From Government Executive:
A group of 44 Democratic senators on Monday urged Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul to reverse his decision to cancel telework for nearly 12,000 employees. ...
In a letter Monday, 44 Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., urged Saul to “reconsider” the decision to end the telework program.
“We understand that SSA’s new contract with the American Federation of Government Employees has just come into effect, and that this contract conferred some degree of discretion to SSA management to set new rules for teleworking,” the lawmakers wrote. “We do not believe, however, that this justifies management’s unilateral decision to rescind telework entirely for the 12,000 affected employees . . . We are concerned that SSA is not providing sufficient time for workers to alter their arrangements to account for this policy change.”
The senators wrote that while improving customer service for Social Security beneficiaries is a laudable goal, killing telework is not the way to go about it. ...
23 comments:
This is very good news indeed that the Senators called out the Commissioner on this issue..
I am one of the SSA workers whose telework was abruptly ended by Commissionerm Saul and I now have to fight heavy traffic to work every day of the week. It took me well over an hour to get home last night and I was exhausted. This was so unnecessary I work hard whether I'm at home or in the office and I don't have face to face contact with the public, , there is no reason for me to have to commute to work every day.
I think Saul has created a firestorm that is now out of control. This letter signed by so many Senators shows the storm is not abating but growing. I'm thinking Commissioner Saul may now may be damaged goods and could have to resign. It was a huge mistake for him to suddenly terminate telework, and to disregard employees morale. I'm speaking for myself I don't know if other SSA employees feel the same way, but I'd guess that they do.
If you think about it SSA employees don't have any reason to increase productivity while they are not teleworking. In fact it would be a benefit to their cause to produce less now that they are not teleworking. I am not suggesting anything nefarious. Many studies of the topic show people are likely more productive on telework than in the office.
Lol...I am guessing you may be at HQ so I feel your pain regarding traffic there because it sucks. That being said its a bit much so say he's damaged goods and may resign. I do disagree with the manner of how it went down and its not a good look...but resign over folks complaining that they have to come to work 5x per week? Not happening...I think it will eventually be phased back in though with some better controls to appease management and assess productivity.
@3:18 - "I think Saul has created a firestorm that is now out of control."
Firestorms are irrelevant to the sovereign. Just remember that the citizen is always sovereign.
As a public servant, the individual SSA employee serves as the will of its master, the citizen. The servant is not permitted to engage in ANY activity that is contrary to the will of the sovereign.
Should the citizen, as represented by the General Will through Andrew Saul, deem the public servant unworthy of telework, that privilege will be withdrawn. In this case, Commissioner Saul has deemed the SSA employee unworthy of the privilege of telework.
This is not an issue that can be appealed by the public servant. This is an Issue Reserved to the Commissioner. The servant serves. The Commissioner instructs the servant.
By accepting the position of the public servant, the SSA employee has traded their birthright, their sovereignty, for a bowl of pottage, as did Easau. By making this trade, they have declared, in a public statement of fealty, their position as a mere serf to the Executive.
(I think that i have articulated the concept of the Unitary Executive in the Trump Era. Please correct me if I am in error.)
7:44 PM must want to be SES. Lots of empty, suck-up talk. Saul is clueless. Who's advising him? Career executives, like Grace Kim, only care about their big salaries and bonuses. Forget staff or mission.
"but resign over folks complaining that they have to come to work 5x per week? Not happening...I think it will eventually be phased back in though with some better controls to appease management and assess productivity."
Commissioner Saul arbitrary and suddenly terminated telework for many thousands, without providing statistical evidence to justify his decision. AFGE provided at least some statistics to show telework does work, as shown in the Congressional letter.
The reason Saul may have to resign is due to the damage to SSA workers morale, the huge publicity nightmare this had caused to SSA , and the fact that 43 United States senators signed a public letter condemning his action. He has caused such an uproar, this is unprecedented in the history of SSA. His decision could be considered the worst decision ever made by an SSA commissioner.
As for measuring productivity on telework, this was already being done. In SSA payment centers managers assign work through paperless and can see exactly what is being worked, whether the employee is at home or in the office.
Strict production standards were tried at PC7 before and it did not work. Certain employees became proficient at pumping out large numbers of cases because that was all they tried to do, they did not care about quality. Those employees who focused on production got the promotions, even though other employees had to repair the damage they had done to the cases they had sloughed off.
In short, there will not be a better way to measure production than what currently exists in the PC, and teleworking should not be suspended for this reason.
7:44 PM has made similar postings before. I believe he or she is being sardonic and trying to make a point.
7:44 here. Yes, I'm being sardonic. I prefer the current semi-functional administrative bureaucracy to whatever random "Unified Executive Whatnot" is trying to be born. Mostly because I'm pretty sure that will make things more incoherent and non-functional.
I also feel badly for employees like 3:18 who just got telework stripped away from them, particularity given the manner in which this was done, and the apparent lack of reasoning involved.
Senators, well known for their work efforts...smh
I totally agree with you 3:18. I am in a similar position and I know my
Production has decreased. When I was teleworking, I typically worked 2 hrs credit each day, the same time I normally would be commuting and I stayed on top of the work. Now, those 4 hrs are gone from productivity time for me and most on my team and we are struggling again to keep up. (We are 2 staff members short and subject to the hiring freeze)
Saul had better respond soon. Almost half of the Senate asked him to give SSA workers telework back.
