r/CAStateMgrs

Good morning. I have been a state supervisor for over a decade. I'm curious if other women out there would like to join in a group for networking and support. We could potentially meet for coffee/brown bag/on Teams once a month. Open to any suggestions. Might be nice to talk to others who are living our shared experience in civil service management. Perhaps even make a new friend. Speak up if you're interested. :)

Hello all. I ajve been with the State now for several years, in different agencies and have had numerous managers. I have even has the privilege to be on a couple interview panels. With all that said, I have always heard that if you can't answer a interview question based on experience, you may use a hypothetical scenario or answer how you would handle the situation. For example, if the question was "How would motivated and engage an employee who's is not performing?". I've always heard that it would be acceptable to answer this in a hypothetical scenario, since some have never been a manager or experienced that situation.

The other day, a hiring manager said that they do not accept hypothetical and they would score a potential candidate zero points on that question. I explained how I was told by others, but the manager insisted this was the correct way. Most other managers I engaged with said a hypothetical scenario would be fine as long as the question was answered.

My question is, what is the correct way to answer a question that an candidate may have zero experience? For example, if the questions about managing employees but you have never been a manager.

I understand that some questions may not be able to be hypothetical. For example if they ask "tell me about your experience in writing reports or tell me about your experience in using Excel".

For those dealing with the 4-day RTO and no GSI, how are you all doing financially and time-wise?

With the cost of everything continuing to go up—gas, groceries, commuting, parking, childcare, etc.—but our pay staying the same, what adjustments have you had to make just to get by?
Have you cut back on certain things, picked up a side hustle, changed your budget, or found other ways to make it work?

Genuinely curious how everyone is managing the added cost and time of RTO in an already expensive economy.

I've seen several posts on Reddit speculating about how many current state employees were hired post pandemic and have never been in their office full time. I'm curious about us. How many supervisors and managers were new to the state supervisor or manager roles since 2020 and have never supervised our teams full time in office?

If we were to believe that the ongoing contract negotiations will result in an outcome that would create the most political points for Governor Gavin Newsom and his potential campaign to win the election for President of the United States in 2028, what would that look like?

What would create the best view of Governor Newsom to a national audience, and result in the best possible outcome for his campaign from a National perspective?

Would forcing a strike, only to capitulate to union demands and raising State Employee salaries show the National audience the strength of unions and the backing of strong worker wages by a Presidential candidate?

Or would it make more strategic political sense to undercut the union and keep state employee wages as low as possible, even continuing at rates below inflation?

I would hope it’s better politically on the National stage to appear to support the Union, support worker wages, support WFH, etc.

But I honestly don’t know anything about politics, so was hoping you all could clue me in…Thank You for your comments!

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Since the start of RTO, I’ve been hearing stories from other agencies about increasing micromanagement—daily check-ins, daily status meetings, managers walking the aisles to make sure employees are at their desks, and similar practices.

I’m genuinely curious: what’s the purpose of this style of management? How does it improve productivity, collaboration, or team cohesion? It seems like time and energy that could be better spent supporting employees and helping them succeed, rather than monitoring their physical presence.

I’d be interested to hear from managers and employees alike. Have you found this approach to be effective, or does it end up hurting morale more than it helps?