May 17, 2014

EEOC Criticizes Social Security

     From the Baltimore Sun:
The Social Security Administration has failed to establish an adequate process for handling discrimination claims from employees and has sparked concerns about conflicts of interest in some of those cases, according to a scathing federal report obtained Thursday by The Baltimore Sun.
Auditors at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charged with enforcing workplace discrimination laws, said the agency failed to follow regulations when handling complaints, manipulated data to boost case completion rates and created the impression that managers had intruded into what should have been impartial investigations.
Of 2,292 complaints processed over a four-year period, not one resulted in a finding of discrimination, according to the report.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This should be no surprise in an Agency where new managers are encouraged to lie during training to attain their objectives out in the field.

Unknown said...
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Anonymous said...

4:36 you need to explain that allegation. I was a manager in the field for 8 years and no one ever encouraged me to lie either in training (which there really never was initial management training) or anytime ever for that matter. Not only did no one ever encourage me to lie, they never even hinted at it or acted like they allowed it. Maybe I had ethical managers above and around me, but I am curious as to your experience.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how these statistics (2,292 complaints with 0 finding of discrimination) compare with other agencies?

Anonymous said...

I wonder if further research would reveal that the 2,292 complainants have all since had their jobs eliminated?

Anonymous said...

This is approximately the same percentage that the Social Security Administration has scored in their evaluation of bias complaints against Administrative Law Judges.

Anonymous said...

Well, it's certainly not a well-run cover up.

Rule #1 of data manipulation requires that the data be plausible.

I mean, if you want to ignore workplace discrimination laws, you have to have a symbolic sacrifice once in a while.

We are not looking at the sharpest tools in the shed here.

Anonymous said...

6:12 It sounds like you might be an old timer and may have retired or gone out of management a while ago. I am also an old timer and I remember when there was absolute integrity in management. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Managers SSA-wide (now including ODAR) that have gone into management within the last ten years or so are absolutely given training not to be sympathetic to employees and to lie when necessary. Is it in a handout, not the lying. However, if someone digs deep enough they may find the training material which taught new managers to keep a very straight face and defensive stand when an employee makes a complaint that could cause management trouble. There was a name for the technique, but i have long forgot it. To be fair to the new managers it is made clear to them that if they don't toe the line, they have no protections. It is an awful environment in which we all work and no one "upstairs" is ever held accountable. I'm in the KMA club, so I can distance myself but I feel very bad for my fellow employees. I came out of management quite a while ago and would not consider going back for exactly these reasons.

Anonymous said...

SSA does not ignore discrimination complaints by any means. They end up settling them by promoting or transfering the complaintant so the case closes (e.g. when managers get involved). The majority of every agency's cases before the EEOC gets settled. Take a look at their allowance rates, its like 1-2% (and that's the cases that actually go to decision, not the 90+% that are settled beforehand).

Anonymous said...

Strange, I know of two discrimination (actually reverse discrimination to use terms improperly) that went all the way to the EEOC AJ and were won against the Agency, with one becoming a SA and the otehr rehired as an AA. No settlement, no offers. Funny thing though, the offending HOCALJ was never punished for either case.

Anonymous said...

I was in management for ten years myself before retiring. I was never encouraged/trained/ordered to lie about anything. That said, my area director (I was a Level 1 DM) was a sociopathic, amoral tyrant who regularly lied to me and my colleagues. With "leaders" like that, I'm not surprised that a lot of younger, more impressionable managers and supervisors get the hint that that's the way to go. I early-outed to save my sanity and health. It's sad to see what SSA has become as opposed to 35 years ago, when I was an idealistic, dedicated claims rep trainee.

Anonymous said...

"Manipulating data to boost case completion rates..." Sounds like ODAR.

Anonymous said...

809 has it exactly right

Lazy workers who never deserve a merit based promotion file frivilous EEoc complaints endlessly until the agency gets tired of responding to them and gives them a promotion to shut them up.

Anonymous said...

9:24, you are painting with a rather broad brush. Are there cases such as you describe, absolutely. However, there much more meritorious cases where the EE gets screwed. I don't know if you are a manager but if you are, you are definitely part of the problem and give a bad name to all Agency managers.