I know that it's way too early for Social Security to require its employees to return to the office. If current predictions are accurate it won't be until about late June before all Social Security employees will have had a reasonable chance to be fully vaccinated. However, even now a not insignificant number of Social Security employees are fully vaccinated. By the end of April, the number fully vaccinated should be quite significant. Can Social Security employees who have been fully vaccinated return to their offices now? If not yet, when? Should this be delayed until everyone who wants the vaccine has been vaccinated? I think that by now, Social Security should have a plan. I suppose they need to talk about it with the union but it's about time to announce something.
38 comments:
Vaccinations are one thing. But, the offices by and large have poor ventilation and are not close to being compliant with social distancing requirements. So, all issues need to be addressed before a return to office can be done in a safe manner.
We can't think about bringing anyone back until everyone has the opportunity to be vaccinated. Even after everyone is vaccinated, we have to be sure the vaccines are working as predicted and that it's safe to return. It will take time, several more months at least, for statistical evidence of safety to be determined.
At that point perhaps SSA could call back employees but let them keep two days per week telework, to help space employees out in the offices. Also employees age 65+ should be given the option of continued 100% telework, as they are at such high risk if they get the virus..
Yes, ideally (from a purely public health perspective) the field offices will not reopen until the pandemic is over. That probably won't be until 2022 at the earliest. Pandemics typically last at least two years so I am thinking Spring 2022 might be a reasonable target, given the fairly rapid deployment of the vaccines.
Until that time, it seems unreasonable to reopen the offices. Due to the poor ventilation in the offices they would be vectors of community spread.
I will not be telling my supervisor at SSA when I am vaccinated. I do not want to be called back to the office on that basis, especially when it may not be completely safe.
Telework has worked better than expected, SSA should just let that continue for the time being.
Entitled
Lots of folks not taking this vaccine and employers cannot mandate them while they are only approved for emergency use. Military is having that problem.
Video hearings from home are going to be here to stay for many of the claimant’s who are older and have compromised immune systems even if they are vaccinated.
Our waiting room packs 30 plus people in a tiny room. I gather they can have folks wait in car and check in on phone and proceed to hearing room when their hearing is being held.
@3:41 The hearing rooms are supposedly like large closets. Can't see how having folks in such confined spaces can be a good idea.
The excuse making and pity me comments are disappointing. People are working in many areas of our economy, including for example public libraries, restaurants, schools, county court houses, professional offices, factories, retail outlets, and airlines. How do you think the vaccines are being manufactured, transported, and delivered to local vaccination sites? People are working in factories producing vital products for us. If you are employed at an OHO location, get a vaccine or look for a different job. It's time to resume in-person hearings. Stop with the nonsense that video hearings are the equivalent of in-person hearings. Video is vastly inferior. Finally, my clients are either vaccinated or scheduled to be vaccinated this month so stop using them as an excuse to stay at home.
6:31 people are still getting infected and dying from coming back to work too early in those jobs you mentioned. I am not going to risk my life and those whom I am close to until I am vaccinated and it is safe to return.
And many SSA claimants still are not vaccinated so it's not safe for them either. The elderly and those with disabilities are at highest risk.
It's going to be almost impossible to reconfigure SSA's model workspaces (wall-to-wall cubicles surrounded by sealed windows) to comply with both local fire codes and OSHA COVID-19 safety standards. Saul, looks like you'll be teleworking for another year!
Offices are open just in-person services are being curtailed. The work is getting done just differently than before. Get use to it as it is called change.
@631 Agree totally with you.
What's the point in employees (or anyone else) getting vaccinated if they are going to wait months to a year to resume normal work? Once you have been vaccinated and the time has elapsed for it to be effective (a few weeks I'd guess), you are good to go. Poor ventilation, cubicles that are close together, etc don't matter. You won't get the disease and if by chance you do, it won't be severe.
I love my 12 second commute that comes with teleworking but when it's safe to go back (vaccinated), I expect that to end. If employees that have been vaccinated, or offered the opportunity to be vaccinated, don't want to return to work, let them take leave until they use it all up, quit or retire.
When AIDS was going strong in the late 80s/early 90s, the only protection offered was soap and water. Granted it's not a respiratory disease but it was a lot more deadly then than Covid is now.
The pandemic isn't over but it's teetering in the US. In CA, there are 1/10 as many hospitalized and in ICU as early January. The number of new cases is less than 10 per 100,000 per day vs over 130 fairly recently.
Some of the above remarks sound like college students--I want my safe space. Instead of I don't want to be offended it's I don't want to possibly come into contact with any germ.
@6:31 PM
Yes, people are working in many areas of our economy. But many in the sectors you've identified are, in fact, continuing to perform their jobs via telework. Also, there's absolutely a compelling need for certain workers to continue providing in-person services, like grocery store staff, deliver-persons and airline staff. But that doesn't mean it's appropriate for everyone else to go back to the office and pretend this is all over. Many of those same people are getting sick and dying, and those of us who don't need to drive around and mill about in offices or around other people should feel an obligation to stay home in order to reduce the risk imposed on those who can't do their work from home. I'd say most, if not all, of SSA's staff fall into this latter category, and nothing you've presented suggests otherwise.