If he ignores this, who knows what will happen next. Workers are not going accept what he has done especially now that Congress has spoken said that Saul's elimination of telework was a very bad idea.
Sometimes a man has to accept that he has made a mistake, correct it, and move on from there. This would be Commissioner Sauls best course of action now. He should immediately give the affected workers one day of telework back per week, to calm the growing storm. This would be a nice Christmas present for the SSA workers.
What happens if he does not respond?
SSA employee morale, already at an all time low, will deteriorate further, and jump ship via retiring, or going somewhere else faster than they already are.
"Saul had better respond soon. Almost half of the Senate asked him to give SSA workers telework back."
--More than half said nothing. This is nothing more than grandstanding from the Senate's minority party showing they are in the corner of the bargaining unit. The majority party has no problem with "punishing" the "lazy government workers."
"What happens if he does not respond?"
--Nothing.
There’s no grandstanding here. There are “Lazy” workers everywhere. There are also many excellent workers. Laziness is not exclusive to Federal government employees, or to Political Parties.
The Trump Administration and GOP, which you appear associated, clearly has adopted a debunked stereotype that Federal government workers are “Lazy,” and nothing could be further from the truth. The Federal career civil servants who recently testified in the Impeachment Inquiry revealed highly skilled and talented individuals who are Patriotic and concerned about country. All the Trump Administration and the GOP want to do is severely demean Federal employees across the board and promote untrue stereotypes or made up stories that have no basis in fact or reality. They, including you, are living in an Alternate Universe, or as Seinfeld would characterize it, “Bizarro Workd.”
Productivity has definitely decreased for the Systems people who got caught up in this. We need to work longer hours in order to get the work done and to be available to our customers who are spread across the country. Before, people would flex out or take leave then come back online to continue working. Now those folks leave at noon and are gone for the day. Unfortunately, our customers are working full days so if they run into an issue, it’s likely that there isn’t anyone around to help them out. So how is this helping improve customer service???
To give employees telework, then to suddenly completely terminate it, is a low blow. For employees to have to face long commutes for no good reason, is inexcusable. Saul should issue an apology to SSA workers and restore at least one day of telework per week for everyone..
@3:18 -- your assumptions about my political associations are incorrect, but please tell me more about myself based on a short statement you appear to have had difficulty comprehending in full because you became personally offended. My opinion is based on looking at this dispassionately--why would Saul give a hoot about what the minority party of the senate has to say? This is grandstanding in that it has zero effect on anything, but they get to showcase their support for the bargaining unit. The senators who signed the letter aren't even the full democratic caucus, let alone the independents who caucus with the democrats.
The house democrats could pull him in for an oversight hearing, but there too, so what? He testifies to the same things he's already said in his statements, the house democrats on the committee get to make some speeches about how it's not treating the workers fairly, maybe Saul says something like "I hear what you're saying, and we'll continue to look at the issue as time goes on to see if the decision is having the desired effects," the hearing ends and nothing changes. What are they going to do, impeach him? 42 USC 902 suggests that's not even an option, and good luck getting Trump to find that removing telework is neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. If Trump loses next November, maybe the next president finds that to be the case and removes him from office sometime in early 2021--but that's a lot of ifs and a long way off.
If an employee has a long commute that is their responsibility not the agency. I had hires that got hired for a specific FO then turn around and request hardship transfers. I understand that the issues presented are a challenge but come on.
"If an employee has a long commute that is their responsibility not the agency".
An employee who has a long commute in heavy traffic will likely be tired and not at full efficiency when he is in the office.
. Why not give them a day or two a week where they can telework and avoid the commute? This enables the employee to sleep later that day and the whole week goes easier, the employee is happier and more alert.
Also it must be remembered that telework is not a recent experiment. It has been at SSA for several years. Some employees made decisions about where they would live, based on the reasonable expectation that telework would continue and they would not have to commute every day. Very few people anticipated telework would be terminated, as Congress encouraged federal agencies to move towards telework.
The well being of employees is indeed the responsibility of the agency. A long commute should be the concern of the agency. Commuting heavy traffic on a daily basis is inherently dangerous. I knew a young employee some years ago who was killed in an auto accident ,commuting to his job at SSA.. While such tragedies can never be completely eliminated, telework helps reduce their frequency.
Everyone who is interested in trying to get telework back continue to force the issue into the public. Call your Senators and Congressmen. I actually received a call back from my Senators office, who’s a republican, to talk about this. Post things on SSAs facebook page or call and email news sources. Sauls Wikipedia page has even been updated to show his poor faith decisions.
EPA was recently forced back to the bargaining table because of congressional pressure and employee outrage and it can happen at SSA too.
Respectfully I disagree. How about commuting in rural conditions in the winter time where there are icy and snowy conditions. Accidents can occur anytime. I choose where I wanted to live. I never asked for there to be options and exceptions for me. I lived and worked where I could for family and career. There's car pools, ride sharing, etc in many urban areas.
I am in absolute misery since telework was cancelled. I hate the commute and going into that ugly building where i am sick all the time. Saul is a nasty jerk. He did this on purpose before the holidays. Oh and he cut overtime too. He will lie to the Senators. Dont think he will overturn this
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