From Government Executive:
The Social Security Administration and the nation’s largest federal employee union on Wednesday announced that they had reached a preliminary agreement to update a portion of their collective bargaining agreement and extend the deal until 2029 ...
Although labor-management relationships at federal agencies often vacillate between collaborative and oppositional depending on which political party controls the White House, Social Security management has had a reputation for having at best strained relations with the agency's unions regardless of who’s in charge. And the first two years of the Biden administration were no exception, with officials from the American Federation of Government Employees frequently sparring with management over issues like post-COVID-19 reentry to traditional office spaces, training and benefits aimed at retaining employees during the agency’s ongoing staffing crisis. ...
The updates include a number of immediate tweaks to current policies as well as an avenue for the parties to work collaboratively to find long-term solutions to improve working conditions.
Key to the effort is the establishment of new union-management cooperation councils, both on the national level and for each agency component with a corresponding AFGE council. At the national level, the parties will meet six times a year and each council will be co-chaired by agency senior leaders and AFGE officials. ...
On training, which employees and union officials have complained currently consists primarily of “self-paced” training documents and webinars and leaves new employees ill-prepared for their complex workloads, the contract immediately requires management to provide adequate time to attend and complete sessions, including learning about policy changes that may be transmitted to employees via email, and adds a follow-up survey for employees to take six months after a session. Those surveys will then help the new cooperation councils develop a new training regimen that Couture said he hoped would leverage hybrid work technology to create virtual classroom learning. ...
40 comments:
FEVS is in. Agreement done. Telework cuts in 3…2…
The most notable thing about this is that the elephant in the room - telework - is not mentioned.
If they cut telework at any level (FO, PC, TSC, RO, HQ), expect attrition to ramp up significantly. Other agencies are doing plenty of hiring and have much MUCH more flexible telework policies. If SSA wants to stay in the 21st century, they need to keep telework unchanged.
Funny, corporate America is cutting telework and flex schedules, they have proven it is not the best, but for some reason, government employees think they are above everyone else. smh
Funny how it’s a wash in corporate America. Pretty much status quo as some companies expand remote work and some increase in office days. Much like is happening on the federal level.
Federal New Network has an article out about this, too:
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2023/07/telework-agency-funding-still-an-uphill-battle-after-ssa-afge-reach-tentative-agreement/
Based on what this article is saying, changes in telework are in the works.
It was simply magical thinking to believe that we could all telework from home in perpetuity. Once the OMB memo came out, full time telework and widespread remote work was finished.
FO’s have been back in the office 3 days a week for quite some time. It’s unlikely this will be cut further. SSA got a jump on going back to in office work. I think the uphill battle is referencing an attempt to give more days to certain components like the FO’s than what they are currently afforded. Of course who knows for sure until SSA informs its employees.
For one, many aren’t cutting either form of work. And I haven’t seen a shred of “proof” anywhere that telework inherently bad/inferior. Just a bunch of sad lonely wrinkly old white men (the current and previous U.S. presidents included) crying about how they never get to see their “friends” anymore, and can’t figure out how to relate to people without literally forcing them to spend time with them.
So what’s the deal with the training re-vamp? Is this in a specific article of the contract or a MOU? And what changes are being made. I’m surprised the Union and the Agency can just make a decision about that unless the union weighed in pretty heavily. And if so, good for them. Seems like a tough issue right now is getting people trained.
Second question, they mention taking training back to replicating face to face training. Does this mean back to IVT? That was the thing when I was in the field, not the self paced thing. IVT worked great for a lot of years. Not sure why they cut it.
@ 11:42
What hell does this even mean? Private companies haven’t proven anything. Except that they are run by old boomers who love the water cooler chat and struggle in a remote/telework environment because they can hardly open PDFs so they push for return to office because they need to micromanage people to justify their bloated salary/title.
The government SHOULD run efficiently. It doesn’t always, but it should. “Butts in seats” is not efficient at all. The government shouldn’t be taking notes from private companies. The government isn’t out to make a profit but to provide a service to the people. If workloads can be “portable” then let them be. More telework/remote work widens the pool of possible employees rather than just picking what you can get from one geographical location because some ham-fisted geriatric decided they hate their home life and wants to rule their office like a king above peasants. Agencies, and very specifically SSA, are struggling to recruit and retain employees because of draconian telework policies. People hate to face the fact that post-Covid work realities have changed and employees value not having to commute every day, or sit in a cubicle doing the same exact shit that could be done from home. People love to cry about how “federal employees have it too good!” Well guess what, the gov, and specifically SSA is hiring! Go apply and get a federal job if you’re so envious!! Nothing is stopping you!
