Tom Temin at Federal News Network has a piece up on the new Commissioner's e-mail to staff decreasing telework for some employees. He is kind enough to refer to this blog by name as "reliable." He quotes several comments made to the post.
Erich Wagner at Government Executive has a longer piece on the e-mail, particularly to the reaction of Rich Couture, chief negotiator for the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents most Social Security employees. Couture expressed relief at what O'Malley had done. The article says that only 4,000 bargaining unit employees would be affected by the announcement. Here's a quote from Couture:
AFGE is pleased to see [O’Malley] is maintaining telework at current levels, and it’s clear that the commissioner recognizes the importance of telework for workers and their work-life balance, as well as its importance for retention and recruitment efforts,” Couture said. “We’re still in a public service crisis fueled by understaffing and attrition, and one way to maintain staffing levels is by offering telework. A commitment to continuing current telework levels for those employees is critical to keeping the agency’s ability to serve the public intact by keeping our employees working here.
After almost 100 comments, I cut off commenting on the original post since the comments had become so repetitive but, still, I don't think anyone mentioned something about O'Malley's e-mail that caught my eye. Before signing his name to the e-mail, the Commissioner included the phrase "Yours in solidarity." That word, "solidarity," has long been associated with labor unions.
51 comments:
You know, actually in my life this has zero impact. In fact the last actual thing that had impact on my life from SSA was when they raised my retirement age. I figure the next one will be when they raise FICA. Other than that, I really dont care because in reality it really doesnt change things. SSA still does SSA things. There is a backlog, but guess what, I have never ever ever not seen a backlog, dont think there will ever be a no backlog time at SSA. Sometimes its better, sometimes its worse, but nothing really ever changes.
Its kind of like changing the orbit of a planet. It takes a while, and you really dont notice it. I guess its kinda fun to be outraged about it and make snarky comments and such but really, how long I have to wait to get my Friday night pizza and wings is more important to me and if the commute home is going to be decent.
Y'all need to just chill a little, get you some of the gummies at the dispensary and listen to Days of Future Past all the way through.
The decision to return staff to the office Is bone headed. Ssa will lose many highly qualified employees.
I noticed the "Yours in solidarity" thing and thought it was weird. I also thought the mention of "servant leaders" in the message was weird. Is this a thing at SSA, or is it just O'Malley? I assumed SSA was a traditional top-down organization. I've gotten along well with my boss of 25 years (not at SSA), but a boss is still a boss, and trying to pretend they're servants of the ones they're bosses of, or using "in solidarity" isn't going to fool anyone.
servant leaders is meant to invoke the "public service" aspect of this job. We all work in service of citizens of the united states. Some people are bosses/leaders and others are worker bees, but we are all public servants.
Servant leadership is bigger than just recognizing the public service aspect of the job. It's an important trait of leadership ensuring you put the needs of others at the forefront. Set the example, be there for people, humble yourself, to name a few. It's non authoritarian. It's also biblical. I found it telling in the context of the message. It was almost to call out - leaders need to get your butts back to the office. Set the example. It's also telling that O'Malley said, I'll be in the office five days a week. If you all can't read between the lines, you aren't trying.
My interpretation of it is that nobody would be happy without closed Wednesday afternoons (which I would support; great time to call to get a hold of a claim representative on weird issues), but O'Malley's approach to telework was reasonable. It largely does not sound like it is going away, except for some managers, and central.
I think he is saying he will be there with you in person in the office. He is walking the talk! Can't wait to see what his next move will be!
I agree with this. It’s still far too early to tell how the agency will be under O’Malleys leadership but so far, I oppose nothing he’s said or done.
Calling yourself a "servant leader" while arbitrarily screwing over 4000 of the people you supposedly serve is simply Orwellian.
As for Couture and "solidarity," it's obvious that AFGE willingly sold HQ bargaining unit employees down the river to keep telework for their bread and butter members. HQ staff would be smart to decertify AFGE and look to gain NTEU membership. No NTEU staff was called back and none will be.
AFGE just allowed management to take something away from 4000 of their members with absolutely nothing in return. This means jobs in HQ are now worth less than those of the same grade elsewhere.
