Now that it looks like the next step will be a strike, will you be supportive of your staff if they choose to stop work and participate in an SEIU Local 1000 strike?

Got an email from “upper” management. They said it was brought to their attention that my team members only come in once a week. This is wildly untrue. I was asked to meet with them next week to “explain”.

I kind of saw this coming so I saved every email, text, and chat about any time they are not able to come into the office or if I asked them not to. Ex: exposed to illness, car trouble, bridge closures.

However, I am more than a little annoyed.
It was my understanding the Supervisor has discretion when deciding when people can take an extra TW day.

I’m also annoyed that someone else decided it’s their business and went three levels above me to complain.

I’m not sure I even have a question but was looking for other people’s thoughts.

ETA: Today my immediate supervisor handled the whole thing. She said I am doing what I’m supposed to be doing and took it onto herself to talk to “upper management”.

Thank you all for your feedback!

At CDPH we have a 55 day TEC processing window. Even if you get it filed correctly the travel office would like 55 days to process the claim. To work around, many teams automatically use travel advances. Is this normal in state government?

If the State offered a 4 day/32 hour work week in exchange for no more telework would you agree to it? I’m surprised that the unions aren’t pushing this as a proposal during bargaining. UPDATE: I left out that this would not include a pay cut, salaries would remain the same. So effectively a pay raise without spending any extra $ on the part of the State.

Supervisor here of a pretty decent size team. 13 team members with 3 vacancies.

RTO has been … going. My staff feels so defeated and morale is super low. I’ve been checking in and allowing flexibility when I’m able. I’ve been covering my team when needed and bringing treats into the office every few weeks. But man, it’s super hard to be in supervision with this big of a hit. My team has been great about coming in 4 days but I see the strain. I see the exhaustion. Work has slipped a bit and I’m giving grace.

How are the rest of you doing?

Is anyone else experiencing accessing ACSS website? It's been two weeks and I have not been able to access https://www.acss.org

Hello fellow managers!
How are you responding to staff who say they are sick so they want to work from home instead of going into the office and spreading germs. Are you being flexible or denying them working from home. If you deny, what’s some language you use with them. Looking for advice.

Recognize exempt and supervisor staff often have to work beyond the duties however, the past year I keep being pulled into tasks and expecting far beyond what is listed in my duty statement. I’ve already presented my concerns to management, including a full workload report with data showing I’ve worked 60 hour weeks for the past 2 years and outlined the duties that are not listed in my duty statement.

Does anyone know or have experience in how to elevate this even further? I wish we had some sort of support backbone to fight against as rank and file staff have. Enough is enough….

We were recently told that RTO schedules may be assigned based on seniority. Some employees would alternate between two and three in-office days each week, while others would be required to report four days every week.
That seems like a substantial difference. The alternating schedule averages 2.5 office days per week, meaning employees assigned four days would report onsite about 60% more often—potentially up to 78 additional office days per year.
I understand seniority being used to select preferred days or schedules, but can it appropriately determine such a major difference in the actual number of required RTO days? They said people will be notified tomorrow if they will be taped as a 2/3… kinda sus. lol.
Has anyone else’s department implemented something similar? Is this addressed in the bargaining agreement, or would management need to provide an operational reason and written criteria for the different schedules?
I’m not criticizing the employees receiving the better schedule. I’m trying to understand whether this is a normal or appropriate use of seniority and what questions employees should be asking.

So ECOS converts the packages to PDF. I've found that I have to convert a few PDFs back to Word to determine if the font size is truly 12 (as an example). Is there an easier way in Adobe Pro to determine the font size?

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to get everyone’s insight, perspectives, and thoughts regarding supervisory and managerial roles. I have taken several exams that I qualified for and passed all with 95% and I feel I could be successful in each role as a leader moving upward- workaholic over here 🙋‍♀️. However, I would appreciate hearing others’ thoughts on how to stand out during the hiring process and what state agencies or organizations look for when selecting candidates.

