SSA Front Line Managers Stressed

The National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of SSA management personnel, has released a letter to Linda McMahon, SSA's Deputy Commissioner for Operations, giving suggestions on what SSA could do to make the jobs of SSA's front line managers less difficult. The suggestions made are perhaps less important than the description of the job circumstances faced by SSA's front line managers:

Over the past 25 years, the duties of field office management have changed dramatically. When we reduced the size of the agency in the 1980’s, the field representative, administrative aide and clerical positions were among the first to be eliminated in many field offices. As our workloads continued to grow, it became more essential to have SRs and CRs in the offices to service the public and process the work. Management at all levels, especially the OS’s and MSS’s, had to fill in the gaps, taking over many clerical and administrative activities that were previously done by other positions. We now spend large amounts of our time doing essentially non-management functions, including the following:
1. Various clerical duties including opening, closing and distributing mail and filing folders
2. Distributing and filing e-mail
3. Cleaning and maintaining the stockroom.
4. Monitoring supply, forms and pamphlet usage and ordering necessary supplies
5. Filling in and assisting in doing the work of almost all workloads in the office, including at the front end to meet productivity goals.
6. Time and attendance Posting
7. Answering telephone calls on the General Inquiry lines.