Details On Reopening -- Of Interest Mainly To SSA Employees

Grace Kim

      From an anonymous e-mail I received and lightly edited:

TRANSCRIPT OF DCO [Deputy Commissioner Operations] CALL 2-7-22

Grace Kim [Deputy Commissioner Operations]

Good morning and good afternoon everyone. Today’s all manager call is going to be focused on the operations telework program and some of the Article 41 changes based on the reentry MOU with AFGE.

As I mentioned during last week’s call we will be conducting a series of calls and other training activities to prepare for reentry including reopening our FOs to walk in customers which will not occur until early April in order to give you and our employees a little extra time to prepare.

Recognizing there is a great deal of info we need to share in order to assist you as you go through the steps necessary between now and reentry we plan to spread out the training over the next month or so so that we can give you what you need as you need it.  Last week’s DCO all manager call was the first step.  Going forward, each call or training activity will build on the prior calls and activities.  Like last Tuesday’s call when we talked about the mgr FAQs, reentry MOU [Memorandum Of Understanding, with employee unions] and telework at a very high level, today’s call will be another of what I consider foundational calls where we will share background and info to help you understand key aspects of the reentry plan.

I know you have many questions about the more technical aspects of how we will implement telework and reopening, some of which you have already posted on the discussion board last week.  We will answer some of those questions today but others will be covered in future training activities and discussions.  So I ask that you be patient and have confidence that we will provide you with the info you need.  Nevertheless, having said that, do not be shy about asking questions along the way and we will answer them if we are able.

So for today’s call, we will open up the line for questions a couple times during the call, but we will not open the discussion board today.  So I want to begin by saying I believe offering telework to you and our employees adds value and I fully support it, but what I want to make clear is that our current remote posture tho it bears some similarities to telework, it is not what I consider to be true telework.

Throughout this pandemic, we took extraordinary measures to enable our ee’s to work from home. While some procedures and processes we developed, have been seamless, others have been painful workarounds which created extra handoffs and ultimately reduced our productivity.

As we move forward with reentry and the implementation of what I call true telework, it is critical to understand that what we will be doing upon reentry will be a complete reset of telework. For those of you who previously managed in a telework environment under the 2012 telework pilot, I cannot emphasize enough this is not a return to how we operated under that pilot.  I want our telework program to be seamless and transparent so service and efficiency are the same whether the employee is working onsite or at their ADS.

I also want something that will grow with us as technology and enhancements are implemented that change our business processes to address inefficiencies caused by telework.  After reentry there will be a telework evaluation period from March 30 thru Sept 30. During this 6 mo eval period, we will measure and monitor several areas, including customer satisfaction, service availability, workloads management, employee experience, stewardship and environmental considerations.  So based on the results of this evaluation, we intend to finalize a longer term telework plan to implement in fy 2023.  Again, I want to stress the importance of us using this eval period as a true test to determine what works and what doesn’t work.

On today’s call, I want to share some history and context about how we got here.  In Jan 2021, I chartered a workgroup of executives and senior leaders to outline a plan to effectively implement telework in operations following the pandemic.  Specifically I asked this group to make a business case for telework, taking into account among other considerations, what workloads existed in sufficient volumes that an ee could perform independently with little or no assistance from home as easily as they could from the office.  What workloads could not be performed from  home without significant handoffs and productivity loss?  What systems did we have in place to monitor these workloads and what kind of analysis would we need to do across components to figure out what telework posture was right for each operations component.

I asked Leann Stuever, deputy RC [Regional Commissioner] for Philadelphia to lead this workgroup and complete a comprehensive review of our telework experiences, to analyze pandemic productivity data and to reach out to additional front line managers for input.  And based on this analysis, they created overarching operations telework principles.  We took… These guiding principles are intended to keep us focused on our mission, customer service, and will ensure uniformity in determining each operations component’s ability to telework.  We took this approach to account for the broad spectrum of work assigned to operations components.  We did that consciously, knowing the result would be--telework would look different in the field, processing centers, teleservice centers and staff components.

