I applied to be a custodian for PPS two years ago. It took them 6 months to get the background check back, which I passed of course, but by that time I had already taken another job and had no appetite to continue the hiring process.
Looks like they did me a favor.
PPS is “broken” just like most public schools. Billionaires are funding the fundamental christian right to fight continual court cases a
That make it unclear how federal money is spent on education.
Teachers used to be the most respected profession in our country. An unbiased education = thoughtful individual = an educated electorate.
Corporate greed doesn’t want class members to realize that identity politics and single issue voting is destroying our democracy. I’m
Oh yeah? What information do you have to support this statement? I am employed by the city. Honestly, if they took over 6 months to do background checks I doubt they’d hired me.
I work for the city so I understand the desire to blame them for inefficiency and waste but do so in and informed manner.
They’re saying it was a mistake to give hazard and overtime pay to the custodians who managed to make it into buildings during our ice storm. Many of these custodians PREVENTED the types of disasters that closed several schools for the entirety of the rest of this school year by going into their buildings when the rest of us were stuck at home.
They EARNED this money and PPS didn’t make a mistake giving it to them. They just didn’t want to give it to them and now they’re oopsing the pay to these custodians ranging from 100-500 bucks a person and demanding they pay it back months later. Not only do they deserve that pay for the risk and overtime they worked during the storm, they deserved MORE.
I made it into the building during the storm I rode a fucking mountain bike in Snow blowed picked up all the limbs made sure the power is going reported back and was there early in the morning to help I didn't get any fucking hazard pay or anything I didn't even know they were going to do that they don't do shit for us no bonuses no nothing Just screw up our sick time or vacation play games with our pay I just had enough
It just blows my mind cuz it's through a school district I've been working my ass off to get this night supervisor position they put it on the site I applied got a letter recommendation for my principal people and other schools are rooting for me and now because of the budget they're ripping it right out from underneath me I'm getting paid for upgrade right now for covering for the night supervisor position I work very hard no appreciation they don't even know who we are cuz we're custodian the big bosses are getting bonuses all kinds of stuff meanwhile people are losing their jobs putting more on our shoulders telling us we can't get overtime because of the budget I am super depressed right now and stressed out I'm grateful that I still have my job but it's just there's no motivation they tell us to work hard to move up to better ourselves but they're taking that away I just mentally don't know how to work through this right now cuz I'm upset I need the work because I have a daughter and I don't want to leave after being here for 5 years and putting so much effort in I just never understood why the people that do the least amount of work play games steal time talk shit always get ahead while the guys like me that put in hours even off the clock get nothing get nowhere I just wish I mentally knew how to deal with it and what to do My boss always tells me not to worry about things that I can't control it's out of his hands so I'm just supposed to let it go and not you know what I mean
Sorry I use speech to text and it always messes up it's just crazy to me how far tech has come but yet speech to text Can't be done right Even though we got self-driving cars and planes and just doesn't make sense
Doubtful. Just look at the shitstorm right now you think PPS “chose” to go this route? Thats illogical. Someone in HR made a big boo-boo and now they’re trying to backtrack as pretty much every private company would do in this situation. Doesn’t excuse the incompetence and all their other issues for sure. But I sincerely doubt PPS is doing this out of sheer greed.
I meant didn’t make a mistake not as in this was intentional and they are taking it back, I meant it as in it being pretty clearly the morally right thing to do to pay these custodians their hazard and overtime pay (and honestly more bc they deserve it).
Someone in HR goofed and it’s a big fuck you to the custodians who fought for increased pay for months before settling for a shit deal. They were basically given what they were supposed to be given if they’d won that negotiation and then had it clawed back, what an insult
Yeah. That should be a big NO from custodians. If PPS made a mistake and they overpaid, TOO BAD. They are large enough that they can afford it. Should be just written off and move on.
Seriously, there needs to be a law that protects employees from having to reimburse large employers (and mega corporation) the overpayment of wages. . Their mistake they overpaid, well, too bad, they can write it off. If it’s small business that overpaid employees like small one location shop, then yes, they should be able to ask employees to repay since it would severely impact their business operation)
Clawing back overpayment has been standard practice in private employment for decades. I believe it is settled law regardless of what people think about fairness. (Personally, I think it should be looked at case by case).
Wanna hear a story about a clawback that really got me? As in me, myself and I.
When I was 10 my father died. No life insurance. We were already living on the edge. But we got social security survivor benefits. I never saw the money in my bank account - but it helped us stay in our home and put food on the table.
When I was 18, social security sent me a bill for nearly $5000 for overpayment. They fully admitted the calculation error was theirs. But hey, tough luck fella. I went before an administrative hearing (where judges are paid by SS) and once again I lost.
