From Fedsmith:
A group of [Republican] lawmakers said that the interests of federal employee unions are being put ahead of those of Americans in making decisions about when to fully reopen agency offices.
A group of 14 Congressmen are the latest lawmakers to call for federal employees to return to work in agency offices in greater numbers to better meet the needs of their constituents. In a letter to agency leaders, they called for an immediate and safe reopening of agency offices, especially for those that offer in-person services that cannot be replicated virtually.
“As you finalize reopening and staffing posture plans with individual Federal agencies this week, we request that you consider the impact that continued closure of many Federal offices to the public has on millions of Americans, particularly elderly and low-income Americans who rely on the in-person services offered, particularly at Social Security Administration (SSA) field offices, across the country, and urge you to prioritize the reopening of Federal offices in the interests of all Americans, not just those of unions,” said the lawmakers in their letter. ...
Democratic members of Congress won't be bashing employee unions and will be more interested in protecting employee health but they too have constituents who need something closer to normal service from their federal government than what we're getting now.
9 comments:
Better luck next year. You can kiss in-person interviews and hearings in 2021 goodbye thanks to Delta and the anti-vax morons that these same GOPers defend.
Not so fast .. please. Have those politicians noticed the up-tick in Covid cases due the Variants and the decline in vaccinations. Have they ever visited a Field Office which is usually SRO. Should the disabled and the aged be lined up outside offices in August heat ???
Most SSA jobs can be done well from home, and I believe that the statistics will show that more cases are being processed in the PC and TSC since 100% telework began.
As for the FO and HO personnel they are at highest risk from the variants in COVID19 which could pose danger for all of us, even the fully vaccinated.
The GOP should stop with the federal employee and union bashing. Both sides are becoming more extreme in my view. What happened to the moderate GOP Congressman who used to help work towards fair treatment of government employees?
With these constant attacks on federal employees the GOP is driving people like me towards switching parties to Democrat. I am a federal employee and I have to vote for my own interests as well as what is good for the country.
Actually 8:45 they are lined up at SHIP offices and CILs trying to find someone that can help them. Those offices are open and doing everything they can to try and help these people who have been abandoned by the system.
Why are we assuming the FOs will be SRO when we re-open? SSA has a great opportunity to rethink our business model - a model that limits in office visits to certain circumstances. We have to change the way we do business. Those that fill up the waiting room usually do not need to be there. Simple benefit verifications take up too much of the walk-in traffic. We need better data sharing with Housing programs and State agencies to limit the need for the public to flood our offices needing proof of income. Also, we get flooded with SSN requests at the beginning of school years and in January -April for taxes. I am amazed by the number of people that have no regard for the social security cards and "lose" them year after year.
We will have some form of telework when we return, my guess is 2-3 days a week. Losing that much staff will make the walk-in traffic in the filed office unbearable if changes aren't made.
8:40 am At the rate that the delta variant is spreading we will all be in shutdown mode again by Labor Day. Sad that folks aren't getting vaccinated because it allows for more COVID variants to develop which may, sadly, be more transmissible or more deadly than the current variants.
@9:39 AM
"What happened to the moderate GOP Congressman who used to help work towards fair treatment of government employees?"
"With these constant attacks on federal employees the GOP is driving people like me towards switching parties to Democrat."
9:39 AM, I ask this respectfully: Where have you been for the last 40 years? Does any of this sound familiar:
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." --Ronald Reagan
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." --Ronald Reagan
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." --Grover Norquist
Does that sound like a party concerned with the welfare of government employees?
Working in a deep red southern state, I suspect that many of my clients and potential clients are not fully vaccinated. With the original covid virus and most variants, I thought that by using appointments, temperature checks, plexiglass, distancing and mask mandates, a limited reopening of the field offices was possible.
However, the Delta variant has somewhat changed my thinking. Yesterday, I listened to a doctor say that, for the original virus, it would take about 10 minutes of relatively close contact to become infected but for the Delta variant, it only takes 1 minute. Given the new reality of a much more transmissible virus, I am concerned for the unvaccinated claimants who will have to expose themselves to this horrible disease.
I don't have an answer. Perhaps some charitable organizations could set up an outreach to help those who don't have the technology or skill to use the SSA online resources.
I know some will respond by saying whatever happens to these claimants is their own fault for not getting vaccinated. However, they are victims of brainwashing. One out of five Americans believe that the vaccines contain microchips. We have a pandemic of misinformation.
“I know some will respond by saying whatever happens to these claimants is their own fault for not getting vaccinated. However, they are victims of brainwashing. One out of five Americans believe that the vaccines contain microchips. We have a pandemic of misinformation.”
Sounds more like Darwinism is alive and well. Of course, the antivaxxers likely don’t believe in that, either. Everyone is a victim these days with no personal responsibility. We don’t have a pandemic of misinformation. We are plagued by rampant ignorance and a lack of critical thinking skills. There was recently a story of a guy hospitalized in Louisiana recently who told a reporter that he’d rather be hospitalized all over again instead of getting the vaccine and not being hospitalized because he didn’t want to bow down to the left’s agenda of shoving vaccination down his throat.
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