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JagarHardfart t1_jb2dsf6 wrote

Reply to comment by Magenta6336 in PA state employees: Are all PA State Employees going to get called back into the office? by ChatNoir33

I work at one of the last state centers for intellectual disabilities and we are having the same issue. We've had contract/agency helping us for the past year or more and it's getting to the point where there are more contract than regular state staff. I don't see us being open much longer due to no one wanting to work there and more people keep leaving. It's upsetting!

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Magenta6336 t1_jb2f5ja wrote

It is really unsettling and upsetting. It's sad that the Commonwealth doesn't really seem to make it a priority when it comes to employee retention. It used to be people wanted to work for the state because you had good health benefits... Decent pay... And the pension. Now the decent pay is going out the window and the pension is gone for most workers unless you've been grandfathered in. Like I said the health insurance is still decent.

I've heard that they were floating the idea of reinstating the pension for all workers to try to create some retention. But the way I see it is that is a good idea but if I'm a new worker coming into the state the pension is the last thing on my mind. I would rather start out with good pay. It seems to me that they want to dance around the issue and that is the workers need paid more. And until that happens they're going to keep bleeding.

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JagarHardfart t1_jb2ftqz wrote

Right they took away all the good stuff that made it worth it to work for the state. I've been there for almost 14 years and feel like I'm stuck. It's luke they don't even care about us.

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Magenta6336 t1_jb2gcx1 wrote

I've been there for 10 years and I've watched things rapidly deteriorate in that amount of time. I always feel sorry for some of the people I work with that have been there since the early '90s. Some of them are so disheartened and they just want to retire but the economy is so bad that some of them can't. Some of them even talk about the golden years of the '90s and how it was such a wonderful place to work.

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JagarHardfart t1_jb2gke2 wrote

Yup I see that too. Most are worried they won't make it until their retirement date. I can't even imagine being a year away from retirement and have to find something else

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[deleted] t1_jb30mtl wrote

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JagarHardfart t1_jb33lo7 wrote

Yea that's what I'm worried about. I'm sure there's plenty of open positions in harrisburg but it would be an hour drive. There isn't much local. Most of the contract people don't care and show up when they want to. They're getting paid at least $10 an hour more than the state employees. They don't have the benefits we do. It's all frustrating because the residents have been thru enough in their lives now they have staff that don't care anymore.

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