His next move? Given his track record thus far, my guess would be create another portal to elicit ideas for improving morale, then do the opposite of what any level-headed line employees recommend. Glad you’re feeling so bubbly about that, I guess.
Charles! We love your blog. It’s very reliable! It’s also floating around an ssa Facebook group too for employees to see.
Speaking of, O’Malley is getting some pushback on Facebook and I also saw his Wikipedia page has been changed. Engage SSA also has been quite interesting to read this week. The reaction to this has been all over the place. But your blog helps us all!
HQ and RO employees should have had to go back to the office in 2022 when just about everyone else at SSA received a return to office (RTO) order, But no, someone pulled strings to give these most favored employees their continued 100% work from home rights.
The special treatment they received, inevitably caused resentment from other SSA employees, who had to go back to commuting.
Everyone at SSA should have had to RTO for a hybrid schedule, , once the pandemic was over.
What's the Facebook group? Would like to join as well. Thanks.
Everyone would do better to decertify AFGE and join NTEU, in my opinion. When Saul cancelled telework, AFGE rolled over like a helpless dog. Meanwhile NTEU, despite its smaller size, and despite a hostile labor board, went to bat and protected those it could from the shift. It’ll be a cold day in hell before AFGE gets a dime from me after that pathetic showing.
OGC employees are very upset. It makes no sense to bring them back if you are not bringing back the Appeals Council and OHO people. They are only given 60 days and now must come in more days than prior to the pandemic. What is the logic to that?
AFGE does not try. AFGE gaslights its members.
Constant pressure on O'Malley will result in him rolling back the RTO.
I am shocked by the amount of anger that I see coming from the FO employees toward those in systems. For those in the FO who are angry, I have a question. During the height of the pandemic when you were working at home full time, do you think grocery store employees, doctors, nurses, gas station attendants and others in critical jobs like those listed, should have been allowed to stay home full time too? If so, how would you have had access to food, medical care, etc… during that time? I expect you felt for them, but understood their jobs were such that they needed to be onsite. Your jobs require that you to interact with the public on a daily basis. Many need that face to face interaction because they can’t use technology to get assistance. I fully understand that you are understaffed and feeling overworked. Budget restraints have made it hard to get extra help on the frontlines. Believe or not, we work tirelessly every day to support you. Many initiatives that work make your work easier get stalled due to the same budget restraints you are feeling in your offices. We don’t think you should be barred from telework, but your job does require some face to face interaction. The number of days you telework is not in our hands. We don’t lobby for you to be in the office 5 days a week or have any control over the number of days you are in the office right now. I am confused by the fact that you would lobby against us? There should be no against them mentality here. We should be unified in not only supporting each other but in our goals to serve the public.
It’s called something like Active and retired SSA employees. Its a neat group to find people you used to work with.
6:18 I searched Facebook and couldn't find an O'Malley page, nor one for the SSA Commissioner.
Speaking of which it would be nice if AFGE would put up an SSA employee info page on Facebook or somewhere else. We used to have a union rep come into the modules and tell us what is going on, but no more with everyone only there certain days. Now we don't know what's going on with negotiations.
It's amazing to me that SSA employees feel so entitled regarding telework. I can only speak about FO employees as that's all I have worked with. It did feel like I was more productive at home but I think that's for a couple reasons. There was much less chatter with coworkers about non work issues. Most of this in the office took place before the doors opened at 9:00. Management demands to answer telephones or go help in the lobby (during telework this meant call people off of the waiting board-VIP) could be ignored for a while until one finished the work CDR or A101 one was working on so the task I was doing could be finished usually before I had to do other work for management. In person, when was expected to do what they asked fairly immediately. During complete telework, one could still do what they want but wait a few minutes or maybe even half an hour until the task when was doing was finished. Not bouncing around on one's desk working something for a couple minutes and having to leave or do something for management probably is more effective. But social Security is an agency that services the public who come into the office. It's hard to argue that during the pandemic social Security service was better than before the pandemic. For that reason, I think it would be best actually if there were no telework in the FO. I can't speak to regional office or central office because I have no experience there.
