Joe Davidson at the Washington Post reports that negotiations between the Social Security Administration and its largest employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), are scheduled to begin on Monday. According to the Post:
... At Social Security, labor relations still are hung over from the anti-union days of the Trump administration. President Donald Trump used executive orders to sharply weaken the ability of unions to bargain with agencies, including through the unilateral imposition of contract provisions. Union leaders say current Social Security leaders don’t want to give up that authority.
A key example is telework, which Republicans claim there is too much of in the federal workforce. Restrictive telework policies were implemented under Trump and the agency now “doesn’t want to give up its power,” [Rich] Couture [of the AFGE] said in a telephone interview. “It doesn’t want to give up its discretion.”
He added, “they won’t guarantee a telework program or telework levels. They won’t negotiate with us over telework, despite at one point promising to do so. That’s a huge issue that they have shown zero actual interest in fixing with us.”
Another key issue is the “very dire situation in terms of service delivery and how much it’s deteriorated in the last couple of years …” Couture said, “stemming from overwhelming workloads, low employee morale … a lack of competitive pay and benefits.” ...
58 comments:
Telework should be part of the contract. The last Commissioner abused his power by suddenly terminating most SSA telework, without good reason or cause. This caused huge morale and retention problems.
This could happen again, if the Republicans take power. The AFGE contract should protect telework.
Otherwise SSA employees are likely to get telework when there is a Democratic Administration, then immediately lose it every time there is a Republican Administration, back and forth.
Something has to give with telework. Limited telework might be okay but it is abused. Quality is diminished as employees are distracted at home. Talking to people with the TV going in the background or dogs barking. Pausing meetings so people can tend to their doorbells, personal phone ringing, family members coming in asking questions or saying their goodbyes, taking dogs out, have to tend to kids, gotta take something out of the oven before it burns, people doing workouts during meetings, etc. Who knows how many people are actually even paying attention to meetings as there is no video presence. I think that is where OMB is coming from with their new request to get employees back into the office more as the current environment is too relaxed.
This is theory. Now show your proofs. There are no fewer distractions in an office setting. Endless chitchat and coffee breaks and Social Security Junior High interpersonal drama. Coffee breaks. Food truck breaks. Fire drills. Meetings that could have been emails.
we need staffing levels to be increased dramatically.
I'm more concerned about the pay. Every other agency you look at the specialists are GS-12's and supervisors/leads are 13's... Even SSA HR specialists are 12's. There is no way that an HR specialist is doing more work in a day that a FO CS.
The union needs to take a look at the GS pay system over telework. People are leaving left and right, especially in the field. Because why be over worked as an 11 when you can take a 12 at an outside agency in your town or remote that is more enjoyable. My FO would all give up telework for more pay. No doubt. This push for more telework over pay is something the union needs to straighten out. If the agency won't budge on telework we'll move to the GS scale. C'mon.
If you think it's bad now, decrease telework & see it get worse. Ranking last now. SSA mgmt will be digging the hole dipper if telework is decreased. Telework is all that's keeping most of us hanging on. If I have to go into an office to do the same work I've been doing remotely (and the added time & cost of a commute), I'll make sure my productivity is slowed...
Maybe some of those superstars on mgmt team (HQ, RO, or wherever) can pick up the slack.
Well, regardless of the OMB guidance, SSA and AFGE have an ironclad agreement to keep the current telework program in place until at least 10/27/25.
The thing I least like about telework is how the subject has sucked all the oxygen out of the room, and has become the only issue being focused on. I don't telework often, but I don't begrudge my coworkers who do. It got associated with poor customer service for two reasons- bad-faith attacks by Republican politicians, and the extremely poor customer service during the height of the COVID era when we were trying to redesign workflows around having virtually nobody in the office.
I'd like to see a summary of what other issues AFGE is pushing on; I'd like to see modifications to the grievance system, placement of some currently PSC-only positions in field offices, scrapping the PACS system and just going back to pass/fail, adding human instructors to the training process, and bringing back actual physical details to other components instead of making them all virtual to save a buck.
I suspect that in reality most of your colleagues at the FO would prefer to keep their telework and simply have a manageable workload that can effectively be executed than continue drudging through this same hell on earth for a slightly higher paycheck.
The GS system is broken, to be sure. But that’s a sideshow compared to the other problems here at SSA.
Yes, supposedly there is a move afoot to make the CS position a GS-12. That change cannot come soon enough!
Why don't we deal with some concrete numbers?
Measure # customers served face-to-face pre-pandemic and pre-WFH. Normalize for staff levels. Compare that number to post-pandemic and WFH.
Measure # cases handled pre-pandemic and pre-WFH. Again, normalize for staff levels and compare to post-pandemic WFH.
