Vague though it may be, Social Security has released its reopening plan. It certainly allows many employees to continue working from home every day. No one has to come into the office daily.
I don't know how this is going to work. I'm pretty sure that there will be be far, far too much demand for in-person service at the field offices to allow field office employees to work from home three days a week. How do ALJs conduct all the hearings they are supposed to conduct coming into the office one day a week? Things I've read suggest that many ALJs think that most claimants will continue to accept telephone and video hearings in the future. That's incredibly naive. I don't care how wonderful you think telephone or video hearings are. I know better. My opinion and that of my clients matter. The self-serving opinions of public servants don't matter in this instance. Cramming video hearings down the throats of unwilling claimants won't be politically feasible after the pandemic is over. We're getting back to something like normal or there's going to be hell to pay.
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Violent rhetoric aside, a significant number of claimants with psychiatric issues wanted phone hearings even before the pandemic. And given how few reps in my ODAR wanted video hearings, I'd say most of the under-70 reps (at this point mostly per diem hires for Hedge Fund-owned SSD rep businesses) would be happy to keep doing hearings from home and not traveling.
"How do ALJs conduct all the hearings they are supposed to conduct coming into the office one day a week?"
1. That question is posed inaccurately. The plan calls for 3-4 days telework for ALJs, depending on circumstances and the CBA.
2. In any event, the ALJ could conduct one day of phone/VHs via telework, and another day in-person.
Will it be safe for all involved to do in person hearings?
In-person hearings are superior, but telephonic is preferable to video. Most people look fine on a video. At least with telephonic, an ALJ can't rely on their personal observations to suggest the claimant had no difficulty sitting through a hearing.
Charles It looks like FO employees will only get two days telework per week not three as you indicated. This is quite workable considering the work was getting done fairly well, even with five days per week telework. If anything I think FO employees should've been granted more than 2 days, for safety and health considerations.
If you think public servants's feelings on the telework issue are self serving, well let's face it so. are the feelings and demands of attorneys and their clients. By the way I have not seen any statistics which indicate in person hearings are have a higher allowance rate than video hearings. If there are such statistics please share.
Just because it feels more comfortable and familiar to have an in person hearing, going back to the old ways of 5 days per week in the office, is not feasible or safe at this point.
I'm glad the PSC technicians will be teleworking 4 days per week. Back when Saul terminated all of Operations employees telework, PSC's were lumped in with FO and there was no good reason for that. There is more of a need for FO Claims Reps and Service Reps to be in the office as compared to PSC Claims Specialists or benefit authorizers. . The PSC jobs can be done just as well from home for the most part.
I am concerned about SSA rushing back to reopening so soon, in January. Especially worried for FO and HO personnel and the general public which goes into those offices.
Just this week my niece and nephew (both fully vaccinated) came down with COVID for the first time.. And it is hitting them hard even though they are both only about 30 years old COVIID19 is much worse than the flu even if you are vaccinated. And it's not gone away not by a long shot..
Purely anecdotal, but probably 75% of reps that appear before me prefer phone hearings. I personally do not like them, but the efficiencies presented to reps and agency scheduling can't be denied.
"If you think public servants's feelings on the telework issue are self serving, well let's face it so. are the feelings and demands of attorneys and their clients."
Uh, yeah....but isnt the public servant's job, you know....to serve the public?
2:20 I am serving the public: by working from home. It's not my fault if some won't recognize the good work that I achieve at home.
These new reopening plans are a compromise. My telework days are being cut from 5 per week to 4. I'd rather continue to telework every day but I'm willing to give a little. The feds in the FO are seeing their telework be slashed from 5 days per week to 2.
I'm just glad that the Biden Administration is not against federal workers and the acting commissioner is willing to negotiate with AFGE. Big improvement over Saul.
So when should we expect to see in-person hearings resume, February, March? I am sure it will be a slow roll out but would be nice to know for sure for those that attend hearings in more than one location and have to leave time in their schedules to drive to multiple hearing sites.
Too soon to reopen offices. For all those who don't realize it, there is a lot of interaction with the public at field and hearing offices. And, if anyone thinks SSA has sufficient protocols to ensure the health and safety of employees and the public in light of the COVID19 pandemic you are sadly mistaken. The work should continue to be done at home.
This plan is stamped "pre decisional" on every page. I'm an SSA employee and I have not anything from my supervisor or anyone else, about this plan being released, or how many telework days my position will be granted.
It would appear this is all still being negotiated and it's jumping the gun to think this is final. I'm surprised this was even leaked to the media.
"Individuals seeking a public service or benefit (and their companions)
Requirements related to vaccination status, and COVID-19 testing and results, do not apply to members of the public entering an SSA facility to obtain a public service or benefit, including Social Security field offices and hearings offices. If they are not fully vaccinated, these individuals must comply with all relevant CDC guidance, including wearing a mask and physically distancing from other people."