I really enjoyed teleworking because I could sleep longer, no commute, etc. but that was just for it emergency and the emergency is over now.
People threaten that they will retire or quit if telework is ended. Maybe it would be better if they did as their primary interest is not appear to be public service.
Yes, we will not advance as agency until we start making decisions that are best for the service we provide. It's about the service, not about the employee. Telework put employee self interest in front of all else. While we may have learned some things we can benefit from long term, ultimately we now provide poorer service. That sucks. We have much less to be proud of these days. Employees no longer care about each other. They are less likely to have each other's backs. How are WE better with telework? YOU may be better off, but WE are worse. Training is far worse, but yet we protected the rights of trainees to telework. That was unwise. SSA FO work is a grind. The least we could do is be there together and for each other. Having at least two fifths of the staff home each day, just weakens us by two fifths each day. Honestly, I could care less what CO and ROs do, but I tend to assume they'd be far better together also. The weakest employees suffer the most with telework, and we've got plenty of employees that need assistance. A good share of those employees who need assistance are no longer considered trainees. The fact is being a CSR, CS, CTE is a grind. The least we could do is grind together and be there for each other. Instead, it's popular to whine about commutes, saving money, personal appointments, etc. as reasons why we NEED telework. Folks, we've got very generous leave. That ought to solve the majority of your needs. Less, than four years ago it surely did. Since then we added paid parental leave. Another gift. Time to get back to reality. It's time to worry about what is best for our customers rather than ourselves. Anybody noticed when morale dropped like a rock in the agency? This occurred after the introduction to substantial telework. Coincidence? I don't think so. People just started fighting for themselves and what is best for them. If you want a miserable path forward with SSA, stick with telework.
People also say that in office chatter makes them less productive. While that may be somewhat true, it also leads to the fabric that bonds us. Take that away, and we are nothing but a bunch of individuals who could care less about each other. That probably works in robot world, but we still don't employ robots. I found it fascinating that management PACS changed after telework was introduced. Suddenly employee engagement became a key factor for management success. Telework caused employees to disengage from the workplace and each other. Now, management by some miracle is supposed to fix that. Look people, it's simple, telework taught people to care only about themselves. Is it a surprise people now leave the agency as soon as they become a little dissatisfied? That's very easy to do when you could care less about the work you do and your coworkers. We're chasing the wrong fix to the problem. The fix is the end or a reduction in telework. Good day!
@9:11 Have you considered the possibility that the "anger" of FO employees towards those in systems is a function of systems repeatedly releasing broken systems that make their jobs more difficult?
I just want to put something in perspective that I did not get to comment on the last thread. Those of us in HQ and the arrow are shocked by this decision because it feels arbitrary, especially considering the MO you and the arrangements that telework would continue at its current settings for everybody until October 2025. Many of us made decisions based on that Such as which daycare to use how to get our children to school which spouse would be in charge of getting home first or second or do doctors appointments etc. someone like me who is planning to retire in 2025 or close to seized on the opportunity to sell my house at a high markup And move to my second location where I plan to retire, which is a 2 hours commute. I made this decision based on the information that things would continue until 2025. Is it a risk that I took? Yes, perhaps the risk was that I trusted that the DCS would continue telework until 2025 and that my DC plan to continue it at our full level. Does this affect me greatly? Not really I’m probably gonna go ahead and put my papers in and just call it a career one year early, I was on borrowed time going into the pandemic but for people who used to take their kids to the bus and were able to use their afternoon breaks to pick them up or who were able to drive their kids daycare and get home before the start of work flex out to go pick them up and finish their tour or take ailing parents or siblings to the doctor and volunteer to do that under the assumption this arrangement could continue until 2025 are in a tough spot trying to find other arrangements in the next 60 days. I’ll tell you what none of us did, and that celebrate at the field Office had to return in person , we try our best to support all field office operations not everyone in HQ or the RO is management. Many of us are dedicated staff with skills in the area of human resources, systems, legislative policy, etc. and have no control over the decisions that you hate. we’re just trying to do our best so that you can do your best. to be cheering that we are returning without a business need to go into the office is a poor Showing. It shows that the one-size-fits-all management that you hate so much, isn’t so bad when you can use it. Celebrating is returning to work is like being happy a friend of yours crashed his car just because you don’t like yours. It’s sad. I’m thankful for my years and looking forward to not dealing with this in the future. VR, -HQ employee
I'm in HQ and I think the over the top whinging about RTO for HQ is really unseemly. We got lucky having a commissioner who did not have to give into pressure for RTO because she was on the way out anyway. It was a foregone conclusion that a confirmed commissioner would put SSA in line with the rest of the federal government. Don't be so naive.
