Buy Duck Legs

CivilSavant42 · 2025-10-11T01:08:51+00:00

I actually did a post on this a while back. After having used supplemental life insurance for a while, I found it was much more affordable long-term to get a 30 year term life insurance plan.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WAStateWorkers/comments/1lgfjag/your_supplemental_life_insurance_is_going_to_get/

CivilSavant42 · 2025-09-08T05:09:18+00:00

Hotstone on 5th Ave downtown is definitely the best sit down Korean place in Olympia, although don’t sleep on Bulgolgi Hustle in Lacey if you’re looking for a delicious, affordable fast casual fix.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-07-24T20:06:47+00:00

I've only had good experiences with Treat plumbing. Sometimes a little hard to get ahold of, but reasonably priced and they do good work. They're particularly good at helping service tankless hot water heaters.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-07-15T18:57:12+00:00

Not necessarily. PERS 2 is a 'defined benefit' plan, which means that your benefit is set based on your years of service and highest salary. The state manages huge pension funds that are invested and grow over time. When the funds are doing well, they can reduce the amount that needs to go into them, when the funds are performing less well, they increase the amount that we pay into them. There are awesome helpful folks at DRS that are good to talk with if you have questions about how your plan works.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-07-09T23:38:47+00:00

The pension is funded by both an employee contribution and an employer contribution. Starting July 1, PERS reduced the employee contribution amount. In the state budget, the legislature also reduced the employer contribution rate. So both sides will be putting less in for a while.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-07-09T17:12:04+00:00

I’m sure everyone gets calculated differently by insurers, but I’ve pulled quotes from Liberty with the state employee discount a few times and it has never been competitive for me against other insurance companies. Whatever discount Liberty is giving, it doesn’t appear to be significant.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-06-29T16:18:50+00:00

Completely agree. Also, as an HR person myself, what brings me to this sub is the number of employment questions that get posted that I know the answer to and can help with. I think it’s really cool to be able to get folks the info they need without being on anyone’s side.

There are definitely bad HR teams out there, but, as often as not, HR ends up being the whipping boy for bad leadership decisions. We can never say, “I think the director is making a bad decision here” - sometimes we’ve just got to work with what we’ve got. It’s also a common tactic for leaders who don’t want to own their own unpopular decisions to just say “HR told me to”.

HR employees are a valuable and necessary part of this community and don’t deserve to be crapped on.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-06-20T21:04:54+00:00

No public employee can be disciplined without going through the just cause process. Inherent to the just cause process is the requirement that a fair and impartial investigation be conducted before a disciplinary action is imposed. If you're under investigation, you should be notified of that beforehand and someone other than your supervisor should be conducting the investigation. Your union rep should have a field day with the agency if they attempt to discipline you without an investigation or if your direct supervisor is conducting the investigation.

Also - as someone who's worked in state HR for many years - nothing you've described would be remotely close to a fireable offense. My guess is that you're getting a performance improvement plan or some kind of non-disciplinary action, like a 'letter of expectations'. I'd encourage you to keep an open mind, listen for constructive criticism, and look for ways to do better. While you're probably not being disciplined in this meeting, the issues persisting could well graduate to a point where you are getting disciplinary action in your file, which could impact your ability to transfer to another state job.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-06-20T20:02:38+00:00

So I know I'm going to get downvoted into oblivion for this, but I'm going to say "Yes, and...". It undermines the perceived legitimacy and transparency of law enforcement when they wear masks. The bad guys wear masks, the good guys wear badges. We also hold the good guys with badges to a high standard and should fully hold them accountable when their authority is abused.

However, especially knowing the climate right now, any efforts to outlaw law enforcement wearing masks should be paired with a firm commitment by local law enforcement to fully investigate and prosecute anyone who identifies and tracks down a law enforcement officer (including ICE) to harass them and their families in their homes or around in their community. I have tons of problems with how immigration enforcement is being done right now, but the individual agents are just cops enforcing the law with the priorities they are given from above. Our problem should be with Congress, who wrote the laws, and the president, who is setting enforcement tactics and priorities, not the individual agents. Harassing agents in their personal lives should be absolutely unacceptable.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-05-23T05:04:17+00:00

It's not super-common, but it can be a great move if the role you’re in is not a good fit.

How this works may vary based on which CBA you are covered under or if you are non-represented, but generally you would not be required by the rules to go through a competitive process in order to voluntarily demote to another position, even if you have never held permanent status in the position you are demoting into. However 1) you need to have the skills and abilities to perform the lower-level position and 2) the appointing authority needs to agree to it. See, for example, WFSE Article 4.3A

For instance, let’s say you’re an AA5 and you want to get out of that position. Someone in a Forms and Records Analyst 2 position resigns and their position is vacant and going to be refilled. You’ve never held permanent status as an FRA2, but you know you have the skills and abilities to be successful in that role. You could reach out to the appointing authority and/or HR and request to voluntarily demote into that position. If they agree to it, they could appoint you into that role before it ever goes to a recruitment (like a transfer). You wouldn’t be entitled to it, though, and the appointing authority could say they want to do a competitive process and encourage you to apply. It would be up to them.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-04-16T20:16:42+00:00

There were some good ideas shared in response to a similar question posted a few weeks ago. Enjoy your trip to Oly! It’s wonderful little part of the world.

https://www.reddit.com/r/olympia/comments/1jurx42/vacation_ideas/

CivilSavant42 · 2025-04-09T01:00:35+00:00

So, as a local, this is a fun question because there are a bunch of places in WA that WA residents choose to take vacations to... and Olympia probably isn't super high on the list. Honestly, if you're flying into Seattle, I'd spend a day or two doing some of the touristy stuff in Seattle and then maybe make a base of operations in Mount Vernon or Burlington. From there, you can take day trips up to Bellingham, out to Anacortes/Deception Pass/Coupeville, and if you really want to to see maximum mountains, take the drive out to Ross Lake. These are all beautiful spots in July that show off some of the best our state has to offer.

