Below is the recently released stat sheet concerning operations at Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations (OHO).
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Why is OHO getting any overtime? These funds are urgently needed for other parts of the agency. 59,000 hours in April?
We had multiple hearings for this coming Friday postponed or rescheduled. One OHO would not tell us why, another told they they are getting a half day off and receiving administrative leave for being public service employees. I have not seen this publicized anywhere but seems like kind of a big deal if an entire agency is closing early just because they are public service workers. Anyone else hearing anything about this?
ReplyDeleteThe Commissioner granted SSA employees 3 hours of admin leave on 5/10 and 5/24 in recognition of their hard work. It's not uncommon, or at least it didn't used to be.
ReplyDelete@943 Admin time off for good work was uncommon in the field offices. It may have happened in the 40 years I have worked in field offices but I don't recall it. I do recall in the 80s and 90s getting a few hours off on Christmas Eve for half the office, the other half getting the same amount of time off on New Year's Eve.
DeleteI don't doubt the employees are working hard but giving 3 hours off two times doesn't seem to be a good idea as far as catching up on workloads that are in arrears. It would make sense if all the workloads were caught up.
SSA is an agency with budget problems but yet giving its employees overtime? Is the public aware that the offices will be closed or that not enough employees will be working on these two days? I guess it’s easier to spend someone else’s money. The next time the commissioner goes in front of Congress with a tin cup this overtime expenditure will be brought up.
ReplyDeleteI shudder to think how much worse every metric at SSA would be if occasional OT did not exist to deal with the fact that we have 40 hour/week jobs with way more than 40 hours a week of work. It is a bandaid on the staffing shortage.
DeleteWe are speeding toward zero cases. Making us wonder what the overall planned agenda is? While agencies have been given the rare Christmas Eve or a day of mourning off for a former President's funeral, nobody with significant service can recall a just because gift of leave. Ever.
DeleteActually time off in 59 minute increments used to be common for jobs well done. That was the most local managers could grant. I'm talking in the 90s. There also used to be time off awards as part of the formal award process.
DeletePile on the employees who move the work. Time off is actually a economic way to show meaningful appreciation, it alleviates burn out and motivates them to do a good job. Overtime is allocated at the beginning of the year and then doled out. Just because OHO has done a good job does not mean that that there are aren't some overwhelming workloads that need to be processed. I don't have skin in the game because I don't work OT. Stop being so petty.
ReplyDeleteI have worked for the agency for over 25 years. Always a budget crunch but always almost unlimited overtime. Never have understood it.
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ReplyDeleteThe 3 hours administrative leave from Commissioner O'Malley is a nice gesture which will help morale at SSA. I knew there would be complaints on this blog about it, though.
Front line employees in the FO, TSC, and PSC should not be excluded from the administrative time.
To say that the workloads and backlogs should be cleared before administrative time is granted, well that would take years or decades before those are zeroed out.
@146. I appreciate 3 hours off but does it improve my morale? No. Lousy local FO management and ridiculous workloads are still here when I get back to work on Monday. It may help morale but I think that effect will be very short lived.
DeleteRegarding reducing workloads will take years: Correct, and that's a reason to not give 6 hours off for a job unfinished.
If I recall, in SSA's budget there is funding for X number of employees (FTEs). Yes, employees come in all sorts of salary ranges, but the finance guys can convert an FTE into a position or a bunch of OT hours. So if the agency is budgeted for XXX FTEs but those positions are vacant, the FTE can be turned into OT. And the agency often does this in a timed fashion, anticipating if hiring can be done, holding FTEs back for that and turning FTEs into OT as needed. If hiring cannot be done, then those FTEs are OT hours so as to not let that budget go unused. A budget person from DCFAM could explain it better, but that's kind of it in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteCurious. What was the monthly OT used/given to FO's nationally.
ReplyDeleteOHO workloads vary significantly by office. Just because 1 office has dwindling case receipts doesn't mean all offices do. Our office does OT for workup and writing every week, and even then we have to send cases to other offices for outside assistance because we have way too many cases for the amount of staff we have.
ReplyDeleteDoesn’t the overtime “gift” exceed the $20 gift limit for federal employees?
ReplyDeleteThe limits you ignorantly referenced concern gifts from the public or gifts to superiors, and I don’t believe either is capped at $20.
DeleteIs there any other agencies giving away overtime pay at taxpayers expense? SSA would previously give pizza and a drink and call it day. The public will be incensed if the offices are closed with very little notification.
