The Partnership for Public Service does an annual survey to determine the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. The 2020 results are out and Social Security didn't do well at all. The agency came in as the 15th best place to work out of 17 large agencies.
They also rated agency components. Here are the rankings for Social Security's components, out of 411 total agency components:
Deputy Commissioner for Analytics Review and Oversight -- 290
Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance, Quality, Management -- 135
Deputy Commissioner for Communications -- 256
Deputy Commissioner for Hearing Operations -- 389
Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources -- 252
Deputy Commissioner for Operations -- 318
Deputy Commissioner for Retirement & Disability Policy -- 267
Deputy Commissioner for Systems -- 192
Office of the General Counsel -- 101
Office of the Inspector General -- 382
The results of the survey affirm the senior leadership including Saul and Black need to be put out to pasture.
ReplyDeleteNote how to the field components (Operations and Hearing Operations) are significantly lower than the HQ/Regional Office components. There's no advancement opportunity or real decision making authority in the field.
ReplyDeleteThese results should not surprise anyone. Management throughout SSA is known for crunching numbers, micromanaging, and running reports. They do very little to increase employee morale and most management folks do not treat employees with a semblance of fairness. They are more focused on providing employees with artificially low employee reviews to avoid giving well deserved raises or bonuses.
ReplyDeleteThis does not surprise me. I am glad however that the agency employees were fair in reporting positively about how the agency handled the covid crisis. That legitimizes some of the rest of the survey for me.
ReplyDeleteThats why I quit. If you chose to work under conditions that dont value you then you dont value yourself.
ReplyDeleteFigures the Appeals Council is much happier than OHO.
ReplyDeleteMaybe another explanation is the average grade level of the employees. Higher grade levels = more discretion in duties = better scores,. That might explain why OGC has better scores than anyone else in SSA; why the Appeals Council is rating their unit above OHO and why the units with (lower-graded) field employees (ARO, DCO, OHO) score lower than pure CO units. It also might explain why SSA ranks lower than agencies with (higher graded) scientific professional occupations, like NASA.
ReplyDeleteNope. SSA was a Top 5 agency to work at under Colvin. This all on Saul and his minions.
DeleteI don’t care for Saul, but I retired in 2019 after 33 years with OHO and 35 total as a Fed, and the problems going on started around 2000 with the implementation of HPI (Hearings Process Improvement), so I cannot blame all of the problems on Saul. In the 80’s and 90’s, OHO was a good place to work. I advanced from a Grade 3 to a Grade 12 in about 13 years - after that, nothing. I don’t think the problem is one of being lower graded than some components so much as it is that there are no opportunities to move up. As long as you know opportunities will come and that the most qualified candidate will be promoted, you have a goal to shoot for. Most people in OHO field offices don’t have that and it is a morale killer.
DeleteIt ranks low because the majority of its employees work in the field and that’s a terrible job with little or no room to move up and no appreciation from the public or management. Easy explanation.
ReplyDelete@11:27 Field and hearing offices offer little opportunity for promotions. And, top notch work rarely results in bonuses or pay increases because management folks intentionally give artificially inaccurate employee reviews to avoid giving well deserved bonuses and pay raises to employees who have earned them.
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