I went to an in person hearing yesterday. The Raleigh Hearing Office is now located in the same building as the Raleigh field office. I noticed something I hadn't seen before. The field office waiting room was full. Previously, they had kept the waiting room only one-half or one-third full. Masks are still required and, at least at the hearing office, there are plexiglass barriers in hearing rooms that make it hard to be heard.
The agency removed the COVID restrictions on the number of people in the waiting rooms last week.
ReplyDeleteLobby restrictions were lifted on September 13th.
ReplyDeleteYep, productivity in my office, which was already bad, came to a screeching halt when they took the lobby restrictions off last week.
ReplyDeleteNo we have a lobby full of people and 1 person trying to help them. And that person is often a trainee since we only have 2 of us in the office that have been here for over a year.
Is this because most people are still working at home or does your office just not have enough staff in total?
DeleteNearly the same situation 10:10 and we are a busy metro office. And have to figure out how to answer phones and take our appts.
ReplyDeleteCOVID is over, haven't you heard? Biden say so.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I heard him…so why the masks? Really makes no sense does it?
DeleteIt slows the process down as we have to ask people to repeat things a couple of times. It just makes things less efficient and also encourages people to call-in or use on-line services. Trying to discourage people going into the office, so telework can stay at current levels or increase telework days.
DeleteWell I don’t get to telework so doesn’t help me at all
DeleteThe plexiglass barriers haven’t bothered me in the least. The masks are far more problematic for speaking and hearing. Even still, no big issues so far other than hardly anyone showing up. The repped cases have gone well so far. The VEs seem to have the hardest time hearing out of everyone so far.
ReplyDelete