I’ve seen a lot of Commissioners come into HQ and try to make their mark early on. O’Malley seems no different in that regard. The likelihood of him accomplishing anything substantive during the next year are close to zero, just based on the natural inertia of a large government agency. If he gets a 4-year term after next January, it won’t help a lot either because the things that the agency needs to do—like update its sources of vocational evidence—can’t be done on that short a cycle, given the nature of the process. So he takes on the low-hanging fruit of HQ telework, which has worked surprisingly well. This move doesn’t make a lot of sense, except from a political optics standpoint. But that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day.
It’s hypocritical really. The admin axes black, meets with unions, dunks on telework.
Only to turn around how many years later and make non union employees telework… bc there is no other way to bargain on this again when the time comes. It’s all he has is see look we do it.
Round and round. Break, disrupt, win, unwind. Poor HQ employees. 3 days!
My thinking is that a lot of this depends on the job. Someone mentioned OGC earlier. They have zero public contact and in my region I don’t think they even have dedicated office space anymore. I guess they’re going to have to find space and requisition desks and everything just to warehouse attorneys to do non-public jobs. And our RO hired a bunch of long distance employees during the pandemic who work remotely. Any word if they need to move? Stay put? Work out of whatever office is closest? Why call back the people that don’t deal with the public especially if it’s going to cost money finding them new office space, furniture and everything else?
But I also know there are other jobs that are public facing that probably need a better balance of in office and out. Particularly if there are service gaps.
From what I’ve seen in my office there have been three main complaints. 1. Everything that people have already said about the disruptions to work-life balance and stuff. It’s a loss of a perk and no one ever likes that especially if you were hired during the pandemic and this is how your job has always been. 2. How nakedly political it has been. It was flat out said to us by managers that O’Malley needed to be able to tout the return to office so the President can campaign on it. No one likes to be used. 3. It seems like O’Malley has no clue what the people he ordered back actually do and that’s why it seems like he’s bringing back the people who don’t deal with the public but not the people who do like some of the OHO staff (we’ve had someone who was hired to do front desk work that has been teleworking full time) And no one has had the guts to tell him (or maybe they did and that’s why he fired the general counsel a couple weeks ago).
Telework should come with one simple rule: you must produce the same or more if teleworking. Otherwise, you're back in office. At OGC--a completely non-public facing entity--our production has soared and morale is incredible. There's no legitimate reason to bring employees back. Morale will crater and production will shrink. Bad idea.
I feel for our FO colleagues who work their butts off all day and often face lengthy commutes and irascible customers. But if not able to telework, I feel the agency can benefit them in other ways: better pay, more promotion opportunities, more time off, more overtime pay, etc... My understanding is that the FO is often a launching pad for great careers at SSA. FO employees go on to become highly paid managers, even acting Commissioners. When it comes to telework, if they can work extra hours and get more calls in than when in office, let them keep it.
As far as those saying "chill, it's no big deal," this is inaccurate and very much a case-by-case basis. As mentioned above, production will crater for OGC and drag morale down with it. All RO are located in big cities, so with the exception of the young and typically single employees, everyone will face a long commute. This makes childcare with daycare and school dropoff a nightmare. We will work fewer days, take more sick time, and be miserable. And for what? To be warehoused in a decrepit office with no public contact and no benefit? The agency can do so much better.
The job as a Claims Specialist does not require and face to face contact. That’s why the WSU exists. That job can be done 100# remotely.
It’s all the “other duties as assigned” due to lack of funding and adequate staffing they require us to be in the office.
I have no problem working in the office myself. The majority or my 20 years have been spent physically in the office. But to say it “requires” contact is untrue.