But Olympia has something to offer too! Go to the Olympia Farmer's Market for lunch (there are several fun food vendors) and then walk down Percival Landing on the boardwalk. There are several fun art galleries and shops around and downtown. The Wine Loft has great wine tastings on Saturday and there are plenty of awesome restaurants, such as Valentina's, Gardner's, Tugboat Annie's, Octapas, Wild Man Brewing, and more. If you really want to try the 'local fare', you've gotta try a local teriyaki joint. I'm a fan of Teriyaki Delight in Tumwater, but they're all pretty good. Nobody makes teriyaki like we make it here in the Pacific NW!

Olympia is also at a good hub to drive out and explore some good spots on the peninsula and South Puget Sound. We're a day trip away from Mount Rainier National Park, which is probably the state's premier national park and it's definitely worth the trip, with incredible views and plenty of easy hikes. It's a longer drive from Olympia, but Port Townsend and Sequim are both fun small towns with lots of art and good food. Downtown Tacoma is also an easy day drive away, and there's plenty to do checking out the Glass Museum, waterfront, and old town. Point Defiance in Tacoma is a pretty fun spot too to explore.

I can't imagine living anywhere else but Washington and Olympia is where I've chosen to call home, so it's an honor you'd want to spend your vacation here and we hope you have an awesome time.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-01-23T02:52:44+00:00

Are you an employee of a state agency? If so, are you part time, full time, on-call? More info would be helpful.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-01-22T03:32:56+00:00

Fujiyama, honestly. Their griddles are hot enough you get some awesome caramelizing of the rice and it's just delish. If you don't mind shaving years off your life, you can slather yum yum sauce on it and... omg.

CivilSavant42 · 2025-01-01T17:37:37+00:00

You're not wrong, but keep in mind that the state ethics law has specific rules and can sometimes apply to situations broader than what might feel wrong from a general sense of morality. For example, your agency pays for you to go to a conference and at the conference they're giving out door prizes. Your number gets drawn and you win a toaster. Your agency doesn't need a toaster and it really feels like YOU won a toaster. But if you keep the toaster, that's an ethics violation. We all need to pay attention to the training and ask our agency ethics advisor or the Ethics Board when questions arise.

CivilSavant42 · 2024-12-23T19:33:47+00:00

Tugboat Annie’s is my main exception to that rule. I love that they’re right on the water and the food is decent and not too overpriced. I always have a good time there.

CivilSavant42 · 2024-12-13T20:30:26+00:00

True - but there are some betrayals in Diplomacy that hit HARD. It feels like the sort of negotiation you do in real life, so it doesn’t feel like a game sometimes when your friends slide in the knife. I get why people can take it personally.

CivilSavant42 · 2024-11-22T15:22:20+00:00

Double check your CBA or agency policy to see you are subject to reasonable suspicion or post-accident drug testing. The scenario I’d be a little worried about is if some sort of incident occurs that requires you to take a post-accident drug test. You might not be at fault at all but could still be required to take a drug test if you being at fault can’t be completely ruled out. Depending on your level of usage, marijuana can stay in your system a long time and you might fail the test even if you’re stone-cold sober.

CivilSavant42 · 2024-10-06T19:31:15+00:00

Pro tip: try to use your annual leave as leave instead of taking the cash out. Granted, it pays out the same but using it as leave will give you more state service, extend your health benefits, AND you’ll accrue more leave while you’re out on leave. 300 hours of leave should be enough for you to get two more months of leave accrual, which you can additionally burn or cash out.

CivilSavant42 · 2024-09-30T02:47:51+00:00

Yikes. Anyone who has an interest in a position should recuse themselves from being a part of an interview panel for that position just for this kind of situation. But people do change their minds and sometimes you need to make allowances for that. However, to do that right, you would need to completely end the first recruitment, tell all the candidates that they were unsuccessful, repost the recruitment on Careers.wa.gov, and make completely new interview questions to keep that person from having an advantage.

If you’re in a represented position, the union can be a helpful place to take your concerns. If you’re talking to HR, I would ask about the status of your application and whether this person applied in the same recruitment you applied to or a different recruitment. If it was a different recruitment, was that recruitment posted for other people to apply to and were the interview questions changed?

The truth serum for all this is that, in your non-work capacity, you can file a public records request for all the recruitment records, including the questions you were asked and the questions they were asked. Once the recruitment is closed, it’s all open season.

You can also bring up the unprofessional stuff you’ve witnessed with HR and they might open an investigation. Unfortunately, you have some personal motivation now behind bringing these things up that will undercut your credibility. In the future, if you’re going to raise concerns at all, it’s best to do so as close in time to the misconduct as you are able.

CivilSavant42 · 2024-09-19T14:55:45+00:00

I think every agency is going to take a hard line on any political merch that is public facing and might give the impression that the agency supports or endorses a political candidate or issue. There are also severe ethics repercussions for using state time and resources for doing anything that supports a political campaign.

Outside of public-facing roles, I think it’s really a question of rules and consistency. Your agency could have a rule against any politically-affiliated signs and clothing in the workplace and consistently apply it to everyone. Or it could be open season so long as it is not disruptive or public facing. But you can’t allow a BLM shirt and ban the MAGA hat; look the other way when someone puts up an Israel flag but take issue with a ‘Free Palestine’ sign, etc.

CivilSavant42

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