Many law firms are finding it hard to fill positions if they don't offer at least some telework. And that's especially true in more rural areas. We can't keep people in small towns and are hiring people in the larger cities to do that work remotely.
From 12:11 link
“We have the commissioner telling the union that changes to telework are coming and that we need to brace ourselves and be realistic based on different congressional pressures and the OMB [memo] that came out,” she said. ...employees will go elsewhere where telework is offered.”
Not only that, but many of us will go out the door to retirement. There is no way I'm going to deal with daily commuting again
Why would SSA cut telework, when doing so would result high attrition at a time the agency can't afford to have employees leaving? It is a fantasy to think that forcing employees into the office will somehow make them more productive, or reduce the backlogs. If anything the opposite would happen.
It takes many years of experience to learn these technical SSA jobs, and to do them well.,
My honest opinion is that telework is unlikely to change for FO employees. FO employees are already going in the office 3 days a week. My assumption is that telework for PSC/WSU, TSC, RO, and HQ ARE about to change. PSC/WSU and TSC are teleworking 4 days per week and in the office 1 day per week. Of course RO and HQ employees are still fully telework 5 days per week (go figure, the employees who do the least amount of work anyways). I think you'll see a reduction in telework days for these employees. How drastic of a reduction is anyones guess, but I think that shit storm is coming soon.
Telework is like an addiction for some employees. Before FO employees had telework they were fine. Once they tried telework, they can't give it up without threatening to quit or retire. Addictions are difficult to break. Let those who prefer not serving the public leave and the agency will be better off long term.
Yes, I took enjoy telework but waiting 2 years to return to the FOs was ridiculous and continuing it is as well, at least in the field. Covid is over. Let's serve the public again.
10:13 Many SSA workers want to serve the public , and also want the home/workplace balance that telework provides. Your statement that these are mutually exclusive, is absurd on the face of it.
Agreed. A shit storm there will be because management has been all too happy to take credit for the higher rate of telework, and many have convinced themselves it is here to stay. The idea that SSA will be given full-time telework indefinitely when nearly all other agency HQs are back at least part-time is beyond fanciful.
I don’t think teleworking 2 days is unreasonable for the field. There are days where I don’t have any contact either public other than by phone. Days where I’m assigned to phones or dates where I’m doing 6-7 telephone appointments. What’s the point of being in the office those days? Management has the ability to call teleworkers into the office if needed and management acts on this if warranted. I’m certainly not “addicted” to telework and if it were to end, I’m not leaving right away. I still have at least two more years till I can retire from the agency. I just don’t know why telework is so hated.
Last I checked, this Congress hasn’t passed a single line of legislation impacting telework. Just lots of shouting into the void to get their wing-nut supporters kn a tizzy before election season. If this Commissioner is trying to make decisions based on that dreck, then she would do more good for the agency by delegating her duties to a can of soup.
Telework at OHO for the ALJs is on days when hearings are in person. But.the reps and many claimants don't want to come in at all, so almost all hearings are by phone now.The amount of effort OHO staff has to spend chasing down consent for manner of appearance, rather than doing file delevopment, is the definition of waste, fraud, and abuse. Make all hearings in person again, with narrowly defined carveouts for limited phone dockets. Bet the reps will push back on that.....
@830AM I'd ask people that are not employees of SSA whether the agency is doing as well or better than 4 years ago. What do the attorneys think about telework? The general public doesn't post here too often or they could be asked as well.
Re home work balance... 13 days of sick leave annually that can be carried over indefinitely, 13 to 26 vacation days depending on years worked (less than 3 yrs work get 13 days, 3 to 15 years get 20 days and over 15 get 26 days) 11 federal holidays, COLAs every year, etc
I’m already doing the work of three people. I assure you that if this work is interrupted throughout the day by Bob popping into my office to talk about his daughter’s college search or Jody coming in to complain about the thermostat, your clients will not benefit.