We developed the principles prior to the reentry MOU being signed and while there are some provisions in the MOU that don’t fully align with the principles, I want to share those principles with you so you understand what we believe we ultimately need in a telework program for operations.  

With that background, let me outline our operations telework principles which we will share in writing with you in the coming weeks.

First, telework will not delay or disrupt the ability of a component to meet customer needs and demands.  That means we will not… We will need to have sufficient personnel onsite to address non portable workloads such as mail and in office visitors.  We will also need to have sufficient personnel available during core business hours to provide appropriate operational staff support.

The workloads suitable for telework will utilize existing technology including hardware and software.

Management’s oversight while employees telework will not require special activity or preparations beyond those normally used on site.

We will assess employee’s performance while teleworking based on component expectations of what would be expected to be accomplished in the course of the span of time and not only measured on telework days.

Telework testing will be used to balance customer service across geographic areas and components.

There are a few things to consider related to workload completed when teleworking:

• We will not require advance preparation to be able to process the work remotely.
• Work will be available in sufficient quantities to maintain productivity while offsite.
• The workload can be assigned with no change to onsite processes.
• It can be done independently with no more assistance than would routinely be needed when working onsite.
• Work can be measured using existing technology or MI systems. For example we would not build new systems to monitor work done while teleworking.
• And productivity will be consistent whether teleworking or in the office.

In summary, these principles are meant to make telework seamless.  During the last couple of years, we learned there is plenty of work on management teams that employees can do from home including work that does not require inefficient workarounds to make it portable and work that does not require someone to be onsite to support the teleworker and that really is the key.

For telework to be successful, we must be able to maintain quality customer service and productivity at home just as we would working in the office.  I want to thank you then, and you know this is going to be a theme for your calm and steady leadership throughout this process.  You’ve demonstrated a can do attitude and flexibility throughout this pandemic and I have no doubt that will continue as we begin the process of planning for and going through reentry. So now I’m going to turn it over to Leann Stuever, the deputy regional commissioner in Philadelphia to discuss eligibility and frequency of telework. 

Leann?

[Leann Stuever, Deputy Regional Commissioner, Philadelphia Region]

Thanks, Grace.  Good morning and afternoon everyone.  I am sure so many of you, your heads have been spinning on where to begin with all this information.  We recognize there’s a lot coming at you and a tremendous amount for you to work.  As Grace said, what we are trying to do is choke out the info and share it with you as we can.  While that may not be a strategy that works for everyone, part of the reason we have to use this approach because there are many areas where the guidance is not final yet.  

So one of the things we all need to get comfortable with saying is I don’t know.  I think I will model that for you today because there are many things we don’t yet know.  However I can assure you as decisions are made and our approach is solidified, we will get that info to you.  But for my discussion today, I’m going to follow the manager talking points for reentry found on page 50 in question #130 of the updated manager FAQs that you received last week.

Give you a few minutes to pull that up, I want to expand on what Grace shared, talk a little bit about how we used our telework principles to build our operations telework program.

This info is foundational for your background and context and not information you would normally share during your meetings.  Using the telework principles as our guidepost, we assessed all the workloads to determine if the work could be done at an ADS without introducing inefficiencies to our business processes.  This approach allowed us to keep our mission and customer focus at the forefront.  Based on that assessment we determined that each component has a substantial number and amount of work that is portable and telework ready.  However, there’s also a fair amount of non-portable work which can be broken down into three primary categories.

• Visitors.  Obviously customers who visit a field office for service cannot yet be served in a portable manner and therefore sufficient staff are required to be onsite to serve FO [Field Office] visitors.
• Paper based workloads.  These are not portable and often be processed more quickly when handled directly rather than being delayed thru our scanning operations and therefore will generally no be suitable for telework.  Examples of paper workloads include mail that would not normally be scanned into a processing system, as well as print traffic generated by employees when serving customers.  Each component has varying degrees and volume of paper based workloads that must be processed in the office and as we revert to post pandemic normal processes, technicians will begin handling much of this on their own.
• And, third, facility support functions.  This is the work to maintain building operations that is not portable and therefore not eligible for telework.

