Jan 23, 2017

A Message From The New Acting Commissioner



From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2017 8:34 AM
Subject: Commissioner’s Broadcast – 1/23/17

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Following in the footsteps of past Commissioners, I am honored and humbled to serve as the Acting Commissioner of Social Security while we await the confirmation of a permanent Commissioner.

A special thank you to Acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin for her years of leadership and accomplishments.  We wish you the best! 

During this time of transition, I ask that you continue to focus on our mission of public service.  Despite any changes that may occur, our focus remains the same – providing service that is efficient, compassionate and balanced while protecting the integrity of our programs.   Whether you serve the public directly or indirectly, you are essential to our success. 

I have been with the agency for over 40 years starting as a GS-2 clerical in Chicago and have always been very passionate about public service.  I know you share my passion. I have seen first-hand your dedication and commitment to our mission.  You, the employees, are the core of what we do every day and the reason we have been able to build a legacy of public service.  I look forward to continuing our legacy together. 

Thank you for everything you do each and every day. 

Nancy A. Berryhill
Acting Commissioner

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been with the agency for over 40 years starting as a GS-2 clerical."

I don't know Ms. Berryhill and she may be a very nice and competent person. But that statement is the declaration of a person who is plodding, methodical, risk-averse, and lacking in any real world experience, and unlikely to challenge any edict from on high. Not to mention opportunistic and ladder climbing. A typical beauropathic personality. I wonder how many times Nancy had to disrupt and move her family to get the next paygrade. And how, given her willingness to do that to those closest to her, she treats her employees. Maybe, for the sake of all concerned, there should be term limits for all federal managers.

Anonymous said...

Just a place holder for the deconstruction/privatization team, but it should help with her retirement benefits! Good luck in your new temp job.

Anonymous said...

Colvin started in a clerical capacity as well.

Anonymous said...

At what point would you ever call a man who had career success and possibly had to move his family as "opportunistic and ladder climbing?"

Seems especially poignant after this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Bravo 12:10PM. 10:32AM is simply trolling. 10:32AM must be a psychological profiler as there is nothing in the statement that directly supports any of the assertions made in the original comment. b

Anonymous said...

I would like to hear more about whether the Federal Employee hiring Freeze that Trump just signed a few minutes ago is going to apply to SSA workers.

Anonymous said...

@12:10 OP here, and I would have said all the same things if the name were Ben and not Beverly.

@12:12 Anyone with access to a DSMI-V can be a "psychological profiler." In the federal workplace. It's an essential survival tool.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps David Black former SSA OGC - is really running things.......he was head of the SSA transition team - and is now a Senior White House advisor.....

Beatrice Disman is acting chief of staff........(former NY Regional Commissioner)

Anonymous said...

https://cmgwsbradiojamiedupree.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/trump-federal-hiring-freeze.pdf

Baby it's cold outside and the backlogs are-a-increasin

Anonymous said...

Nancy Berryhill is an extremely competent and dedicated executive. She is a careerist and is in the line of succession as the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, which is why she was taped to be ACOSS. When there is not a Deputy Commissioner (the position was vacated when Colvin became ACOSS), the line of succession falls to the Dep Commissioner of Operations. Nancy will be in this acting position until the POTUS nominates a COSS. So please do not be so judgmental of a public servant who is doing the duties that were assigned to her.

Anonymous said...

They don't need to worry about privatization if they keep this up. Keep increasing the wait times until everybody is dead. I lost another client last week.

Anonymous said...

If those at the top running this thing were smart they would take a greed and meanness break and realize this program might be one of the things that is holding this leaking ship together. how many people can you marginalize, disenfranchise and attempt to kill off before the monster is released. Everybody but a few are getting poorer in this country and jobs aren't out there to accommodate all of these people. Think about the blindness and ruthlessness of the last Russian Czar and where it got him. You aren't going to fool all of these people forever. Most of my white disability clients are now republicans and Trump supporters. Go ahead and cut them and screw over their families. Do it.

Dot,gov said...

SSA may need a sharp GS-2 clerical _more_ than MS acting filling a chair.

Would like to know qualifications, beyond climbing the in-house ladder [and a few ,,, equal opportunity credits along the way?].
What is THE PLAN for ODARs increasing processing time and mounting backlog with decreasing staff level over time?
Massaged statistics compiled and analyzed by more managers.
Smoke and mirrors?
One added GS-2 clerical, could be a start! ...

Anonymous said...

Found this bio on Ms. Berryhill.

