The Hiring Freeze

[fav...@wsdot.wa.gov]

This week's topic is about the statewide hiring freeze that was
implemented on August 4th by Governor Gregoire. Since WSDOT is a
cabinet agency, we are subject to the hiring freeze with certain
positions that are critical to project delivery and safety being
exempt. As of now, we are putting a hold on recruitment and hiring.
If you have a question about a specific position that you applied for,
please contact the office of Human Resources at HQ...@wsdot.wa.gov.
Make sure to include the recruitment number.

If you have another questions about the freeze, please feel free to
post and we will answer your question as quickly as possible.

[Actively Seeking Employment]

I have a couple of questions:

How long is this freeze going to last?
How come there are still jobs on your employment page and is it worth
my time applying for those?
I just applied for a job on july 23rd and I haven't heard anything
back yet. Is someone gonna contact me or do i assume that its been
cancelled?

On Aug 11, 7:51 am, fav...@wsdot.wa.gov wrote:
> This week's topic is about the statewide hiring freeze that was
> implemented on August 4th by Governor Gregoire.  Since WSDOT is a
> cabinet agency, we are subject to the hiring freeze with certain
> positions that are critical to project delivery and safety being
> exempt.  As of now, we are putting a hold on recruitment and hiring.
> If you have a question about a specific position that you applied for,

> please contact the office of Human Resources at H...@wsdot.wa.gov.

[fav...@wsdot.wa.gov]

Hi Actively, thanks for joining our group. Here are my answers to
your questions:

No one is currently aware how long the freeze could last, but there
have been predictions it could last as long as the remainder of the
calendar year. Therefore, although I cannot give you a definitive
date, I can tell you that as soon as the freeze is lifted, we will be
posting information letting people know and will resume recruitment as
normal.

The jobs that are currently on our employment page are jobs that were
posted before the August 4th Freeze was implemented. We have kept
them online because we are in the process of trying to get them
approved to hire. Since we at WSDOT are most concerned with citizen
and worker safety, all of our jobs that are imminent to saftey will
contine through the recruitment process. All other jobs that are
deemed "ok" to recruit for will have to do with project delivery.

If you haven't heard anything, I would suggest contacting the
designated contact person who was listed on the job announcement. If
you no longer have the announcement or there was no contact person
listed, please write to hq...@wsdot.wa.gov and include the recruitment
number and we will make sure someone contacts you. It could be that
we are in the process of working on an exemption for that specific
recruitment as we make it a point to contact all applicants once a
decision is made, but just in case you should probably inquire.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks again for
joining!

On Aug 13, 10:32 am, Actively Seeking Employment

> > post and we will answer your question as quickly as possible.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Ken]

Our Northwest Region’s employment team would like to thank you for
your patience and understanding as we assess our current vacancies to
determine which will be subject to the State’s hiring freeze and which
will not.

It is our intent to fill those Puget Sound area positions approved as
essential to support our agency’s strategic plan of adding capacity,
operating efficiently, and managing demand.

We encourage you to continue to participate in our recruitment and
selection process. Some of our hiring managers have chosen to suspend
their selection processes during the assessment period while others
have chosen to proceed with interviews. Candidates selected for
interview are notified via telephone and/or email.

Please accept our apology for any inconvenience our hiring freeze may
cause you. It is our hope that our freeze will be temporary.

Again, thank you for your patience and your interest in working for
WSDOT’s Northwest Region.

On Aug 11, 7:51 am, fav...@wsdot.wa.gov wrote:

> This week's topic is about the statewide hiring freeze that was
> implemented on August 4th by Governor Gregoire.  Since WSDOT is a
> cabinet agency, we are subject to the hiring freeze with certain
> positions that are critical to project delivery and safety being
> exempt.  As of now, we are putting a hold on recruitment and hiring.
> If you have a question about a specific position that you applied for,

> please contact the office of Human Resources at H...@wsdot.wa.gov.

[KaLee]

I still dont understand why the freeze happened? I talked with my
sister at the City of Chehalis yesterday and she said they are still
hiring. They are government employees too, why do they not have a
freeze? Why is DSHS still sending out job announcements? What if the
freeze never ends?

I am not trying to be a sourpuss, but don't you realize how difficult
this is for us? I turned in 3 applications for 3 dif companies on
August 1 and now I got a letter back from all of them blaming the
freeze. Howe come we didn't get no warning before? Could have saved
me a lot of time.

On Aug 13, 10:52 am, fav...@wsdot.wa.gov wrote:
> Hi Actively, thanks for joining our group.  Here are my answers to
> your questions:
>
> No one is currently aware how long the freeze could last, but there
> have been predictions it could last as long as the remainder of the
> calendar year.  Therefore, although I cannot give you a definitive
> date, I can tell you that as soon as the freeze is lifted, we will be
> posting information letting people know and will resume recruitment as
> normal.
>
> The jobs that are currently on our employment page are jobs that were
> posted before the August 4th Freeze was implemented.  We have kept
> them online because we are in the process of trying to get them
> approved to hire.  Since we at WSDOT are most concerned with citizen
> and worker safety, all of our jobs that are imminent to saftey will
> contine through the recruitment process.  All other jobs that are
> deemed "ok" to recruit for will have to do with project delivery.
>
> If you haven't heard anything, I would suggest contacting the
> designated contact person who was listed on the job announcement.  If
> you no longer have the announcement or there was no contact person

> listed, please write to h...@wsdot.wa.gov and include the recruitment

> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Michaela]

Hi KaLee,

Governor Gregoire implemented a "Spending Adujstment" for all of her
cabinet agencies on August 4th. This included the hiring freeze as
well as asking her cabinet agencies to reduce their gas consumption by
5% and limited travel. The reasoning for this is to try and counter
the national economy dip and keep Washington at a steady level. The
governor has only implemented this for her cabinet agencies but has
encouraged all other state agencies and higher education boards to
take similar actions to increase savings. Ultimately, these savings
will go into a resevoire savings for all Washington State Citizens.
The cities, although still in public service are not part of state
government and therefore do not share the same budget. So, although
they may be taking similar steps to try and reduce unneccesary
spending, they are not effected by the freeze. On the same note,
certain agencies, like DSHS are exempt from the freeze. The reason
behind the exemptions is that although the governor would like to
adjust some spending to increase savings, she is adamant that public
safety and health are still number one. Therefore, all jobs that
directly affect health and safety (including much of the Department of
Social and Health Services' positions) are exempt from the freeze in
order to ensure that Washington continues to run smoothly and safely.
On a DOT specific note, you can see on our employment page at
www.wsdot.wa.gov/Employment/jobs that our positions directly affecting
project delivery and safety are still open to receive applications as
we want to continue to ensure that all of our projects are on-time and
on-budget and our roads continue to be safe. This freeze will end.

We do realize that the freeze is an inconvenience for some applicants,
especially for those who are currently between jobs. We made it a
point to notify applicants of the freeze as soon as we were informed
of what the freeze entailed. We will continue to notify all of our
applicants of updates and we will be sending out a mass notification
when the freeze is lifted. Although, it may seem inconvenient, I do
believe that the freeze was implemented with the intent to benefit all
Washington State Citizens.

Thanks,

Michaela