"Employees, contractor employees, visitors, and individuals seeking a public benefit or service who are admitted to an SSA facilities and who are not fully vaccinated (or who decline to provide vaccination status) must maintain a distance of at least six feet from others at all times and wear a mask regardless of community transmission level."
I read these sections to mean at OHO unvaccinated claimants or claimants who do decline to provide status will be required to wear a mask even while testifying. Am I interpreting this correctly? It will be interesting to see how hearing rooms will be set up to allow for the required 6 feet from their representative or the VHR. We're gonna need a bigger table.
I don't think it's fair to FO employees that they have to interview unvaccinated people "seeking a public benefit" . Why are the people who admit they are unvaccinated even allowed in the building? This would be unsafe for the other general public people in the lobby and also the SSA employees. Unvaccinated people should have to file remotely.
I think it's too soon to reopen. SSA is unique in that there is so much face to face interaction and vulnerable people coming into the offices too. There are so many breakthrough COVID cases these days: even if an employee is fully vaccinated he can catch it from an unvaccinated person...
Nothing SSA employees can do will make the public content and some of the posters on this blog. The last 20+ months have been stressful. My office lost staff due to retirement and transfers, here I am posting about this on my day off, I dont know why since we shouldnt even have days off per the commenters. I handle the work of 3-4 people. The staff is operating at barebones right now, SSA offered early retirement right before reopening (genius).
I want to reassure the posters, coming back to the office 5 days, 3 days, 1 day, will make no difference. SSA lacks the staff and funding to do the work. The difference come January will be, the public can sit in the waiting room for hours instead of sitting on hold. And the attorneys will continue to call and struggle to get through. The productive place to channel your feedback will be to contact SSA leadership and congress. As for the employees, they will do the best they can and take criticism from every direction. Senior leadership will be permitted to continue "at home vacation" come January since telework is available for them full time. Come January things will only deteriorate since the agency will have more retirements. I can confirm the retirements aren't idle threats, January 1 the agency will lose more staff.
Good luck to everyone
I can confirm on the retirements. I'm a Senior Attorney with 30+ years at OHO. I made the decision several years ago to retire at the end of this year. It had nothing to do with the pandemic or vax. I'm vaccinated. At this point about 8 people in my office (out of about 50 employees) will be retiring at the end of the year or shortly thereafter. And that's just the ones I know about. So roughly 15% of our local workforce will be gone by March 2022. Of the ones leaving that I know of, at least half are doing so because of the vax. So in some cases, that is not an idle threat as some on this board appear to believe.
"The late summer and early autumn easing of the nation’s burden of new coronavirus infections has come to a halt over the past two weeks, according to health department data analyzed by The Washington Post. "
This article was just posted this morning, a front page article in the Washington Post. This does not seem to be the time for SSA to be reopening, if a new surge in cases is beginning.
I keep seeing all this talk about face to face with the Claimant, vaccinated and unvaccinated. Why dont these government employees understand that many non profits service providers have been dealing with people face to face for quite some time now. Where do you think these people are going for relief when they cant get what they need done in the SSA office? Open enrollment for Medicare is right now. EVERY Area Agency on Aging is booked with enrollment appointments. They are filing LIS applications, going through Part D plans, discussing Medicare Advantage plans in the area and Medigap plans. Every SHIP is up to their eyebrows providing assistance because there is a lack of service at this time. It is LIHEAP time, many applications for energy assistance as prices go up. They are doing those EVERY day.
Congregate meal sites are open, MOW being delivered, most of the volunteers are seniors who are at the most risk. But here we have well paid employees coming up with every flimsy excuse in the books to avoid the people they are being paid to serve. My opinion falls lower and lower of these employees with every blog post on this subject. What I see makes me sick to my stomach.
3:00 pm SSA does not handle Medicare advantage, part D enrollment. LIHEAP and SHIP.
SSA is poorly staffed and the reopening/ vax mandate turned a retirement wave into a tsunami of retirements.
Folks on this website believe the tsunami wont happen. My office alone experience retirements with little replacement staff, the tsunami will leave barely a graveyard shift crew come January. People can pound fists in to the air and complain about SSA telework. Telework has prevented more retirements. The issue is that getting people back into the seats wont improve customer service, in fact the service will deteriorate. Although you can send a client to the office and have them wait for a day or two or a few weeks until they get appointments. The office will be open.. they can visit and hang out in the waiting room. SSA should open a bar in the waiting areas, the $$ will likely help hire new staff.
I’m an OHO employee that is perfectly fine reopening. I’m relatively young, vaccinated, and am fortunate to have no comorbidities. We don’t have the public exposure the field offices do in our lobbies, and I’m guessing there will be a system to limit the number of claimants in our lobbies at one time. It’ll be controlled as best as possible, but spreading the virus won’t be stopped.
There are a few things I know. Members of the public, representatives, and employees will get sick, and undoubtedly one or more people will die from the virus based on exposure at an SSA office. SSA will get backlash from one of these local reporters that are on the public’s side about our irresponsibility and failure to protect the public, and all the congressmen screaming for the reopening and the reps on this blog will be the first to dog pile on SSA for it. It’ll be great.
