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Saturday, November 29, 1997

State workers desert their jobs for high-tech salaries

AUSTIN (AP) - The state of Texas can't pay its programmers as much as the private companies that have made the capital a high-tech hotbed. So government officials are hoping to improve retention with other perks like maximum 40-hour workweeks, plenty of holiday and sick leave, and job stability.

"We have to be at the forefront of this new computer age; otherwise, we could revert back to a time when the services the state provided were slow and inadequate," said state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin. He chairs a subcommittee studying the problem of recruiting and retaining information technology professionals, who develop software and keep computer systems running.

The Austin area's high-tech companies offer computer whizzes fat base salaries, lucrative bonuses and stock options, and the chance to work on cutting-edge technologies.

But for many there can be a downside: stress, burnout and instability.

Nina Taylor recognizes those disadvantages. The 38-year-old mother of two children, ages 8 and 5, has worked for the Texas Education Agency for seven years, the last three as manager of its mainframe client-support group. She said she probably could make 30 percent to 40 percent more money in the private sector but is happy where she is.

"I can take off when I'm sick or when my children are sick," Taylor said. "I generally work 40 hours a week. A lot of jobs in private industry require a lot of overtime, and I don't want to miss this time in my children's lives. We also have really good insurance benefits. I don't have to travel, and I feel like I have very good job security here.

"All those things make it worthwhile to me."

The Legislature reclassified some information technology jobs this year to bump up the pay scale for high-tech professionals. Lawmakers also authorized $10,000 bonuses for high-tech workers who stay on until May 31, 2000, to help make state computers compatible with the new millennium.

But a new state auditor's report indicates those things are not enough. Nearly 20 percent of the state's information technology professionals left their jobs in the budget year that ended Aug. 31. The rate is virtually unchanged from the previous year.

The auditor cited the strong national and state economy and Austin's abundance of high-tech companies as the main factors in the turnover. There are 770 high-tech companies with more than 67,000 employees in the Austin area, according to the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.

One state agency, the Department of Information Resources, lost more than half its 34 computer wizards last year, the auditor found.

"My perception is that the high-profile people in state information technology jobs are getting actively recruited by companies," said Carolyn Purcell, executive director of information agency, which manages and coordinates the state's computer needs. "That generates a lot of interest among the co-workers left behind, who then get aggressive in testing the private-sector job market."

Michele Glaze, a spokeswoman for Dell Computer Corp., said her company has not actively recruited at state agencies. It doesn't have to.

"I know there have been some former state agency employees working at Dell, but I believe it was more of an active choice on their part," Glaze said.

State officials could ultimately conclude that it is better to contract with private industry than compete with it, said Jerry Amundson, an Austin computer industry analyst and former high-tech recruiter.

"If the state doesn't decide to privatize soon," Amundson said, "the free market may take care of that decision for the Legislature when nobody comes to work for the state."Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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