From Government Executive:
Since the Social Security Administration’s announcement last week that it would end its seven-year-old telework pilot program for nearly 12,000 employees, officials have cited two reasons for Commissioner Andrew Saul’s decision: long wait times for customers and an inability to evaluate employee performance. ...
[C]ounter to the agency’s assertions, the inspector general found that telework actually improved productivity for employees at teleservice centers, which administer the 800 number. In fiscal 2017, teleworkers took an average of four additional calls per day than non-teleworkers, resolved those calls more quickly than employees in the office and spent an additional half hour each day helping customers. ...
[A Social Security spokesperson] told Government Executive that another reason for ending the telework program is that managers cannot evaluate teleworking employees’ performance under the current rules. ...
That argument perplexed officials at the American Federation of Government Employees. Sherry Jackson, third vice president of AFGE Council 220, which represents employees in Social Security’s operations units, said teleworking employees’ actions are heavily monitored for evaluation.
“All of our keystrokes are measured,” Jackson said. “Any inputs we do on the computer are monitored and measured. Everything on the SSA system is measured, so it’s disingenuous to say that there’s no productivity and no control over what people are doing in their homes, because everything on a government computer is measured and recorded. If people were not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, this pilot would have been ended and not continued for seven years.” ...We really need a House Social Security Subcommittee oversight hearing.
22 comments:
There is an open AFGE letter to Commissioner Saul in the Baltimore Sun this morning. It reads in part, ...At SSA, you leveraged hostile executive orders to force our union to accept an unfair employee contract. Last week, SSA revoked telework, a successful policy dating back to 2013. This abrupt action forced 12,000 employees to scramble for elder childcare and elder care...As these changes continue to harm the productivity of SSA employees...we call on Congress to hold hearings on SSA under your leadership and reopen our contract."
I am one of those 12,000 employees who suddenly lost their telework and I can tell you both from my own feelings and conversations with other employees, this has been done is simply devastating for employee morale.
I'm sure Andrew is meditating hard on these issues while gazing upon the latest Picasso installation in his mountain chalet.
That's an intellectually dishonest article excerpt. The OIG report showed that productivity decreased for all public-facing employees who teleworked. Taking phone calls is not directly public facing, and employees at the teleservice center were the one exception to OIG's findings of reduced productivity.
Telework is ending because Commissioner Saul is clueless, and much of the upper management to whom he listens are re-employed annuitants/ former senior manager’s, who were brought back years ago under the false pretenses they are, “Desperately needed,” when nothing could be further from the truth, and they are being paid full annuity and full salary. These individuals nearly drove SSA into the ground years ago with their anti-labor/employee relations agenda, and antiquated, retrograde, rigid, doctrinaire, punitive forms of personnel management. Although some were removed from high level positions per EEOC Compliance Orders after repeated violations, SSA did NOT hold them accountable, and even moved them to other upper management labor/employee relations positions, so they could continue their anti-labor/employee relations agenda.
After they filed for retirement, many almost immediately returned to upper management
positions earning full annuity and full salary under the false pretenses they are, “Desperately needed.” Unfortunately, Saul’s ear is being fed lines from these individuals that have no basis in fact or reality. Some are close in age to Saul, and they are old school, like Saul, and are clueless how to manage a workforce in the 21st century. Things like telework do not fit into their, “Must see workers asses in seats at all times mantra,” which died with the Stone Age, is NOT how you manage employees with advanced professional degrees, and is inconsistent with today’s technology. While they claim they cannot appropriately manage workers from home, this is ONLY because they are clueless. They have been recording key strokes and other data from employees’ laptops who telework from home for years, and God knows what else. These are also the individuals who established unrealistic production numbers for ALL employees, including those with professional advanced degrees, and firmly believe in punitive forms of management across the board when their unrealistic quotas are not met. Clearly, these are the people who must go, and go now.
