The State Worker: A CalTrans employee talks about office morale

The State Worker

Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers

August 4, 2009

A CalTrans employee talks about office morale

Several CalTrans employees passed along the Will Kempton e-mail we posted this morning. If you missed the note, in which the Department of Transportation director (now the former director) informed employees that alternative work schedules are over until the end of the fiscal year, click here.

One CalTrans worker who flagged the Kempton e-mail added this comment:

On Director Kempton's last night on the job he sent an email at 9:16 pm to all Caltrans employees eliminating the alternate work schedules (AWS). In a previous email, he said with 3 furlough days it was too difficult for the supervisors and managers to figure out. This was despite the fact the State Personnel Board posted AWS to follow.

The Oakland office has bombarded HQ with pleas to keep the AWS. They noted that overall the same amount of hours would be worked but they would be required to be in the office more days thus increasing commute expense, less time for those having 2nd jobs to make up for the pay cut, and less days to tend to family care issue and increasing the cost of family care.

Morale was terrible last week. This morning it is morose. If people didn't want to participate in strikes, work slow downs before, now they are talking about it. With a 14% paycut the elimination of the AWS further erodes our ability to make ends meet.

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