From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2022 1:15 PM
Subject: Government-wide “Employee Voice” Pulse 3 Survey Results
A Message to All SSA Employees
Subject: Government-wide “Employee Voice” Pulse 3 Survey Results
A few weeks ago, you received the third Government-wide “Employee Voice” pulse survey as part of a pilot series. I’m writing to you to share the results and to thank you for taking the time to participate. Overall, 35 percent of our employees responded, which is higher than the 17 percent Government-wide response rate and suggests that you are invested in improving our agency.
The President’s Management Council —of which I am a member and is the primary Government-wide body that advises the President and the Office of Management and Budget on management issues across agencies—is using the data from your responses to understand how we can best support you.
You can review our results at the following dashboard: https://d2d.gsa.gov/report/government-wide-pulse-survey-pilot.
Although I am encouraged to see a slight improvement in the opinion that your workload is reasonable, I remain concerned about the level of exhaustion and lack of engagement you report feeling at work. Please know that I am working with the Administration to make clear the very real effects of the budget we received, which drives hard choices. I am hopeful that Congress will join me in supporting you as we work to improve service.
I am also concerned that many of you do not feel supported regarding issues of equity, work-life balance, and career advancement. When I assumed the position of Acting Commissioner, one of my stated goals was to support all employees in pursuing their chosen career path. We are working to make this a reality.
In the coming weeks, we will be in touch with more details about actions we are taking as we learn from you.
Kilolo Kijakazi, Ph.D., M.S.W.
Acting Commissioner
Note: I have had difficulty accessing the dashboard. It's confusing. While I was trying to figure it out, it locked up on me. Now, I get an error message when I try to go back to it.
Good luck.
CTH
The problems go beyond just the budget. You don't score this poorly just because of lack of funding. Mind you, the budget is wholly inadequate and a big part of the problem, but rot has set in at senior levels of the agency.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if the Commissioner's office would stop passing the buck (blame the budget!) and start holding senior agency leadership accountable for employee engagement and job satisfaction, things would improve. It should be in their SES performance expectations every year.
As it is, the SES cadre is full of careerists and yes-men who are unwilling to take any actions for fear that they might not get that next bonus.
Exactly
DeleteIs anyone surprised at the results? SSA has been spiraling downward for over a decade. No one in their right mind would want to work for this agency in its current state.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure there are positions within the agency that are regarded as a positive experience. However, I’ve been in the field offices for almost 20 years and it’s just getting worse and worse every year.
We’re overworked, overwhelmed and burned out…with no help in sight.
Same. Almost 20 years in the FO. I've seen a lot of changes, many are not for the best. Any automation implemented is usually about 75% effective and requires we go outside the programs to make additional inputs, as if the programmers have very little knowledge of how much of cluster-f our systems are. FO mgmt are stressed and overworked and have poor insight on how to retain good workers. The good CS are are burnt our with no more incentives extended to them than is given to the horrible and inept ones. Demands of agency PSIs, attorney reps and the public in this landscape are simply not reasonable. I have to work 10 hours ac day just to "balance" the demands of the job. If I don't take a vacation, I'm burning out. If I do, I return to mountain of expired tickles and incoming mail and claims.
DeleteAs much as people seem to enjoy coming into the comment sections of this blog to vent their complaints about service delivery, it won't change the reality of what's going on within the agency, and that lower level staff has zero control in improving it. It's just enough for us to preserve our health through it all.
Please clear out senior management which should retire. The agency had catastrophic staffing issues.
ReplyDeleteEmployees will leave if they are not happy (common in all professions), and a proper resignation will insure a good reference. I'd leave if I were overloaded and burned out totally. They can find jobs based on their experience that pay about the same, or possibly more. Something certainly needs to be done. Hey... it's a start. Also... if one makes a mistake (and some can be devastating to people, for instance, someone declared them dead, when they are fully alive), should be held agains the employee that caused the mess. I know they don't like it (graph loaded for me), but one must be responsible, peoples lives are at stake. I missed payment could mean eviction....or worse. If the captain of a ship, in this case ones life and not a ship, runs aground, who is responsible. The rocks/sandbar, or the captain? Own up and fix it! I get it, it's rough to return to "normal" when normal is not normal. If one has a job with a great responsibility, and fails, or makes a mistake, heck ya they should be held responsible, own up to it, and FIX the mistake!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Acting Commissioner is clueless about the need to move SESers around; many have been in their positions so long they have no new ideas and are now too close to subordinates to be objective or hold them accountable. In 30+ years of working at SSA, upper management has never been so bad...
