The employees at Social Security offices in Iowa will soon be busier helping congested offices in New York. Offices in Carroll, Creston, and Ottumwa will electronically handle hundreds of claims from thousands of miles away.
Social Security regional commissioner, Michael Grochowski, says the offices have the capacity to handle the additional work, especially compared to locations in New York.
"You can come into our office here without an appointment, and you're probably going to be served in five or ten minutes. If you've got an appointment, they serve you in two or three minutes, if not right on the dime. We have places in the country that you wait an hour. You wait a half hour if you have an appointment," Grochowski explains.
"We're going to pair up with some offices in the New York region, especially in their metropolitan areas, where they can't keep up with walk-in. When their doors open up, they have 100 or 150 people at the door everyday."
Apr 19, 2009
Iowa Helping New York
From Radio Iowa News
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3 comments:
Offloading work among field offices is not new. Before I retired three years ago our office was offloading to offices in six other cities including offices in another state. Back in the '80s I worked in a branch office that took thousands of claims as well as some post entitlement work for other offices.
While the people in Baltimore pat themselves on the back for having successfully "managed" the situation in New York, service in Iowa will probably decline to unacceptable levels.
Well, y'all, this old cynic wants to know two things. 1)When does a COSS admit service levels anywhere are "unacceptable" because of understaffing? And, 2)When will a COSS actually admit we're deep in kimchee and their rescue missions are not what we need? Lots of managers are the only management person in a remote office, there's no help available, the employees are burned out, no amount of overtime will solve the problem, and asking for help is met with helpful suggestions like, Want more OT? Meh. I'll shut up now, but we've all seen this over and over again. Give me a break or a new COSS with a brain. Maybe both.
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