From Fedweek:
An audit has illustrated issues that arose with the partial reopening of SSA field offices, including a lack of contact information on visitors and no guarantee that visitors who later learn they have the Coronavirus or have been exposed to it will report it back to the agency. ...
The audit found that on average, some 2,200 employees and some 1,600 visitors have been in the offices daily. However, the IG found that the agency “does not maintain contact information” for all visitors to those facilities nor for contractors such as security guards and cleaning staff. ...
Does contact information matter if the employees coming to the field office are vaccinated? Aren't employees assuming the risk if they have refused vaccination?
I'm gotten to the point where I really don't care too much what happens to those who refuse vaccination except for that tiny number of people who have a genuine medical reason not to be vaccinated. There’s only so much we can do to protect people from their own folly.
8 comments:
The vaccine is NOT 100% effective and people can and have gotten COVID after getting the vaccine; therefore, proper record keeping is essential.
Folks need to get vaccinated if they have not done so. Not sure why there is so much reluctance to get vaccinated except for selfishness or stupidity or both.
The issue with partial reopening is that if say 25% or even 50% of the employees are back in the office, taking care of beneficiaries by appointment only or through some other method of limiting the numbers, there are still going to be an outrageous number of phone calls coming in and even less personnel to answer them. Send everyone back and make some provision for controlled numbers for a while (don't want 3000 people flooding to an office) and then go back to pre-Covid protocols. Everyone will have had time to be vaccinated and life will return to as close as normal at the SSA offices.
--CR working from home
Except for a bona fide medical issue which comprises a person, there is no logical reason for a person to fail to get vaccinated. This situation has been allowed to become ridiculous. Return to work in the office or submit a resignation and find a work from home job.
It bears repeating that more work is being accomplished with SSA workers teleworking, than would be done in the office. The reasons are manifold: less leave is being used, employee morale is high, productivity is up, we are free from office distractions.
Has it occurred to you that SSA management may be aware that more work is being done at home? They are privy to statistics about this, which are not available to the public. I believe that this is the main reason they are letting telework continue at this time.
SSA workers have now proven we can do the job at home. I am proud of what we have accomplished. It is a shame that we are not getting credit when credit is due, at least not on this blog.
But remember that the vaccines often don't seem to generate a strong enough response in immunocompromised or immnosuppressed people (for instance, people on medications for transplants, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or multiple sclerosis), and a fair number of these do go to or work at SSA offices and could still be at increased risk.
The funny thing about the SSA people not wanting to return is you hear it more from people that do not have direct public contact than you do those in the field offices. So what SSA fears the most is other SSA employees.
People who do not have jobs that require public contact shouldn't have to go back to the office. Sorry that some people do not have such jobs. Get another job either within or outside the Agency that allows you to work from home. If I have to go back, I will but there is no need to for my particular job.
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