The Partnership for Public Service's rankings of the best places to work in the federal government, among large agencies, based upon Office of Personnel Management surveys:
| 1 | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | 76.1 | 74.6 | 1.5 |
| 2 | Intelligence Community | 67.1 | 67.9 | -0.8 |
| 3 | Department of Justice | 66.3 | 63.8 | 2.5 |
| 3 | Department of State | 66.3 | 68.2 | -1.9 |
| 5 | Department of Commerce | 66.2 | 68.7 | -2.5 |
| 6 | Social Security Administration | 66.0 | 63.2 | 2.8 |
| 7 | Department of Health and Human Services | 63.9 | 61.8 | 2.1 |
| 8 | Department of Labor | 63.1 | 58.7 | 4.4 |
| 8 | Department of Transportation | 63.1 | 60.4 | 2.7 |
| 10 | Department of the Air Force | 60.0 | 56.8 | 3.2 |
18 comments:
Oh please. This is a dubious distinction at best, and certainly does not apply across the board to all components of SSA, e.g., the Disability component, specifically ODAR, nor is it applicable to every field/HO of the Agency.
Until corrupt managers destroyed my HO and the lives and livelihood of many good career Federal employees, and the Agency did nothing about it, even after they were served with a legal Petition to Remove by most of the ALJs, prior Managers and local Attorneys, I used to think the same. Until this annihilation occurred, we were blessed with a good management team and were a highly productive and efficient office.
After the folks in Falls Church and Baltimore refused to substantively respond to the legal Petition to Remove, these corrupt managers were given a green light to continue their conduct, which violated all merit system principles. Before they bolted, they saw to it the individuals who replaced them were like minded favorites who would continue the same corrupt, unethical and illegal way of managing. Of course, merit system principles were not followed for these selections.
Many ODAR Field HO's today reveal an oppressive, production numbers, 8 & 4 driven workplace where nothing else matters and the alleged improvement in quality is a facade. You have a top down management style that is abusive in many HO's, and upper management and top officials who abhor employee engagement, intuitive and creative suggestions from field employees about how to address the unprecedented disability backlog, or how to improve the effectiveness and operation of theAgency, specifically ODAR.
I hate federal employees like you, if the conditions where you work are so terrible, you are free to leave. In every office I find at least one employee who acts like they were drafted into public service and are slaves to the terrible management that forces them to conduct the normal duties of their position. I hear they have great managers at Wal-Mart, go work there and shut the hell up.
@10:50AM:
I hate Federal employees like you who clearly lack intelligence and refuse to recognize the truth when overwhelmingly evidence when it stares you in the face. You are an idiot.
I am the 27+ year SA who was illegally forced out of my job. I am sure you have read my recent comments in other threads on this blog. I had a history or rewards,QSI's, accolades from ALJ's for many, many years. I am not the employee who deserved to be illegally forced out of her career and livelihood. Yet, it happened to me.
What exactly is it you do not understand about a legal Petition to Remove signed by most ALJ's, prior Managers and private attorneys who practice SSA disability in my office, and the Agency's refusal to respond or address the situation in any way. Instead, they let it fester, grow and worsen for years? Why is your little mind so incapable of understanding these things do happen and exist, even if they do not in the small world in which you live? As I said, you are an idiot, and it is the Agency's, (ODAR specifically), choice to keep employees like you on board and illegally force exceptional, intelligent career employees like me out the door that is largely the reason for the million+ backlog in disability cases, inefficiency and ineffectiveness which has persisted for years now.
It's too bad your little mind lacks the IQ to understand the reason the Agency keeps idiots like you on board is because they can so easily control you.
You are a disgrace to the Agency.
Wow getting kind of personal.
But back to Anon 10:08. I am curious exactly you mean by "corrupt" managers? I can understand poor managers and incompetent. But does corrupt mean some kind of old-boy network where certain people are favored or passed along for promotions. Or is there some money involved like bribes. Just curious.
The reason ODAR is in such a mess and is a sinking ship:
You had a couple of corrupt managers and top officials, perhaps political appointees, enter the Ivory Tower in Falls Church several years ago. These individuals did not follow the rules or civil service merit system principles. They burrowed in, when necessary, and progressively promoted like minded subordinates into management and SES positions. These subordinate managers and SES'ers, were good soldiers, and hired and promoted more like minded individuals into management and SES positions. They were trained not to follow rules or merit system principles and how to cover up in the event any of their misconduct and wrongdoing was exposed. Over the years, numerous good Federal career employee are illegally forced out the door. Many of these employees were high performers with much to offer. One of the oppressive managerial styles these officials and managers love is to put employees against one another. They operate a punishment oriented top down managerial style and push numbers, numbers numbers every day. They monitor your keystrokes and logins when teleworking, and through bossy fits whenever your ass leaves the seat in the office. They micromanage to such an extent that professional employees like Attorneys and ALJ's feel smothered, unable to function or incorporate their best thought processes and strategies about how to handle cases they hear or decisions they write. It's as if an octopus has a stranglehold over you. If you would just leave these employees alone and let them perform their jobs, you would achieve much more productivity. The punishment oriented top down management style which exists now is devoid of humanity and respect for the dignity of your employees.
"They monitor your keystrokes and logins when teleworking, and through bossy fits whenever your ass leaves the seat in the office."
This is patently false. I am a manager and I have asked my HOSA--excuse me, CA--if I could get info re: when teleworkers' screens time out, when they log in/out of Windows (not Web TA, we can see sign in/out info for Web TA readily). He was unable to and took it all the way up the chain. While our systems do log/track the things you mention somewhere, we were basically told that the only way the agency would ever look would be if the employee were being investigated like criminally.