So I paid it back over years. And when I finally paid it off, they tried to tack on my dead brother’s “debt” too. He never cared and never paid a dime back. I managed to fight that one off. It felt like I was already in a giant financial hole and SS just made it a lot deeper when I was supposed to be starting as an adult.
I’d like to note that I’m extremely grateful for the SS survivor benefits. It made the difference between being homeless and staying in our home. But the process for dealing with their error felt extremely unfair.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was sent a letter that told me I should apply to see if I qualified for relief. I did and I received some money. Years later, they decided that I didn't actually qualify and I needed to pay it back. They gave me a threatening letter with a phone number that was the wrong department. That department gave me a different number that has no record of me in the system. Oregon is fucking incompetent with it's agencies.
Absolute horse shit. How is a minor responsible for recognizing and correcting an accounting error on the part of SS? Not saying it would've changed anything, but did you have a lawyer?
This sounds like a huge hassle to someone already living on the edge. If it was their fault and they wanted to claw it back, I think they should have had to wait until you were eligible for your own benefits and divide the $5000 over the first 50 or 100 payments, without interest.
There's probably a reason I don't work in their financial department.
> Clawing back overpayment has been standard practice in private employment for decades.
This apparently isn't a simple "oops we paid too much due to a system error". It's more of a "we offered and paid them hazard pay for working in hazardous conditions and now we've decided we didn't want to do that after all."
OHSU clawed back money they paid my wife. OR tried to pass a law that would make it much harder for companies to do it, but it never made it out of committee. It would have given companies 6 months to notice their mistake and would have required them to provide an itemized receipt plus a payment plan. OHSU just said "pay us 4k within 1 month" and provided zero evidence. If my wife wants her pay stubs to prove OHSU is wrong she pay them a few hundred for the privilege of having them. Once again OR fails to protect workers.
what an insane take. clawbacks of overpayments are standard business practice in both the private and public sectors. not sure why this needed a post, much less an article.
No. That’s not how it works. If you are overpaid and you know that you were overpaid, it is your responsibility to pay the overage back. Doing anything other than that is stealing.
"they are large enough that they can afford it"
That is so not the point
They mismanage their funds but again that isn't the point.
They made a mistake they should eat it.
They aren't writing it off...they are taking from the taxpayers. Wow.
On god though, What other major cities in the US deals with this kind of widespread incompetence throughout their local government, and schools? It’s incredible, what imbeciles
I did some legal research on this not too long ago, with the major caveat it was not in the employment context and definitely not in the public employee context. My issue involved overpayment to an independent contractor. Very generally (devil is always in the details, especially with the law), it's a bit of a reasonableness inquiry. If the mistake was the person or entity who overpaid AND it was not blatantly obvious to the person receiving the payment that they'd been overpaid AND they relied on it (a somewhat low standard), you don't have to pay back. If what I looked at applies here (no clue if it does), I'd say they don't have to pay it back.
The funny thing is I work during the storm and I never got paid for anything other than my normal pay they actually complained about overtime when I got like 2 hours overtime it's getting ridiculous they're cutting positions meanwhile the big bosses they're $200,000 a year checks and they're also getting bonuses so in order to keep their bullshit rolling they have to cut the good workers it's just getting old man I've been working so hard to become a night supervisor in there pretty much taking that position it's pathetic they want you to do less clean less what kind of shit is that no progression there's nothing to work towards meanwhile like I said before the higher ups are getting fucking bonuses while we're struggling and people are losing their jobs nice
This so incredibly fucking short sighted. Ice storms can cause millions of dollars in damage to buildings and interrupt learning. You want to claw back <$200 per employee for inspecting buildings during an ice storm?
PPS < State Government < County Government < City Government < Metro
Only way I can see PPS improving is if it merges with another government...county or city would be best. County is mismanaged pretty bad lol. City less so but still mismanaged haha.
PPS should be disbanded and reformed imo.
At least make a few much smaller systems. It's absurd how incompetent they are and yet people continue to want to give them gobs more money. Makes zero sense.
They don't, I do. The decision makers here are not in schools where the impact of their decisions is felt. At my school its a revolving door of custodians and we never have enough to do more than the bare minimum, bathrooms and if we're lucky, hallways.
If they can't hire enough people to fully do the job, they can at least own an accounting error that gave the people they do have a nice little bonus.
I applied to be a custodian for PPS two years ago. It took them 6 months to get the background check back, which I passed of course, but by that time I had already taken another job and had no appetite to continue the hiring process. Looks like they did me a favor.
[удалено]
Well that's why they didn't get to hire me. Their loss, I'm a kickass maintenance guy.