The positions with functions solely comprised of paper based workloads or facility support functions will not be eligible to telework.  Across all of operations, hundreds of positions in our more than 43K employees, we have identified 60 positions with approximately 125 employees that are not eligible for telework as those positions have no or very minimal portable work.  All other operations positions are eligible for telework so long as an employee is not ineligible as outlined in article 41, the AFGE [American Federation of Government Employees] reentry MOU, or by law, which we will discuss in more detail shortly.

Within those positions eligible for telework, there are some with a wide range of duties and workload assignments that may not have sufficient portable work to be able to telework at the frequency prescribed for their components. Examples of positions in this category include claims assistants, claims clerks, remittance clerks, central intake clerks, disability assistants and admin assistants.

For the most part, throughout the pandemic, employees in these positions that I’m referencing have been either coming on site or been on WSL.  In some instances, management has been creating portable work for these employees.  But for these “in between” positions, operations has determined that all will be telework eligible and local management will determine telework frequency based upon the individual employee’s assigned duties.  

Those local determinations will be based on the operations telework principles and utilize the provisions of article 41 to limit telework when non-portable work is not available.

While there will be local flexibility, we should be looking to maximize the telework frequency for employees in these positions if their workload assignments support it.  The list of positions that are both not eligible for telework and those that may have insufficient portable work to telework at the component frequency will be shared with you thru your management line.  I want to note that in the Agency reentry plan shared with you earlier today, there is a list of operations positions not eligible for telework.  We have recently done a review and that list has changed so you need to use the one you get from your management line.

Now, let's begin moving thru the manager talking points for reentry and I will share the information that you need to hold your staff meetings.

So page 1 is introductory information and outlines that we will have another meeting  before March 30 to review our safety protocols as well as that we will continue to engage with our labor partners about component specific issues including business processes, that we will share more about those topics prior to March 30.

Page 2 discusses that upon reentry, the evacuation order requiring employees to work from home will end and we will reenter on March 30.

The second bullet references potential delays in employees getting around the building to start their day or returning from breaks and lunch and allowing a grace period if that occurs. This is mainly for our large facilities and FO’s [Field Offices] in multi-tenant space that may have limited elevator capacity.

The next bullet begins to outline specifics about telework.  While I have already outlined is a high level positions that will be eligible, let’s move a little further down page 2 and talk thru employee eligibility.

So article 41 section 3 outlines ee eligibility for telework.  In addition to completing agency telework training, agreeing to sign and abide by conditions in the telework agreement, and having sufficient portable work, employees must also meet the following conditions:

• Not currently be on an OPS
• Not be excluded from participation by law or by government rule or regulation.  Two situations that apply here are employee who were disciplined for AWOL of more than 5 days in any calendar year, or were disciplined for viewing or downloading pornography on government computers while on duty time.  These two situations are permanent bars from telework.  We are gathering the list of ee’s that are barred from telework and it will be shared thru your component line.

Bullet 6 on page 2 outlines the exceptions to article 41 during the 6 mo evaluation period where we have expanded telework eligibility.  The first is that if training can be successfully completed remotely, probationary employees or those in a formal training period can telework.  We are working on a framework to address formal training and we will have more to share in the coming weeks.

The second bullet is for employees that have been disciplined.  Art 41 of the contract indicates that employees cannot  have been disciplined under art 23 in the 12 months preceding the date of the request to telework or while on an approved telework agreement.  However, during the 6 mo evaluation period, which is the life of the MOU, only an adverse action, such as a demotion or a suspension of 15 days or greater, taken within the last 12 months for discipline under section 7 or article 23 will render an employee ineligible for telework.  Employees that have been reprimanded or received short term suspensions are eligible to telework.

And finally the fourth bullet explains that employees with a sick leave restriction or sick leave counselling memo may participate.  Please note that art 41 also outlines that if an employee has been on an OPS in the 12 mo preceding the date of the request to telework that they would be ineligible.  And also that employees need to maintain at least an acceptable level of performance or not be under review.  Based upon the MOU with AFGE, during the reentry and evaluation period, those situations will not preclude telework.

