The union local that represents most Social Security employees is reporting that because of staffing and attrition issues Social Security is closing a field office in Southeast Cleveland that serves an area that is 94% black.
The union local that represents most Social Security employees is reporting that because of staffing and attrition issues Social Security is closing a field office in Southeast Cleveland that serves an area that is 94% black.
25 comments:
It’s time to value FO employees instead of disparaging them and calling them lazy. Soon there won’t be employees to help when they find better jobs
Our office has lost 53% of our staffing. Chance of hiring is “bleak”. Area and Regional ranks do a great job of telling us what we are not doing instead of providing us assistance to actually meet the needs of the public. We used to be in the business of public service.
Not a good reason. The fact 94% black is unnerving. I don't think they're being racist, but Cleveland and a black population area? Seems like it would be a terrible press-nightmare unless there is a lot of violence in the area. It just seems to be done in a way that can be explained away as service problems and attrition.
A union comment is that the high turnover is due to inadequate pay, benefits and unreasonable workloads. The pay is actually pretty good and so are the benefits. The workloads are ridiculous.
For a GS-11 Claims Specialist, yes. For a Contact Representative or any new hire, not so much.
There has been HUGE philosophical shift in the position types hired in the FO. Instead of actually hiring Customer Service Reps to do specific and quickly trainable tasks, ADO's/DM's incorrectly thought "Let's just hire Claims Specialist's" because they can "Do it all". So you basically are training them on two jobs. How did that work out? Basically overpaying for front end work having GS 11's doing GS 5/8 work (and not that well). O Malley needs to address the "Jack of all trades" thinking to the FO structure. Have Claims Specialists focus on IDK... CLAIMS. Seems crazy right?
That philosophy didn’t develop because DMs think it’s the ideal solution. It’s simply the most logical thing to do when you need 20 people and only have 10. Let’s have the 10 be in a position that allows the most flexibility.
Even GS-11 pay is unlivable in many of the most populous districts where service is suffering most. It’s time for SSA to quit suppressing wages by misleading OPM about what its staff does, or find some other way to pay its staff what they’re worth.
You've never worked at another agency in which the same capacity of position of CS is a GS 12. Nor have you worked within our own agency in a regional position in which the pay is often same or higher yet the workload is half. The pay is NOT adequate with our workload. Change my mind.
From the Reddit thread on r/fednews about this (take with a grain of salt, much like anything else on the Internet):
"I work in the Cleveland area and know what's going on from a direct contact in the office. They dropped to just 2 employees super fast because several staff left within 30 days for the VA and higher pay. The office has had a terrible time retaining employees, as all offices have, despite the local management constantly asking higher ups for new hires or more help it was ignored.
The lack of staffing was a known issue and has been for a long time in the eastern Cleveland offices. They handle some of the poorest areas in the country and it can be mentally grueling for many of the staff at those offices. Especially when they are bringing in new Claims Specialists at GS 5 in the area. People just leave and get higher pay and less stress just about anywhere else.
So it's just 2 SSI guys left holding down the fort and doing everything in an office that does something like 70% SSI claims. I'm shocked they haven't had nervous breakdowns handling all the work in that office. Those guys should get an instant pay raise for just sticking it out."
@8:18pm,
Your info pretty much tracks with what I have heard as well, so I figure you pretty much have the right of it.
That kind of staffing attrition is one of the very few ways that area management can justify (possibly permanently) closing an office. Hopefully, it won't be permanent, but given agency staffing problems everywhere (and not just in Cleveland) I wouldn't hold my breath for otherwise.
But the issue of needing 20 isn't solved. "Flexibility does not equal Efficiency" and basically you are overpaying for SR work. The math is 2/3 ratio. For 2 CS's you hired you can instead get 3 SR's. Using that figure, hiring 10 positions CS's could result in an additional 2 SR bodies (12 total) . I would argue that more staff is actually more "Flexibility" but I digress. So IF the hiring process thought from the top down applying that ratio it would net more actual staff. But instead ADO's give "Hires" and DM's think "Flexibility". CO/RO think in the way of "Budget". That is how you end up with less staff, overworked employees, and the inefficiency of government.
The info from the Reddit post is pretty much spot on.
@347 Worked for OPM so familiar with grade levels. I doubt CS position will be upgraded again.
Agree that regional and central office employees are graded at a higher level than they deserve. It's a flaw in the way agencies are set up.