You say "video is vastly inferior," but you haven't identified any justification for that. And I have no doubt you have some sort of gut feeling that being in a room and locking eyes with a claimant bears tremendous significance. But I haven't seen any evidence that the shift to telephonic or video hearings has had any impact on outcomes for the claimants- let alone evidence showing that whatever adverse impact it might have outweighs the increased risk of death and disability that would accompany a return to full in-person staffing (not to mention the increased risk of ending up in a situation where this pandemic spreads and mutates so rapidly it overwhelms our ability to contain it with vaccines, etc.).
@11:13
Someone needs to lay off the Rush Limbaugh and FOX News for a few days. Seriously, that comment of yours is WACO-level.
Wonder if we can get some numbers on the amount of vacation days being used by SSA staff. My feeling is that it is too dangerous to work, but not too dangerous to play. I get it, you bet I would milk it as long as I could too, nobody likes working and going into the office every day. I sure want to do less and get paid more and have more home time too.
9:21
Actually leave use has plummeted in the last year such that rules were revised re: use or lose leave balances carrying over, etc. as folks are working their tails off at home (takes a lot more effort, at least initially, to do the same amount of work when suddenly you have to do it all remotely, often in new ways...) and having little to no ability to go anywhere. What a fool you are, it would have taken literally one mediocre Google search to see the situation is exactly the opposite of your idiotic claim.
If gov't work is so lucrative and easy, go put in an app for SSA. See how easy those FKA SCTs have it earning their massive $50-60k a year while dealing with ALJs and all the terrible OHO mgmt.
@10:18
Leave usage was down in 2020, but with the most recent advanced leave requests, employees are starting to use their leave again. So yes, they are going out and about and I am sure some of those employees are the ones complaining about the possibility of having to go back to the "unsafe" workplace.
As an attorney rep, I'm not seeing the problem with closed OHOs. Phone and now video hearings are working well and we've seen no statistical drop in pay rates since the switch. When things are safe, we'll gladly go back to in person hearings. But I don't see the rush and I'm sure we'll even continue phone/video hearings for more remote hearing sites.
The problem we're seeing is with closed district offices and DDS. We have an enormous backlog of claims sitting at the initial and recon levels waiting to be processed. I have no doubt that those working from home in those offices are doing the best that they can. But the productivity has dropped dramatically. We have many initial claims taking 12+ months to be decided. Our hearing calendars are bare because the flow of cases being sent to OHO has practically stopped. I, and my clients, will be happier when things open and up and start moving more quickly at the initial levels.
@10:49
Holy ignorant assumptions, Batman. Or perhaps they're planning outings that don't involve activities that would place them at the same high level of risk crowding into a cubicle farm with dozens of staffers and untold joe publics?
@11:26 AM
The DDS offices (which are state-run, by the way), have indeed had difficulties obtaining the requisite technology to enable telework, causing staff to be laid-off/furloughed. But that's not an indicator of declining productivity on the part of teleworking staff.
@907 AM
Do you dispute the facts? Or the assertion that some workers that have posted here don't seem to want to work back in the office no matter how safe it is?
@11:13 Please post your CV so we can see how well qualified you are to be making such bold medical statements.
@130 PM Perhaps you could post evidence supporting vaccinations are not effective and that case rates, hospitalizations etc are not on a significant downward trend? If they don't exist, employees should return after they are vaccinated like every other worker in this country.
After the ALJ makes a favorable decision on disability, , recent severe cutbacks in PC7 overtime has resulted in increased waiting time before an award is processed.
And post entitlement actions can sit for months. I'm seeing an uptick in Congressional and Manager to Manager cases in PC7 and it's due to the severe cutback in overtime. Claims Specialist overtime has been cut to zero, and they are the ones who have to process awards, attorney fees, and input workers' compensation changes.
Much of the current slowdown is not due to telework, but rather is due to Saul's decision to cut overtime in crucial job positions. It's impossible to keep up with the workloads without overtime.
2:49 PM . Yes there is a downward trend, but it has not even come close to the bottom yet. Why rush people back to the office now, when it will be much safer in a few months? To come back prematurely could result in more COVID19 infections.
Also many companies are letting their employees continue to telework. They have discovered it works much better than they anticipated, and that their workers can be trusted to work at home. It's good for morale, the environment (less commuting) and also cuts down the overhead costs of having employees in the office..
The COVID19 mutations are a serious concern that has been made well known by none other than Dr. Fauci. Let's not make the mistake of discounting the medical experts. The fact is that SSA offices by and large are outdated, have poor ventilation, and don't come close to meeting the safety protocols set by OSHA relative to COVID19. The work is getting done as well as possible. Making folks return to the office now or any time soon would be gravely dangerous for the health of SSA employees.