Telework in PC or RO may work fine. Field offices need employees to be in office. SSA service was much better before telework. I enjoy being home 2 days a week but it's not great public service.
Lol. I don’t doubt they’re dangling that carrot in front of you, but there’s no chance in hell they’re ever going to bump those jobs up to GS-12. Without a corresponding bump in grade, the GS-12s elsewhere in SSA would burn Baltimore down with flaming pitchforks, and rightfully so.
Right and the current telework agreement gives management discretion to take it away at any time.
SSA negotiators will show up to the bargaining table with headphones on blasting music. The negotiators will sit for the allotted time and leave. They have no intention on negotiating in good faith.
SSA will continue to slide down the rankings.
If SSA cares about improving the rankings and morale. The negotiating team has to show up willing to make concrete changes to improve working conditions. Anything else is a farce.
3:24 Where did you hear that the CS position will be grade 12?
I am on the cusp of retirement but I could stay an extra year to help my high 3 for retirement, if I thought I was going to be upgraded from GS-11 to GS-12.
SSA employees are generally more productive working from home. 91% of employees surveyed said they were “much more” efficient and productive while teleworking.
If telework is cut back, I fear this will cause deterioration in public service , recruitment and retention problems, and an increase in backlogs
This federal times article cites increased productivity and presents an argument for increasing SSA telework.
https://www.federaltimes.com/management/career/2023/04/10/telework-can-aid-understaffed-social-security-administration-union/
Gs 12 for cs is a tough hill to climb. The agency is creating false hope. . The workload cs have performed in the last 3 years has downgraded to answering the GI line, inputting tax forms, sorting mail, social security cards. The role is more likely to receive a downgrade.
I was more efficient teleworking too. I could only do my CS work. No interruptions from supervisor to explain WEP to a claimant, no phone calls from the public, no helping with walk in clients, etc. So a perception of greater efficiency but less efficiency for the office in general as those interruptions have to be dealt with by someone.
Well if the employee said it…it must be true! Lmao
anon@12:10pm,
The GS-12 for CSes isn't that difficult - it already exists in an artificial form -- the technical expert position. However, management generally uses this position to reward their favorites and lapdogs - it doesn't go to the most qualified employees.
I personally know several T2 TEs in a couple of offices that can't even do worker's compensation offsets, amended awards, and who have difficulty deciphering relationship policy without asking about it. Some of them can't even do dual entitlement comps or Parisi cases correctly without someone looking over their shoulders. And, don't even mention work CDRs....
Honestly, it ought to be a tested position for qualified GS-11 journeyman CSes. But, the AFGE protective union of dolts and idiots would NEVER allow that to happen....
That wouldn’t give an accurate representation of service delivery.
As usual the agency and staff are years behind. It appears they dont understand that most large business groups have been returning people to the office and removing remote work. But we all want our cake and to eat it too, and have a couple slices of other folks cake and enjoy it at home.
845 am. Removing telework would be the final nail in the coffin.
The agency is most definitely behind, and it’s struggling to hire and retain staff as a result. I really couldn’t care less what the general market trend might be at this moment in time. That’s really not relevant.
What’s relevant is this: The VA offers actual remote work (and better pay!) for work that is nearly identical to many of the jobs done by SSA staff. And their funding and staffing levels are finally getting the attention they need from Congress. And this is reflected in their improved employee satisfaction ratings. So why on earth would I not leave this burning cesspit just as soon as the VA posts it’s next vacancy for the job most comparable to mine?
5:00.. No one is making you telework. You make your own telework days/schedule in the FO. If you tell them you don’t want to be home because you think it’s bad service, they’ll let you work in person five days a week. What are you even talking about. I have changed my two days several times, but no way on gods green earth will I give them back personally. But then, I’m a Cr, and maybe you’re an Sr. I’ve found it’s better service (for Crs) to be home doing our work than in an office doing SS5s and beves all day.
This is gonna draw some hate but I want people to have realistic expectations. The CS position will always be an 11, as unfair as that is. The job is classified based on complexity, not volume. And the issue is it was probably under classified when it was created, but the whole system above it is based on the CS being an 11. What makes a TE, CDPS (v-help) specialist, IVT instructor, and Central Office policy frontline a 12? They all have the complexity of knowledge of the CS position, plus the requirement to be an expert and posses an additional skill. That’s what makes them more “complex” than the CS. It’s the same reason that the CDPS team lead, lead IVT instructor, and team lead for policy are all 13s…they have the technical requirements of the 12, are considered experts, and have the additional complexity of personnel or scheduling decisions. Same reason most program analysts are 13s. They posses the same technical expertise as the 12s with the additional knowledge of analysis of some kind and the requirement to write, study or change the policy used by 12s. And so on, analyst supervisors are 14s and so on. If the CS position changes, it requires changing of every technical position above it that requires the technical capacity the CS jobs have. Nothing changes for say IT or CHR, but it would immediately bump anyone else who has the CS skills in their PD. I’m not saying it’s fair, but that’s why the CS job hasn’t changed, but rather the TE was added later.