If Saul bothered to check their history, he would discover this information about them, and their failures in the past which SSA refused to hold them accountable in any way. SSA’s refusal to hold these individuals accountable in any way long ago, and persistence in continuing to place and rehire them for upper management positions that have roles in labor/employee relations and personnel policies is why SSA is where it is now with extremely poor management, and a Commissioner who is completely clueless about their failed history and tremendous fleecing of taxpayers money by double dipping. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If Saul truly wants different and better results, he must get rid of these individuals once and for all because it is they who are the problem. Had TPTB at SSA done the right thing years ago, rather than refusing to hold these individuals accountable in any way, SSA would be far better off today.
I would like to know where you get this information about failed upper management getting rehired. If you have a poor track record doubtful anyone gets rehired. Also having an advanced degree doesn't mean anything. Only means you may start out at a higher grade or position. Everyone should start out as a SR or TSR and spend time in the trenches regardless of your degree. Too many want the corner office.
The biggest problem in management is promoting managers with "advanced degrees" (usually worthless MBAs or the like) who have not spent the time in trenches to actually understand the job.
That being said, telework is being attacked because Saul is an out of touch silver spooner who got a patronage position. Does Trump owe him money? SSA employees would do well to think about which candidate will make a priority of punting this bum when they take office.
@10:23 I agree about too many wanting the corner office. Unfortunately, the disastrous HPI initiative has had the effect of making OHO operate like field offices and district offices because there are too many people in too many roles at OHO hearing offices who are clueless - including many who have no clue how OHO should operate. Taxpayers and the public deserve better than the fiasco created by the nonsensical HPI project.
@10:23pm,
anon@3:45pm probably presumes that every single member of management is a failed manager and that there are a lot of re-hired annuitants in upper level management. Honestly, I don't have a much better opinion of most upper level management myself, though I feel that as a general rule they have simply lost touch with the people doing the work and thus are making decisions about workload processes that they no longer have any reliable understanding of.
However, regarding the number of rehired annuitants, anon@3:45pm is just pulling stuff out of their rear orifice. There is actually no way to know for sure how many rehired annuitants SSA has because the agency isn't required to justify them to OPM or Congress unless the total number of rehires exceeds 1% of the agency's workforce. And, historically, SSA has kept below the 1% limit.
The last time Congress asked OIG to look at SSA rehires was back in early 2015. At that time, the agency had gone over 1% of workforce in 2012, 2013, and 2014 but was expecting to drop below 1% again going forward. At that time, around 79% of rehired annuitants were working in direct service positions as GS11/12 CR/TEs, ~10% as GS 7/8 SR/TSRs, and a few ALJs. GS-13s were less than 5% of total rehires, with GS-14 and around 2.5%. Senior executives/senior level management (i.e. upper level management) was around 2% or so.
In general, SSA's deputy commissioner for human resources makes decisions on dual-compensation waiver requests. Most annuitants who request one in recent years do get it approved (SSA found it had a hard time getting folks to come back without one), but having a waiver approved also puts hard limits on the total number of hours the annuitant can work during their appointment and thus length of appointment. If the rehired annuitant accepts an annuity offset appointment, there is no limit to the number of hours they can be re-employed for under the older law.
@3:45PM here: Part 1
Anon 10:14 states, “anon@3:45pm probably presumes that every single member of management is a failed manager and that there are a lot of re-hired annuitants in upper level management...” and continues, “However, regarding the number of rehired annuitants, anon@3:45pm is just pulling stuff out of their rear orifice.” Anon 10:14, the truth is you do not know who I am, what I know, or what I believe, because nothing you stated directed to me is true. To assert I am pulling stuff out of my, “Rear orifice,” intimates you are a malignant narcissist, have an inflated ego, and have no respect for others. If I am truly speaking from my rear, it’s interesting you go on to admit, “Honestly, I don't have a much better opinion of most upper level management myself.” FYI, I do not take time to write detailed comments to spread misinformation. Quite simply, what I said is true. In recent earlier comments on different threads, I alluded to the history dating back to the HPI fiasco, as Anon 10:01 also candidly
and truthfully references. You must understand the history to appreciate and understand what I have asserted.
