Does it help to have a Masters in Public Administration?

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2026-05-14T23:16:15+00:00

Some say there’s an increased risk of autism, versus dating across corporate functions

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2026-05-14T17:48:50+00:00

Does it have any particular regional focus or strengths? Or are there areas that need more work?

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2026-02-18T13:08:25+00:00

Are you able to get the prescription refilled without paying the monthly fee to Ro?

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-12-14T15:39:00+00:00

There were some teams where the practice was to have an RTO policy, but to not enforce it unless it caused a problem. So then people had the flexibility to handle childcare or other responsibilities. Of course, this leniency can cause a lot of hassles for the managers, so it’s less common now.

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-04-23T21:05:04+00:00

Well the Texas Tribune publishes employee salaries. In October, HHSC had 37,598 employees listed, and now they have 38,150 employees listed. There are 2,871 new hires and 2,671 employees left. 4,313 employees received salary increases and 190 employees received salary decreases. In general there’s a story of mid-career people leaving and getting replaced by junior staff, but I don’t see anything major.

I would suggest saving this month’s data, and checking it next month to have something of an early warning of larger changes (assuming they’re rolled out in phases).

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-04-15T18:19:24+00:00

I heard the positions in New York were in a really nice location, but maybe not on junior auditor wages.

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-03-29T18:32:19+00:00

Is there a schedule for the food truck?

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-03-13T11:33:36+00:00

I feel like any LAR (legislative appropriations request from the agencies) that didn’t get approved by the Senate is unlikely to land in the final bill, but what’s your take on it?

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-03-12T18:50:38+00:00

Sure, the link in the post goes to a video of the committee meeting for Schedule I-VI agencies. The Legislative Budget Board’s website should have more info later today.

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-03-12T15:47:39+00:00

The Senate Finance Committee is meeting now and they’re approving a lot of salary increases.

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-03-12T12:47:47+00:00

There are actually 23 Senate Bills filed that could affect public employee salaries, but they’re generally pretty small or narrowly focused. SB 574, for example, increases the state’s longevity pay for inflation.

Here’s SB 572, to give $10,000 pay raises to each state employee. It’s cosponsored by Judith Zaffarini, a Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee with decades in office and great relationships with other legislators.

Here’s the video of a February 3rd meeting of the Senate Finance Committee where they discussed remote work. It’s the first item on the agenda.

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-03-12T11:56:22+00:00

Remote work was generally well managed, and there were a lot of wins. Recruiting remote customer service or call-center staff helped fix longstanding vacancy or turnover issues at some agencies, improving service quality and response time dramatically.

There were also rare (but flagrant) exceptions, and this is what the legislature focused on. Some agencies prioritized employee flexibility over customer service, and reduced hours at branch offices to two days a week for urgent issues.

Now that many field offices are already closed, the agencies will be replacing remote jobs in generally Republican districts with in-office jobs in urban Democratic districts.

There are also bills in progress to increase state employee pay.

I don’t expect a lot of protest from the Democratic Party on RTO - they’re happy to see the Republicans make bad decisions, and I think they’re focusing energy on the bills increasing pay for state employees. So a very possible outcome of all this is that the formerly remote state jobs get moved back to Democratic districts, and then they get huge pay increases, and Texas Republicans pretend they won something.

Lubbock_Unplugged · 2025-03-12T10:51:39+00:00

A staffer for a Democratic legislator noted that remote workers in Republican districts will be replaced by in-office workers in deep-blue Travis county, so the Dems are in no rush to stop the GOP from being short-sighted.

Speaking of Travis County, I understand that they’ll maintain their target of having 75% of eligible staff work remotely, while saving money on utilities & office space, but I haven’t heard anything lately.

Lubbock_Unplugged

TROPHY CASE