A Retired Social Security Employee Speaks

By Carol Balderree in the Heber Springs, Arkansas Sun Times:

It was with both sadness and joy that I retired last month, after 32 years with the Social Security Administration. I always loved my job and was rewarded by the satisfaction of being able to help people through some of the most stressful times in their lives. In retirement I look forward to spending more time with friends and family and to volunteering with local charitable organizations that do so much to support the people of our community. Regrettably, I leave friends and co-workers who are faced with a staffing shortage, long hours and increased backlogs.

There are those who believe that government agencies are nothing but bloated bureaucracies staffed by stupid, lazy, overpaid workers. I can’t speak for all of government, but I can assure you that this is not true of those who work for the Social Security Administration. SSA employees are valiantly trying to cope with increasing workloads and reduced budget appropriations. ...

Since 1983, when I started working in Searcy, staffing has shrunk from 14 employees (handling the workload for 3 counties) down to 11 or fewer. When employees resign, retire or transfer to another office, they are often not replaced due to hiring freezes. When new employees are finally hired, they go through at least 4 months of classroom training and another 2 years of on-the-job training before they become journeymen.

The Searcy office has lost 17 employees in the last 7 years, leaving the office chronically understaffed. Of the 7 who have left in the past 2 years (including me), only 3 have been replaced. ...

One business model embraced early on by Social Security is the national toll-free teleservice center. Typical of banks, insurance companies and many other businesses, callers must first listen to a litany of options that provide pre-recorded messages, and if they wait long enough, may finally get a live person from just about anywhere in the country.

It is now difficult to speak to a local representative because when the call centers were opened, staffing was reallocated from local offices to the call centers. The Searcy office has only one incoming line and callers report that it is always busy.

With the explosion of computer technology, it is now possible for SSA management to track everything that an office or employee does, whether it is taking a claim, filing an appeal, changing an address or issuing a Social Security card. Employees and offices are rated on how many actionable items they can produce in a day/week/month and how fast they can complete these actions.

While this facilitates accountability, it also creates an incentive to curtail interviews and development, which could adversely affect either the client or the agency. It creates a disincentive to provide personal services that are not measurable: things like returning phone calls, taking the time to answer questions, and sometimes just listening to people who have suffered a loss of livelihood or loss of a spouse or parent.