The next time you are in line at the Texas Department of Public Safety, having ordered out for pizza while moving on to the second of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on your iPhone, summon just a little empathy for the folks who are, if you are lucky, less than three hours from waiting on you.
Five hundred and six million dollars says at least some of these overworked and underloved state employees will at retirement be collecting a fat check for vacation time they were somehow not able to use, according to a story today by the Texas Tribune.
Click here for entire story!
Really? Have any of you that is putting up such a fuss, ever worked for the prison system? They constantly are told they can not take time off because they are too short handed. Now you are telling them that all of the time they accrued because of this should be taken away from them as well. What do you expect exactly? Apparently not only are they not to take time off at all but they are not supposed to be compensated for it. The people in these institutions are not innocent little babies. You all have to realize that the people that work out there not only fear for their lives and stay stressed because of that but when they are not allowed time off they are tired so the state puts their lives in danger by making them come to work every single day with no time off with no break from the stress. The only thing they look forward to is the fact that this is a little bit of a compensation if they live to get it. Not only that, but until you have been in the situation to actually work at a stressful job like that instead of writing crap let us know. You do not seem to realize the backlash of your stupidity.
ReplyDeleteThe limits on our vacation and sick leaves are just fine... we ARE limited as to what we can keep "on the books" as anything in excess of rolls over into sick time which each 160 hours of sick time is a one month credit towards retirement. The state has already cut us back by almost doubling our medical, and dental insurance costs to almost $700 a month on a $2,000 a month take home job, plus decreased our retirement annuity... I mean really? For those of you bleeding heart folks, come take a walk in my shoes as a supervisor of Correctional Officers at the prison. Get urine and feces chunked on you, called every name in the book and assaulted at random by a convicted felon just because he was bored. Spend a week in my shoes at that pay with no cost of living increase (like the free world jobs usually get)and then tell me we are running a scam. We are cut to the bare bones as it is, there are few incentives to do this job...take that away and I guarantee you will see a mass exodus of the prison system and alot more convicted felons on the street, either by escape or forced release due to understaffing
ReplyDeleteQuit like i did take your college education and apply it to a better job most of the people only have highschool education that work here and think they know.
ReplyDeleteI don't have long to go, honestly if I take the shortest time it's less tha ntwo years. If the State decides they don't want to compensate me for the times I came to work all these years and saved my time as a commodity, I will do what others used to do and "take off" the last year of my employment...anyone know a good doctor?
ReplyDeleteNot debating your comments. Feel they are justified but do have a question. Why do you continue to work for the TDCJ or State?
ReplyDeleteLet us take a moment to look at the bigger picture, please. The elected officials of this state and others, never talk of cutting their benefits or their salaries. I think anyone would be hard pressed to see them working a full work period in an entire year much less put in overtime. If you don't believe that,, try to set up an appointment with these folks...yet they only want to see budget cuts in other areas. In answer to the question possed on Mar 24 as to why we continue to work there. The retirement program is forever changing, nor is it the same benefit program that was set in place at the time we were hired. Why not quit? Well, if you take the time to investigate,,, we ARE leaving.....that is the main ingredient of this topic. Seldom do you go through a day without many officers announcing how close they are to retirement. They have vested interests that would be totally lost if they simply walked off a few months early. Many units are operating at very low staffing and suggested cuts would not solve that issue. The personal liability and threat to each officer has skyrocketed over the past 10 years. The mission statement includes PROTECTING THE PUBLIC and believe it or not,,, officers are part of that public. We are not protecting anyone when we reduce the confined felon population and return them to the free world simply to reduce the population.
DeleteAt one point our govenor was quoted as saying that trained monkeys could do our jobs. Maybe the legislature will form a committee to find enough monkeys.
Give me a break. I bring home, after taxes and insurance for my family, $1100 a month. that is really pulling in the rich's isn't it? I guess a $200 check is just too much for Texas too handle.
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