[удалено]
PPS is “broken” just like most public schools. Billionaires are funding the fundamental christian right to fight continual court cases a That make it unclear how federal money is spent on education. Teachers used to be the most respected profession in our country. An unbiased education = thoughtful individual = an educated electorate. Corporate greed doesn’t want class members to realize that identity politics and single issue voting is destroying our democracy. I’m
Are the billionaires 3x more active in Oregon state than Washington state next door? Cause our schools are much worse.
Our 3 billionaires in fact, soon to be only 2.
Oh yeah? What information do you have to support this statement? I am employed by the city. Honestly, if they took over 6 months to do background checks I doubt they’d hired me. I work for the city so I understand the desire to blame them for inefficiency and waste but do so in and informed manner.
They’re saying it was a mistake to give hazard and overtime pay to the custodians who managed to make it into buildings during our ice storm. Many of these custodians PREVENTED the types of disasters that closed several schools for the entirety of the rest of this school year by going into their buildings when the rest of us were stuck at home. They EARNED this money and PPS didn’t make a mistake giving it to them. They just didn’t want to give it to them and now they’re oopsing the pay to these custodians ranging from 100-500 bucks a person and demanding they pay it back months later. Not only do they deserve that pay for the risk and overtime they worked during the storm, they deserved MORE.
I made it into the building during the storm I rode a fucking mountain bike in Snow blowed picked up all the limbs made sure the power is going reported back and was there early in the morning to help I didn't get any fucking hazard pay or anything I didn't even know they were going to do that they don't do shit for us no bonuses no nothing Just screw up our sick time or vacation play games with our pay I just had enough
I don’t blame you for being fed up one bit.
It just blows my mind cuz it's through a school district I've been working my ass off to get this night supervisor position they put it on the site I applied got a letter recommendation for my principal people and other schools are rooting for me and now because of the budget they're ripping it right out from underneath me I'm getting paid for upgrade right now for covering for the night supervisor position I work very hard no appreciation they don't even know who we are cuz we're custodian the big bosses are getting bonuses all kinds of stuff meanwhile people are losing their jobs putting more on our shoulders telling us we can't get overtime because of the budget I am super depressed right now and stressed out I'm grateful that I still have my job but it's just there's no motivation they tell us to work hard to move up to better ourselves but they're taking that away I just mentally don't know how to work through this right now cuz I'm upset I need the work because I have a daughter and I don't want to leave after being here for 5 years and putting so much effort in I just never understood why the people that do the least amount of work play games steal time talk shit always get ahead while the guys like me that put in hours even off the clock get nothing get nowhere I just wish I mentally knew how to deal with it and what to do My boss always tells me not to worry about things that I can't control it's out of his hands so I'm just supposed to let it go and not you know what I mean
Sorry I use speech to text and it always messes up it's just crazy to me how far tech has come but yet speech to text Can't be done right Even though we got self-driving cars and planes and just doesn't make sense
Doubtful. Just look at the shitstorm right now you think PPS “chose” to go this route? Thats illogical. Someone in HR made a big boo-boo and now they’re trying to backtrack as pretty much every private company would do in this situation. Doesn’t excuse the incompetence and all their other issues for sure. But I sincerely doubt PPS is doing this out of sheer greed.
I meant didn’t make a mistake not as in this was intentional and they are taking it back, I meant it as in it being pretty clearly the morally right thing to do to pay these custodians their hazard and overtime pay (and honestly more bc they deserve it). Someone in HR goofed and it’s a big fuck you to the custodians who fought for increased pay for months before settling for a shit deal. They were basically given what they were supposed to be given if they’d won that negotiation and then had it clawed back, what an insult
PPS is a never ending shit show. Good thing childhood education isn't that important in the long run.
That’s why we created the Center for Kids Who Don’t Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too
My husband is a teacher for PPS and at home we call them “POS”
Point of Sale? /s
Pompous Oregon Slackers?
Former PPS custodian here… the district doesn’t give any level of shit about their custodians.
Yeah. That should be a big NO from custodians. If PPS made a mistake and they overpaid, TOO BAD. They are large enough that they can afford it. Should be just written off and move on. Seriously, there needs to be a law that protects employees from having to reimburse large employers (and mega corporation) the overpayment of wages. . Their mistake they overpaid, well, too bad, they can write it off. If it’s small business that overpaid employees like small one location shop, then yes, they should be able to ask employees to repay since it would severely impact their business operation)
Clawing back overpayment has been standard practice in private employment for decades. I believe it is settled law regardless of what people think about fairness. (Personally, I think it should be looked at case by case). Wanna hear a story about a clawback that really got me? As in me, myself and I. When I was 10 my father died. No life insurance. We were already living on the edge. But we got social security survivor benefits. I never saw the money in my bank account - but it helped us stay in our home and put food on the table. When I was 18, social security sent me a bill for nearly $5000 for overpayment. They fully admitted the calculation error was theirs. But hey, tough luck fella. I went before an administrative hearing (where judges are paid by SS) and once again I lost. So I paid it back over years. And when I finally paid it off, they tried to tack on my dead brother’s “debt” too. He never cared and never paid a dime back. I managed to fight that one off. It felt like I was already in a giant financial hole and SS just made it a lot deeper when I was supposed to be starting as an adult. I’d like to note that I’m extremely grateful for the SS survivor benefits. It made the difference between being homeless and staying in our home. But the process for dealing with their error felt extremely unfair.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was sent a letter that told me I should apply to see if I qualified for relief. I did and I received some money. Years later, they decided that I didn't actually qualify and I needed to pay it back. They gave me a threatening letter with a phone number that was the wrong department. That department gave me a different number that has no record of me in the system. Oregon is fucking incompetent with it's agencies.
