I work for the agency and happen to be in a position to personally observe field office operations in multiple offices. Yes, there are some very hard working employees, but there are many more slackers. The constant use of cell phones for personal calls (even taking calls while in an interview) and texting, and the excessive surfing of the internet is incredible. I have pretty much lost sympathy for the agency. I don't think a furlough of many of the employees would be noticeable, that is how little they produce. The early closings of offices is a joke as now many employees see it as an opportunity to leave early, not to work. The hours of 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning are woefully wasted unless there is training. Most days it is just used for excessive chatting and visiting. And this is just in the field. I know several employees who were detailed to CO where they saw employees there routinely take 2 hour lunches on SSA time. As for most field office managers, well, they are vastly overpaid as they do not spend most of their time managing, but "networking" on the phone and politicking.
I know that Social Security employees have a variety of experiences and viewpoints but this one does not ring true to me. There are not that many Social Security employees who would have the opportunity to visit multiple field offices. For the most part, employees would be on their best behavior when such people were around since they would be management. How well would visiting personnel get to know what was going on in the field offices? How many people get detailed to work in Social Security's central offices? I wouldn't think there would be many even at the regional office level. I know that Social Security employees are no more perfect than any other large group of people but this seems way over the top. What do you think of this post?
26 comments:
I did have the opportunity to work in a lot of field offices, and observe a lot more. A lot of this rings very true. What I did not see were excessively long lunches. That was always a no-no for the staff. Managers, yes. Personal use of the telephone was always very excessive. Beginning of the day and end of the day was social hour. The greatest abuse was from managers. My particular favorite was the branch manager who was running his family liquor store down the street, mostly on company time.
Most of the time, abuse starts from the top and works it way down.
I have worked in five field offices in my career. I know that the managers and supervisors in my office often come in to work on Saturday or Sunday, without pay, to finish up some of their duties that they can't get to during the week.
I think that often there is too much time allowed for 'party planning', the prep and clean up for office potlucks for holidays and retirement luncheons and birthday celebrations in the last two offices I worked in. I also worked in an office in the other extreme - employees not allowed to talk to each other at all, even about work issues.
I will say that the more relaxed offices are nicer to work in and I tend to not take a formal break at all because I know I chit chat. I also tend to eat lunch at my desk and often work a 1/2 hour extra without pay. But I don't keep track of my co-workers
I also have no idea what the manager does all day except for management meetings and conference calls. I wonder how an employee who is working hard has any time to even figure out what the manager is doing.
This is a little over the top but I understand where the writer is coming from based on my experience in the two field offices I have worked in. Our manager sets a poor example for all with inappropriate cell phone and internet use, ridiculously long lunches without taking leave, etc. It does trickle down to the staff as well. I am responsible for our local District Office Work Sampling (DOWS) and it never ceases to amaze me how many people are not doing anything of value before 9AM. While there are many hard working employees at SSA, I don't think this is totally off the mark. We could definitely do more with less if we had more efficient leadership.
Work ethic all over the place seems to be worse than when I was younger.
Seems like morale is so poor that management lets a lot of stuff get by just to keep people happier.
Where I work (PC) the pressure to meet the Goals and to instantaneously resolve the public relations problems/congressionals/manager-to-manger requests/dire need cases is constant and unyielding. Less employees = more of these types of cases for the ones who remain. Working through breaks and lunch (and now my own time, because I have maximum credit hours) is my usual practice. Tomorrow, I will try to get to work by 5:30am because that is the earliest they will let non-management employees in-----I'm not complaining---this is my own choice to lessen the relentless "Please advise status on...." so when I read observations like this one I can't help but wonder, "Where are the SSA offices where they don't have Goals and PR problems...where? where?..why can't I work there?????" This observation, if true, makes me very sad....this is what the public will remember.
I work in an FO. There is no difference between my work office culture and anything else i have seen in my private sector work. Humans working often looks like a "social hour"
Letting that be, Humans in general need to learn some better practices around cell phones. The number of my interviews that are slowed because of either texting talking or just straight fiddling is absurd. This applies as much to SSA and it does to applebee's
It's funny to me - in the "old days", managers and supervisors in any office or profession could make rules and enforce them regarding making and receiving personal calls on work time. Since the advent of cell phones, it seems as if no one believes he has the right to tell an employee how to use "her" phone.
Nothing like a little AFGE complaining. No doubt there are slackers (mostly Union types), but the story in the post is false.
Agree with 6:02. Spend a day or two in an FO and you'll know the real deal. As for the cell phone bit, in the offices I managed, cell conversations were prohibited in the building---you had to go outside to make a call, on break or at lunch. I reprimanded several employees over this, the union objected, and the reprimands still stuck.
I have to wonder - I've been in FOs as both a customer and as a visitor from CO and it's usually been reasonably run. Some days better than others. What I can't reconcile is how what was posted doesn't ring true as regards field office management. I don't see a lot of leaders, but there are a lot of managers. The ones who come to CO are all about "respect" simply because they are managers; fast with the rule book, little idea on how to lead with an emphasis on adherence to "the rules", often martinets with zero leadership potential who seem to have gotten promoted because they run their ability to run employees into the dirt. Operations supervisors are usually pretty hard core which makes the depiction of the filed offices described hard to believe.
the post may have come from an employee but was certainly embellished. one comment i really don't understand is the "networking" allegation against managers. who would they be possibly networking with?