Nancy A. Berryhill became Deputy Commissioner for Operations in July 2013. Prior to that, Nancy was the Regional Commissioner for the Social Security Administration's Chicago Region since March 3, 2011, and the Regional Commissioner for the Social Security Administration's Denver Region since January 2006. While in the Denver Region, Nancy developed numerous innovative agency solutions such as video service delivery, use of webinars, and the first American Indian outreach guide. Nancy began her career with the Social Security Administration as a student employee. Throughout her distinguished career with Social Security, she has held many positions including Service Representative, Claims Representative, Operations Supervisor, District Manager, Area Director for the State of Illinois and Deputy Regional Commissioner in Denver. Nancy was selected to the Senior Executive Service Program in October 2002 and completed her program in October 2003 when she was appointed to the Senior Executive Service. As part of her SES assignments, Nancy worked for the Department of Homeland Security and in the Office of the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Nancy obtained her degree in Computer Science at the Control Data Institute in Chicago. Nancy is a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Nancy has been the recipient of many agency awards including the Commissioner's Citation, the agency's highest and most distinguished award. In 2010, Nancy received the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive. Her work and achievements consistently demonstrate professional excellence, exceptional leadership, integrity, and commitment to public service.

Anonymous said...

@6:58

RE: Qualifications of Nancy A. Berryhill to be Acting SSA Commissioner

The biography on Ms. Berryhill is all well and good. My concern, however, is she is not an Attorney; has no legal background; and has absolutely no knowledge about how to efficiently run and manage a Hearings Program, such as ODAR, and the Appeals Council. In other words, like Colvin who similarly rose through the ranks from a Clerical position, her background indicates she is not the optimal person to run these very important facets of SSA. Face it, the disability case backlog is unprecedented, and is where the top inertia in the Agency must be focused. The problem, of course, is many of the top Agency officials responsible for driving the Agency into the ground and creating the massive backog in the first place are still there. These individuals have proven time and again they are unable to manage the Disability Hearings components of the Agency. To allow them to remain in their management positions with the Agency would be a huge travesty. I certainly hope the new administration has enough sense to make this observation and react accordingly.

As long as we continue to have top Agency Management and officials who discourage employee engagement; who are so preoccupied with production numbers/quotas they punitively manage every level of the workforce by issuing Reprimands, and/or refusing to allow telework for those whose production numbers fall slightly below unrealistic benchmarks, quality of their work product be damned; who insist on micromanaging to the point where they punish ALJ's for writing instructions some bureacrat deems insufficient, when they are the brilliant ones responsible for trying to groom all support staff into attorney decision writers in the first place - this was a failure of epical proportions and why there are so few support staff now; who are inappropriately focused on enforcing Web TA (Time and Attendance) nuances than with getting work done; who insist on arguing with employees over the incredible time it takes for laptops and computers to boot-up before one can sign-in via Web TA; and who choose to be wilfully ignorant of merit system primciples and prohibited personnel practices, the unprecedented disability case backlog will only continue to grow. Here's hoping the new administration and Congress will take charge and clean out the swamp which exists at the top of SSA, especially those who run and manage the Hearings components.

Anonymous said...

Is being called a "careerist" really a compliment? Isn't that the federal service's version of a "company man"?

Anonymous said...

At least she has experience in the agency of which she is in charge for awhile. Wish the same could be said for the heads of other agencies.

dat;gov said...

Buffed Bio:
"Control Data Institute" in Chicago was part of a fairly large chain of school loosely associated with the former computer hardware manufacture Control Data. Mostly a half-day 3 to 9 month program with courses such as assembly language, RPN, COBAL, disc and tape mounting. Not associate or bachelor degree program , see VA 1982 determination for only a "certificate" program, no accreditation except as a for profit trade school ((stares or US Dept of Ed).
The alleged "degree in computer science" is doubtful.

The "Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University" has several short term / executive programs. (exed.hks.harvard.edi, including online). "Graduate" is questionable when no specific graduate degree is given and, even more, with no indication of any undergraduate degree.

And, there is considerable claiming of credit for "what people did under me" if the whole story were told.

Anonymous said...

I for one am honored to work for a commissioner who over 40 years worked their way up from a GS-2 clerical position. An amazing accomplishment. I'll take that any day over a political appointee who got the job as a reward.

Evelyn Sherrill Martinez said...

I call bullshit. Continuing to provide service that is "efficient, compassionate and balanced"? Have you met any of your employees?? All the ones I've met are vindictive, spiteful, incompetent and inefficient. I've been fighting for a year to get my children the SSI that they are owed and the social security workers continually violate their own policies and procedures. They deem our case wrong consistently and refuse to fix it.

Unknown said...

I'm fighting Social Security right now as a rep payee because Social security didn't send her the check for April. She's going to lose her place to live end up homeless and no one will help her. All because she didn't get her check. On top of that she's legally blind. And when I reached out to social security myself as her payee I was lied to and hung up on. Then again they've got what's coming to them. I've already reached out to our local news stations and they're preparing a story. So watch out social security you're going to regret messing with us. We will unveil the wrong doings you've done and there's no way to stop us. This is what happens when you allow idiots to run your government. Its falls and crumbles into nothing.