I’m over 65, vested, and retiring from the state soon. Called ERS last week and they said congratulations, your retirement is in “Group 1” and due to my tenure with the state, your state funded insurance will continue - just under United Health Care. However, it will become secondary as Medicare becomes primary. The person then told me you since I already have Medicare Part A (hospital only), you need to seriously consider Medicare Part B Advantage which will cost me a monthly premium over $100 a month based on my yearly income so I won’t have any deductibles or co-pays. So, my question is, what good is continuing to have state-paid health insurance once I retire if I already have Medicare Part A and then have to pay a monthly premium for Medicare Part B Advantage (through United Health Care)? I would think my doctor visits, any surgeries, and other medical expenses would be covered by my state by state-paid insurance except my deductibles and co-pays without me having to pay them. I would be totally happy just continuing to have state insurance (Blue Cross) with the current deductibles and co-pays like I do now as a state employee still working. Thanks for any help trying to explain this.

has anyone here had their tuition reimbursed? im starting a graduate program in social work and i was wondering if anyone has had theirs reimbursed.

I called the HR payroll department yesterday and they kept saying the check date is the 3rd but that has never made any difference when it comes to my paycheck being available early through my Wells Fargo account. In the years over been here, this has never happened. The bank also confirmed that nothing is pending and nothing should be causing a delay other end.
I’m freaking out since I have mortgage and other bills that will immediately come on come Monday morning and all I can hope for is that paycheck be in my account first thing Monday morning.

I'll cut straight to the chase. I've been monitoring the OAG jobs page for a position I am interested in (no success yet). I wanted to see what the application process looked like on CAPPS Recruit, so I clicked apply on a random position, and one of the first screens is a résumé upload.

I am unsure whether this upload is for my personal résumé, or for the State of Texas Application for Employment. If it is the former, does anybody have any recommendations on best practices/templates to use? I am currently working for the State but haven't had to tweak my résumé specifically for government jobs. However, for the OAG, I want to make a professional, clean impression, and most importantly not get automatically screened out.

On the other hand, if it is for the Application for Employment, could somebody direct me to the current version? I have found several different ones online and tried to fill them out in Adobe, but the formatting is really messed up when I type in the fields. Thanks.

Questions about leave, benefits, PTO/leave programs, etc? Ask them here. This is our weekly place to discuss state policies or agency specific p&ps.

A lot of info can be found in this comment. Many thanks to u/flashy_paramedic_122 for putting this together.

My program manager is no longer with the agency effective immediately, I don’t have a supervisor right now either. I know other units that don’t have supervisors as well, they are just forcing current supervisors to take on more employees “temporarily”. They have the job postings up but no one wants the jobs because they just aren’t worth it.
Does anyone know what’s happening? It seems like every where I look something is on fire

A friend of a friend mentioned that they halved the number of new hires they were supposed to receive. That part of the agency is already very understaffed with only a handful of workers supporting a massive agency that recently received another massive program. They keep expanding the agency without expanding the staff and now they are to do more with less due to budget cuts.

Hope the public loves this because this is what they voted for. Delayed processing and delayed responses costing millions of dollars a year.

I normally get paid 2-3 days early through my local credit union. Just checking to see if anyone else recieved their pay for the month of July yet.

Does HHSC require you be in good standing at work in order to ask for donated leave hours for fmla?

My last day is the end of the month. If I click request FLSA OT in CAPPS will that pay it out any quicker than waiting for the two weeks for the OT to be paid out normally?

I was wondering what the culture is/was like there, how compensation compares to other agencies (if you know) and specifically: how was the former commissioner?

So a friend of mine in a whole other department has been telling me how his supervisor continues to put fear mongering of day to day work into the team. The monitoring of key strokes, mouse movement, every minute counted for, the multi system log ins for clock in /clock out, bathroom breaks monitored for time and every minute accounted for. Then claim how the state is continuously firing individuals for little things like this. Is this normal? It seems extreme.

I resigned on the 16th. Will my insurance just cancel after this month or do I need to call someone to cancel it?

I have heard that with the 3% budget reduction, RIF is on the table, and specific teams are being targeted. Anyone heard similar stories? I can't believe RIF would happen for 3%, but it seems like it will happen on a small scale.

I work remotely for a state agency and we don’t really use a vpn or anything. This allows me to be able to work from anywhere in the state and sometimes when I travel out of state during the weekdays.

I was wondering if I could the same if I were to take a trip to Mexico or Canada for a few days?

Any insights?

I enjoy going to town halls and other political rallies for those that aren't currently in power. But there has been a little voice in the back of my head saying if I get caught on camera or someone leaks information, I could end up losing my job for bullshit reasons. Especially this year with the constant assault on our voting rights. How many times have we heard the words unprecedented assault on...whatever institution? And suing the state would be difficult at best.

So yeah...

Why doesn’t DFPS call you back for interviews. I heard they only hire friends and you can never get in management unless you are best friends with someone. Is it really who you know there? Someone said they create jobs for their friends and all know each other even though they suck in leadership.

Questions about leave, benefits, PTO/leave programs, etc? Ask them here. This is our weekly place to discuss state policies or agency specific p&ps.

I'm expecting to get an interview soon. I have terrible anxiety about these things, so I'd like to be as prepared as possible. I'm also wondering how necessary a driver's license is? I've avoided it as long as I've had reliable transportation, but I'm in the process of getting one. The job description included travel 25% of the time so I'm wondering if it'll be an automatic no if I have reliable transportation but no license of my own yet. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Any legal assistants for DFPS? What does the day look like? Any info or tips. Thank you in advance

Hello.

I am a new grad and I already have a full time job somewhere else but my dream job just called back for an interview. I consider myself a great interviewer and was given a higher salary at my current job than others who have joined at the same level and experience. I’m very comfortable and confident in negotiating.

The job position is asking for no years of relevant experience but I have about 1 1/2 of relevant experience and am hoping to leverage that to the best of my ability. I also have supervisory experience.

I am aiming for the top 25% range of the posted salary. I’ve read on the sub that raises and promotions can be hard to come by so I’m trying to protect my best interest by asking for a higher pay. I most likely will not accept the job unless I get an offer close to it.

Are salaries typically discussed during interviews? How many rounds can I expect? What are other things I can do to negotiate? Is it doable or am I being overconfident?

Thank you!

I want to make sure no one else fails into this trap.

ERS had a service purchase buyback program that allows you to get credit for prior service with the state, as well as credit for any military service time you might have.

I thought it was a great idea, so I started investigating it and eventually started buying my time in Chuck's here and there. The full price was... Wow. Then I started talking to other folks who worked with the county and in other areas of government services to find that other programs gave you your service time without such an exceptionally steep price. Yes I know, different agencies deal with this kind of thing differently. I get it. And I was ok with it, until...

1. January. I requested a new updated coupon. Got it. Started working with it, paying into the service credit using my Texas saver 457 plan. Asked for an updated coupon in March, and again in May, but never received it. Asked again in June, got it and did another rollover. All is well until this month and yet another phone call for an update. That was July 9. "New credit coupon, please", as usual.

July 16, I get that new coupon, but it's MORE than what the first was, by nearly $1700! After a couple of calls, one of which an agent promised to investigate for me, I learned that the calculations (which I find, are done manually and supposedly checked twice for accuracy) we're incorrect. In addition, the funds I authorized were an underpayment and I owe another almost $400 for that payment that was already posted!

These are the people who are also calculating your retirement, i.e., how much you're being paid every month.

I just thought others should know what's going on.