DeleteWait, what? The agency isn't "giving away" overtime pay. If we work OT, we (well, most of us) get time and a half.
DeleteThe three hours of admin leave on May 10 and May 24 don't have anything to do with OT. It's just extra time off.
The budget crunch has been borne on the shoulders of SSA employees, and when the Commissioner actually does something nice for us (that isn't a pizza lunch, for once, although I'll take pizza too), we hear that we deserve to have the whip cracked harder. The public will manage just fine without us for those six hours.
It might have been better if they let them use the same amount of leave but let them each choose when to use it.
ReplyDeleteThis is what other agencies, like DHS, do all the time.
DeleteYou suggest OHO should have zero overtime, but you haven’t compared the cost of overtime with the cost of hiring new employees. When you factor in benefits, I suspect that overtime is the cheaper option
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ReplyDeleteThere have been some cuts in PC7 overtime the last few weeks. I wonder if these hours are going to OHO.
Speaking of which I checked this week on a court remand case in PC7. It seems to be taking over 7 months after the ALJ decision, to process these awards.
The ALJ favorable decision was the day after Labor Day 2023. . The CS finally input the EF101 for an award right before Christmas, and sent it to SAES BA to be input. The ACR is still sitting in SAES BA unassigned, and unprocessed.
NH still not in pay, with multiple MDW's because the claimant is complaining to her FO. (MDW's don't speed things up, the MDW ACR just sits in the backlogs too, and they are not as old as the original Court ACR which will be the first to be worked. )
BA's in PC7 should have unlimited OT, to get these cases worked.
The PC OT is not going to OHO. OHO just cut some of the OT available fir writing. I have to say all this pettiness is very disappointing. SSA employees work very hard and are under attack from management, Congress, reps and claimants. They are having to do more with less amid poor training and unreasonable quotas. For once they get a significant perk and some OT, yet it seems everyone begrudges them even that.
DeleteIt's clear folks have no idea how the agency figures out how many it can hire, when and why they do what they do. Could they hire a ton of employees instead of overtime? Sure, but they are concerned that they don't hire one year and have to layoff the next if the budget doesn't keep pace and no longer supports that larger number. New employees are a drain for a while, how long depends on what their duties are so OT lets experienced employees do additional work that a new employee wouldn't touch. And OT isn't a gift. Back in the day, I had to work mandatory weekend OT to handle SSI cases and redeterminations. (That was wrong but RO folks looked the other way to get the clearances.)
ReplyDeleteMany individuals leave early from their jobs on Friday in order to update their Social Security card for example. The public will see a sign in front of Social Security entrance stating that the office is closed. This eventually will be a public relations disaster since the public was never notified. To make matters worse the agency is doubling down on May 24th. I hope the agency will be ready for all the negative press when a pizza and a drink could have done the trick.
ReplyDeletePizza solves nothing and is a slap in the face. I’m not saying what has been done is the answer, but a pizza party is most certainly not.
ReplyDelete@756 New employees are a drain. But in 40 years working in a field office, I have never seen nor heard of anyone being laid off due to the number of employees being too high. Even when the agency was a good place to work, people left occasionally via retirement, etc.
ReplyDeleteShort term it probably is cheaper to pay overtime than to hire new employees but long term I am not sure it's the best solution.
@11:57 I applaud your service, a few more than me. I never said they did lay anyone off, I said that they kept hiring low enough to have the budget to keep them. If they hired to their FTE limit (especially in the 1st quarter of FY) and next year had fewer FTEs, then they would have to cut budgets someplace to pay for the overage. Or let people go. And converting operational budget into FTEs isn't easy. So that is also why often there is a hiring splurge that takes place the last quarter or 2, because the FTE carries into the next year since it's just a partial current year deal. And that's why there is often OT available the last few weeks of the FY as they deal with unused FTEs being converted into OT (often why they have specific number of OT hours allowed.) It's been a while since I managed an SSA component but this was the kind of stuff that took up a lot of time.
ReplyDeleteSome of these comments are laughable. To those criticizing early closure totaling six hours over two days, the world will still turn. Please share, if you represent claimants, do you have the luxury of creating space for yourself before or after a holiday or special event? If so, why are field employees any less deserving of that? Staffing number requirements for workload considerations oftentimes prevent employees from being able to use their leave. Field employees continuously bear the brunt of the staffing, training, and funding situation. It should not be a “blood from a stone” situation. Good lord.
