Federal News Network reports that Social Security sent the following message to its employees yesterday:
You may have seen the recent update from the CDC about people who are fully vaccinated. As we have said all along, we will continue to follow government-wide and CDC guidance. We are getting additional information from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force and will update you as soon as possible about changes. We will also meet all applicable labor obligations.
Sounds like reopening is coming sooner rather than later. Not a good idea. CDC erred. Now it seems SSA is going to follow their error with one of their own.
ReplyDeleteHow long till all those retirements start? :)
ReplyDeleteStart the pool!
ReplyDeleteGet back to the offices and service the US population who needs your help.
ReplyDeleteDon't need to be in the office for that.
DeleteThe CDC guidance relies upon one major assumption, that people will be honest about whether they are vaccinated or not and follow the appropriate protocols if they are not. As we have seen over the past year, a significant portion of our country had issues with wearing masks, taking to the streets in protest at times and generally just acting like idiots at others. A significant portion of these anti-maskers are also anti-vaxers. Do we truly think that they will all of a sudden have a change of heart and start wearing masks when they go into public spaces?
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see what happens with #s over the course of the next month. While I certainly hope they will continue to decline, I am expecting to see an increase. Maybe in the end it will be the only way we can try to achieve herd immunity. If they won't get a vaccine, lets just let them get exposed, hopefully not get too sick or die, and then develop some antibodies. It may be the only way. In the meantime, I will go on wearing my mask in public settings where I will encounter people I do not know and cannot trust despite being fully vaccinated.
ReplyDeleteIf nine NY Yankees caught the virus after being vaccinated, how can I feel safe coming back to a SSA office? A few more such incidents and the CDC will be forced to order people to mask up again. Especially if Covid variants make people get really sick again.
As for the SSA announcement: I don't like the part where they say SSA will follow CDC guidance. I do like the part that says we will meet all labor obligations. I will trust AFGE on the issue of returning to the office.
3:02 how many have symptoms? Breakthroughs occur with every single vaccination. Like saying I am not going to work in public because of measles, mumps and rubella.
ReplyDeleteI trust AFGE exactly as far as I can toss their funding. The union exists for protecting the union not the worker. Its like trusting a fox to guard the chickens.
Just an FYI, you can still wear a mask after being vaccinated if you want to wear it. Nobody is stopping you, and it may ease your anxiety of returning to the office and dealing with the public like you are paid to do with taxpayer dollars.
ReplyDelete@3:02 pm When has SSA ever met all their labor obligations? They are currently ignoring executive orders from the President. And following the CDC guidelines? That's just their way of avoiding any and all accountability for anything they do and do not do and any consequences that come from their action/inaction. One can reasonably, and sadly fear, that SSA will handle all of this so poorly that the health of employees will be imperiled.
ReplyDeleteHow can I come to work every day knowing how many people die on the highways? How can I feel safe in my home with the possibility that someone will break in? How can I go anywhere or do anything with the possibility that I may the victim of some act of violence? What about the risk of catching the flu? That can be a killer. What about being exposed to toxic substances out there? What about all this stuff they say causes cancer? How can I go anywhere or do anything with all the risks out there? What about the asteroid that is going to hit the earth one day? What about global warming? Isn't that going to kill us all? What if North Korea hits us with a nuke? I have to find an underground bunker somewhere and hide. But then, what if it caves in?
ReplyDelete3:36 PM are you aware SSA has been open and doing alot of work? your comments are so snarky. I promise you when the offices reopen the response times will become even slower and attorney fees will be further delayed.. Please understand the administration short changed the budget big time. SSA cannot afford anymore retirements. The way you are talking about SSA staff is down right disgusting. You make it appears as though SSA employees do not want to work. You fail to recognize how terrible the management in ssa is, they dont care about the public, the staff or anyone... Part of the reason the agency is so unresponsive is due to incompetent managers.
ReplyDeleteLet's be real here, this is Saul vs. literally just about everyone else. Telework saves money. The union loves it. I think they will be able to drag it out until Sept. 1 or so.
ReplyDeleteAn ALJ and I were discussing this today before the hearings. Not sure disability hearings should be the first to come back. By definition, many of these claimants are older and sick.
ReplyDeleteNot sure the local SSA offices should open much either. But I would open them first.
Reopening buildings will not help with the workloads.
ReplyDeleteAfter having overtime every Saturday and at least two weekdays for 20 years, I have not had an hour of overtime for months. . Impossible for me to keep up with my workload without OT. Awards are going unprocessed, attorneys are left unpaid, WC adjustments are left hanging.
If SSA abruptly ends telework, it will make things worse.. Many employees will retire. That is the last thing the agency needs now, losing experienced workers at a time of a workload crisis. Also leave usage will greatly increase if employees have to commute.
