I didn’t see anything about it until Wednesday evening but Social Security field offices are closed today. Are employees still working, that is, the ones who didn’t take leave?
Yes they are. FOs are always closed to the public the day after Thanksgiving. Employees are working if they don't choose to use vacation to take it off. Honestly, its bliss-- 8 full hours to work all of your pending workloads without being forced to work a reception window, or take interviews all day, or answer the phone line all day. SSA's backlog would decrease drastically if random days like this happened more often throughout the year. Every other friday (or even once a month), FO's are closed to the public to catch up on outstanding workloads. **Chef's Kiss**
It's been like this for several years. 10? But before we were open for business the day after Thanksgiving. It was generally a day of little foot traffic and there were no appointments scheduled.
I got mixed messages from the hearing offices. I tried to call one and their voice mail said they were closed and even cited the date. Another hearing office called me about a matter, so they are obviously working.
We always had management that did not want to work on this day. If one person in the office was going to work, a member of management had to as well. They started to tell staff what they could work on, usually stuff nobody wanted to work like overpayments. If you didn’t have any to work, you worked on other employees overpayments. It worked. Most years nobody would work, unless they had no leave left. Assholes.
I kind of figured this would be the case and advised clients that needed to conduct in person activity to wait until Monday but it still would have been nice to have been told this more than a day ahead.
Yes, any employees that didn't take leave are working. The vast majority of the ones that are working today will be teleworking.
ReplyDeleteYes.
ReplyDeleteYes I'm going to work today. Love this day. An opportunity to work on my workloads with the phone ringing or walk-in issues.
ReplyDeleteYes they are. FOs are always closed to the public the day after Thanksgiving. Employees are working if they don't choose to use vacation to take it off. Honestly, its bliss-- 8 full hours to work all of your pending workloads without being forced to work a reception window, or take interviews all day, or answer the phone line all day. SSA's backlog would decrease drastically if random days like this happened more often throughout the year. Every other friday (or even once a month), FO's are closed to the public to catch up on outstanding workloads. **Chef's Kiss**
ReplyDeleteIt's been like this for several years. 10? But before we were open for business the day after Thanksgiving. It was generally a day of little foot traffic and there were no appointments scheduled.
ReplyDeleteUsed to be awesome when we had Wednesday afternoons to do work. Wish those days would return.
ReplyDeleteI got mixed messages from the hearing offices. I tried to call one and their voice mail said they were closed and even cited the date. Another hearing office called me about a matter, so they are obviously working.
ReplyDeleteLike the FOs, the hearing offices were closed but employees were still working unless they took leave.
DeleteWe always had management that did not want to work on this day. If one person in the office was going to work, a member of management had to as well. They started to tell staff what they could work on, usually stuff nobody wanted to work like overpayments. If you didn’t have any to work, you worked on other employees overpayments. It worked. Most years nobody would work, unless they had no leave left. Assholes.
ReplyDeleteWhy do SSA employees complain about EVERYTHING? Be thankful that you have a job with benefits.
ReplyDeleteSame reason everyone else complains about the agency…it sucks.
DeleteI kind of figured this would be the case and advised clients that needed to conduct in person activity to wait until Monday but it still would have been nice to have been told this more than a day ahead.
ReplyDeleteWhen was the last time SSA was open to the public the day after Thanksgiving?
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