ReplyDeleteThe main difference is that this is public agency and if this is your own business you can do whatever you want. Can anybody name me another federal agency that is closing early on May 10th and 24th? Waiting…
DeleteCheck out Homeland Security. Myorkas has granted so much time off around holidays, they call him St. Myorkas. I'm sure I can find others but nothing will cure the pettiness that some people have.
Delete@2:36, federal employment doesn’t mean “get the job done at any cost to the employees who remain”. And this is exactly what happens when employees are expected to do the impossible given the current circumstances. You must just not understand how the field is limping along. Or maybe you don’t care. Should feds not get paid leave? Or other benefits? Additional paid time off is given by MANY other agencies and has been for YEARS. It is plentiful. Around holidays, feds are often given 59 minutes to 3 hours off early. On top of that, there’s tuition reimbursement, time off awards, childcare centers, time off for physical health (read: paid gym time) more frequently given monetary awards (QSIs) at other agencies. This is not an all-inclusive list. SSA employees, maybe due to the size of the agency, are treated like second-class feds compared to many other agencies. It reflects in the rankings.
Delete2:36 pm - I heard DHS granted 8 hours May 24th.
DeleteSSA also represented the second lowest-ranking agency subcomponent, with its Office of Inspector General at 431 among 432 internal offices.
ReplyDeleteI guess the agency is being awarded for not being dead last. Congratulations… I guess.
The rankings are based on employee feedback. How is the Agency being rewarded?
DeleteThose rankings are how employees view the agency, not how they perform. If you look at public ratings, SSA comes in fourth out of MANY large agencies in the eyes of the public. Not bad, especially since SSA is one of the most public facing large agencies. Of course, everyone has to love the National Park Service and NASA :)
DeleteSo DHS granted every DHS employee the day off?? Seems a bit implausible and not too secure for our homeland.
DeleteAlso, the original post questioned the value of granting overtime to OH oh, a component that is on top of its workload. It didn’t question the value of overtime generally.
From Gallop Poll dated in February 2023.
DeleteWhile not high in absolute terms, public satisfaction with Social Security/Medicare was highest in 2017 (47%) and has been above 40% every year since -- except last year, when it dipped to 38%.
Whether it’s the public or employee polls Social Security is rated very low.
Regarding pizza lunches (and other lunches and snacks): As an FO management official for the past 14 years, I can assure you that these lunches are NOT paid for by the Agency and instead come out of the pockets of management officials.
ReplyDeleteRegarding admin leave: I know of at least two agencies that give admin leave on the regular: DHS and DOT. For DHS, it often is handled by giving people a floating set of hours, since some MUST be on duty (like TSA employees or Border Patrol). For DOT, Mayor Pete has frequently given employees an hours of admin leave before holidays.
@1138 I appreciated the effort by management when they provided pizza, or better yet taco, lunches. I gave them credit for trying. Management wasn't to blame for the ridiculous workloads. I didn't appreciate their confidence in me like when they asked me to do my regular job plus the work of the woman who did all of our internet claims when she retired.
Delete@ 7:22- check out Pew Research for what Im referencing.
ReplyDeleteManagement paying once a year for pizzas and drinks is the least you can do. I wonder how much money you get paid in award money based on your employees hard work.
DeleteFO managers do not get lucrative monetary awards and oftentimes have smaller pools of award money.
DeleteWe don’t know the monetary amounts since management refuses to disclose that information. All I know is that management is in a great mood around award time.
DeleteEven if management gets large cash awards, which is doubtful, they don't owe pizza parties or similar to their employees. Of they choose to pay for such parties out of their own pocket, that's their prerogative. I salute them for their generosity.
Delete@2:35 and with regard to management awards in general. I am a manager at an OHO office. I can 100% assure you that union employees (NTEU/AFGE) get cash awards that are MUCH larger than managers. Managers usually get an award (but not always. Union employees always get an award.
ReplyDeleteAwards in general range from $200 (the lowest amount permitted) to $1500 and average about $600. For managers the average is closer to $400. This is based on the past 8 years.
Any pizza, ice cream, snacks, treats, etc. are 100% paid for by managers out of their own pockets. Typically, staff complains that it's not the type of pizza they like, it's not enough or not on a day that is convenient. Managers do this stuff on their own accord and are never reimbursed by SSA.