Frankly, I'm not only concerned about the SSA and agency employees. What about the people who utilize SSA's services? They are some of the most vulnerable - ill, elderly, etc.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, my experiences w/ SSA FOs, DDSs, HOs, etc. have been quite good once they got into pandemic mode. It ain't broke, don't fix it.
ReplyDeleteIf the election had gone the other way. SSA workers would already be back in the office.
DJT, Saul, that was a bad combination for SSA workers.
Biden is more willing to work with AFGE and SSA employees.
I'm reading this latest SSA announcement on reopening . as saying nothing.
For me, No news is good news,
Let's at least wait to see how the reopening goes in other businesses first, make sure there are no new outbreaks.
anon@3:02pm,
ReplyDeleteThose players for the Yankees who got sick were all vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine. That vaccine only has a 66% efficacy rate overall (73% claimed in the US) in actually preventing infections at fully vaccinated state (2 weeks after shot). It was only approved by CDC because it gives almost a 100% protection against death or hospitalization in the event of a Covid infection (which was a sought after end result at the time with hospitals at the breaking point due to Covid inpatients).
Those who get the Moderna or Pfizer 2-shot vaccinations are 93%+ effective in actually preventing infections at fully vaccinated state (2 weeks after 2nd shot).
So, as long as you have a vaccination, you might get a little sick but the odds of a severe infection resulting in hospitalization or death are almost non-existent.
If you have a choice, get the 2 shot vaccination. It takes longer, but you are better protected.
The older and most at risk were the first vaccinated.
ReplyDeleteJust so I’m clear. Are people wanting field offices open or hearings offices open. Because I keep seeing “field offices” and don’t understand how that would benefit most of you. What do you actually go into the FO for? How may times a week are you there and what weekly business do you do there regularly? It’s been years since I was in the FO, but last time I checked, most FO interaction was by mail. I don’t remember seeing advocates or attorneys or social workers sitting in the fo every day filing a claim with their clients. I seem to remember phone calls and faxes for status updates, changes of address, appointment of representatives etc. I can understand wanting to be face to face for a hearing but what do you need the FO for? I’m curious.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if SSA employees are as concerned for the health of the workers in places they are doing business with daily is a concern? Somehow I dont think they are as concerned. Wonder what they would think if the shoe was on the other foot, one would think there would be more feet in more mouths leading to more silience.
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ReplyDelete3:02 here. Thanks for the info about the Yankees outbreak , 9:34. I had forgotten that Johnson and Johnson isn't as effective as the others.
I had the two Moderna vaccines.
I'd rather not get the virus at all. Even if the vaccine protects me from becoming so sick that I'd need to go to the hospital, there is no guarantee there would be no long term health effects if I had a mild case.
For this reason I would feel better if SSA offices remain closed with employees teleworking for a few months . To better measure the situation with the vaccinations , the unmasking and the virus.
I went to Firestone last night and there is still a sign on the door saying masks required and everyone inside wearing a mask. This is not over by any measure.
If I am completely protected, or at least nearly so, if I am vaccinated and the only people at significant risk are those that are unvaccinated, then open up and let the stupid people get sick and die.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it doesn't work like that There are some numbers of people who vaccinated or not, are still at risk because of immune suppression due to chemotherapy or other reasons. But since the Republicans also don't approve of vaccine passports, we are then stuck with having to rely on the refuseniks integrity. Let's see how that works.
@1:45 Good points. No one knows the long term effects of COVID19. But I think SSA is going to reopen soon despite the absurdity of doing so. And, the public and employees will be put at unnecessary health risks way too soon.
ReplyDeleteI hate phone hearings. I hate video hearings. Reopen it!! IT'S TIME.
ReplyDeleteCases are taking forever to go from the district office to DDD in my area and good luck matching attorney paperwork to anything for the past few months. Denial notices are also going out into the black hole of outer space far more often than even the past three years, a problem getting worse before COVID but much worse now. All of this could be fixed, perhaps without completely doing away with telework but the problems need to be acknowledged and worked on. I also have a feeling that government finances are also dictating some slow walking claims right now but that is just my hunch. It's very difficult to tell clients you know almost nothing for about six months or so after filing their cases. Main thing is stop finger pointing and lets get some problem solving happening here. This program could go far towards lessening the suffering of our shell shocked citizenry right now just by fairly dealing with valid claims. Time to end the ten year witch hunt since the isolated Conn incident and return to the SSA mission of helping the deserved disabled in this country.
ReplyDeleteWhen hearing offices reopen, you dismissals are going to explode. Payment rates are going to stay the same or potentially even drop. Reps haven’t seemed to mind phone hearings for the 55+ crowd.
ReplyDeleteThey should reopen the offices and have only employees with no umc’s (underlying medical conditions) go in and then from there see about adding others...