The last bullet on the page, based on portable work, customer service needs, and available technology, during the reentry and evaluation period, operations employees and managers can telework at the following frequency:

• Up to 2 days a week: field offices
• Up to 4 days per week: PCs, TSC, WSU, DPB, and DPU employees Up to 5 days a week: DCO HQ components, Regional offices and ADO employees

I use the term “up to” to take into account those positions that may not have sufficient portable work to telework at the frequency outlined and additional employees may not want to telework 2, 4, or 5 days a week.  As a reminder, employee participation in telework is their choice.  Employees are not required to telework and may work fewer days than outlined for your component.

A few items that may come up in your staff meeting that you may want to have a back pocket information is related to the ability to have a replacement or in lieu of telework day.  Employees will not receive a replacement or in lieu of telework days for holidays, leave, or being recalled due to operational needs in the office.

Conversely, management’s job duties often require them to be onsite varying days to ensure management coverage and/or to address facility matters so managers will have the flexibility to adjust their telework day.  We expect managers will be transparent and communicate effectively so staff will know when management will be onsite, teleworking, or on leave.

We’re through the first 2 pages and I’ve shared a lot of information with you. Why don’t we pause and open up the lines for some questions on what we’ve covered so far?

(23:00--Questions—these are summarized and not transcribed exactly)

Clarification of remittance clerks not getting 2 days/wk telework.

• It’s not the FO remittance clerks

Locality pay clarification

• Can’t answer now

Clarification of no in lieu of telework day (gave an example) Nexus between frequency of telework and shift closing at 3:30.  Are we thinking about offices closing at 3:30?

• In another session, we’ll get into the mechanics of scheduling telework for your office.  Grace jumps in to say it is something they can look at but haven’t been talking about it.  More info to come and in writing.
  

Can an employee decide to work in the office on their scheduled telework day?

• Yes, but they don’t get a replacement day.  Grace jumped in to say that it depends on whether or not we go to physical distancing requirements and whether or not we can satisfy all the h&s protocols by adding additional staff on site.

(End of questions)

Were going to jump back into the mgr talking points. 

Moving on to page 3, the first 2 bullets discuss the considerations you will make when you establish the telework schedule and also the potential for suspending or recalling employees for coverage needs.  So Johnny this goes to your question.  We’re not going to go into detail on those topics today. We will do so, go in greater detail in the future.

The 3rd bullet outlines details regarding credit, OT, alternate and part time work schedules.  Let’s talk about these  a little bit.

In operations, ee’s may work weekday CH and OT on their telework day.  

Weekend or holiday OT or credit will be based on the workload assignment.  

So if the assigned workload is conducive to telework, weekend or holiday OT or credit can be worked from the ADS.  If the work assigned is not conducive to telework, it would need to be done onsite.

For employees that work an alternate work schedule or a part time schedule, the number of telework days per week for those that do not work a 5 day telework schedule will be decreased by the number of non tour days resulting from the alternate or part time schedule. So just for your background and info on this, this policy is to prevent someone not authorized full time telework from creating a full time telework schedule via an alternate work schedule or part time tour. So for example, if a PSC ee works a 4/10 alternate work schedule, they would be eligible to telework

3 days/wk as their weekly non tour day would be the fourth day not on site.  You would still have them onsite one day a week.  Another example for a FO would be if an ee worked the 5/4/9 alternate work schedule.  They have 1 non tour day in the pp.  the week of their non tour day, they would telework 1 day and the week they work 5 days, they would telework 2 days that week.

Moving along, we understand there are several questions related to the 5th and 6th bullets on page 3 which outline info regrading episodic telework for COVID related school closures and the temporary compassionate assignment provisions.  We will provide more info on those situations in the future.

Moving on to the next bullet.  We will not have core days related to telework.  Additionally we will not suspend telework during holiday weeks as was done during the prior telework pilot.

The next bullet outlines the steps ee’s need to take.  EE’s requesting to telework must submit a telework program request and agreement via the

SSA-164 to their supervisor by 2/25/22.  All employees requesting to telework will complete the agency telework training even if it was previously completed.  This is to level set everyone  that we are moving to telework and no longer under and evacuation order.