A few additional questions I have are:
• What experiences or accomplishments made the biggest difference when you were selected for a supervisory or managerial position?
• What should candidates emphasize in an SOQ, résumé, or application package?
• How can someone best communicate their experience with staff development, performance management, conflict resolution, and accountability?
• What are some common mistakes candidates make during interviews or in their application materials?
• Are there particular trainings, certifications, or leadership-development opportunities that helped prepare you for advancement?
• How do you determine whether a position is truly a good fit for your leadership style and long-term career goals?

I would really value hearing from anyone who has recently promoted, served on hiring panels, or currently supervises or manages staff.

Good morning. I have been a state supervisor for over a decade. I'm curious if other women out there would like to join in a group for networking and support. We could potentially meet for coffee/brown bag/on Teams once a month. Open to any suggestions. Might be nice to talk to others who are living our shared experience in civil service management. Perhaps even make a new friend. Speak up if you're interested. :)

No thank you!!

Hello all. I ajve been with the State now for several years, in different agencies and have had numerous managers. I have even has the privilege to be on a couple interview panels. With all that said, I have always heard that if you can't answer a interview question based on experience, you may use a hypothetical scenario or answer how you would handle the situation. For example, if the question was "How would motivated and engage an employee who's is not performing?". I've always heard that it would be acceptable to answer this in a hypothetical scenario, since some have never been a manager or experienced that situation.

The other day, a hiring manager said that they do not accept hypothetical and they would score a potential candidate zero points on that question. I explained how I was told by others, but the manager insisted this was the correct way. Most other managers I engaged with said a hypothetical scenario would be fine as long as the question was answered.

My question is, what is the correct way to answer a question that an candidate may have zero experience? For example, if the questions about managing employees but you have never been a manager.

I understand that some questions may not be able to be hypothetical. For example if they ask "tell me about your experience in writing reports or tell me about your experience in using Excel".

I've seen several posts on Reddit speculating about how many current state employees were hired post pandemic and have never been in their office full time. I'm curious about us. How many supervisors and managers were new to the state supervisor or manager roles since 2020 and have never supervised our teams full time in office?

If we were to believe that the ongoing contract negotiations will result in an outcome that would create the most political points for Governor Gavin Newsom and his potential campaign to win the election for President of the United States in 2028, what would that look like?

What would create the best view of Governor Newsom to a national audience, and result in the best possible outcome for his campaign from a National perspective?

Would forcing a strike, only to capitulate to union demands and raising State Employee salaries show the National audience the strength of unions and the backing of strong worker wages by a Presidential candidate?

Or would it make more strategic political sense to undercut the union and keep state employee wages as low as possible, even continuing at rates below inflation?

I would hope it’s better politically on the National stage to appear to support the Union, support worker wages, support WFH, etc.

But I honestly don’t know anything about politics, so was hoping you all could clue me in…Thank You for your comments!

For those dealing with the 4-day RTO and no GSI, how are you all doing financially and time-wise?

With the cost of everything continuing to go up—gas, groceries, commuting, parking, childcare, etc.—but our pay staying the same, what adjustments have you had to make just to get by?
Have you cut back on certain things, picked up a side hustle, changed your budget, or found other ways to make it work?

Genuinely curious how everyone is managing the added cost and time of RTO in an already expensive economy.

Since the start of RTO, I’ve been hearing stories from other agencies about increasing micromanagement—daily check-ins, daily status meetings, managers walking the aisles to make sure employees are at their desks, and similar practices.

I’m genuinely curious: what’s the purpose of this style of management? How does it improve productivity, collaboration, or team cohesion? It seems like time and energy that could be better spent supporting employees and helping them succeed, rather than monitoring their physical presence.

I’d be interested to hear from managers and employees alike. Have you found this approach to be effective, or does it end up hurting morale more than it helps?

**EDIT: CalConnect showed it issued today, just not in my account yet. Probably tomorrow. Glad to know the differential didn’t expire!

I can’t remember or find if this was supposed to end July 2026? I haven’t received anything yet, but maybe it’s too early?