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete10:35 To answer your question, the reason that attorneys want the FO, TSC and PSC open even though they never go there themselves:
1. They mistakenly believe that telework is the reason for current SSA backlogs and delays. The real reason is draconian cuts in overtime which have taken place since Biden took office.
2. They are jealous of SSA employees being able to work from home, while they themselves have to commute to a law office.
Nailed it! So much jealousy and misplaced anger on display in these comment sections. Y'all could have worked for the government if you wanted it badly enough. Probably still could!
Delete@ 10:35 not everyone is a representative, some of us do a lot more and have an incredibly difficult time getting things done during telework. I had a woman that had a Numi problem. She turned 65 in January, and tried to file on line for Medicare A only. She couldn't set up a MySSA acct because of the Numi problem. She tried a telephone application, couldn't because of the Numi problem. They needed her original birth certificate, drivers license or passport and other documents MAILED to the FO where they would confirm her identity and fix the NUMI. She kind of had to go to work, like people do and needed her drivers license. She was not comfortable mailing in her documents given the problems with the postal system. It took until MAY to get her Medicare. Cleared up with an open FO in an afternoon if it would have been available.
ReplyDeleteWe have a retirement and Medicare problem ongoing since OCT of last year that could be cleared in 20 minutes at an open FO. This is repeated in every social service providing agency and office across the country. SSA is not doing its job. If you cant get into a MySSA acct it is impossible now to get letters, payment statements, change an address, checking acct it becomes days and weeks instead of minutes. It IS NOT WORKING!
Anon@11:29am,
ReplyDeleteYou are wasting your breath. Of course it is not working. However, the telework justifier wingnuts won't be satisfied by anything you say. It is a waste of time and breath even trying to engage with them.
The offices are going to reopen in the next few months whether the union wants it or not. Management is already beginning planning based upon the recent CDC guidance, and they'll tell the union what they think the union needs to know when they think the union needs to know it. Biden has left Saul in charge, so that action alone tells you exactly how much concern he has for the agency and the people it serves (which is "Biden wouldn't bother to piss on you if you were on fire to put you out", i.e. absolutely none).
Further, telework will eventually be phased down over time to pre-pandemic levels (though I expect management will throw a bone and allow everyone to participate, though I figure they will offer no more than 2 non-consecutive days a pay period).
And, all those threatening to retire are going to have the first hand opportunity to put up and join a retirement wave, or shut up which is more likely. The agency doesn't care if they retire, because the agency doesn't care about them or that the work they do won't get done. To the agency, it is a win-win proposition. They get to jettison a high cost, expensive employee and (just maybe) replace them with a low cost replacement. Lost productivity isn't even a consideration, because the agency doesn't care if the work is done or not and the illusion of imaginary monetary savings of a new hire over a high grade retiree (if they even bother to hire a replacement) is more politically desirable. They can always just crack the whip harder on the remaining employees, and won't hesitate to do so.
Most of them will shut up, though, because it is a lot harder to live on a piddly fixed income FERS+TSP pension than it is on a relatively generous government salary. Especially when they figure out that the pension income is taxed federally at a significantly higher tax rate than their wages were (I paid a higher tax rate on my $53,000 gross FERS+TSP income each of the last two years than my brother did on a $300,000 yearly salary), plus the health/life/vision/dental insurance takes a significant chunk off the top (along with State taxes, if you live in a state that taxes pension income).
@1129
ReplyDeleteThere are other forms of ID other than a driver's license that can satisfy to correct her NUMI. It doesn't sound so much like it took months for her to get it fixed and get her Medicare as she wasn't willing to produce documents to do it. You can blame SSA for slow processing but if she's not willing to submit documents, that's not on SSA for slow processing.
Getting one's driver's license renewed hasn't been much easier than fixing a NUMI. No appointments for months and then auto extension after the license had expired. It will be good when all govt offices are reopened.
Reopening the offices now is going to lead to increased risk of harm to employees and the public alike Be that as it may, SSA management is clueless and does not care about employee safety or the safety of the public. And, the CDC is only compounding the problem by making recommendations that may not be based solely upon medical evidence but instead is based on current economic conditions. How sad.
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ReplyDelete9:51 Reopening SSA prior to 2022 would be a huger mistake. There was a big surge in COVID19 cases in fall last year, how o we now that won't happen again with COVID variants this year? If nine members of the Yankees got the virus after vaccination that shows it's not safe to be maskless indoors no matter what the CDC says for political reasons.
2:10 You are mistaken if you think there will not be an exodus of SSA workers if the buildings reopen prematurely and telework is ended without good reason.
And there will be no big cut in pay for many of us.My current salary is $94.5 K if I retire now I'l get about 75K under CSRS. I stay because I love my work, I'm good at my job, and I love teleworking. If they ended telework I'd retire, I'm not commuting for 20K per year more than what I could get staying home.
