From: ^Human Resources Internal CommunicationsNote that this lists only pregnancy and having an underlying health condition as reasons for allowing teleworking but being over 60 alone is a major risk factor for Covid-19 mortality and morbidity. Note also that hearing offices and field offices are exempted from telework. What the hell is the matter with Andrew Saul? This isn't doing what the Office of Management and Budget is telling agencies to do and that's probably not enough.
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2020 2:37 PM
Subject: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - Update - March 13, 2020
Importance: High
A Message to All SSA Employees
Subject:
We are sharing an update on the agency’s approach to the evolving 2019-Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States. We have made updates to the Medical Office COVID-19 FAQs page. To ensure the safety of our employees, we are taking several key actions, effective immediately, as described below.
· The agency is making a Work at Home Quarantine (WAHQ) option available to employees who cannot report to the office due to quarantine restrictions, and for parents whose children have experienced a school closure related to COVID-19. Please review the Medical Office COVID-19 FAQs and consult your supervisor for additional information if one of these situations applies to you.
· Employees who are high risk for complications from COVID-19 (e.g., pregnant or with underlying health conditions) may request to work at home under WAHQ. Please talk with your supervisor about your need.
· The agency is reverting to previous (pre-March) telework schedules for all components except field components of the Office of Operations and Office of Hearings Operations. The Office of Operations and Office of Hearings Operations will designate field telework levels based on geographic conditions and public service needs. With this rapidly evolving situation, we continue to assess where additional telework may be appropriate.
In certain locations, office closures may be necessary. You will be notified if you are in one of these affected offices. The agency may order employees to work from home with or without a telework agreement when offices are closed. In this case, employee’s homes temporarily become their duty stations under evacuation rules.
The CDC has also updated the list of high-risk countries for international travel. If you are returning from one of these countries, you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, or suspect you have been exposed due to close contact with an affected individual (e.g., a family member, someone living in your home), please stay home and consult your supervisor for further instructions.
As a reminder, the best way to protect yourself from COVID-19 is to practice frequent hand washing and/or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer, avoid close contact with people who are ill, and cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue to prevent the spread of illness.
We will update you as we receive additional information. Please direct questions to your supervisor.
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Well, on the bright side Commissioner Magoo is about 80 years old, so he won't be making big dumb decisions that result in people dying much longer. Fingers crossed anyway.
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ReplyDeleteHey! This is Saul himself, or as my mistress calls me Saulsberry Pie. Now, I have had enough with people criticizing my exceptional leadership. Do you know how hard it is to lead a Department, or I mean Agency, like this one? Well, I don't either.
On top of all this hand washing business, my yacht's hull needs to be scrapped for barnacles. I just got off the phone with my captain and crew, it's a mess under there. And my stockbroker wont stop texting me, have you looked at your portfolio, the stock market is terrible. I blame the liberals, I tell you what.
So I am going to tell you the same thing I told my mistress when she wouldn't stop cry because they canceled Coachella. This is a hard time for all of us, don't be so selfish, were all going to have to make sacrifices, and I promise I'll make it up to you next week. Now get to work, I don't pay you just to look pretty.
Oversight hearings are long overdue. For Congress not to hold them at this point is an outright dereliction of duty.
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ReplyDeleteThis clearly discriminates against people who do not have school age children. Or do college age children count? What's the age limit?
How long does this WAHQ last for these parents? Until school starts back in the fall?!
Saul - just close field offices to the public ... have minimal staff there to answer phones, rotate who comes in, the rest telework and take teleclaims or work on backlogs. Encourage more online transactions. Field office employees are the most likely to be exposed. This SSA leadership is the most incompetent,cold caring I have seen in my 30 plus year career.
ReplyDeleteI'm home today but a friend in the office at SSA texted me and said the SSA telework resumption is being done in phases, with the next phase coming next week. He said that people 60+ do not currently qualify unless they have a pre-existing condition. He usually has pretty good sources.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that next week's group will include employees 60+ without pre existing medical problems. I heard a doctor on TV today saying this group is at a high risk from coronovirus, they don't know why but the rate of morbidity is higher for older people 60 and up even if they are healthy.
This partial resumption of telework and only for certain people at SSA, is only going to increase the employee anxiety level for those who still have to work in the office. Also FO SSA employees who have face to face contact with the public in crowded FO, still are excluded even though their risk is higher. SSA again seems to be failing many of its employees.