O'Malley's unscientific decision to reduce telework is effectively him falling victim to appealing to a base that is actively undermining SSA. Today, the agency is acutely understaffed and it will get worse. In the coming months, many employees will retire and skilled, high-performing younger staff, like myself, will leave. I'm tired of facing endless, adverse forces and being set up for failure. I can no longer succeed at SSA in serving the public with the efficiency and rigor they deserve. SSA is broken. I will spend the second half of my federal career serving the public elsewhere while being more productive and happier.
The commenters are trying to understand this decision in a business process context. This decision makes no business sense. It is a political decision resulting from Congressional pressure. Stop trying to make business sense of it.
I think FO people are missing some details about the situation with OGC in particular. We were told remote work was the future. Several of our regional office spaces downsized or outright vacated because we were told SSA needed to save the lease money. So many of us have no office to go back to realistically. Many people built our lives around these changes.
We are not against doing what were told. We are not looking for perks at the expense of other SSA employees. But please understand we were told one important life changing thing less than two years ago. And now it's the complete opposite just because of politics and definitely not for a real business reason.
Good luck to you! Bureau of immigration and prisons have many openings. I wonder if you can telework on those jobs.
@4:37,
Actually yeah, you can, if you’re referencing USCIS. They have an awesome telework program, especially if you can get a job at a service center. Will probably get paid more as well, same with VBA. DOL Workers Comp claims examiners starts as a GS12 and is fully remote. CMS has full remote GS12 positions that a lot of SSA GS11 Claims Reps could easily qualify for. It’s easy to pick out the bad agencies, but there are plenty of places head and shoulders better than SSA and SSA is hemorrhaging employees to these other agencies, especially VBA.
8:00am
I don’t attribute it to intentional malice, more so just general “out of sight, out of mind” out of touch-ness. But it annoys me when RO and HQ says “they can’t telework because their job is public facing!!” Like sure, for the CSR role. Processing SS5’s does take an onsite presence, but the Claims Rep role can literally be remote, like you said, look at WSU. The only reason Claims Reps in FO’s can’t is because they are used in lieu of actually hiring enough CSRs to do the job. The agency has such a hard on about only hiring Claims Reps and then they pay GS11 wages to process replacement cards. Claims Reps should be taking teleclaims and doing post-entitlement work (which is all portable). FO’s aren’t even scheduling in-person appointments, I know for sure my FO is strictly telephone appointment only.
1:48. I don't think you were promised work from home for the rest of your career. Nobody should've expected 100% WFH to continue more than a couple of years. Those who did expect that, were reading what they wanted to see in the announcements.
It's not workable to have some SSA employees granted 100% work from home while others have to go into the office. It causes resentment.
I have to go in tomorrow. I'd rather stay home and work, but I accept it for being what It is, and I'm grateful I still have some telework days.
Sharing a bathroom with people who seem to be incapable of cleaning up after themselves is part of the fabric that bonds up. Smelling the fish that Bob puts in the microwave is part of the fabric that bonds up. And talking about sports, movies, the cost of gas. Well, you get it. Come on in, where we can be miserable together.
Then can you explain why ALJs, OHO and the Appeals Council enjoy permanent full time telework?
As someone earlier said, stop trying to make sense of this debacle in terms of workloads.
We exist to serve the economy, not the other way around. Where serving the economy and serving our mission clash, we will defer to the economy even if it negatively impacts our mission.
Most of my org have not been in the same building for 30+ years and 95% of my org's work involves each of us assigned to different national level projects which is the norm for HQ. We don't sit down in a conference room because our project teams are always spread out across the country. This is not a surprise to leadership, therefore, even they know the "collaboration" angle is just a weak talking point that doesn't suss out logically. My org's productivity is far higher now than it was pre-COVID, even with historically terrible management.
This is about propping up the US economy. Keeping commercial landlords profitable and forcing each one of us to put our earnings back into the economy for mass transit, daycare, gas, tolls, lunches, auto repair bills, parking garages etc.
