An anonymous e-mail I received:
Hi Charles - I have been reading your blog for years.Im a field office manager and felt compelled to share what management has sustained for nearly twelve months.First off - kudos to SSA for putting somewhat of pan together by sending everyone home after cancelling telework...of course. Since that time things have gotten just awful and unsustainable.We don’t have centralized print so management is asked to go in and pack every letter daily. Many ma agents don’t have updated mail machines so we must weigh envelopes individually and seal them by hand. The process takes hours. After outgoing is done all day - we handle incoming. Hundreds of documents from the public daily in some cases. Items go missing regularly. We open every piece and scan them into a program so employees can work. This process is even longer than outgoing mail. When it concludes - the day is likely over. As this work from home progresses we were slowly told things would return to normal but from home. Problem is we don’t the technology - everything at home takes longer. Managers were drowning in mail and still are- the calls exploded - an office like mine went from 600 calls to roughly 2000. We could not keep up - Area directors insisted on 90% answer rates. Workload immediately fell off. Instead of adjusting they increased our PSI goals in one area in particular- ssi redetermination. We had some of the highest targets ever yet we were receiving no help. Through all this management was told they could not work OT because it would look bad. We were told that management doing production was also frowned upon.Months have passed and the agency did little to aid mgmt. in fact they made it worse. They made exceptions to allow individuals in office and mgmt was asked to pull away from mail to risk ourselves with claimants. It’s ok - they bought flimsy sneeze guard to protect us. When we asked for hazard pay or ability to carryover we were told no.We have been wildly mistreated by the DCo front office. This year is worse stillFor your audience our initials claims have gone from 125 as a goal for an initial decison to 170 days and recons from 118 to 152 days . In short it’s now average 11 months before you make it to a hearing In many cases - replacement cards take a month before processing . Record request from attys - I haven’t been able to get to them in months. You want certified record - that’s 6 months minimum. We are a disaster and holding it all together on the back of managers that are breaking. We are told we can’t let calls go but due to a nearly 500 million budget shortfall we won’t have any OT , are still expected to clear 20% more redeterminations and answer 90% of goals. Oh and all mail most be processed in 60 days.I could go on forever - I only share to say how truly dire SSA situation is. I also share to show this who represent people that we are in a giant spiral with zero plan.How out of touch you say - well dco touted a great Mobil check in program that they didn’t realize can’t handle foreign ss5 because a lack of having a number. They actually developed , designed, shared , gloated and didn’t realize its flaws until a manager pointed out the obvious.Sorry for the rant and misspelling -perhaps you can take some blurbs to share with readers that we aren’t bad - we work hard - we just are given no chance for success and it’s getting worse. Thanks Charles
I am also a FO manager. I don’t mean to minimize the problem this manager faces. There are significant challenges in some offices – especially in some of our smaller offices where there is only 1 management employee. However this post is not representative of all DCO. My office has 4 management employees. We were also approved to allow 2 employees – volunteers – to come back to the office on a rotational basis to assist with work that isn’t suited for telework.
ReplyDeleteThe original poster was correct about the PSI – our performance target – for SSI RZs. However, the DCO has reduced that PSI in response to feedback from management. The DCO has also adjusted some of our other PSIs. All things considered, I think the current DCO is doing a better job of communicating and receiving feedback than many others who preceded her.
It's not ideal. Heck, it’s not even close. We have inefficient and cumbersome workarounds everywhere. It’s a challenge for everyone, but we are making it work. We can continue to make it work for as long as we need to.
Sucking up just like you're told. Great job. Keep it up!
DeleteAmen! But it is all worth it for Awards that are less than the bargaining unit and a fraction of the SES awards.
ReplyDeleteBully , Bully .. Now that's what I call "pulling back the curtain". I am employee 40+ years .. yes working remotely is very challenging … Try to review a Supplemental Needs Trust and accompanying Brokerage Statements without having hard copies in front of you … I invested out of pocket in a second monitor... The 800# is useless in my opinion.. only generating simple inquiries to the Field which they should be able to resolve... I have no intention of returning to the office if an when that time comes... I will retire with a bitter taste in my mouth having been abandoned by upper management. Managers and Supervisors in the field have been overburdened by incompetent guidance and directives from their immediate superiors ( Area
ReplyDeleteDirectors / Regional Commissioners).
I think we are seeing this in many offices where work from home does not cover all the bases. Not just a SSA thing and those essential/expendable employees that have to go into the office are doing multiple tasks that are not part of the regular routine. Work from home is great, if you are the one working from home.
ReplyDeleteThis needs to go to the SSA "ombudsman" you speak of occasionally. Anonymously of course. d;-)
ReplyDeleteI too am a 40+ year ssa veteran and most of us are used to the things have been in the past. However, I for one, feel that working for home is great. I have witnessed personally our management team working our print traffic and our mail and I feel they do a wonderful job. I have not had any thing, I have requested, not come back to me. I think it all depends on the staff. I have heard some of the "volunteers" gripe about the quantity of mail in the office and I feel they volunteered for a job that they simply didn't think through in the beginning. Having been a 40+ employee, I know all the ins and out of volunteering so I did not. But I say again, I feel it all has to do with the staff. Our staff is great at what they do! And I am not a management employee. :)
ReplyDeleteI have to say, its REALLY hard for the bargaining unit (non-management) to have one iota of sympathy for Management. Employees at SSA have been bullied, harrassed, and overworked for years. The current Management culture is focused on mistreating employees and that comes from the top. There is no leadership. SO MANY SSA employees are on anxiety and depression meds just to cope. Some have committed suicide, leaving notes that this job pushed them to it. Management covers up COVID exposure in the offices, resulting in employees contracting it, spreading it, and them and family members dying of it, while SSA (with confirmed covered up spread in the office) denies culpability.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to happy employees get more done? SSA Management completely ignores this sound and proven leadership style in deference to absolute sadism. Really!