@12:51PM:
You asked your HOSA or CA? HA! They are least likely to know.
The ODAR systems do track logins, keystrokes, etc., SOMEWHERE, and no, you do NOT have to be under any Criminal investigation before they do this. You can simply be a target someone somewhere wants to get in trouble and ultimately fired.
Ask the AALJ, they know all about this.
If you are lucky enough not to be a target or a favorite, then you undoubtedly have nothing to worry about.
However, you should know they can and do do this whenever and without notice to any employee, anytime, without good cause or reason. As I said, your HOSA/CA is the least likely to know, or be told by his superiors.
I'm not sure what force out means or entails...
I really don't even understand how people get so angry at other people in the office. You're only there 2 days per week.
One of my greatest fears is reading about so much mental illness and becoming mentally ill.
@2:17PM:
Forced out means work conditions are intentionally made so intolerable an employee reaches a tipping point where they have no other choice but to leave.
Your insinuations that I and other commenters on this blog who speak the truth and explain the reality of what is really going on must be angry and mentally ill is ludicrous. Nevertheless, it is the ODAR way now isn't it. The very fact you even state such a thing reveals just how shallow and uninformed you are.
The latest craze going on among HR and managers in the Federal Gov't especially, is to illegally force, bully, mob a target out of their livlihood and employment for whatever reason you wish to target them. This is engagement in unfair labor or prohibited personnel practices. You deliberately choose not to follow the rules or merit system principles. But since you fear mental illness so much, you know this already, right?
Again if were so good at your Job, and treated so poorly. Why not leave to work somewhere that appreciates your talents? Why allow them to force you out of a job, then spend your day trolling this blog?
@3:56PM:
I am not sure who you are addressing, but I am the 27+ SA who was illegally forced out of my job. I have described my situation in detail in recent comments to other thread on this blog. It's pretty easy to figure out the comments from me in these threads. Briefly, in response to your question, I have a disability; middle aged; not in a position to move; started with ODAR right out of law school - its what I know; my situation has been going on for 3 years, i.e., litigation, etc., with no end in sight. Criminal issues and investigations are also involved in my situation, and the list goes on and on, but surely, you get my point.
I think we've all heard enough of these allegations that you were illegally forced out of your job. I'm going to take down anything further about that.
BRAVO
Informative blog for disabled people. thanks for sharing this post.
SSI Disability Benefits
Boo! for electing to "take down" the comments by the 30 year employee who alleges that s/he was forced out of her job.
It's likely s/he's telling the truth. For reference, read the Congressional report on Huntington to see what ODAR managers are capable of doing against employees and getting away with for years.
This blog seemed to be a space for such employees to comment on mismanagement. The worst happened to this 30-year employee. If blog readers have "had enough" of her comments, then why cant they be grown-ups and just ignore them? If, alternatively, Charles is going to start "taking down" such comments, then the blog, in my view, loses its credibility entirely.
And by the way, the #6 ranking does not merit the exclamation mark that Charles gave it. Ridiculous. SSA was #6 last year too. A score of 66 is nothing to brag about - in any other context, a 66 equals a grade of "D" and is barely passing - ironically, SSA employees with a comparable rank and such little improvement over the past year would be targeted for termination.
@ 1:49
She's given us all the details at great length on multiple occasions. What is the point of letting her spew the same stuff over and over again on every other comment page. One will run into her full story if he reads a few of the comments from the last year, don't you worry.
@10:52:
Because...
1) Agency management repeatedly refutes the employees comments, despite known evidence of similar wrongdoing in ODAR nationwide, which persuasively suggests there is a SYSTEMIC PROBLEM;
2) Agency management has openly refused to acknowledge that any of the recommendations this employee and other commenters have indicated could go a long way in reducing the unprecedented backlog, and improve the functioning of ODAR, and failed to engage in conversation and dialogue, even though they profess they are all ears;
3) It would chill others from feeling free to comment about other situations of mismanagement and wrongdoing;
4) That the Agency recently chose to go through the backdoor to hire AAJ's to hear both Medicare and SSA Disability and Non-Disability through DHS and limited the hiring exclusively to DHS employees seemingly because of the comments this employee initially raised on this blog, e.g., how ODAR SA's miraculously could not apply to be an AAJ but ODAR HOD's with law degrees who have no experience adjudicating cases could, or instead, get the original SA Program up and running again, not to mention the AALJ's ongoing battle with the Agency over this;
5) The Agency's choice to go through the backdoor (DHS) to advance their AAJ idea, and blatant refusal to have a dialogue over the recommendations this employee and others have made, intimates a systematic culture of deception, collusion, refusal to engage, and cover up among ODAR management and top officials, which is ripe for ongoing misconduct and wrongdoing of the very type which caused the Huntington debacle, criminal conduct and cover up of the DCPS, and many other cases of unethical behavior.
I am not 1:49, but just saying ...
9:51 here. Almost forgot because ...
6) OPM is currently auditing SSA's selection of ALJ candidates because of allegations top ODAR/SSA Officials and Managers are not abiding by the rules and are skipping over candidates with higher scores in order to select certain favorites and others they know. An indefinite stay is in effect. Many of us know ODAR/SSA has been doing this for years just as they find ways to get around merit system principles in hiring at the GS levels. Another example of the inappropriate culture which exists at the highest levels.
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