The pay is good for the type of work. Congress and poor management have allowed manageable workloads to become ridiculous. But the actual grades for each position are correct.
Of course its not solved. Bad situation leads to no win solution. I like your idea of splitting the theoretical salary into more people at lower grades. I wish we could do that and I don't know why we can't.
@4:04 - the grades may be "correct" based on the type of work compared to jobs at different grades. But ALL GS levels, especially those on the lower end, are vastly underpaid.
In our office, even when given permission to hire from Region, we cannot find anyone willing to do the work at these pay levels. Our hiring criteria has been lowered to a) do you have a pulse? and b) are you willing to do this work for this pay? Credentials? Education? Past work experience? Pfft. If only HR let us not care about those. And the answer to (b) turns out to be "NO!" as we can't get anyone to make it through the training period.
@310 Ages ago, like in 1980, the civilian defense installations near LAX (Los Angeles airport) had trouble getting clerks to work there. This is before locality pay. They were allowed to hire new clerks at the grade 5 step 7 level. I believe the job normally would have started at grade 4 step 1. Currently a GS 4 step 2 starts at $41k in Los Angeles. A grade 5 step 7 is paid $55k. Maybe something similar could be tried for service reps and claims specialists.
Perhaps the grade levels are "correct" for the type of work at the GS-11 CS journeyman level. But... The amount of work required does not match this "correct" pay. And unfortunately the agency is figuring this out with the mass exodus to other agencies with similar positions that are 12s with less work. Running at light-speed all day is fine until it isn't. And if the video editor for the commissioner is making more than a journeyman FO CS, which we all know certainly is, then I have no reason to be upset when a CS of mine tells me they are leaving for greener pastures. And the more people leave, the more that those who are on the fence about retiring are also doing so, and it's all downhill. Not only does the VA pay a grade better, but they are also paying SPR's averaging 15% for critical positions just like that of the CS.
So you could work full time at McDonald’s and make more than a job with the federal government. Interesting.
The Social Security program is currently facing "a customer service crisis," according to the Social Security Administration's (SSA) new commissioner, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley.
"We're in a customer service crisis right now," O'Malley said, talking on the agency's podcast, SSA Talks, in an episode released on Thursday. "It's not normal. It's not acceptable. And it's not right [that] the people who have worked their whole lives to earn benefits should have to wait for 44 minutes, for an hour or more, in order to have their question answered."
Cleveland has SEVEN SSA FOs. Akron has 2 more. There are 56 in Ohio, compared to 68 in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri combined. If you don't have the funding to staff all your offices, consolidation is a prudent and necessary step. It might actually increase your employee to management ratio. Less Security, office space, maintenance, etc expenses per worker as well.
SSA has been complaining for years about its operating budget being insufficient. Do you really see that changing? If the answer is NO, why not consolidate offices? In fact, a Consolidation plan with many potential closings MIGHT get Congress to increase funding. I would come up with a plan that would reduce FOs by one in EVERY Congressional District.
The population of the state of Ohio (according to google) is: 11.76 million
Nebraska: 1.968 million (Nebraska has 5 field offices)
Kansas: 2.937 million (Kansas has 11, I believe?)
Iowa Population: 3.201 million ( Iowa has approximately 17?)
Missouri Population: 6.178 million (I think Missouri has 32 or 33?)
I don't quite get 68 but my count certainly could be off.
The honest truth (and Im not really referencing THIS office that closed), but rural offices are already starting to go the way of the dinosaur. It hasn't happened in mass yet but brain drain is really effecting small communities in general as young people move to bigger cities both in and out of their respective home states. Once those in smaller rural offices retire, they will be forces to shutter those offices if they can't find replacements to stay long enough to make it through training, if they can find willing replacements at all. Time will tell.
I get wanting offices nearby.
There is another office within 3 miles of the one that closed. As a matter of fact, there are 7 other offices within a 11 mile radius of that office.
Rural offices are a whole other issue.
Have you seen the people who apply to be CSRs? I wouldn’t hire them to wash my car.
Each of those states is easily larger than Ohio. Two thirds of Ohio's population is in 5-6 metropolitan areas. So, even if half of those are in those metros, it's too many in the state. But, my real point was that the only way to get Congress to act to increase the budget is to take FOs away FROM THEIR DISTRICT.
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