Then management should stop treating CS’s as TE’s and Mentors and instructors.
10:09pm Amen! Management & many team leaders/technical experts are unable to train, instruct, or mentor because they were incompetent technicians. They don't know how to do the work. Workers who could never do the work are now in charge of it.
Capable technicians are burnt out & fed up. We are tired of being the used & abused worker bees. But bees can sting.
If telework is decreased, SSA management can expect to have a full-blown mutiny on their hands.
8:12 I disagree that the CS job does not have complexity involved in duties. Definitely merits a GS-12.
We have many complex and challenging duties. Interpreting and applying workers' compensation laws in POMS, different rules for each state, . Lump sum settlements can be very technical and complex. Our decisions can make difference in many thousands of dollars of workers compensation offset per case.
Other complex issues CS deals with: : SSI, attorney fee issues,, multiple entitlement, administrative finality, reconsideration, ALJ protest memos, applying prisoner suspense laws.
Contacts with claimants and attorneys also require a depth of institutional knowledge. Also a good memory helps, to answer their questions and resolve their issues.
8:12 here again. 6:34, I am not disagreeing with you at all. I said the CS was probably classified incorrectly in the first place. It is very complex. My point was, that the CS position won’t change because everything above it would have to change too. As soon as a CS be comes a 12, the TE has to be reclassified as well. 10:09 and 11:07, don’t disagree with you either. That’s a management problem though, not an issue with the PD or classification of the CS job.
I'm tired of the House GOP's ignorant rants, about federal employees teleworking.
Saying that Federal Employees are taking advantage of teleworking, or abusing teleworking, because we work at home at higher levels than we did pre-pandemic.
News Flash No 1: Working hard at home and accomplishing more than we used to in the office, is not "abusing teleworking".
News Flash No 2: The pre -pandemic telework levels are not written in stone. Social Security workers have become much better at telework than we were pre-pandemic, and our online tools have been updated as well.
It would be sheer madness to end telework at SSA at this point, or go back to pre-pandemic levels (Pre Pandemic equals the minuscule telework level that was left in early 2020, ,after Commission Saul cut it)
We've been teleworking for 3 years now, and employees have become use to it. We are also good at working from home.
If telework is cut Morale would plummet. Leave usage would increase. The retirement rate would immediately skyrocket, and we would lose thousands of experienced employees all at once.
It takes years to learn these SSA technical jobs,. Recruitment would suffer too if telework is not offered.
SSA has also started a special national workgroup called SDU (Special Disability Unit) being managed out of Kansas City, I believe. SSA sent letters starting last fall to retired disability examiners who retired from SSA DPBs (Disability Processing Branches) canvasing for rehired annuitants willing to be part of this workgroup. They will be helping state DDS offices process disability claims.
These rehired annuitants were offered full remote telework & the ability to work from anywhere (they do not have to be within 2 hrs or 120 miles of any office). They are being brought on board in 3 groups starting in April, May & June.
If SSA is offering these rehired annuitants full remote telework & the ability to work from anywhere, will other SSA employees who are non-public facing with no face-to-face public interaction and whose work is portable be offered this same deal?
As a disability examiner/Disability Processing Specialist in a DPB, I certainly hope AFGE is aware and using this as some sort of leverage for bargaining.
News flash No. 3. SSA is not more efficient now than prepandemic. People are still coming into offices and need someone to help them.
Was there a big wave of retirements last spring when full time telework stopped?
I'm not sure morale is high enough to plummet. It can't get much lower.
“Was there a big wave of retirements last spring when full time telework stopped?”
Yes. And a wave of non-retirement departures as well. But keep in not letting the facts get in the way of your whimsical narrative and 1950s beliefs about management.
Maybe if we end telework, the media will find something else to blame poor service on or perhaps realize the real reason; lack of adequate staffing to handle the work. But I am so sick of hearing how telework has caused the downfall of Ssa so I say give them what they want and see how that works out. Might not be rainbows and sunshine like they anticipate.
SSA has also allowed many of its attorneys in OGC to have remote status so that they don’t have to live in commuting distance either. Yet other attorneys in the agency, whose jobs involve even less collaboration with others and never require in-person court appearances, continue to be told they must live within two hours of their assigned office (which in many cases doesn’t even have space for them), and continue to be denied transfers to other offices as a routine course of business, even when the transfer would save the agency money by resulting in a lower locality differential.
