From
The Messenger of Fort Dodge, Iowa:
Ray Powell came with the wind, so to speak.
Powell began his career at Fort Dodge's Social Security Administration office in June 1979 - shortly after tornadoes struck Manson and Algona.
Powell's departure [from his job as office manager] is set to be somewhat less dramatic.
After 32 years in Fort Dodge, Powell will retire on Friday.
Yes, someone else will replace him as office manager at least on a acting basis but his job won't really be filled since Social Security isn't hiring.. Service to Iowans will decline.
Was given a nice surprise yesterday with 6 back-to-back retirement announcements. Going to be a trend.
ReplyDeleteSomebody should have honestly been watching how many employees were eligible to retire and maybe thought: "Hey, if their pay is frozen now and they have been at the highest step of their grade level, why would they stay? Maybe we should have tred to hire more replacements before they all leave."
I've been saying this since the President announced the two year pay freeze. SSA has one of the "oldest" workforces in terms of age and/or service in the Government. There's no reason to stay if you've topped out in your grade, except for the small CSRS bump after 30 years. I think this is going to be a tsunami.
ReplyDeleteWhether it is a District Manger, Supervisor, CR, SR or any other position, retirements will have a dramatic adverse effect on the Agency's ability to provide service for years to come. The learning curve for a new hire is 2-3 yrs, so you can expect at least that length of time for an offic eto recover from employee losses.
ReplyDeleteI may be retiring soon considering I am in an area where the lowest position seems to be Claims Reps. And this causes even the least qualified person to be promoted, even though they have no idea even how to do SR work. Somehow they are deemed qualified to be Claims Reps. And I spend more time on SR type work of answering the phones and working the front counter, that I barely have any time to figure out the more difficult Claims Rep duties. And then there seems to be an abundance of middle management positions opening up for cronies at Grades 12+. What the heck is the point of an OO?
ReplyDeleteRetirement is really starting to look good at GS-11 Step 10.
Which is also the reason that eliminating disincentives to staying past retirement age won't change much. The truth is, SSA has a glut of boomers hired in the 70-early 80's who are going to retire, and changing the system so they could make a little more money if they stay on longer won't change that. After 30+ years working in the field, there is probably very little the agency could do that would cause these employees to prolong their misery.
ReplyDeleteOOs still exist??? Wow. Thought that position was eliminated in the 90s.
ReplyDeleteCame in to the office today to 8 more retirement e-mails.
ReplyDeleteThere are now more empty desks in my area than employees.
8 years to go, going to be a long walk
How big is the office? Is consolidation with another facility possible?
ReplyDeleteA10:00 Agree, the learning curve is long -- if it is 2-3 years now, just wait until there's no one to mentor gecause the experienced employees have retired. Unfortunately for the public, new employees may not ever learn all the quirks in the law.
ReplyDelete