Sent: Monday, June 17, 2019 4:03 PM
Subject: New Commissioner
A Message to All SSA and DDS Employees
Subject: New Commissioner
This afternoon, I was sworn in as your Commissioner, and I am eager to get to work. In ways that many of us do not have the perspective to appreciate, running an agency for this long without confirmed leadership is quite difficult. Please join me in thanking Nancy Berryhill for her leadership, and I welcome her ongoing support.
Throughout the confirmation process, one consistent theme has been how fantastic SSA employees are. I can certainly use your help. Although I am just now beginning my briefings, I am aware that we face a number of challenges. I look forward to hearing your ideas about how best to improve public service and be supportive to you in that endeavor.
My plan is to get out and talk with as many of you as I can. I will also be meeting with SSA’s senior leaders, associations, and unions. Meanwhile, I thought you might want to know a little about me. I am a lifelong New Yorker, born and raised in New York City. My wife of 50 years, Denise, and I are blessed with two daughters, two sons-in-law, and three grandchildren. I am a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and I have worked in the private and public sector and with non-profit organizations. I am most proud of my nine years as the Chair of the Federal Thrift Investment Board, which administers the Thrift Savings Plan, working to improve service by modernizing it into what is today one of the most successful 401K plans in the nation.
My family and friends will tell you I have a sense of humor, but I take work seriously. Hard work is especially necessary when what we are doing matters to every American. As I mentioned, I have already heard how dedicated you are to SSA’s mission, and your dedication gives me great confidence about what we can achieve.
I am taking a little time to assess how the agency is doing, and you will hear more soon about my priorities and plans in the coming weeks.
Thank you for the warm welcome I have received thus far. I look forward to working with you.
Andrew Saul
Commissioner
10 comments:
I think the agency will be well served to have a permanent commissioner (for a change). I hope the new commissioner closely scrutinizes the structure of hearing offices for it is antiquated and bloated with entirely too many management folks. Does every hearing office need a HOD, an administrative assistant (does anyone know why there even is a administrative assistant), and multiple group supervisors? I doubt it.
You are 100% correct. The 2001 Reorganization known as HPI created the disastrous Hearing Office Management structure, and it has been a colossal failure ever since. It gave Pretext to force out many great career employees, especially former Supervisory Attorneys, and they were replaced by less qualified non-Attorneys who were ridiculously promoted through the ranks from the old Hearing Clerk position, or by new Attorneys with little, to no, Agency specific experience, who miraculously became first, and/or second line Supervisors of the very individuals who hired, and/or trained them. Some were even allowed to jump as many as two pay grades from the positions they occupied before HPI.
What’s worse, the “brilliant” legacy Senior Managers who invented the HPI Reorganization Pretext, just cannot stay away. They keep returning, some earning full Annuities and full Senior Management salaries, travel perks, work across the country from their home, etc., and continue to push the same failed anachronistic and punitive Management practices.
What a horrible job. You would have to be insane to take the position, it is a lose/lose situation. I wish him luck. Let the conspiracy theories commence!!!
@10:09 Agreed. The HPI allowed too many non-attorneys to obtain roles at ODAR/OHO for which they were and are not qualified. And, it allowed ODAR/OHO to be run by too many folks from field offices who have no clue how ODAR/OHO should work. And, as you mentioned, a colossal failure occurred. Two attorney managers at each hearing office is more than enough. NO hearing office needs multiple group supervisors and a HOD and an administrative assistant. The only reason that happens is because too many of them are not attorneys and are not qualified for the job they are supposed to do. I expect the commissioner to correct this issue sooner rather than later. And, I will applaud him for doing it.
Just like Trump, I will give him a chance. But like Trump, I probably will be disappointed. Just wish Obama had gotten someone else in there. Wasted opportunity.
I don't understand this thread about non Attorney managers and Admin Assistance. What about being an attorney prepares you to be a manager? The real problem with OHO management is that most supervisors are previous Decision Writers, any non-attorney managers are often from the field office. Many Decision Writers are very talented but are not involved with the day to day running of the office before joining management. Does the average writer know how much work goes into scheduling an ALJ docket or processing payments for all the experts or reimbursing Rep Travel? The AA's are often the workhorse of the office and often do much more complex work than the average case tech. Decision Writers who are promoted are often unprepared to actually manage the office, which requires a greater understanding of the clerical work and over all leadership. I am not saying that DW can not be successful at this task but I fail to see why they are more prepared than a Field Office supervisor would be. Besides the head of the office is the HOCALJ, any interpretation of HALLEX or policy question should stop with there. Why would all the supporting managers need to be attorney's as well when there is non attorney staff in the office. I don't disagree that there are too many managers in the Hearing Offices but I don't see what the problem is with the Admin Assistant or having non Attorney Managers. This all sounds a little elitist to me.
Agreed with 2:27. A lot of bizarre anti-paralegal analyst rhetoric in here. I've known many of the years that could write some of the JD's here under the table.
@2:27 & 11:26:
“A lot of bizarre anti-paralegal analyst rhetoric in here.”
Shut up, already. I never saw a Paralegal Analyst who could write, or manage a Hearings Office, anywhere near as well as an Attorney. An Attorney has completed 7 years of college, 3 of which were grueling years in law school, passed the Bar Exam in 1, or more states, and may have previous legal experience.
Many Paralegal Analysts originally promoted through the ranks only had a high school education, and could not write a sentence, let alone a legally sufficient decision. Do you have any idea how many countless hours were wasted using SAA’s and AA’s trying to train these so called Paralegal Analysts how to write, when it was hopeless, because they simply lacked the educational background and skills to be trained!