These aren’t decent or reasonable people. And the Commissioner can’t even seem to pretend to care. My advice: keep polishing your resume and applying for jobs elsewhere.
When full time telework stopped, I was ready to retire. But when they said I'd only have to come in one day per week, I thought to myself, why retire over that? I can handle one day per week.
However I find myself dreading the day I have to go into the office. Traffic is bad, and once I get there I have to look for a place to sit (No more assigned seats, hoteling is the rule).
If there are any cuts in the 4 days per week that I'm now allowed to telework, I will put in my retirement papers. And I've heard others say the same thing. I don't know if it will be a big wave but it will likely be a significant loss of experienced and skilled employees, which will hit the agency all at once.
If I ever hear another person complain about younger workers and the entitled attitude they have, I will will just post this little gem from 8:16. That says it all.
@8:16 The agency did away with hoteling, along with all other pandemic era safety policies, earlier this year.
Not 8:16 but I think it depends on what component you work in because I’m in the field and we don’t have 4 days of telework like that poster has either.
11:57 That's news to me as I am still hoteling in PC7.
Hoteling isn’t a pandemic area safety rule. It’s a method of allotting space on in-office days for staff that telework in offices that don’t have adequate space for the entire workforce to work in-office simultaneously.
Regarding the CS job being bumped up to 12, don't forgot to factor in the OHO positions. Legal assistants max out at 8, and legal specialists are only a 9. Folks in those positions already feel slighted that CSs are at 11.
Attorney decision writers have law degrees and have passed the bar; however, they max out at 12. (SSA has only been hiring attorneys for the decision writer position for years now, so that means there are virtually no promotion opportunities for legal assistants/specialists at OHO). Senior attorneys and group supervisors are 13, and the hearing office directors are 14.
If CS got bumped up to 12, there would also be calls for all those OHO positions to be bumped up a grade also ... won't happen.
It's going to have to happen. There are places in this country where the starting salary for a McDonalds employee is higher than that of a CS. The only solution is bumping CSs to 12s and selling it to the rest of the workforce as way to make their lives a heck of a lot easier.
Senior attorneys are a 13?? What a joke. Why would you go to law school for that?? Unless they didn’t study hard enough?
@ 2:30
As a former LA/LS of about a decade, 8/9 is about right for the COMPLEXITY level of those two positions. Sorry, those are the facts. The job was not that difficult.
I don’t think anyone goes to law school planning to dead end at a GS-12 or 13. But a lot ended up at SSA during the great recession, and the old fossils running the agency haven’t yet gotten the memo that this labor market is VERY different.
746 your JD envy is showing, but wouldn't you just kill for a 13. Outside attorneys fight to get in at a 12. It is a very good gig if you play it right. No billables and a straight 40 if that's all you want. There are plenty of attorneys who work a lot of ot and really bump their salary. Add in student loan forgiveness and it is downright sweet. So sorry to burst your bubble.
@10:48: It used to be an okay gig. But the pay lags far behind comparable private-sector and even government work. And it’s become impossible to do the job well and properly due to the absurd and inflexible productivity standards. This, in combination with being looked down upon by higher-paid staff who seem to lack even basic literacy skills, makes the job a demoralizing nightmare for anyone with self respect who actually wants yo provide minimally competent public service.
Ssa should come to the table and negotiate. They know why people are quitting. If they do nothing.. soon enough they will be answering the phones themselves
Go to law school and get your degree. Then talk to me about the job because you have no idea what attorneys inside or outside the Agency are doing. So sorry that you have to make yourself feel better by making up imaginary reasons to belittle others. 12.08 maybe.
The CS job is definitely not a 12. Being busy doesn’t determine grade.
720 the grade is the reason why so few people take this job
To the contrary, interpreting literally millions of pages of policy accurately, and often from memory, is certainly worthy of a GS-12. Again, claims positions in other agencies are 12s, why is that not the case at SSA?
@4:33: It doesn’t appear that anyone in this thread was criticizing the work done by attorneys (inside or outside) SSA. So, what exactly are you referring to?
What’s a CS position worth then? For what they ask me to do on a regular basis, I most certainly could warrant a 12. I have half of the office’s SSI workload. I mentor, I’m on ePAD as a reviewer for trainees, I open and close the office on certain days. I give frequent trainings to my office and I’m the office’s SLC (computer guy). I have to do my Claims Rep job in between 3 half days of front desk duty and two half days of phone duty. So none of the stuff I listed above has anything to do with actual duties as a Claims Rep.
I can’t speak for all claims reps but I am completely overworked and underpaid. I’m doing my best but I can’t keep!!!!
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