Finally I'd like to say it's a bit insulting to read comments about how poorly telework is working for SSA when the exact opposite is true. And I see the fine work being done by the FO every day. It isa shame that the FO can do a thousand cases and handle issues quite well from home and someone on these comments brings up one incident and falsely states telework is not working. Ridiculous and unfair.
Most of those of us actually doing the work know at SSA know that telework is working quite well. SSA workers are in a far better position to judge how the work is being done than outsiders who can only have a peripheral and marginal understanding. . And who also may have an ax to grind due to jealousy or dislike of government workers.
Bravo. These outsiders have no clue what they are talking about. They just like to whine and complain because they are, by and large, a bunch of right wingers who view the government as the enemy.
DeleteThe country is opening up. It was bound to happen. Retire or return.
ReplyDeleteBe careful what you wish for. Again, the main issue is a lack of OT. That won't change regardless of whether the offices reopen or not. Hourly productivity has increased during the pandemic. I know you don't believe it, but it's true.
DeleteWhen things don't improve when SSA reopens the offices or, even more likely, the numbers get worse, will you then be calling for the offices to close again and send employees back home where they were more productive?
Seriously, you ain't looking at the big picture.
ReplyDelete4:01 your point is well taken. My overtime as a Claims Specialist has been suddenly cut to zero this year, after many years of having OT.
It would be very unfair to SSA employees if the cut in overtime, and the resulting increases in backlogs, is used as an excuse to end our telework.
I think the backlogs will actually increase if telework is ended, for several reasons: (1) Retirement wave (2) increased leave usage (3) Decreased productivity.
anon@11:47pm,
ReplyDelete2:10 here. You mistake my general point. In the larger scheme of things, the agency doesn't care if you retire or not, because in the end they will forget you even existed the day after your retirement papers become effective. They don't appreciate the work you do now, and don't care if your (maybe if they bother to hire one) replacement can't do it right or even at all. Over the last 25 years, management has gotten more and more political to the right. At present, they are more concerned with their right-wing politics, golf scores and Sothebys auctions than they are about actually fixing the major problems at the Social Security Administration.
Worrying about a retirement wave that has been predicted again and again and again and again but which has never materialized is beyond them. And, if the wave just finally happens to come now, they'll see it as a good right-wing political thing as they can get rid of you and your ilk, a $94.5k employee (an expensive CSRS one to boot, the most expensive category of federal employees benefit wise) that they probably won't even bother to replace or will replace by a GS-5/7 FERS .
And, don't forget that you are judging the situation against your own, which isn't realistic for the majority of employees. You are CSRS. As of 2020, working CSRS-covered employees comprised only around 4% of the ENTIRE federal workforce. You get to receive pretty much the most generous form of government lifetime pension short of Congress or special category law enforcement, so retirement will not really be a hardship for you. The (relatively) few remaining CSRS employees within SSA will probably be at the head of your so called "retirement wave", but majority of the people now coming up to comprise the body of the "retirement wave" are are FERS or FERS conversion employees. Pensions under FERS are far less generous than CSRS is to you (for instance, to earn 80% of their high 3 pension like you earn in 40 years under CSRS, a standard FERS employee has to have approximately 73 years of federal FERS service), so don't judge that coming "retirement wave" against your own situation. Please don't take this as an insult to you, as you've obviously put in your time, done your job, and earned your pension. However, you are in the minority as far as feasibility of retirement falls for SSA employees.
@11:49 am. You are correct. No one will care if there is a big retirement wave. The person retiring will be replaced with someone much cheaper or not at all. So, the idea that somehow SSA management cares about a potential retirement is not an accurate one.
ReplyDeletePeople always overvalue their own importance in a job.
ReplyDeleteRetire.
Guess what? The sun comes up the next day. SSA will open. Three months after you are gone nobody there will remember your name. People will get benefits. Sorry, you simply are not that important. Like nobody ever retired in the office before you? Like nobody quit? Did things get done after that? Do you even remember them all?
People always overvalue the importance of SSA providing in-person service.
DeleteCall or go online.
Guess what? The sun comes up the next day. SSA will process your request. People will get benefits. Sorry, you simply don't need to visit a field office. Like nobody ever filed a claim over the phone or online before you? Did those claims not get processed? Why are you being disingenuous?
7:43 what is the percentage of failure in setting up a my SSA account and having to go in and change the record, usually a NUMI error.
ReplyDeleteI dont care one way or another actually. If the agency and its employees would get out of the dark ages and actually embrace the modern way. Fax, come on is it 1989? You have some antiques in the agency that cant open a pdf or even spell it. Maybe if we get the boomers out and get some fresh blood in we can make the agency operate well online and provide some decent service. The public is getting more accustomed to online work and we should see it become more popular as the older generation retires and X and beyond move forward.