ReplyDeleteBingo! This is spot on! There needs to be an executive shuffle and there needs to be one yesterday.
DeleteMaybe start by leaving the ALJ posting open longer than 6 hours.
ReplyDeleteWhy leave it open longer? All the people the agency plans on hiring had applied in the first 15 minutes…bank on that.
ReplyDeleteThe phone system completely collapsed and stayed collapsed for several weeks. If no one was fired for that fiasco, then you see right there why no one is accountable for failure in this Agency.
ReplyDeleteHeads rolling is the only way to get their attention. The Commissioner was not appointed as Acting based on her management expertise. It wouldn't matter much if there was any real expertise in the Agency but there is not.
They blame it on old technology
DeleteBest job I ever quit, those that stay are the types you dont want there. Just there for a check and cheap insurance, dont give a fetid dingo kidney for anything else.
ReplyDeletePaint with a wide brush much? Sorry to burst your bubble but:
DeleteA. There are employees in every component of the agency who care about the public, including in every field office across the nation.
2. The insurance isn't cheap any longer and the raises aren't coming close to keeping up with inflation, so employees are taking a significant net pay cut every year they stay. So, clearly, it isn't the pay and insurance that motivates employees to stay.
10:04
ReplyDeleteDirect quote from our field office which i found so caring,
"I dont care if they were in a coma they had 10 days to reply"
Thats caring?
10:04 here.
DeleteYou do realize that any employer with a workforce of 50,000+ has its bad apples, right? That isn't limited to the public sector by the way. You should have demanded to speak with a supervisor and/or gotten in touch with your territory's public affairs specialist to address this callous remark. You should not, on the other hand, be impugning tens of thousands of employees based on that interaction.
@12:38 pm
ReplyDeleteThat’s one of the ones you want fired but good luck.
That’s also precisely the ones the previous poster was referring to.
Trust me, there are plenty of federal employees who hit the lottery scoring a federal job and won’t leave until forced out. It’s a guaranteed check every two weeks despite poor performance.
We do have good employees but the good ones will always be overshadowed by the horrible ones.
You don’t have to care about people to apply the laws. I could care less about a person, but being in a coma is sound reasoning for establishing good cause under the guidelines. So why that employee is deciding to interject their personal feelings into it is beyond me. Just do your job and follow the laws set by Congress.
812 how nice and honorable of you to stay and work to make it better instead of quitting and coming here to complain. I mean…
ReplyDeleteWhy would someone who quit SSA be visiting an SSA blog? I call troll. Again.
The only true thing you have said that I, an actual FO employee, agree with, is the good ones do get overshadowed by the bad ones. SO FAR, it hasn’t made me quit tho. My coworkers would not be the reason I quit. Management and ridiculous expectations will.
And, to be fair, there was nothing in what they said for me to infer anything about their feelings. Not that I believe this story, but no one should say anything like that. However, that actually in and of itself is not a reason for good cause. Failure to get the notice would be per POLICY not ‘guidelines.’ Yes, working for the government you do have to be exacting and go by the rules, I’ve said it a million times- we are not social workers. Yes, we treat people with respect and dignity, but it is not our job to make people feel better or good. And yep, if you don’t like that, it’s not the job for you, We’re not in the business to just give everyone that wants it or has a sad story or is disadvantaged money. You’re welcome-hopefully there will be something left for you.
5:32 not a troll. Just because I dont agree with you doesnt mean I am a troll. And like you said, you are not a social worker, but I am now and do more good with my knowledge of the agency systems and rules than I ever did at the agency. I do make people feel better and good, and that makes me feel better and good, so I can deal with people like you.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know, being in a coma sounds like a pretty good reason for good cause. Of you need more information, however, during the pandemic, the agency has loosened up good cause because of various issues including mail delivery.
ReplyDeleteAnd feelings… yes, why else would a professional respond in that manner? I work in the FO and for goodness sake, I am no social worker nor have I ever wanted to be one. However, I can’t think of any good reason for that response. Was it embellished…maybe. But I’ve worked in offices where people thought it was their job to “stick it to the claimants” any chance they got.
Decision Writer here. The productivity requirements are crushing for us. I know no one feels sorry for attorneys, but 10.29 hours to review a file with 500-1,000 pages of medical evidence and write an 18 page decision covering 7 (or so) severe impairments is not enough. There is too much emphasis on processing speed, and not enough time spent on a quality review. It is down to piece-rate work, not the careful crafting of fair and well-considered decisions. And that work is tedious, dull, detail-oriented writing requiring hours of exceptional concentration while sitting at a computer alone, with no interaction or physical activity.