Further, Paralegal Analysts have no experience whatsoever in how to run and manage a Hearings Office. Putting them in GS and HOD positions, and allowing them to supervise and manage SAA’s and AA’s, in addition to repeatedly intimidating ALJ’s whose numbers may not be as high as the ridiculous benchmarks set by TPTB, which have no basis in fact, or reality, is, and continues to be, an absolute disaster. The 2001 HPI Reorganization was a horrendous failure by TPTB who created and implemented it. They all ought to be hog tied and tarred.
If a Paralegal Analysts wishes to advance their education, there are colleges, universities, and law schools all over the country. This business of having someone with a high school education, or only a couple of years of college, manage SAA’s, AA’s, and yell at ALJ’s in demeaning ways over numbers, is insane! They can go put the hard work in, and earn their degrees, if they want to earn the same as SAA’s and AA’s. This business of having a Paralegal Analysts in offices next to SAA’s and AA’s earn more money because they have no annual licensing requirements, CLE, or outrageous student loan payments, destroys employee morale. Having them assign work they do not even understand to SAA’s and AA’s is nuts!
It was the folks from Operations who invaded the Hearings portion of SSA who created and thought HPI was the greatest thing on Earth. None of these individuals were Attorneys, or knew a thing about running the Hearings Offices. HPI was their way to get as many of their friends and favorites from Operations over to the Hearings portion of SSA, and easily move up the salary and management chain. It is, and has been a colossal failure. These former Operations folks are also responsible for the anti-worker/labor mentality, and Draconian labor practices you have seen progress since 2001. They hate telework because the only form of management they understand is if I cannot see a$$ in seat, you must not be productive. These old fashioned management practices died with the Stone Age. That some of these folks have been allowed to return to Senior Management positions and earn FULL Annuities and Senior Management salaries is beyond outrageous. Who do you think in SSA Management is responsible for the impasse, and Bad Faith conduct in negotiations with longstanding employee unions over in CBA’s settled decades ago? These people must go. Management of SSA, especially the Hearings portion, will not improve until they are gone. They have drug the Agency so far into a hole it isn’t even funny.
Do I detect SA-58 or whoever you were? Yikes.
Calm down, my friend. Literally just giving anecdotes from my own office and my own experiences over the years. I have personally signed decisions written by quite a few skilled Paralegals over the years and their education (or "lack thereof") had nothing to do with it.
None of them ever supervised me directly, but I've no reason to think that management ability is in any way tied to education, either. Seems like I touched a nerve.
4:45, it sounds as though you are a huge part of the problem. “. . . I’ve no reason to think management ability is tied to education . . .,” is the most ludicrous remark one could make. You are not living in the real world, if this is what you truly believe.
When HPI was implemented in 2001, many great career OHO Supervisory Attorneys were forced out of their careers and jobs in order to let the knuckle heads from Operations who concocted the HPI Reorganization for their own self-promotion to move over to the Hearings Offices. I personally watched the utter hell some were put through. The harassment in and outside the office many of these individuals endured would shock your conscience. Those promoted up through the ranks did not even have to pass a writing test, or submit writing samples. It was automatic. The countless, hopeless hours my SAA and AA colleagues spent trying to train those who lacked the basic skills necessary to write, or even manage a Hearings Office, was beyond the pale.
In addition, time now, without any shadow of a doubt, confirms the HPI Reorganization was, in fact, PRETEXT, used to force out many career employees, most Supervisory and other Attorneys, who some non-Attorneys simply didn’t like for whatever reason. It wasn’t a one time PRETEXT, but one which continued. A sort of quid pro quo by the newly promoted to force other Attorneys who were disliked over time.
There was nothing funny, appropriate, or acceptable by what transpired here. For you to speak in such a flippant, condescending manner to those of us who lived through all of this speaks very poorly of you, as an ALJ. It makes me question your etiquette in OHO Hearings with claimants.
Further, you do realize the very individuals responsible for the HPI PRETEXT and fiasco are the ones behind the anti-worker/labor Bad Faith negotiations with SSA employee and ALJ unions over issues in CBA’s that have been agreed on for decades. The Operations folks who moved over to OHO only believed in one form of management, and that was the must see a$$ in seat at all times mentality. Prior thereto, OHO was much more collegially managed, and Attorneys and ALJ’s were treated more professionally. The Operations folks and non-Attorneys came aboard and tried to manage professional adults like children, and employ punitive methods to the extent they legally could get away with. Since Trump became POTUS, these people have been emboldened, which is why Telework is going to be very restricted and controlled by management, and why they have intentionally acted in Bad Faith in negotiations with SSA employee and ALJ unions.
I lived through many years before and after HPI, and witnessed all of these things. To think some of the original Operations folks involved in the creation and implementation of the HPI Reorganization returned and have earned FULL Annuities and Senior Management salaries because they feel emboldened by the current Administration to finally implement all of their Draconian labor/management relations policies, while at the same time fleecing taxpayers collecting FULL Annuities and Senior Management salaries under the guise they have institutional knowledge and experience, is laughable. But, Mr./Ms. SSA ALJ, by all means continue to make a fool of yourself with your condescending remarks, lack of appreciation or understanding of what took place in 2001, and propping up non-Attorneys over the Attorneys. I understand the new elected officers in the AALJ are pro-management, and it sounds as though you fit right in with them!
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