An
op ed piece in the Hudson, NY Register-Star:
On May 7, 2013 an e-mail with the subject, “A Plea For Help” was
sent to the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration,
Ms. Carolyn Colvin by Douglas Ottomanelli, claims representative and
union representative for the Hudson, NY field office. This e-mail
briefly outlined some of the issues and frustrations facing SSA office
workers across the nation.
Over a week has passed and no still no response.
My name is Douglas and I am a claims representative (CR) and the union representative for the Hudson, NY Social Security office.
The reason for my communication today is in part a
plea for help. Like most offices throughout the nation we are severely
understaffed. As an office we are unable to keep up with the workloads
and just last week two more CRs handed in their retirement papers
because they were so stressed and frustrated.
We are overwhelmed as an agency. The quality of
the work we produce has decreased significantly. The errors have
increased and will continue to increase in direct proportion to the
increasing workloads and shrinking staff. Most importantly the public is
suffering from the lack of a quality product/service and consistency
and their frustration level is increasing with each passing day.
As an agency we are so very fortunate to have so
many individuals who care about their work, want to do a good, and give
excellent customer service. Please help us to help the citizens and
residents of this great country we serve.
We need more bodies in the office to take claims,
work the window, answer the phones, and work our breakdown. This is a
national issue but I will talk about my office because we are a perfect
example of some of the challenges facing this agency. As of July first
of this year, we will be down to eight people in our office (5 CRs, 1
service representative (SR), 1 supervisor and 1 manager). Twenty-five
percent of our staff is management and we are told they cannot answer
the phones, work the window, take interviews, or have a breakdown.
Twenty-five percent of our staff is not in production putting a
tremendous burden on the remaining staff members.
We are constantly receiving e-mails for vacancy
announcements for supervisors, managers and district managers, yet we
never see a vacancy announcement for CRs or SRs. This is a very sore
point with many staff members throughout the agency because we are the
face of the agency. We are the people that the public sees and interacts
with on a daily basis yet our numbers have been steadily decreasing and
our anxiety and stress has been steadily increasing. As a result the
public is not seeing the best SSA has to offer and their experience and
confidence with the agency is diminishing.
This communication is in part a plea for help. We
need more bodies and we need to adjust the system to fit the realities
we are now facing.
Please help us help the public we serve.
10 comments:
This letter is a disservice to the majority of management who are involved in production on a daily basis. They answer phones, take interviews, clear work CDRS and fill in wherever and whenever they are needed. Their ability to assist in this office may be limited by AFGE squawking about management doing bargaining unit work.
I share the concern about staff shortages but in most offices management and staff alike share in the struggle.
Welcome to live at SSA. We have the same problems at ODAR..
Management in my regional office does not answer the phone. Several of them are essentially on welfare. One of them is disabled so they are untouchable.
It is true in my area that when a management position becomes vacant it is advertised and filled immediately, whereas when a CR leaves or gets promoted, there's no chance of a replacement, just more work for the rest of us.
Solution, close this office now and reassign staff. This will improve management/staff ratios, provide greater leave and public service flexibility, and save money spent for office space, supplies, furniture and equipment, computers, security, and more. I am sure the public would be better served (better quality and timeliness) by less stressed employees. Talk about a no-brainer win-win solution.
I agree with 5:17. When an office shrinks to the size of this one, it makes no business sense to keep it open.
As a manager of a small (and busy) field office with no hiring in sight, I answered the public line, admin line, worked the front reception desk when needed, answered all the congressional inquiries, and opened and sorted the incoming mail on a daily basis. I came in Saturday or Sunday (no overtime, credit or comp) to do all the admin work that I couldn't get done during the week. The Union rep complained from time to time, but every other employee appreciated the help and told me so.
That was all around 2000-2004 when things were only bad. I can only imagine how horrific it is now for field office staff and management. I'm so glad to be retired from that place.
A lot of non-management promotions lately have been temporary promotions (NTE1,2). Because it is temporary they cannot be replaced.
I think the big issue is, management is currently being selected from wasteful technicians who have no leadership qualities at all and this results in technicians and other reps caring less.
Would you be eager to work hard and succeed only to make a poor manager look good? There are good managers, but they are leaving fast and the people replacing them are those that probably should have been fired long ago, but the union kept interfering.
And yes, that is a swipe at a union because we just had a technician who would do not work, shop online and talk on the phone all day just get promoted to management. The union will not let us get rid of the problem, so we have to promote them out. At least she is out of our building now.
Supervisors are useless in our office. They take long lunches and the are not very knowledgeable of the rules and regulations of Social Security. These supervisors walk around with their walkie talkies notifying others in management how many individuals are waiting to be called. These supervisors should have more skin in the game and actually call numbers or answer the phones. This agency is too top heavy and the current commissioner wants to keep the same system in place. I guess changes will not come until a new commissioner is in place who listen to its employees.
SSA employees have been recently notified that awards will not be given out this year. I believe in shared sacrifice but it does not seem to apply to management. Expensive area offices that have no contact with the public remain open while local offices are being closed or downsized at a record pace. The question remains is how a palatial area office help better serve the public?
In contrast to whatever is going on out in the field, there has been no staffing problems in the Appeals Council over the past few years. It has nearly tripled in size, hired and promoted of hundreds of lawyers. It has had plenty of money to sail through the recession and supposed hardships of sequestration. But has its abundant resources and expansion benefited the public in significant way?
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