@Anon 10:23 questioned why individuals with a poor track record would be rehired. This is the point of all of my comments. Many of those re-employed annuitants who are double dipping are members of management, particularly upper management, who had poor track records. They nearly destroyed SSA/OHO with HPI in 2001, and they are on track to do so again. If you go back and read through my recent comments, this should make better sense. You see, my whole point is why did TPTB in SSA place these former managers who had been removed from some upper level management positions per EEOC Compliance Orders, right back into other upper management positions, and rehire them, rather than ever hold them accountable for the wrongdoing they engaged years ago? No person or organization in their right mind would take these actions, but this is what SSA has done for years. If you keep placing/rehiring unqualified screw ups, including those who had to be removed from certain upper management positions, right back into other upper management positions where they continue to have roles in labor/employee relations, nothing is going to change and things will only get worse.
@3:45PM here: Part 2
Where do you think all the anti-labor/employee relations and doctrinaire personnel policies the past few years are coming and who’s responsible for them? These individuals tried to do the very same thing with the roll out of HPI. The only way they understand how to manage and supervise employees is via their rigid, doctrinaire, punitive methods. As one can imagine, this went over like a lead balloon in the Hearings Offices. There was a time before HPI, when those with advanced professional degrees, such as ALJ’s and Attorneys, had a more collegial work environment where we were not treated inappropriately like Kindergarteners, had our every move monitored, let alone by unqualified individuals, etc. The work environment was actually pleasant, employee morale was high, people were proud of their work, and the volume and quality of work still got done. You do not have to run SSA and OHO with unreasonable production numbers/quotas; observe, “Asses in seats at all times,” which is the only way these folks know how to manage/supervise and are clueless how to manage Telework; and use punitive form of enforcement each time an employee errs ever so slightly, regardless of the reason.
The insanity I referenced in my previous comment on this thread is the fact TPTB keep placing and/or rehiring these same old managers with poor track records and allow them to keep doing the same things over and over. The very fact that 87% of more than 1100 re-employed annuitants at SSA are drawing full annuity and full salary, and that this information is closely guarded by TPTB, tells you that many of the individuals given these cushy financial positions know one another fairly well. It’s a system of enabling favorites, NOT who’s BEST, but FAVORITES, often with the worst track records. Oh, these individual have been spotted, heard over speaker phone, or names signed on official documents o/b/o of SSA, at MSPB, EEOC, and Court Hearings/filings, as well as during Union Arbitrations and Negotiations. Quite simply, the INSANITY at SSA must stop, and the ONLY way to stop it is to get rid of all of these individuals for good.
Current SSA management either doesn't care about employee morale, or they are ignorant about how their recent action to end telework has negatively impacted SSA employee morale. Many SSA employees now feel as though they have been betrayed. I've heard SSA employees are already resigning over this, losing valuable experienced employees is the last thing SSA needs right now.
After waiting for years for telework to come, to have it taken away in this arbitrary and uncaring manner is totally unacceptable.
No agency other than SSA, has completely ended telework for employees after it was granted. Telework has become an important and vital part of people's work and personal lives, it has been here for years, yet Commissioner Saul calls it an "experiment" and announces it is ending. He has inflicted enormous damage upon this agency which he was entrusted to lead just five months ago, and he should resign. And the other top managers , who were involved with this decision, should go with him. Many of these managers are too old and set in their ways for the present work force. SSA employees cannot and will not go back to the way things were in the early 1980s.