Sorry (not sorry), but Management is dealing with decades of overdue karma now and they need to do what they have been telling the bargaining unit for years, shut up and suck it up or, better yet, leave.
It's funny, tho, I was on that very DCO call your emailer references. It was 90% whining and comiserating that Management now has to actually DO WORK! Then the presentation of the mobile check-in app, complete with resounding pats on the back for being so clever and resourceful and actually accomplishing something...until another Manager pointed out the proverbial Emporer without clothes and everyone collectively groaned.
This is what SSA employees have for "leaders", a bunch of self-absorbed out-of-touch imbeciles.
I do have a heart. I know this Manager who emailed you is telling the truth. And he/she is terrified of revealing his/her identity. You wouldn't believe the mafia-style cutthroat popularity club SSA Management is. However, I seriously doubt this Manager would have complained about anything one year ago.
@3:51 SSA has 1200+ Field Offices. The idea that the O.P.'s comments reflected the situation in all of them is ridiculous. Pointing that fact out or having reasonable expectations about the situation you find yourself in doesn't make you a suck up. But whatever you need to tell yourself...
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget, ultimately, this is a rolling disaster for the disabled in America. I continue to see clients lose everything due to losing their health. There is nothing more painful in this business than seeing a family with children hit the streets and the shelter because mom or dad or both lost their health. This is not the America I grew up in. I don't recognize this place anymore. This is becoming a dystopian "hunger games" country.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you expect when the government tells you that the pandemic seems to be never ending? Emotions run high, government funding across the USA explodes as does the deficit, people told to stay home or restrict/limit commercial and social activities, schools close down, and all other sorts of changes in basic human behavior and expectations. All the goalposts have moved and we must have faith that all these efforts are science based and for our own good. We are all victims and to try and explain who has been victimized more than others does not remove the source of pain and harm. Will what is going on in field offices finally get to that breaking point that brings needed change? Where will we be a year from now? What will be our new normal?
ReplyDeleteI have heard similar although not so dire complaints from mgmt in the office I am usually working in. It was much easier to throw a piece of mail in a mail slot than it is to take out the document/letter, scan it and return it to the sender. And then quite a chore to figure out who all of the documents go to as often just documents come in with no SSN and no employee name.
ReplyDeleteOur office went from seeing 4-500 people a day plus I don't know how many calls to having close to 1000 calls a day. Have to answer 90% even if just to get an SSN and return phone number. Late in the day it's not unusual to have 150+ people to call back so everyone has to pitch in, meaning claims aren't being taken, cleared, etc by claims specialists and CSRs aren't doing post entitlement work during that time period.
I love the commute and atmosphere working at home but I'd trade the increased workload for pre Covid workload in a minute.
@8:01 I dont know what America you grew up in, because America has ALWAYS been that way to the disabled. ALWAYS
ReplyDeleteAs a retiree who worked in the field and in Baltimore and with a lot of rotational FO managers and FO folks who took jobs in Baltimore, there is a very distinct and different management mindset in Operations than in most other Offices. It's likely because they are public facing, production oriented that Operations (and FO management) are pretty heavy top down military style C+C folks. It was always kind of amusing to see just how "pissed off" field management folks who took jobs in HQ outside of Operations were at how other components managed their people, gave out awards, handled discipline. I mean, some never got over it and complained about lax management in components (other than Operations) ceaselessly. It seemingly was/is a badge of honor to have been treated like dirt on their climb up the ladder and hated that they worked for folks who didn't have to do that and had employees who reacted badly when they tried field office style management in their offices. And tellingly, many had an exaggerated sense of their importance, and had to learn the hard way being a GS-14 in a field office might make you a big cheese there, but in HQ, not so much. I mean, the complaints I heard about HQ office space being considered disrespectful to folks of their stature was honestly amusing.
ReplyDeleteI bring this up because indeed, it's pretty clear to folks inside SSA that Operations is a pretty self-contained world with it's own mores, ways of working and management style. (And I suspect ODAR or whatever it's called today is likely very Operations like in management style.) So when staff is complaining about SSA management, it's really not that monolithic.
What I read/hear stories like this, it makes me so angry! Yes, not all offices are bad, but this narrative is more the norm, not the exception. Those of us who have been around for a while already knew this is where SSA would end up. Every SESer at that agency should be fired! They all know what is happening but choose to line their pockets and keep everything status quo because they benefit. And “burrowing in” for Republicans has paid off. They have figured out that the best way to destroy the agency is not by attacking it from the outside (funding, policy changes, etc.) – that leads to political backlash. The best way to do it is to destroy it from the inside. So now that Dems are in charge, those “burrowers” are all going back to or maintaining their career positions, awaiting the next Republican takeover, and in the meantime, foiling anything the Biden administration tries to put in place.
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