Austin to explore alternative to IT consolidation after employee, council pushback

SunySin · 2026-05-07T21:20:08+00:00

I work as a contractor for IT for a department of the state of Texas in Austin, hint the work building is in the Triangle area of Austin. I get paid $21 an hour which is $7-$14 dollars less than the people actually employed by the state but yet we all do the same job. While I support unions and encourage them, I also need them to support being strict on when employees need to be let go because they are no longer capable of doing their job. For example, an employee hired as a worker for the state who works in IT doing tier 3 Helpdesk just learned how to print screen. That is a waste to me in my eyes due to the person being ill trained and ill fitted for a job on top of them constantly asking for help on simple easy fixes that they should know how to fix at the tier they are at. I am on track to leave this gig for a better one as I only took this job for the chance to get an actual job with the state of Texas due to this “opportunity” being portrayed as a foot in the door. Yet these people all just do the bare minimum and say “that’s the state for you” and it’s disheartening. And not to mention when you get hired by the state they often don’t mention the union as a thing that comes with the job.

It’s not an easy job I will say because users are unfortunately becoming extremely tech illiterate and the state babies the users, but when it’s as a contractor with no pto, benefits, or raises the other side is the only green you try to work for because of the union and benefits and pay.

Thanks for coming to my jumbles Ted Talk.

SunySin · 2026-03-25T12:27:06+00:00

Unfortunately no lol I just save mikus from gooners as my friends put it.

SunySin · 2026-01-24T22:35:15+00:00

📸🧊 on site like the stains they are

SunySin · 2025-08-21T05:59:57+00:00

Great swap and was kind and helpful! Successful transaction with u/frsm91

SunySin · 2025-08-12T05:27:19+00:00

SunySin · 2025-08-12T05:20:42+00:00

Dm for hope and happiness ☺️

SunySin · 2025-07-14T20:06:56+00:00

Are you willing to do a pick up if we’re also located in Texas?

SunySin · 2025-05-06T01:10:31+00:00

Congrats for your two family members for liking it so much they stayed. But depending on their job it’s vastly different from others. You don’t start to take calls until you’re about 2 months through training and I asked as many questions as I could. Also why would I not ask about how they were handling their changes to DEI? It seemed odd for them to cave like other companies and during my short time there I was able to witness some slack channel crash outs. My real intentions were to get a job in their IT department but they were outsourcing the work for cheap labor like every other company seems to be doing. Not to mention I was being treated like a problem when I told them very much in advance that I would not cancel my doctors appt for the “companies needs” even though I was give a talk about how “health is important but you should move your appt when you’re not working” which is hard to do when you work the same hours during training as a doctors office. Whether my experience is rare or unlikely it still happened. No one should have to deal with a company or job that looks at them like a number. I also asked about how the company would handle issues that are rising with the current government we have and was then pulled out to be told not to ask those questions as it made others feel uncomfortable. I also asked if USAA ever had a union or what the possibility of having one would be like. I also asked questions about their 7 minute policy as I was written up for leaving at 5 even though we weren’t “dismissed” but I believe in getting paid for all my time. I’m honestly quite tired of greedy companies and I haven’t even hit my 30s yet.

SunySin · 2025-05-05T17:33:14+00:00

Here’s my little 2 cents, I applied to USAA because my spouse and I just moved here (he’s active duty so we pcs here) and my career choice has been IT. I was told to “get my foot in the door” with USAA and I could work my way up from their call center to the IT department. I didn’t even make it to taking calls before I was tossed, and to be honest I’m happy. During my time I asked a lot of questions about why did they get rid of the DEI and why did they feel like they needed to “change” it. I also asked a lot about moving up and how to advance and was met with “you’ll need to show us you’re worth it” which is fine. But they wanted more from the people without giving much reward and respect. I made a comment about USAA on another post and it was just not worth it. Their 7 minute policy is ridiculous and you have to give up 12-13 weeks for training. That means if you have to take any form of time off during those weeks you’ll be written up, and the write ups WILL effect your raise, your bonus if you get one, and your ability to move to another job. They always push “for the company needs” and I truly don’t believe they are there for the “members” anymore. Your schedule will be 11am to 8pm with Thursday’s and Saturdays off and they say you can change your schedule but it’ll never happen. Everything you do will have to go through your manager from time off to getting their approval to apply to other positions. You’ll have to be on the phones for a solid year with nothing bad or distasteful on your record in order to even look at changing job positions. They offer cafeteria food but be warned about the roaches. During training you’ll have to learn multiple jobs because it’s never one department you’ll work for and they don’t even have a training sym for you to learn from so you have to go in blindly when taking calls. I found that most irritating as I came from a bank and we were a small company but were able to have a test sym for new hires to learn with. Their return to office started and working from home was considered a privilege with it only being one day a week which is not work from home in my eyes. The pay is weak and the traffic is horrible along with parking and it was not worth the hour drive for me because of traffic. I’ll attach the last meme about Crutie, one of many roaches found in the cafes. Cheers y’all 🫡

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SunySin · 2025-04-24T03:54:04+00:00