Related to completing the telework agreement, to utilize the completion and signature functions, the form needs to be opened in Adobe reader.  If that is not the default way for the document to be opened, ee’s should save the file to their computer and then open in Adobe reader.  If you have questions on how to open in Adobe reader, pls reach out to your sysco’s or asc’s.

The week of 2/21, each regional and associate commissioner will conduct training with you to discuss the mechanics of creating your telework schedule so that you will be prepared to act on the request and be able to notify ee’s of their telework schedule by 3/8.

The last bullet on page 3 and the first 2 at the top of page 4 are related to equipment.  So ee’s who do not participate in telework will need to return any equipment they have at home to the office.  Employees that will telework the majority of the time may not need to return equipment.  So that covers all components except the FO’s.  For our FO’s we are still discussing whether employees will need to return equipment.  Expect those decisions and guidance will be made closer to when we reenter.

For employees with equipment at their ADS as part of a RA, if they continue to telework, they will be permitted to keep that equipment at the ADS.  

We’ve received some questions related to obtaining equipment for the ODS from employees with a RA.  Pls review questions number 96 and 97 on pages 26 and 27 of the manager FAQs as well as the attachment that is included with question number 96 for both the steps you need to take and when you should take them.

Continuing on page 4, the 3rd bullet outlines telework policies.  These get to the heart of what Grace referenced as a reset.  During the evacuation order, we did not recall employees or require them to report if there were disruptions at the ADS.  With moving to telework, they will be required to follow the telework policies outlined in these sub bullets.

The next main bullet addresses locality pay.  We know there are some questions out there about how this works.  Essentially employees need to be scheduled to report to the ODS at least twice per pp to retain the locality pay at their ODS.  If they do not, the locality pay will be determined based on the locality pay rate for the ADS.  If the ADS is the same locality pay area, there will be no change.  But if the locality pay of the ADS is a different locality, the ee’s locality pay will change, even if it is a higher locality.  And so to go back to Curtis’ question about if the ee is on leave would they need to cancel their telework day? Not necessarily Curtis.  My understanding of this provision is that they need to be regularly scheduled to work at least twice per pp.  now if there were a long term situation where they were not, you may need to make a locality change.  But I would recommend consulting with CHR and reviewing the PPM section about that specific situation you referenced.

Moving on to page 5, you will share info about the evaluation period and transit subsidies before moving into your closing where you will reiterate the due date for submitting telework requests, continuing on to page 6, that you will continue to update employees.

We ask that following your meeting that you report the list of questions you are not able to answer thru your management line and regional LR teams after the meetings so that we can address those.

So while that wraps up the info you need for your staff meetings, there are just a few more taskwork items, specific to operations that we want to share.  For BUE’s, we will not require a telework log for work performed while teleworking.  So again, BUE’s, we will not require a telework log on their telework days.  However, non BU components will have the discretion to require a telework log if they desire.

And to the extent possible, FO employees will be responsible for their own print traffic and will use available automation tools to hold their print traffic until they return to the office where they will print and prepare their items to be mailed.  For customer service purposes, mailing print traffic should not be delayed by more than a few business days because an employee has teleworked.  Additionally if an employee’s telework day abuts scheduled leave, they should work with local management in advance to make arrangements for print traffic to be handled timely.  We should try to minimize these instances but do recognize that they will occur and during this evaluation period, we will need to assess how that works.

You can expect several additional national and regional level calls over the coming weeks as we work toward our march 30 reentry date.  Your main takeaway from today’s call, I hope you have enough info to comfortably hold your staff meetings using the mgr talking points in combination with the manager FAQ’s.  if you have not already done so, you should schedule a formal meeting and notify the union.  This formal meeting is to review these talking points with your staff and should occur either Feb 8th, 9th, or 10th.

42:00--Questions again--these are summarized and not transcribed exactly

Clarification about teleworking on an ee’s over tour?

• Same as OT and CH explained earlier

For “in between” positions, if local determinations will be made, does that mean we can increase ee’s to 5 days a week if their work is 100% portable or does that just mean local decisions on can they work up to 4 days/wk?