I am a Claims Specialist in OCO. Rumor was that Saul was angry when he walked around the Main Complex and saw empty seats. This was actually his main reason for ending telework so he looked for any justifiable reason to end it. As an older employee with health issues, telework helped with the balance of my good days and bad days health wise. We are most certainly monitored with telework as in the work we move can be viewed. So what is the problem. Saul is now reverting back to paper lists to do work which we must turn in. So what is paperless for. Setting us back 40 years. People want to stop doing work now for this man. He has made things worse. More people retiring ahead of time. He also took telework away just before the holidays so now those of us who could telework on those days will now have to come in. I can tell you when i come in i will do nothing so there you have it. Piss off the people who feed you and this is what you get.
Of course SSA employees don't want to work for Commissioner Saul now. What's the incentive, to pump out a lot of cases so Saul can say he was right to terminate telework?
This man has already done so much to hurt employees, and damage employee morale, and he hasn't even been in office a year. He and other current upper management apparently want to return SSA to a time 40 years when it was an inefficient sweatshop with terrible relationships between management, union, and employees. .
Young talented SSA employees have told me I the last two weeks they are angry, they are going to do anything to get out of SSA Central operations now, primarily due to the end of telework. SSA is going to lose a lot of good workers due to this.
For the good of the agency and the public we serve, we need a fresh start with a a new Commissioner.
You guys attacking Saul are ridiculous. Telework was OBVIOUSLY not working. Anyone who has had to interact with the SSA could tell you how dysfunctional the agency truly is.
Try getting hung up on multiple times by payment processing centers. When questioned why a claimants backpay is taking months they say oh it’s being worked on just call back in 30 days. Only to be told the same exact thing in 30 days.
Fact is SSA employees are not held accountable. From the clueless single decision maker DDS examiner to the ALJ’s to the Benefit Authorizer’s. Sure they get negative marks if they really screw up but none ever get fired.
As a taxpayer I feel I’m getting ripped off. You don’t get the right to work from home when all facets of the agency are so badly backlogged.
The truth of telework is right in the statement that the holidays are coming and they dont want to go to work. That tells the truth.
@ 1:59 AM Bravo!!! You took the words right out of my mouth. Service at PC has gone down drastically the last year or so, and simple matters are taking 12 months or more to process. I have ZERO sympathy for these people that have to actually go to work and do their jobs now. And to the Claims Specialist at OCO - how do you sleep at night with that attitude? Your going to go to work and NOT do the job you are paid to do? If you are so sick, how about retiring, or better yet, try filing for disability benefits and see what hell claimants experience??
1:59. DDS examiners get fired all the time and there have been no single decision makers for over a year. When there were most could only do allowances.
Bet they reinstate telework next time a big snowstorm is forecast.
Those who are critical of SSA employees for wanting to telework, are wrong.
The backlogs at SSA are related to staffing shortages. There are simply not enough employees to work the cases. Whether those employees are teleworking or not.
The cases I work are extremely complex, time consuming, and involve large amounts of money. I take pride in doing them correctly and I work hard whether I'm at home or at the office.
These cases cannot be worked quickly. A combined family maximum case with multiple workers' compensation adjustments for example, involved requires manual computations and time consuming inputs to do it correctly. It can take all day to do one case and do it correctly, one mistake on such a case could cost the government many thousands of dollars.
Hard working SSA workers deserve at least one telework day per week. It is good for employee morale, it gives us something to look forward to, we can avoid the commute that day, and we can schedule for our telework day.
To completely end telework after it was granted as SSA has done, is an extremist action which will never be accepted by those of us who were teleworkers. Poor employee morale equals less work being accomplished whether in private industry or government. That is why telework is becoming more widespread both in the private sector and in government. It helps employees balance their work life with their home life, in so many ways.
The union complaining about this is ironic. When they negotiated the only thing they cared about was union time. They handed SSA the chance to end telework because they only cared about union time and not what employees wanted. I left SSA a year ago for a job that will allow me full time telework. I clearly made the right choice. Too bad SSA and the union doesn't realize how much telework matters. I wonder when Oho will get rid of telework.
Telework is common in the private insurance industry, and it makes no sense that its not appropriate at Social Security.
Speaking of customer service. Are the offices open after Thanksgiving this year on Friday to the public?
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