From a television station in Kansas City:
Monday is the deadline for millions of federal workers to provide proof that they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19. ...
Nationwide, a U.S. official said over 90% of federal workers received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Monday’s deadline. ...
In the Kansas City area, the American Federation of Government Employees said compliance with the mandate is strong, and those who have concerns have had plenty of time to file paperwork seeking exemptions.
“As you’ve seen with police unions and firefighters and such, there’s a lot of talk before the mandate comes down, and then at the end, most people relent and get the shot and move on,” said Ben King, a Social Security Administration employee and representative of AFGE Local 1336.
“It’s the same with the federal workforce. I have not heard from any friends in other departments or agencies that have mass levels of folks who have refused to get the vaccine.” ...
I guess those 90% are not planning on retiring.
ReplyDeleteIf the statistics hold throughout all federal agencies, SSA could be looking at losing 6000 employees. And you think backlogs are bad now...
ReplyDeleteFilling jobs when vacancies occur at Social Security is a lack of want to fill them and not because they could not fill them from job seekers. The pay for most jobs at Social Security, especially for those without a college education is quite good and the CR types of jobs for new college graduates are also well paying, at least at first.
ReplyDeleteIf people in those jobs want to give them up because they don't want to get a shot, then bye-bye, People have the right to be stupid and not getting a shot for whatever reason they propose is just plain stupid.
Don't know if there are 6000. That seems high to me. There is one in our office that is retiring now instead of 2 years down the road due to the mandate.
ReplyDeleteIf i had $1 for every time we have been threatened with mass resignations, retirements and waves of leaving SSA employees, I could retire quite comfortably and quite early.
ReplyDeleteThey pull it like a six gun. Wolf! Wolf!!
I can say from a regional perspective, in our region there has not been mass retirements. What is slightly concerning is that those who are retiring are people with lots of institutional knowledge. I’ve seen more than one state level disability program managers, leads at CDPS, Area Directors Office analysts and at least 4 DMs or ADMs. I am not sure if this is the mandate or the offer of early out lets a lot of these people retire at age 50 and start a second career while getting the pension and SS offset payment. This is exciting for young workers in the RO or ADO to advance but it’s going to be a little difficult replacing some of that knowledge. That’s my fear going forward, not a lack of bodies, but a lack of brains in some of the major support roles.
ReplyDelete@3:05PM Good point. There is no great wave of retirement or resignations that is going to happen at SSA. It's a common rumor not based in any reality.
ReplyDeleteThere will be precious few actually quitting. There have been a few retirements earlier than planned which won't impact the agency much but will the offices that lose the experienced.
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