@ 8:49 your HQ jealousy is showing. Lol. It cracks me up when people say RO and HQ do the least work. I’ve worked at every level of SSA, started in the FO, ADO, RO and now HQ. Everyone is busy just in different ways. Is the FO more stressful? Absolutely. Are the deadlines right? Yes. Do you make decisions that impact the agency or thousands of claimants at a time? No. Sometimes it takes a while to get things done. Ever held a meeting across components with say OIS, OPSOS, ORDP at once? No. Have you ever worked with another agency on a project where you are limited to their deadline? No. When you are in HQ, so many times there are so many things in play at once that video and Skype is the only way to make it happen. There is no reason to be in person because it would happen over video or teleconference anyway. you have to take your time and legally examine every decision. To say people aren’t working is insulting. Many of us are advocating for better conditions for the field. It’s absurd to think staff (not management) sits around and does nothing.
The nature of most PSC jobs (BA and CS) is such , that being forced back to the office would not help with the backlogs or increase productivity.
These employees would be doing exactly what they do at home. Sitting at a desk and working at a computer all day, with an occasional phone call.
The jobs do not require meetings or conferences, there is no public interaction.
Agreed 100%. And feel free to apply for a job in an RO or HQ. Nothing is stopping you. There is an obvious mission critical need for in office time for FOs. Not so in HQ or ROs. Some jobs make sense for in office work. Some make sense for remote work.
I agree with 4:42 and 2:05. I’m so tired of FO employees complaining about HQ and RO staff. Nothing is stopping you from applying and taking one of those jobs. And it’s unprofessional to be criticizing us. You will never hear an HQ employee complain about FO work because everybody supports you. In reality, many of the things you complain about ie mandatory trainings, class action relief workloads, policy changes, systems changes are all done because people in the field screw thinks up. But you will never see anyone in HQ degrade what your job is doing. Remember, a huge proportion of us have been in the field and know exactly what you do, yet the majority of you in the field have never worked in the RO or HQ and have no idea what it entails. So think twice before you criticize us, because we are professional enough to recognize everyone is in this together and we all have a role to play.
I am curious as to whether 2:05 and 7:45 are trolls attempting to make HQ look bad? Or are they actual HQ employees lacking: (1) the self-awareness to realize that they are making HQ look bad; (2) an awareness of how broken SSA is; (3) an awareness that HQ failures are principally responsible for where we are?
@9:35-7:45 here. I’m laughing at your assessment. HQ is why we are the way we are? I will grant you that some decisions from HQ aren’t the greatest. But what you don’t understand from the narrow view of the field is that some of those decisions are direct results of congress or the White House or limits with bargaining with the union . HQ doesn’t control the budget or the staffing issue from congress. But what you don’t seem to catch is 90 percent of the things you hate are the result of actions in the field. The CCE? Is it bad, yes. Why did it get implemented? The improperly payment rate in the SSI program was astronomical and this cuts human errors. EAFI and NHRP? Field office IP errors. Wage interface? Delayed LI issues from the field resulting in IP. iSSN? Convenience for customers, and a ridiculous error rate in the field. Why does AIPQB and PQR exist? FO errors. Do you know how many employees view transmittals, AMs and EMs? I do. It’s low. What does this mean? Errors in the field. Ever notice how 90 percent of the complaints on this blog are issues related to the field? IE missing attorney paperwork, pending e4345 and windfall, delayed PERCs, confusing SGA and Overpayment decisions. Ever notice how 90 of the news stories on this blog citing delayed payments, missing entitlement and failure to effectuate are issues resolved in the field?
It’s baffling how easy you can insult HQ but do you ever miss a paycheck? Ever have no power bill paid at your FO? Ever had your insurance not work? Have you ever attempted to write a section of POMs or an EM? Ever drafted a data exchange with another agency? Ever drafted a report for the Hill? Ever released a blog post or build a page for SSA.gov? There are so many things that happen every day so seamlessly that you think people aren’t working, when in reality, thinking we aren’t there is the biggest compliment you can give because it means we are doing our jobs seamlessly.