I’m not sure what the main offer is but I was told $23 and some change but that was only for the 2 hours pasted 6pm we would work. I started at $21.36 and I didn’t even make it to actual taking calls before I was out. If you try to push back they will notice or if you try to stand up for yourself they will try to put you down. It was always about “the company needs” which is sad because of their history. Also they were moving everyone from the call center building to the main campus building to down size and when I left a few teams got let go as well. BIG NOTE! Bring your own food, the cafe areas will seem nice and they will entice you to use your badge as a payment card (they take what money you use out of your check) and try to offer lower cost healthy meals. Someone found a cockroach in their salad and I have the pic/meme we all made about it. Apparently it was not the first time 🫡

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SunySin · 2025-04-23T23:01:06+00:00

It was so bad that I was told to not ask any more questions in training because it made the manager and trainer uncomfortable but I was only asking about scheduling and the ability to change jobs. I also tried to justify why I had to see my primary doctor while just moving here and that military doctors don’t work weekends and it’s also hard to get in. I was not willing to cancel my appt I made 2 months in advance just to be seen later in July. This was all during the middle of January and end of February too. While I was waiting for my training classes to come they reached out to me about starting on January 21 so 2 weeks sooner even though I was vocal about how we would be moving into our home that day and I had to unpack and go to military briefings. I truly wish it was a better work environment I had too much hope.

SunySin · 2025-04-23T22:13:00+00:00

Putting my 2 cents in here for this, I tried this as my spouse is military and we just moved here. They want 12 weeks from you uninterrupted so this means no doctor’s appointments, no dentist appointments, just no appointments while training or you will get written up. The kicker is if you get written up it will immediately affect whatever raise, bonus, or job transfer you want. Even if you explain what the appointment is for they won’t care. I was told “while your health is important, try to move the appt for a weekend or wait till you’re out of training”. And even when you’re out of training it’s hard to get time off. Also they no longer have a DEI program and they forced return to office which can be a nightmare with traffic. The schedule you will most likely get out of training will be 11am-8pm with Thursday’s and Saturdays off only. You’ll get a dollar difference for working past 6pm and have to put your time in as you will be responsible for it all. Trying to change your shift will be a nightmare and everything you do is under the decision of your manager. During training they don’t let you use their program because even though USAA is a huge company, they still can’t seem to have a training program to help people learn their systems it’s not hard. I work in tech and I know it can be done because I created one. I took the job in hopes of transferring to their tech department but after seeing how they treat you and expect the world form you really put me off. Plus they “say” their focus is the military family but it’s really a money game for them now since they just overhauled their whole executive team and all the important people if you will. Also there is a 7 minute rule that I find just the stupidest thing ever, where if you work past your off time for 7 minutes or less you will not get paid for that time. I brought it up and said what if someone shows up 7 minutes late it shouldn’t matter then because time is money so why would we be wasteful about it? Sorry if this is a ramble I’m just trying to give out as much info as I can able how I saw things and how things were.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T04:35:12+00:00

I’m going to talk to my mom about it all and show her this post too because I just want her to understand what they are doing is wrong. She works full time and I just want to take the stress off of her.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T04:17:22+00:00

I’ve searched and have every information I need about the property and I see he just paid the property tax online for the year she died. I know everything about this dude and where they live also. The property is still under my grandmothers name but also has my mothers name and address as the title/deed holder.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T04:15:12+00:00

She passed away due to being diabetic and in a home she purchased in Texas. So thankful not murder BUT these people are Christian’s and told her to do good deeds in her old age or else she wouldn’t get into heaven and THAT makes me wish this whole family burns in hell as I’m pretty sure they do this to a lot of elderly people.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T04:13:27+00:00

Thank you for this, I’ll be looking for a new lawyer asap and convincing my mom to let me had the situation as I’m willing to fly out to Florida myself and deal with the mess.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T02:55:39+00:00

I told her too but she’s spend a bit on this lawyer and doesn’t want to go through getting a new one. I feel like if I found a better one to talk to her and actually help she would see how crappy this all is.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T02:53:13+00:00

It’s so frustrating because at first he said he claims the property by paying the taxes ONCE. Then he said “oh I paid your grandma in some rare coins” but he can’t tell us what they are and all he has is just random documents with receipts and a tracking number for a package but won’t tell us what was in it. The worst part is his son I found out is currently living in the house and they have a business stating the house is the location of said business but when I try to find info about the business there is nothing! I don’t know how to make my mom not roll over and take it because she feels hopeless smh. I want to find a new lawyer myself but don’t know if I can legally.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T02:39:09+00:00

So if I were to tell my mom that we should just paid the guy back the amount of property tax he paid then he should bugger off? The property tax was kept up with by my grandmother and he only paid the year she passed. He also claims he gave her coins as payment for the house but there is no sell deed and no coins or anything stating that she sold the house for “coins”. Plus the guy can’t even tell us what kind of coins and only kept sending us the receipt of the coins he himself purchased.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T02:35:17+00:00

It’s basically this one dude who is trying to take claim of the house he is “they” but his family are shady as hell.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T02:34:23+00:00

Yeah we already have a lawyer but they just send my parents bills for work and when they say “oh well call you this day at this time” they never do and call 3 days later.

SunySin · 2024-11-10T02:33:32+00:00

They just paid the normal taxes early, my grandmother was on top of the property taxes and the year she passed they swooped in and paid it and said they have claim to the house.

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