Former Social Security Commissioner sat for a long interview with a staffer at the right wing American Enterprise Institute "think tank." I don't want to waste the time listening to it but maybe you will. Apparently, Saul claimed that Social Security has 100,000 employees! I knew that he never bothered to try to understand the agency he was supposed to be leading but this is over the top. Actually Social Security has fewer than 60,000 employees. Did he care about anything at the agency other than being as obnoxious as possible to employees?
He was the most inept COSS and I worked for SSA for a long time. Saul believes he improved ssa. He is humoring himself to think of his perceived progress. He further pushed the agency into crisis. He doesn’t set the budget and that is not his fault. He insulted the employees which resulted in more staffing losses. Morale was low under his reign. He shouldn’t be conducting any victory laps
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ReplyDeleteSaul seems to have lost his perspective about telework. He said that SSA employees "so abused" telework that he cut it back.
As "proof" of the abuse, he said that he walked into a largembuilding (presumably the Ball bldg at HQ ) and it was almost empty. He asked where everyone was and was told they were teleworking.
The fact that the building was not full, of course says nothing about how efficiently the employees were working from home.
Saul also cited a story he'd heard about employees putting a stapler on the keyboard at home to make it appear they were working. This is absurd on the face of it and insults not only SSA employees but their supervisors. The paperless system in PC's allows managers to see exactly how many cases we work and what we do on those cases and cases are also picked up and reviewed for errors.
He also defended his actions on the CDR saying that with medical advances some claimants should be able to go back to work and thus getting off the disability rolls.
Other than those two issues Saul came across better than I expected ,appeared knowledgeable and at least somewhat compassionate towards SSA claimants.
"Other than those two issues Saul came across better than I expected ,appeared knowledgeable and at least somewhat compassionate towards SSA claimants"
ReplyDeleteHe literally disbanded union representation on SSA property and created low morale and emboldened managers to harass employees unprovoked. He terminated a vision program that benefited employees who have rapidly decreasing vision due to staring at screens all day. I can only speak for FO operations when I say there is zero evidence of this guy showing compassion towards claimants. He forced a lot of people, who could service them, to leave the agency.
He did this all the while 100% teleworking himself. Hypocrite.
And, as predicted, things at the agency have improved immensely since his departure.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I'll say good about Saul was that he understood our agency's mission of taking care of retired people, since he was largely retired on the job himself.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think it could get worse after he left but it sure has...wait until the FEVS for 2022 come out.
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ReplyDeleteI work in a SSA payment center and things are much better without Saul in charge. Employee morale is much improved. The surveys are not accurate, most employees don't respond to those and the ones who do often have an ax to grind.
It took years to get telework, mainly due to resistance from SSA management. Then we finally began teleworking about 5 years ago, and it was working well.
Saul came in and abruptly terminated Operations telework without good reason, effectively destroying employee morale. It also didn't help that he also engaged in union busting and appointed right wingers who were anti-union and anti-employee.
While I am no fan of Saul, I always find it confusing when people say he was responsible for terminating telework. The Union could have negotiated telework into their last contract, but instead they allowed telework to be up to the discretion of the Deputy Commissioners (and I am sure they were directed by Saul.) This way the union could tell their rank and file it was the big bad wolf that took away telework, since membership was split as to whether there should be telework. And if the Agency decided to continue telework, again the Union could say it was out of their hands.
ReplyDeleteTelework in SSA makes sense for most components. However, it does not belong in the field. Does it make sense to take employees out of the office while the public comes into the office? It makes absolutely no sense at all. SSA always prided itself on public service. Unfortunately, AFGE could care less about public service; the current administration appeases the union causing claimants to suffer with a lack of in-office appointments and unreasonable wait times. The union will claim it’s due to staffing which may have some truth but Telework is compounding the problem.
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