ASC's work in as many as 4 to 5 different offices a week, (until the travel freeze). I'm sure that would get you a lot of exposure to observing other offices. I am in agreement with 7am to 9 am time is the most wasted time during the day, because once the doors open, it's nonstop interviewing for me.
I have worked at SSA for 30 years and have never taken a 2 hour lunch. I have worked through lunch.
There are bad employees at every company or agency. But the person who posted this insulted every SSA employee by painting with a broad brush.
It is very common to be detailed to Baltimore. The agency prizes breadth of experience. It is said the way to get promoted is to do anything other than your job.
I agree a lot with the original post, except of course that the number of useless employees is lower than implied - maybe 8%. It is virtually impossible to jump through the HR hoops required to discipline, much less fire, an incompetent employee who has a positive attitude and appears to be trying.
I have been promoted to management, and I can say that there are 2 kind of managers, as accurately reflected in these comments. One kind maintains a work ethic and constantly oversees the work production, filling in as needed. These managers have little ongoing promotion potential. The other kind oversee the people only, and either (or both) don't know how to do the work or believe it is now beneath them. They indeed spend a TON of time "networking," often because that's where they find the answers to their questions as opposed to personal knowledge or research. They get promoted because everyone knows them, so they "must be" good at their jobs.
That's why massive projects are undertaken in HQ with people who seem to have a lot of experience, yet also seem to have no idea how the work is really done, or else how could they have thought that was a good idea?
I know a person in the PSC who does take a 2hr lunch. He is also there from when the building opens at 5:30am until 5pm or 6pm in the evening. Why? He's in his mid-60s, his wife passed away a few years ago and he now lives across the street. There are also several people who use flex lunches to handle medical appointments.
As for the cell phone bit, I refuse to believe it. Even in the PSC, there are managers who walk the halls like its a school looking for anyone on a cellphone and if it does not sound like an emergency, they tell them off. Same pretty much goes for internet use, too.
While I cannot attest to the situation in the field offices, most people know that once we are on the clock any 'playtime' goes out the door and the hawks circle us non-stop.
I do NOT see many people slacking, but I do agree that much of the field office staff are overpaid.
Do we really need offices full of GS 13/14 "Social Insurance Specialists"? Half these people do not even have a college education and are getting paid $100,000+. I've never understood this.
SS could save a ton by reorgainizing the pay of the field offices.
There are also overpaid people in Baltimore. How many GS-13 computer programers do we need? The programming job used to go to GS-12 and that was the end of road. Now everyone in Systems expects at least a GS-13 and many GS-14's too.
There are also too many "program analysts" who do little work in PC7.
Those who do the important work, BA's, CA's and CR's are stuck at GS-11 at the highest. Which is fine but they should rescind some of the GS-13 GS14 promotions of recent years.
SSA is a huge organization with hundreds of different types of offices, jobs, and individuals. It is quite possible for 2 people to see completely different work ethics in different offices in SSA.
That said, it is ashame that some places within SSA have murderous workloads, and others (like the one that I work in at HQ) are wastelands of productivity.
It breaks my heart to hear about people working unpaid overtime to meet workload demands. AFGE needs to get involved big time in stuff like that.
re: Anon 10:32am
"I do NOT see many people slacking, but I do agree that much of the field office staff are overpaid.
Do we really need offices full of GS 13/14 "Social Insurance Specialists"? Half these people do not even have a college education and are getting paid $100,000+. I've never understood this.
SS could save a ton by reorgainizing the pay of the field offices."
It is clear you are talking out your lower orifice - your lack of knowledge about your subject demonstrates that clearly.
For future reference, here is a little free education for you: In SSA field offices, the vast majority of employees are max GS-11 (claims rep) or GS-9 (service rep) level employees. Technical Experts are the only regular employees above GS-11 (they are GS-12s, and there are normally few of them relative to the number of claims reps in a given office). Management Support Specialists (MSS) and Operations Supervisors (OS) are GS-12 positions. The smaller FOs have a GS-13 level manager, while even the biggest field offices only have a bare handful of GS-13/14 level employees (usually the District Manager at GS-14 and Assistant District Manager - or two - at GS-13).
So, the vast majority of SSA field office employees make way under $100,000 per year.
Feel free to go crawl back under your rock now.
@7:45 You have most of that right. However, Service Rep's are GS-8 employees.
Original post had to be a troll. FOs are run like prison camps.
GS-11 is WAY to high for a "claims rep". GS-8, max and even that is high.
Anon 9:29 obviously has no clue about the responsibilities "Claims Rep's" have and the workloads expected of them. GS-8 doesn't pay enough to do this job.
I've worked in at least five FOs, with a couple of years in RO and a three-month detail to CO. The higher up you go, the less real work gets down. My experience in the FOs was several years ago, but the vast majority of employees were working very hard. FO management tended to be sticklers for everyone actually working 8 hours.
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