@651 Your idea makes sense. Waiting until Spring 2022, given the trend, the vaccination rates, etc doesn't.
Some of you people asserting that we making the adjudicative decisions are sad, pathetic, lazy employees that don’t want to work and slack all day in the back yard with our margaritas by the pool while the rest of the world is working hard... and we are entitled and lazy.... need to go back to the comments section on this blog’s post referencing Saul’s delusional letter. This is not normal. This is not standard telework. Some of us didn’t want telework. But please look at the post in the comments section there. Too long to repeat. You have no idea. This cluster f is not the fault of the employees you keep trashing. This is an upper level poorly executed, well-intentioned out of touch approach to a crisis... this is what happens when a leader is a bestie and not someone with the experience... and that sh storm runs down hill. The employees I know work their a- off. They aren’t some non human that you keep bashing because you can’t see them. Employees have had surgery and still get claimants assigned to them when not in office on medical leave. Employees are forced to home school their children while working full time... single parents. Employees are real people facing the same real crisis the rest of the nation is. Stop speaking like they are a bunch of lazy a-.. Not to mention quit b* ing b/c people like tw. Oh well they do- and not just at SSA. When I think of re-open I don’t just think of me o think of the public. That’s not an excuse - it’s a fact. We will go back at some point but fighting for tw of course. This situation is nothing like normal tw. I did that for years. This is an alternate h*ll. I have been in a box for a year with myself and two kids... going bonkers with grade school questions interrupting me endlessly.
Like I said read my prior post under the other story. There are so many inaccuracies and anger/resentment driven statements. It’s simply not true. Backlogs are true... people are applying for benefits scared to work during this pandemic. See it over and over. Not to mention delays in exams because they were halted for months. Now there are other hurdles even there. Cases taking 12 months- yes. Not because a person is lazy. Because the conditions, leadership and other circumstances are real and impactful. Thinking it should run as usual and ranting as such is what sounds entitled to me.
@ 2:49 PM and 6:51 PM
Case rates are NOT on a downward trend. The 7-day average flatlined weeks ago and starting moving back up during the past week.
I hate working from home. I do not have the space for all the stuff, I dont like contaminating my home with my work life and I dont like not leaving the damn house. If my work goes full time work from home I will find another job.
@2:49 Because many entities are reopening too many things way too soon, including against the advice of experts such as Dr. Fauci, offices might not open until 2023 at the earliest. How dumb can people be?
If the offices reopen, it could be made voluntary which employees want to return. Employees like 8:21 above who want to return to the office could do so, while those who prefer to telework could do that.
What never can happen again is someone like Saul coming in and suddenly ending telework without good reason. Certain conservative management types will never admit that telework is working well, even when it is. AFGE should have it negotiated and written into the next contract that telework is here to stay.
Dumb enough to believe offices staying closed 2 more years.
@5:44 close offices until 2023??? With all adults having access to the vaccines by May, workers should be fully vaccinated by July. Absent some catastrophic variant that renders the vaccines useless, I see no reason not to open SSA offices by the fall.
9:51 These are experimental vaccines which have not gone through the usual process.
We should wait a couple of years to make sure. No need to rush people back to the office and take chances.
Also telework is working pretty well, no rush to change the present status quo for SSA.
12:59: these vaccines are not "experimental." The technology behind them has been well tested and vetted. They work exceptionally well. Telework is not working pretty well for all parties involved - just read the responses above you!
It’s so funny to me seeing so many people say field offices need to be open, yet how many times do you actually go into a field office with your clients? It’s almost never. The fact is many of you feel so entitled to a level of service that you forget the whole world had changed. It takes longer to get through to customer service at almost any major corporation, it takes longer to get mail delivered, it’s harder to find certain items at grocery stores. Get over it. Everyone is struggling with it and the big fear is people are realizing that face to face appointments and face to face hearings are antiquated and unnecessary and it scares you. Judicial proceedings, congressional and legislative hearings, Admin law hearings at other agencies are all proceeding just fine over video conference and this is an attempt to stay relevant. It sucks that things move slower but I can tell you it’s not telework that’s an issue, it’s infrastructure that was cut in October 2019 and a leadership mindset aimed at dismantling some of SSA’s internal structure and staffing and this pandemic exposed the issue. Rather than complaining about FOs and OHO not opening, try working to be a part of a transition to smoother services. I can tell you that the position of regional CMRs and CO CMR is that reopening to meet the suggestions of the CDC and OSHA FO inspections this month is that reopening is going to be a big lift from a public facing position. GSA and CMR negotiations with landlords, contractors to update spades, move cubicles, address hvac and plumbing issues, logistical testing and tracing apparatus framework and other changes will take money and time. Just be patient and try to care about not just yourselves but also the clients and the SSA workforce.
@3:45 Caring about the SSA workforce is something that management at SSA does not even do. All they do is crunch numbers all day every day and proceed accordingly which is why SSA needs a complete overhaul at all levels of management.
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