US households accumulated historically high amounts of personal savings during COVID. That's money that wasn't transferred up to some business owner or corporate entity, that's money that isn't propping up some corporation's stock prices which directly impacts CEO pay, that's money that isn't generating sales taxes etc etc etc.
The record inflation and RTO orders we are seeing now are not about better work, it's about getting to those record amounts of savings we accumulated during COVID.
@ 1:20 - The only position at OHO currently with full-time telework is decision writer (i.e., SAA and AA/PS). This has been the case since 3/30/22.
I produce much less in the office but then again I don’t really like telework either.
Politics, pure and simple.
The red wingnut snowflake caucus is foaming at the mouth regarding this issue (though, to be fair, they tend to permanently foam at the mouth 'bout everything). The President, who is running for re-election, has previously ordered a return to office, and the SSA Commissioner is going to get those numbers up for his agency so the Republicans have less of an opportunity to attack Biden on the issue.
Then, when the debates come about, they'll march out the Social Security scare-tactic issues, make promises out the wahoo they have no intention to keep, and then will just ignore everything after the election. Same song and dance as the last 30 years....
I couldn’t agree more. Very well said.
7:28 PM wrote: "It's not workable to have some SSA employees granted 100% work from home while others have to go into the office. It causes resentment."
I don't know if you're aware of this, but O'Malley's policy actually has some SSA employees within the same components and offices working 100% from home while others go into the office.
In OGC, for example, employees who have an "outstationing" agreement will be allowed to continue 100% telework. Employees who don't have those agreements will return to the office. This isn't about improving public service. It's about putting on a political show by picking off the easiest targets -- SSA employees not covered by contracts.
Being a political pawn comes with the territory when you work for a giant bureaucracy that changes direction during election cycles. But if this were truly about what's "workable" in service of SSA's public mission, then there wouldn't be different telework rules for different employees based solely on contract status or current proximity to a functional office space.
I bet Mr. Couture is happy. I don't know if anyone noticed, but he and his cronies at Council 215 benefited the most from the COSS's decision. He didn't touch OHO and they didn't touch OAO. Sounds like a backroom dirty deal to me, folks.
100 percent agree. Productivity will decrease dramatically and morale will sink to a new low. And, good luck retaining employees with institutional knowledge. They will all be looking at private sector jobs that are also hybrid and pay better. In addition, OGC will certainly not attract new attorneys who very much consider work/life balance especially when given less pay than the private sector. So for the few OGC'ers who remain-good luck to you !
It’s not a threat, it will happen, I am an OGC employee and we lost a lot of attorneys due to the reorganization. They were backfilled ONLY because remote hiring was allowed.
Last year I worked many 10-12 hour days helping clear our backlog, which is now cleared for our component, and take on special projects. I even forfeited credit with longer days and not being able to take leave because the workload didn’t allow it. These long days were possible because I wasn’t commuting hours each day. With this change, many attorneys will not have that time available to work longer hours and will not agree to step up and “collaborate” for things they no longer have time for. Other attorneys will leave for firms where IF they have to go into the office but receive 2x or more our current pay. Still others will find remote federal jobs, which are being offered by other agencies.
Our component cleared are backlog and now our “reward” is less telework than we had before the pandemic. I will be applying for other jobs with other OGCs that are offering remote hiring.
OAO managers go in 2 days a week.
I think RTO would be easier to take if OCIO folks were returning to the same or better working environment. Unfortunately, the agency decided to set up desks that harken back to the old days when managers could look across a floor and see employees busily typing away at their desks. The problem is, IT work isn’t data entry. You need to be able to focus which is going to be difficult with people sitting around you in meetings. Even worse will be sitting near someone who gets constant visitors. This was all done for collaboration we are told but they took away most of our meeting spaces. So we will be sitting at random desks, not near our teams, on meetings. At that point, why even come in? There’s also the parking issue which no one is addressing. They added a whole other building of people to the main campus but neglected to add additional parking. Actually, they did a study and found that the only way to handle the volume of employees was to give everyone 3 days of telework. With the mix of 2 and 3 day telework folks, April 7th and on will be a disaster.
It appears even outstationed RO/HQ employees will be required to report to their home office three days per week. That really makes zero business sense. This decision is purely political.
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