And as it has been pointed out, must of us have been in your shoes, you haven’t been in ours. Take a remote HQ detail from the portal or join a development program and get out of the field level operations and I guarantee your perspective changes. Just don’t be insulting about something you don’t know.
@426 Agree with you for the most part. I don't think it means much that 90% of the complaints here are FO related since attorneys and representatives probably have the most complaints.
As an FO employee, maybe my complaints should be directed towards someplace other than HQ. I think the new employee training is atrocious and inefficient but not sure who was responsible for that decision. Perhaps it's Congresses fault but the Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity training is worthless and a waste of time.
@5:28 It’s me again. I’m not saying don’t blame HQ. Decisions are made there by agency management. What I’m saying is don’t blame staff who are doing the majority of the day to day HQ workload. Many of us came from the field and have spent the last 3 years vigorously standing up for the front lines. We defend you in the media, on the Hill, etc because we know a huge issue is simply too much work and not enough people. It just makes me mad to see those same people turn on HQ and forget there are a lot of staff here doing lots of work. Blame management, specifically certain DC’s (not all).
And in regards to your training questions, hint hint. It was the Kansas City Regional office who put the operations training into place and still runs it. HQ and its training component OSLWD no longer oversees any of that. So not HQ folks. DEI is a mandate from the White House, we just seem to push it to the front when we should be spending more time and money on other priorities as equally as we do that.
Keep an eye out at the work the new office of transformation is doing and try to grab a detail there. Assuming congress doesn’t take money away there are good initiatives in place.
Always remember that quality workers work for quality employers.
This attitude is poisonous. Plenty of high quality employees work for low quality employers. And this attitude that only poor quality workers bother working for SSA is one of the biggest drivers of leadership’s persistent failure to remove problematic managers and staff, and persistent unwillingness to take any real steps to improve retention of knowledgeable hardworking staff. After all, why bother working to retain good staff if you start with the assumption that they’ll inevitably leave anyway?
Telework -follow the money. Commercial developers have loans coming due on leased properties and the businesses that surround these buildings rely on the employees in those buildings to survive. There is no way to determine the productivity of telework when SSA is under staffed. The government could save money by utilizing telework to it's fullest but the commercial developers and business Lobbyist's money to politicians over rides common sense.
The best and the brightest are not knocking down the doors to work at SSA 12:41, not even close, other agencies are learning that some of the transfers they are getting from the agency are not exactly top drawer, take it from the VA, we dont want your cast offs.
Being in the office doesn’t change one’s work ethic. People who “don’t work” while teleworking are the same ones not working in the FO. They are the ones bother those who are working with constant chit chat, endless questions because they prefer not looking anything up themselves and multiple breaks. So to those who think more work will get done by ending telework are kidding themselves.
If telework ends, what is the agency going to do with all the remote/outstationed workers? For example, Grace Kim was still in San Francisco the day she was transferred. My division has people all over the US who were hired/promoted during the pandemic. It was a great advantage to pull people from the field office and all over the regions to work at HQ without them having to move. What’s the plan for them?
@759 Agree to a point about slackers but it's much easier to slack off at home vs the office. Slackers inefficiency would be higher in the office.
I was told by a manager prior to his retirement that stats showed even the slacker/losers in our component were doing more work from home than in the office. If telework is decreased or cut for positions with portable work, the agency can expect most of the worker bees to stop buzzing. As one of the bees who constantly gets reassigned work from co-workers, I'll be slowing way down if this agency starts costing me time & money for a useless commute.
What does it say about employees that commuted for years, sometimes decades since they seem to be the more knowledgeable ones, that if they have to go back to commuting that they may slack off on their efforts to work? That doesn't sound like the attitude of employees that are more productive at home. It sounds like spoiled children and that's coming from someone who prefers working at home with a 20 second commute.
I’m going to do my job no matter the setting. That’s just how I was raised. However, I’m much happier and mentally healthy with telework and in return have worked more overtime since 20/0 than my previous 18 years combined. So based on that, I’d say telework has made me a more productive employee.
The last place on the face of the planet I want to do work is home. Home is my sanctuary from work. It is where I go to have peace, to do the things in my life that are not work. Working from home contaminates that sanctuary. It may be good for some, but for me it is a horrible intrusion into my life and my peace, I want work and life separated as much as possible. Your mileage may vary.
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