• You don’t have the authority to allow an ee to telework more days than prescribed for their component

Relative to telework being suspended, we won’t suspend during holidays, depending on ee’s approved leave surrounding federal holidays, if mgt determines they’ll need to recall staff around those periods of time, will this have to be perpetually bargained at the local level every time we get around a federal holiday?

• No. It will not need to be bargained, but the process that will be followed will be the process of advanced planning of suspending telework to ensure you have sufficient staff on site.  We will cover those types of situations during the next training session the week of 2/21.

Clarification of ee’s may request up to 2 days/wk for FO and if you can indicate reference to find the ineligible for telework positions.

• Yes FO telework 2 days/wk.  ineligible positions, you will get from mgt line to tell you which are ineligible or that you may want to consider may not be able to telework at the frequency for your component

 Asked when they will get that. 

• Today or early tomorrow

If ee has a pending recon on a RA request and has been disciplined due to conduct w/in the last 12 mo, is she eligible for telework?

• That’s very specific, talk to LR team. Grace jumped in and agreed and said to include NRAC. Leann said you don’t have to make that decision before your staff meeting.

Confirm if part time ee would be eligible for up to 2 days of telework or 1 b/c of PT?

• Depends on number of non tour days resulting from PT tour.  This goes back to we need the number of people onsite.  We normally look at how many people can I leave off but this is really about the number of people we need to have onsite every day. We  need our people onsite 3 days/wk.

Question about inclement weather and reverting to telework on inclement weather days.

• When we need to invoke telework due to weather, ee’s who have telework agreements are expected to telework and does not affect their other telework days that week.  EE’s who do not telework would be on WSL.

If OT offered in office for non-portable workloads, does Mgt have to offer CH to ee’s on telework?

• Why would we not do that? I believe we would offer the CH to teleworking ee’s under the Contract but we’ll check on that.

Is the 2 days/wk entirely the ee choice or can small offices choose not to offer 2 days of telework so we can serve the walk in public?

• If you have situations based on actual visitor traffic that affect your ability to offer 2 days/wk, you’re going to talk to your AD so we can look at the options available to you but we won’t be routinely modifying the number of days.  We would expect you to recall or suspend telework to meet the needs of the public and we’ll talk about that in future training sessions. 

Asked about if they have someone on military leave and someone on PPL, can they reduce telework days from 2 to less than 2? 

• Yes, those are perfect examples of when you can have a conversation about suspending telework.

If TSC teleworks 4 days/wk, who mails their print traffic?

• Some people will be onsite every day and they have some clerical staff who can do their mail. FO should not continue to get requests to mail TSC print traffic.
  

Grace Kim

I really appreciate the questions. As I said at the beginning, we will answer your questions if we have the answers to them but for those of you who asked questions that we need to circle back with you on , we will definitely do that.

This is how we’re going to build comprehensive guidance for you as you go forward. So I hope that today’s call provided you with at least an overarching framework of how we will approach telework in operations.  And as I said at the beginning I think it’s really important for you to have that foundation and context as we move forward as you prepare to conduct your staff meetings this week, I hope the info that Leann and I shared with you helped to put things into perspective to ensure that we are consistent in our messaging and I know that that is a concern that I think many of you have.

I am asking that you cover the talking points verbatim but I hope that the info that we shared today at least helps you frame the discussion with your employees in a more comprehensive way.

So last week you should have gotten an email with the tentative timeline for the various training activities that we have planned leading up to reentry.  The next two activities that I want to call you attention to are

We will be releasing a VOD for mandatory soft skills training for all employees who serve the public face to face or by phone and

In approximately two weeks your RCs or ACs will be holding Teams meetings to cover the technical aspects of implementing telework in your office of component to make sure you’re ready to make decisions on employee telework requests no later than 3/8 so some of these nitty gritty questions that you have bene asking will hopefully be addressed during those smaller meetings.

So again in closing I just want to thank you again for your attention and your leadership as we navigate thru preparing for reentry. More than ever, our employees and public are going to need clear direction from us and the only way we can do that is if we go through this transition period as smoothly and seamlessly as possible.  So thank you very much and have a great rest of your day and I look forward to talking with you at the next call.