It's amazing that tomorrow, June 18, may or may not be a federal holiday. Congress has passed legislation that would make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Apparently, the President will sign the legislation at 3:30 this afternoon. If that happens, I don't know how tomorrow isn't a holiday since that's what the legislation requires and apparently the legislation is effective immediately.
I'm happy that Juneteenth will be a holiday. However, adopting this new holiday without any lead time is bizarre. Just in Social Security terms, there are many thousands of individuals who have appointments scheduled with Social Security tomorrow. For that matter, many thousands of federal employees won't get word about this new holiday before tomorrow morning.
Update: Now it's official. The Office of Personnel Management has tweeted that tomorrow will be a federal holiday.
Now filter this down and you can see how things work at SSA. At any given moment, things change without warning or foresight. You just get an email that says “do this immediately” or “no longer do that effective immediately” or “work this, don’t work that”.
ReplyDeleteAwesome isn’t it?
By the way, I’m sure plenty will come on here blaming the federal employees for causing this to happen some how. I honestly had no clue what Juneteenth was or existed until this happened.
make presidential election days a federal holiday as well
ReplyDeleteSSA manager here. Unconscionable that there wasn't a plan ready to execute for this eventuality. We literally have a whole department that exists for the sole purpose of interfacing with Congress, interpreting laws and predicting what is coming. Instead, we rely on rumor and OPM twitter...
ReplyDeleteFYI, as of now (1:29 pm), still no "official" word from anyone high up in SSA on how to handle tomorrow except that the office will be closed.
Speaking as a black guy. This matter seems rushed but i do agree Juneteenth should be holiday as much as the 4th of july.
ReplyDeleteWe received a call at 1:36PM ET from OHO advising us they are closed tomorrow and our scheduled hearing is cancelled.
ReplyDeleteWe have had two hearings for tomorrow postponed because of the new holiday.
ReplyDeleteI have a question. Will the processing centers be open? Specifically PC7
ReplyDeleteWe will be in the office tomorrow, we dont get the new holiday off, I will be interested to see how many employers offer this day off in the future.
ReplyDelete4:03 PM. Most, other than banks, won't. New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas are the ones "most employers" give off as holidays. Columbus Day, Presidents' Day, MLK Day, and Veterans Day are "lesser holidays"... Meaning, that most businesses don't treat them as holidays. Easter isn't even a "holiday" But, some businesses treat it (along with Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve) as a "floating holiday."
Delete3:53 PC7 will not be open tomorrow and I don't think any of the other PSC will be either.
ReplyDeleteSSA Management handled this a lot like the start of the pandemic. No news at all until one afternoon they just say don't come to the office tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course any five day letter filed this week exactly five work days before a hearing next week will now be a day later.
ReplyDeleteNo ALJ would be that ridiculous and refuse to consider that evidence, would they?
Just kidding but honestly, you never know.
At 4:35 PM, June 17, 2021
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteI may be pretty much alone in this, but I'm against making this a holiday.
I mean we already have MLK's BD as a holiday I thought that was established in part to celebrate African Americans obtaining their civil rights. What's next, Thurgood Marshall's and Cesar Chavez/ BD as national holidays?
Don't get me wrong these were all great men and Juneteenth should be observed in some way. But we have enough national holidays already and this is too close to the Fourth of July.
The SSA backlogs will grow, people will be unable to receive mail, etc, there is. a downside too. .
Some countries have 28 federal holidays. We now have 11, which is on the low end. Make no mistake, 6/19 is 7/4 for the African American community, the day the last Black was freed from the shackles of slavery. It should have been a Federal holiday long ago.
Delete@ 6:59 - careful, your privilege is showing...
ReplyDelete@6:59 So maybe we should lump President's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day and Veteran's Day all in to one big USA holiday? Please! Too many holidays when we have 11? You sound like an great employer!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI'd be for keeping Juneteenth as a holiday and making MLK BD a national day of remembrance, instead of a federal holiday.
In regards to the previous comment regarding so called "lesser holidays", please be advised that there is no Presidents' Day. The holiday by Statute is Washington's Birthday. Our newest holiday by Statute is Juneteenth National Independence Day. Please do not allow your employer to distort or lessen the value of any American holiday. God bless you and please enjoy and reflect upon the meaning of our newest holiday.
ReplyDeleteAt 6:59 PM, June 17, 2021
ReplyDeleteI am black. Too many federal holidays are not productive in my opinion. The 4th of july celebrates white independence from britian. The fourth of july does not consider african american suffering. And yes over time i expect multicultural holidays.
Apparently, the USPS is delivering mail today (the 18th) and tomorrow. They reportedly said that they cannot just stop everything with 1-2 days notice. Good for them. Obviously, they should, and I assume will, pay their employees their regular pay plus holiday pay. I also hope banks are open - people need advance notice when things will be closed (unless it is not possible). I'm glad this is a holiday, but if there is only a single day's notice, they should appropriate enough money to pay regular plus holiday pay to federal workers (at least, a lot of them) and have them work.
ReplyDeleteI wish all federal holidays were offered with the ability to work plus holiday pay! SSA has never offered that option since I’ve been there.
ReplyDeleteThis was not handled well at all. Instead of canceling everything on a dime, considering how long some claimants have been waiting for services, OPM should have allowed for a floating holiday to be used before the end of the fiscal year. Just my two cents for what it is worth.I support the holiday and recognition. I am also grateful for the day off. I just think the roll out could have been handled differently. However, thinking outside the box is a mortal sin in government and even more so at SSA.
ReplyDeleteThe timing was great politically awful practically. I hate that hearings were cancelled and those should have been accommodated.
ReplyDeleteThe expectation was for Congress to take it up later when unanimous consent failed months ago but with 60 co-sponsors it was expected to pass when taken up. When Senator Johnson of Wisconsin withdrew his objection, unanimous consent became possible and it could get done in time to be done this year.
I really hate that some people see this as solely a Black holiday. Juneteenth represents the making of the ideals of Independence Day closer to reality. Not perfected but closer, the neutering of the14th and 15th Amendments for nearly a century certainly prevented realizing the full breadth of the Independence Day.
It took over the course of the rebellion 2.2 million people at various times of all races and many different national origins, and many different faiths or no faith serving in the uniforms of the United States military to make Juneteenth happen. More than 365,000 serving under the flag of the United States died from, combat injuries, accidents, disease or in POW camps and more than 282,000 were injured to get to Juneteenth.
By contrast 40,000 more serving under the US flag died in WWII but 8x more were in uniform at some point.