ReplyDeleteWhat about employees without underlying health conditions? We continue to come to work & possibly be exposed to the virus in the workplace from the public or fellow employees? This is a mess.
@4:27
ReplyDeleteHa! You think anyone associated with this administration cares about Congress or thinks they're subject to any kind of oversight? How many Congressional subpoenas have been ignored so far?
The problem is, in the words of an SSA employee who has attended some meetings with Saul, "the man is a jackass."
ReplyDeletePeople who can do any work with a child at home - you the real MVPs.
ReplyDeleteWife's job (in an SSA field office) had a coworker come back from China. They told him to come right back to work. He was there a day. Then they told him take his laptop home and telework. Then he was back two days later.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the hell is going on at SSA.
Why isn't Congress helping SSA employees ? And not just a few Democrats, there should be wide bipartisan action to censure and remove Andrew Saul as SSA commissioner. Action should be taken before people start dying, due to his obstinance and his reactionary views on employee relations and telework. Contact your congressman , people!
ReplyDeleteIf both parents work at SSA, do they both get to WAHQ? For employees left in the office, the anxiety will sky rocket and no work will get done. In my building, there is no PPE for employees (no masks, no gloves, not enough hand sanitizer, etc). This is a disaster in the making.
ReplyDeleteBefore I left I loaded up the office with disposable gloves, hand sanitizer, and liquid hand soap from the budget. Was asked why I ordered so much. I hope they appreciate it now.
ReplyDeleteThis situation is a humanatarian disaster. I expect changes will be forced upon Saul in short order. FO employees are simply going to call in sick en masse. Monday I bet no more than 50% show up.
ReplyDelete"The agency is reverting to previous (pre-March) telework schedules for all components except field components of the Office of Operations and Office of Hearings Operations."
ReplyDeleteSo basically it's status quo for 90%+ of the staff whose "pre-March" telework agreements were cancelled? Plus a second helping of wash your hands and stay home if you're sick?! This is what came from weeks of deliberation?
Note, ssa also clarified 'the underlying condition' is only for the worker. Thus, if the SSA employee lives with elderly parent or spouse undergoing chemo , they said doesn't count-- get into work. This is clarified in a memo, in writing to managers. What the hell is right.
ReplyDeleteI have close to 600 hours of sick leave and will be calling out sick due to my “cough” until this is over.
ReplyDeleteGood luck all, and F you Saul...
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't have to use your sick leave during a pandemic. With cities banning gatherings over 200-500 people and some of SSA's PCs employee over 2000 people, why are these f*cking buildings still allowed to remain open?!
ReplyDeleteRestoring telework to "pre March levels " this is a minimal response, to make it appear SSA is taking action.
I lost my two day a week telework completely last November and this latest order does nothing for me.
The FO , PSC, and Teleservice employees lost 100% of our telework last fall, and Saul is fighting his hardest to keep us completely shut out. He just won't admit he was wrong, much less apologize which is what he should do.
This man is going to cause SSA employees and their relatives to get this disease, and some will die because of him.
Saul should never have been confirmed as SSA Commissioner and he should be removed ASAP.
It is so incompetent, managers on conference calls about "plans" all week, then for almost entire day Friday, to be told at 2 o'clock group meeting with employees to continue washing hands, sneeze and caugh in elbow and read to aloud the CDC information sheet stating that OSHA was also consulted. No hand sanitizer and no apparently or mentioned additional (not like they clean it anyway) cleaning of building. And oh by the way, if anyone is coming in tomorrow on Saturday and has not informed your manager, please do so that work can be assigned accordingly. Bunch of incompetent clowns running SSA into the ground.
ReplyDeleteBut you should not have to use your sick leaving during a pandemic.
ReplyDeleteI work in SEPSC in Birmingham. B'ham has banned all gatherings over 500 people. PC 3 has over 2000 employees. Why is this damn building allowed to still be open? This is not a hospital. SSA employees are not first responders. And Saul expects unprotected employees to man the front lines like soldiers without any weapons or protection?
@5:11 PM if this is the approach is show just how stupid the leadership is. This is the opposite of how it should be done. Everyone needs to be isolated now. Then, when testing is widely available, those at lower risk can come back to work, and so on. This approach is trying to mitigate the affects, but ignoring the fact that the virus can spread among healthy people with mild symptoms, putting everyone at higher risk.