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8:02 PM. Yes some SSA employees will get sick and die based upon exposure at an SSA office. FO and HO employees are at highest risk. And why are TSC and PSC employees being forced back to the office to do the exact same job functions they are accomplishing at home? They don't even meet the public so let them telework every day.
Yoo are lucky to be young and have no co-morbidities. I'm not in that boat so I will have to choose between retirement or going back to the office and taking my chances. I don't understand why SSA and AFGE are not looking out for employees with co-morbifities, and there should also be an age exception of 60+ don't have to return to the offices.
4:27 I never said they do, I said that those are happening, long interviews with very complex lifelong implications, every day they happen.
Never said SSA did it.
Retire.
We need fresh blood.
Blah blah blah experienced, and all that, guess what thats the problem.
The re-opening sounds good to the public, but I agree with some of the other posters...my office has 4 employees. If we re-open, we will possibly have two or three onsite any given day as they stagger the telework. This will result in the people in the office getting nothing done except replacement cards and benefit verifications. Nothing from the backlogs will move. The staffing situation at SSA is horrible and while I'm not sure how many will retire rather than return to the office, any reduction will be a big hit on service.
Hoping they offer early out in 3 years when I'm eligible, because this is a horrible agency to work for.
"More people will die"
Please see every single NFL stadium on Sunday.
Did you see the World Series?
Yeah, SSA is a hotbed of infections.
C'mon man!
I have talked with about 20 coworkers in my SSA office and haven't come across one yet that thinks it is very unsafe to reopen. A few really do want to come back to the office to work. Most don't but they agree it's due to convenience. The short commute (feet instead of miles), the conveniences that come with working at home, etc are the reason. While it appears that many employees don't want to come back until Covid is completely eradicated, I think they are a small, but vocal, minority here. I don't work in an urban office but a good sized one far out in the suburbs that would be considered in "purple" country.
4:27 it was a comparison on long face to face appointments for the transfer of important sometimes life long decisions. They are doing what you are going to be doing and have been doing it for quite some time.
The only thing that’s going to change with the FO slowly reopening is people on here will go back to complaining about understaffing and mismanagement once they realize almost nothing service wise will change and the backlogs in the FO will only increase once telework ends. Nothing significant is changing at OHO, but at least the FO will be open. Please tell me how many times you accompany your clients to the FO. We never do, it’s all done online in our office and it’s not changing. The FO telework situation isn’t the problem, it’s the staff cuts we’ve all watched happen over the last 8 years catching up.
I say open the doors and pack them in the lobby and see what happens. It's not like they aren't already sick. What's the worst that can happen?
I'm sure that replacement SSN card or benefit verification are worth the risk. If they wanna come in, let them.
10:28 The NFL games are outdoors, so was the World Series. COVID is hard to catch outside. SSA employees would be working indoors where COVID is transmissible.
Two days ago 11/9/21 is the last available total for daily COVID19 deaths in the USA. There were more than 1500 deaths that day.
Now I'd like to say something about a possible retirement wave. I have worked at SSA for many years and I have observed that the best systems employees are usually young. Especially computer programmers, a young mind helps with that type of logical thinking.
However for Claims Specialists (Or Claims reps in the FO and Claims Authorizers in the PSC ), these employees are really the heart of SSA Operations. It takes years of on the job experience to know these jobs and to do them well. . The voluminous POMS, especially the workers' compensation laws for each state, and the attorney fee provisions: there is absolutely no way to learn all that is needed, except by years of working cases and reading POMS.
SSA simply cannot afford a retirement wave of experienced Claims Specialists. I've seen too many cases messed up by inexperienced CS.
@4:16pm There is not going to be a retirement wave even though SSA is offering an early retirement plan. It's just hype.
You're right...the wave may be a ripple for the agency as a whole, but for the FO's it will be major. Because let's face it, the people in the field will be the majority of the retirements, not the ones that can continue to work from home. So while the number may be small compared to the overall number of employees, it will not be small compared to the number of FO employees.
Get over the wave thing. Remember when they cried wolf when all the first round hires for SSI became eligible to retire. Guess what happened. Nothing.
A two hour job search will show that they have no transferable skills to any job outside the agency and nobody is willing to overpay them for the niche info they may have. They dont want to go back to 10 days a vacation and maybe 5 holidays.
It just isnt going to happen.
12:05 Why would they need transferable skills if they are retiring?
You're missing the point because you're so angry. It doesn't matter if it's a "wave" or a "ripple". The only ones that will be hurt by any retirements will be the claimants. The service at the local FO's will suffer. That's thge issue. All you seem to care about is being the loudest. Congrats, you win.
Precisely. Also, they have plenty of transferable skills. Former SSA employees work for law firms, insurance companies, and as consultants. The person who left that review is letting his anger at Federal employees get the best of him.
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