ReplyDeleteCommissioner- if you happen to read this - take a solid look at the work required of your Judges and attorneys. Could YOU maintain this pace for years on end? Don't rely on the information filtered and fed to you by your SES folks - go in and look at the cases yourself. Or reach out and task some random writers PICKED BY YOU that can give you a clear picture.
In addition, the ALJs are running at an artificial pace. They are required to issue 500 decisions a year, or about 9-10 a week. That includes reading all the evidence, holding the hearing, and writing instructions, then reading the draft decision and making changes. Nor do the ALJ productivity requirements seem to lessen when they take leave. Have four weeks of leave built up and want to go to Europe. 500 cases, leave or no. It is a brutal, grinding pace that was set when the backlog was so high. We all worked like hell and brought that backlog down, but the Powers That Be cannot seem to find a way to dial back the pace.
And so you have good, no, GREAT people leaving, who do give a damn, but they can no longer work the 60-70 hours a week necessary to do this job. The job requires hours of sedentary, solitary thinking and reasoning that tends to punish the body and lead to obesity, yet your agency offers no time for exercise, nor rest for the weary.
Then there are the management issues. Do you realize some of your regional headquarters track the individual productivity of judges and writers, and reach down to the local manager to direct action when they are deemed unproductive? This is a model case of micro-management. Leadership and management textbooks uniformly state that local management should be allowed to manage their people, without direct interference from above. Yet the productivity trackers allow and even encourage this exact practice. This might explain why many of your front-line managers are leaving. They are merely puppets and henchmen (henchwomen? henchpeople? Want to be inclusive here) for the regional numbers gods.
And so you "reach out" with canned surveys that do not get to the root of the problem. Because you never asked your people what the root of the problem is. Instead, your latest survey covered IT issues. While IT is important, people do not leave jobs in droves due to bad computers. They leave managers, not computers. So maybe, just maybe, see if you can do a survey to find out what the REAL problem is.
Or just conduct exit interviews. Have your office directly reach out to departing employees, and ask them why they are leaving. With no filters. But that might lead to some discomfort for your SES.
How about you guys strip all the employees from Headquarters and put their rear ends into field offices where ssa employees ACTUALLY work. It has become SO exhausting to be the punching bag for this agency. And why do CSRS get the crappiest pay? There is no reason why a headquarters ssa employee should receive higher pay that CSRS? I can’t wait to resign and watch the house of hards just crumble.
ReplyDeletePeople in HQ are just as short-staffed, over-worked, and burned out as you. If you want to point your finger at someone, point it at Congress (inadequate budget) and senior management (ineptitude, favoritism/nepotism, obstinacy, etc.)
ReplyDeleteAre you seriously comparing HQ burnout to FO burnout?
Delete9:05 likely never worked in an FO in his or her life...at the very least not in the past five years.
Delete10:05 you can just tell they have never stepped into an FO or they are part of management that has been long gone. I doubt they have never been threatened with violence from the public or followed by a claimant to their vehicle. FO employees really get the crap end of the stick.
DeleteGuys, my point is that this isn't a contest to see who is the most burned out. I'm not implying that one group has it better than the other. The problems are agency wide.
ReplyDeleteYour anger at ordinary workers in HQ is misplaced. It's a lack of funding and top level leadership that is affecting us all.
It’s not misplaced. Headquarters is responsible for ….well I’m not sure what the roll is for an hq employee because all the systems that hq creates blow. And don’t get me started on the crappy IVT training, corny VODS, and the Avaya phones (that never work by the way). But what do us fo peasants know ? :)
ReplyDeleteI worked at the agency for 5 years and it was the most dysfunctional agency I ever worked for in my federal service. It starts with the culture there, poor communication, few advancement opportunities, inadequate long-term training and development, poor leadership they don't communicate. We had four people leave in my division alone in the last year before I left and that was almost 40 percent of the staff on the team.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to address the Decision Writer. I am an attorney rep and practice before the agency and in federal court. I wouldn't have your job! There is no way to thoroughly examine a record, any size record, and write a well-reasoned decision/opinion with those restrictions.
ReplyDeleteI have every encounter, with detail, entered onto a spreadsheet. I have a complete, longitudinal picture of a claimant's conditions. That's where you find the nuggets! And, that's why most of my cases are remanded.
Unless SSA gives writers and ALJs the time and tools to do the job correctly, claimants will continue to be unfairly denied benefits, and employees will continue to be frustrated and burn out.
On another note, I have encountered rude, incompetent techs and caring techs who go a little further to help dedicated reps and unrepresented claimants who struggle with the system. It happens in every field!