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ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard if management is exempt from WAHQ?
If they aren't, so managers with school age children or underlying health conditions will be safely teleworking at home while their employees are forced into a workplace where they could contract this virus. Then take it home to their elderly parents, loved ones & neighbors.
SOB Saul & his minions are unfit for their positions & should be removed immediately.
Upper management was told that Saul has to get permission from the “executive Executive” with regard to telework changes. Let me remind everyone that SSA employees (the majority) were teleworking in January and February. They could easily resume this with one phone call. The equipment is in place. Only field offices and OHO (most locations) have not reverted back to pre-March levels. One word from the President could change all this, but the employees wait....
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ReplyDeleteSAUL IS TROLLING FOR POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES IN THE MIDDLE OF PANDEMIC.
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How is the decision to let parents of school age children work at home not rank age discrimination? People who have young children are probably under age 40 and have a very low chance of dying from coronavirus. However the mortality rate for people age 60 or over is at least nine times higher. This is a case of a rule that has a disparate impact. People with children are not in a protected class because they have children. However older employees do have such protection.
ReplyDeleteSSA needs to revert to pre-November levels not pre-March levels. November was when FO, PC, TSC suddenly lost all of their telework. Reverting to pre-March levels does these employees, some of whom are at the highest risk level, no good at all.
ReplyDeleteIf there is any justice, this telework fiasco should cost Andrew Saul his job. It was he, Saul, who gave the orders last fall to cut telework, which had been working so well. It was he, Saul, who should have had SSA telework ready in case of a disaster, instead of going in the opposite direction.
Many Thousands of SSA employees have had exposure to the Coronvirus due to Andrew Saul's decisions on cutting telework., He should issue an apology to all Social Security employees, and then he should resign as our Commissioner.
@10:00 PM Employees with kids are going to be at home because someone has to watch them since many/all schools are closed. It's a childcare thing, not a disease thing.
ReplyDeleteClose FOs /HOs to the public for the next 30 days. Have small crews in FOs that rotate between telework and coming in to answer the phones to allow social distancing in these offices, on telework staff can do teleclaims and adjudication. Hearings can be done by phone too. Non-essential non field employees telework only. I am not sure how to handle TSC calls... can TSRs work from home with softphones? For those essential employees that need to be onsite for systems ops... rotate those crews too. Saul and his minions are disgusting for putting employees and the public at risk. Or perhaps he is trying to trim the ranks of us old timers through exasperation of his terrible leadership or by killing us.
ReplyDeleteI am the primary caregiver for my parents, and live with them. Currently, my mother is in Hospice care in my home, and is DYING. I NEED TOWORK FROM HOME. I can NOT afford to bring this virus home to them. What are the provisions for me to be allowed to work from home. I work in Cuyahoga County, where they're are over 25 confirmed cases and rising????
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ReplyDeleteThe lack of telework is going to cause thousands of SSA employees be at extra risk of being exposed. Some will then catch Coronovirus and will give Coronovirus to their elderly parents, who will then die from it.
Now here is what I I have heard from a couple of sources.
That SSA' cannot have 100% employee telework , because current SSA systems cannot handle all employees teleworking.
And part of the problem is Saul's intransigence, and his refusal to admit he was wrong to cut telework. Even now he appears to be fighting against the FO, TSC or PSC having their telework restored to pre-November levels. He still wants these components to have no telework whatsoever on a permanent basis: just a temporary restoration, and even that to as few employees as necessary to make it appear SSA is acting. .
He will also end the temporary emergency telework ASAP, and SSA will again be unprepared if the virus temporarily abates then returns in the fall.
I am confused on the WAHQ!!!! I was dorected to quarantine due to possible exposure to COVID19, I explained the situation to managemenet who states that I needed to be more discreet next time to not put co-workers in fear, I was sent home never with an option of working from home while quarantined, 1 week in requested that my computer and items be available for pick up so I could work feom home as to not have to use my sick leave and was told I would need a doctors note to be able to work again even though we are now 100% telework. I will be seeing my doctor tomorrow 7 days prior to my quarantine being up and against his best wishes he will release me from quarantine to be able to telework, from home, alone with no chance of infecting anyone, and I guess I eat the week of sick leave I will be caheged ?
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