Senators Susan Collins and Shelley Moore Capito have written the Commissioner of Social Security to express their concern that the Commissioner has announced the closure of Social Security offices on the afternoons of May 10 and May 24 to give stressed out employees a break.
I understand what the Commissioner has done. Social Security's staff morale could certainly use a shot in the arm and giving extra time off is one way to do that. However, the biggest factor in producing poor staff morale is relentless workload pressures. By closing the offices the workload pressures got a little worse. This seems counter productive to me.
22 comments:
It may seem counterproductive on the outside, but from inside the agency, this is such a refreshing gift. It doesn’t really make any extra work for RO, DDS, ADO, or HQ employees and the field has had time to adjust for Friday. Of Congress isn’t concerned enough about the backlog to appropriate funding to fix it, they shouldn’t care about 3 hrs of early closure.
Just political pettiness. Actually the extra time off is a real morale booster. Our processing issues are due to inadequate staffing resulting from inadequate funding and buying into "do more with less mentality".
How would you feel if you left early from work on Friday to do business at the local Social Security office and to find that it was closed?
Did O’Malley think that he was going to close SSA offices early for two days without the public noticing? This was unforced error and instead on concentrating on getting additional funds for the agency the topic will be early office closures for employee morale.
Should have just given six hours of administrative leave to all employees to use as they wished. It is ironic that for public service recognition week we are closing offices and canceling hearings.
Clearly there should be adequate public notice. I do tend to agree that it might have been logistically better if instead of completely closing down, employees were given a floating 3 hours to use, but I am not even a cog in the wheel, I am the peon under the wheel. However, I don't think there is that much traffic on a Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend.
@10:04 5/22: I would feel annoyed that the office was closed. Like I feel annoyed when other offices/business are closed when I was hoping to conduct business. Or like I feel when my doctor's office closes and can't honor my appointment time so they reschedule me. And then I would get over it.
I'd feel annoyed like I felt this weekend at the soccer tournament when the bathrooms were shut down and the only options were some really nasty portable toilets far away from where I was. You just have to learn to deal with disappointment.
I also felt annoyed when I was unable to take off after Christmas because we needed sufficient staff to serve the public. Annoyed, but not disgruntled. I got over it. Because, ya know, that's life.
I also felt annoyed when Congress shut down the government or made us operate on CRs. I also felt annoyed when we didn't have sufficient funding to do all of the work expected. But, ya know, you move on and do the best with what ya got.
The only misstep was the short notice for the first closure. But it is an amazing gift. When the doors are closed and phones off then two of the main sources of incoming work are also closed off. Better this way. That is why the floating 6-hours is a bad idea. Because the work still comes and other people are shifted. No real break. By closing everything then you actually get a reprieve. This was the single most appreciated thing we’ve had in years!
Now we just need him to continue with this idea and close offices at Noon again on Wednesday. The. We could actually get some quiet time to process rather than just intake.
The difference on “annoyed” comments is that one can take one’s business elsewhere. Can you name another public agency that replace my lost Social Security card?
@204PM People that don't come in during the 3 hours the agency is closed ate just going to come in or call the following week. The work isn't going to disappear just because the agency closes.
Hardworking SSA employees deserve a break of 3 hours. This is a morale booster and will help productivity and cut leave usage in the long run.
Gee, SSA employees get 3 hours of leave Friday. According to the Congressional Calendar, Congress is out from May 25th to June 3rd. As was said, nobody will notice their absence.
Many can use online services or they can come in before noon on Friday and be served. SSA used to close at noon every Wednesday for a good five years and O’Malley is feeing heat over 6 hours? Crazy times.
These comments are so over-the-top sometimes. Offices should be closed to the public at least one day per week. SSA is not conducting open heart surgery. There’s no other public-facing agency that has these ridiculous expectations placed upon them. Even the food stamp offices have moved applications online. There’s literally nothing so critical that someone cannot wait a single day for.
Two high ranking members of Congress did notice and my guess other legislatures have also received complaints. .
The frustrating thing about the first closure was that hearings were scheduled and needed to be postponed on short notice. I'm not sure that many hearings were scheduled Friday afternoon before Memorial Day, and there was more of a chance to reschedule them anyway.
I did know an ALJ who liked to schedule a ton of unrepresented claimants for hearings right before holidays, in hopes they would not show up and their cases could be dismissed. He accidentally scheduled a represented claimant the Friday before one Labor Day, and the rep showed up well-prepared and raring to go. The ALJ was stunned and ended up saying he wasn't ready to go forward and set it for a supplemental hearing...such a bad look.
If you want to thank me for public service, don't give us six hours off on such short notice that we actually end up with more work fitting in that day's appointments, and rearranging our office schedule that day to the point we have to cancel telework.
Give us our m-f'ing Wednesday afternoons back, so we can work on backlogs.
It’s only an error if he doesn’t use this attention constructively. Look at the comments here & the letter sent, it segued beautifully into a funding discussion. If he can use it to get movement on the real issue affecting SSA that’ll be a win. We’ll just have to wait and see how effective it, and his other tactics, will be.
I wish they’d give us 3 hours of admin every Friday
Not everyone can do things online. A lot of older and under educated people are getting disenfranchised by everything going digital. Sure the majority of people may and that's great, but there should be other options available. For instance, in an above post it looks like q codes are being used for checkbin, not everyone has that capability so I hope there are alternatives. However, I agree that closing the office fir a day to get other work for is a hood idea.
I just want to note that this sort of thing happens routinely throughout the private sector, in addition to far more lavish bonuses and other perks. But I’ve never once heard a civil servant express outrage about those sorta of things. So why does a nominal “thanks” to the underpaid and overworked civil servants running one of the most complex government programs on the planet trigger so much outrage?
And I can guarantee you not one of these politicians would bat an eye at the Secretary of Defense giving armed service members an entire freaking month of admin leave.
Reagan and his political progeny have ruined this damned society.
I had several periods of time where all my leave was denied in 6 month blocks due to public needs. The bestplacestowork just came out with operations in one of the worst components in federal government. Ssa workers are breaking in several places ( experiences vary) Please dont begrudge us time off.
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