From Federal News Network:
The Social Security Administration has implemented a hiring freeze across much of the agency’s headquarters.
SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul announced the hiring freeze, effective July 31, in a memo to senior staff, which Federal News Network obtained.
An SSA spokesman confirmed the hiring freeze and said it was implemented to ensure agency resources are directly focused on customer service priorities.
“This freeze applies to all headquarters components and their respective regional offices,” the spokesman said. “Direct public service and workload positions and workload positions in the teleservice centers, processing centers, area and local field offices and state disability determination services are exempt from the hiring freeze.” ...
SSA headquarters and component offices impacted by the hiring freeze can’t establish new positions or post new external or internal vacancy announcements, according to the agency guidance.
New appointments for administrative law judges, senior administrative law judges and administrative appeals judges are also prohibited. ...
In addition, the hiring freeze blocks permanent and temporary promotions for SSA employees, with the exception of career ladder promotions, according to Saul’s memo. ...
I regard hiring freezes as lazy and stupid and inherently demeaning to civil servants. Even with as many exceptions as this one, hiring freezes inevitably cause dislocations because the vast majority of federal employees do important work for the American people. As these hiring freezes go on exceptions keep getting more and more extensive as it becomes more and more obvious that the work can’t get done without replacing departing employees. The problems get worse and worse until the hiring freeze is quietly lifted. No significantly money is ever saved. If you really think there are vacancies that shouldn’t be filled, go to the trouble of specifying them. Don’t casually insult federal employees by implying that there is some advantage to the American people in failing to fill vacancies that occur randomly across a large agency.
15 comments:
"it was implemented to ensure agency resources are directly focused on customer service priorities" - because we don't need employees for customer service. Perhaps they are moving to a thoughts and prayers model.
I will take a hiring freeze over putting more people into the hearings end of things and buy some time to figure out what to do to help the situation. Just continuing the old policies sure wasn't helping anything. I will give it a little time to see what the solution looks like.
The Trump Administration has not been filling numerous, necessary Federal employee vacancies across the board at all Agencies for the past 3 years. Many Agencies are barely holding together by a thread, and ineptness and incompetence is off the charts. Trump planned not to fill such vacancies before he ever stepped into the Oval Office. The ultimate goal, in case you have not noticed, is to destroy the Federal Civil Service from the inside, and outsource everything to Trump’s cronies in the private sector.
@11:12 your comment makes no sense because it ignores all facts. "Throwing people" at the hearing side has basically eliminated the hearing backlog. We will be transitioning from having over 1600 ALJs to just under 1400 as attrition reduces the ranks of ALJs
From an FO or DO perspective it makes more sense.
Maybe they think a freeze is the perfect antidote to the current heat wave.
screwing federal employees is their solution to everything.... This is also a promotion freeze, which I'm baffled as to what that's supposed to accomplish.
It's good that it doesn't extend to front line field office employees. The question I guess is whether there is really a reassessment happening or this is just a scheme to lower the number of employees and further cripple the administration. If it drags on any longer than a handful of months then the second is most likely true.
The article was not clear on what specific additional hiring and expenditures Saul intends to implement out of savings from the attrition that results from his hiring freeze. Any word on what "customer service priorities" are involved? Is he reaching out to advocates, people with disabilities, the poor (SSI applicants and recipients), and retirees to find out what they, as customers of SSA, have to say about what their priorities are?
35 new ALJs were supposed to be hire and were to start training in six weeks -- the first post-Lucia, post-Trump EO ALJ hiring class. Anyone who works in the OHO ROs could tell you which 35 people were getting hired, too. Does this hiring freeze also end the hiring plans for this first test class of non-competitive service, patronage-hire ALJs?
@11:12 there is more to the program than the hearing backlog, I know that is a very hard concept for reps to understand, but trust me, social security is a lot more than just the dib program.
Good to hear they have a freeze for those positions. Those staffs live in castles while field offices get bombarded. However stop hiring field positions that can't do the job. More concern about hiring protected class employees then competent workers. Customer service should be the focus. I commend the new Commissioner. I don't understand why people want to work for SSA and then complain. Management is always up front about the challenges of the work when they hire. If one wants a work life balance then they should look elsewhere.
SSA more concerned about employees feelings then customer service. The younger managers are the same. They want to be your friend instead of your boss.
Hiring freeze preventing internal promotions. Combining the three shotgun blasts from Andrew Saul toward SSA employees (hiring freeze that prevents internal promotions, telework gone, and Wednesday hours fully serving the public), morale is at all time low.
HQ is still hiring and promoting. Only ones affected by the freeze are internal promotions.
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