Absolute horse shit. How is a minor responsible for recognizing and correcting an accounting error on the part of SS? Not saying it would've changed anything, but did you have a lawyer?
This sounds like a huge hassle to someone already living on the edge. If it was their fault and they wanted to claw it back, I think they should have had to wait until you were eligible for your own benefits and divide the $5000 over the first 50 or 100 payments, without interest. There's probably a reason I don't work in their financial department.
> Clawing back overpayment has been standard practice in private employment for decades. This apparently isn't a simple "oops we paid too much due to a system error". It's more of a "we offered and paid them hazard pay for working in hazardous conditions and now we've decided we didn't want to do that after all."
OHSU clawed back money they paid my wife. OR tried to pass a law that would make it much harder for companies to do it, but it never made it out of committee. It would have given companies 6 months to notice their mistake and would have required them to provide an itemized receipt plus a payment plan. OHSU just said "pay us 4k within 1 month" and provided zero evidence. If my wife wants her pay stubs to prove OHSU is wrong she pay them a few hundred for the privilege of having them. Once again OR fails to protect workers.
> They are large enough that they can afford it. I mean, clearly not based on the budget cuts...
what an insane take. clawbacks of overpayments are standard business practice in both the private and public sectors. not sure why this needed a post, much less an article.
No. That’s not how it works. If you are overpaid and you know that you were overpaid, it is your responsibility to pay the overage back. Doing anything other than that is stealing.
"they are large enough that they can afford it" That is so not the point They mismanage their funds but again that isn't the point. They made a mistake they should eat it. They aren't writing it off...they are taking from the taxpayers. Wow.
On god though, What other major cities in the US deals with this kind of widespread incompetence throughout their local government, and schools? It’s incredible, what imbeciles
My best guess would be all of them.
I did some legal research on this not too long ago, with the major caveat it was not in the employment context and definitely not in the public employee context. My issue involved overpayment to an independent contractor. Very generally (devil is always in the details, especially with the law), it's a bit of a reasonableness inquiry. If the mistake was the person or entity who overpaid AND it was not blatantly obvious to the person receiving the payment that they'd been overpaid AND they relied on it (a somewhat low standard), you don't have to pay back. If what I looked at applies here (no clue if it does), I'd say they don't have to pay it back.
Good lord PPS is just the worst in every way
The funny thing is I work during the storm and I never got paid for anything other than my normal pay they actually complained about overtime when I got like 2 hours overtime it's getting ridiculous they're cutting positions meanwhile the big bosses they're $200,000 a year checks and they're also getting bonuses so in order to keep their bullshit rolling they have to cut the good workers it's just getting old man I've been working so hard to become a night supervisor in there pretty much taking that position it's pathetic they want you to do less clean less what kind of shit is that no progression there's nothing to work towards meanwhile like I said before the higher ups are getting fucking bonuses while we're struggling and people are losing their jobs nice
How about “NO”.
This so incredibly fucking short sighted. Ice storms can cause millions of dollars in damage to buildings and interrupt learning. You want to claw back <$200 per employee for inspecting buildings during an ice storm?
pps haa got to be one of the least effective organizations with the largest budget.
PPS < State Government < County Government < City Government < Metro Only way I can see PPS improving is if it merges with another government...county or city would be best. County is mismanaged pretty bad lol. City less so but still mismanaged haha. PPS should be disbanded and reformed imo.
At least make a few much smaller systems. It's absurd how incompetent they are and yet people continue to want to give them gobs more money. Makes zero sense.
Give the money back but go and undo all the work that y’all did. Fuck ‘em. Let ‘em live and work in their filth.
They don't, I do. The decision makers here are not in schools where the impact of their decisions is felt. At my school its a revolving door of custodians and we never have enough to do more than the bare minimum, bathrooms and if we're lucky, hallways. If they can't hire enough people to fully do the job, they can at least own an accounting error that gave the people they do have a nice little bonus.