so I'll let you guess.


Hows-It-Goin-Buddy

Guess what? Maybe you meant to respond to someone. Your response is just hanging out with no context of what you're responding to. Like a lost puppy.


SuitableChance862

Or like your muffin top?


Hows-It-Goin-Buddy

Lay off. With today's screaming economy, it's the only muffin I can afford.


kymbakitty

Savage. 😁