The written witness statement of Commissioner Martin O'Malley for today's hearing before the Labor-HHS Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee is already available. I think someone slipped up. They normally embargo these until literally the moment the witness starts speaking.
The hearing, which is set for 10:30, will be available for viewing online.
19 comments:
This will be O’Malleys last photo op and he just couldn’t turn it down.
Didn’t O’Malley jump ship?
Is this seriously the first Labor-HHS appropriations hearing for SSA in the last 10 years? Crazy.
Also crazy that Telework is the first topic. And apparently SSA's budget is perfectly fine and has kept up with inflation /s
And if he didn’t go, it would be a “see he never cared”.
Was telework the first question? Because Customer Service/staffing is first in the written testimony.
Telework is very much related to Customer Service/staffing. The GOP committee head seemed to think all of the customer service issues will be resolved if telework is banned. And surely no SSA workers will quit with this new policy!
The committee had also falsely implied SSA's budget has risen with inflation.
O'Malley made an interesting point about the option of increasing administrative costs via existing FICA taxes...which would only hasten depletion of the trust funds by 30 days.
Telework was not mentioned on the Commissioner's written testimony until halfway through.
I notice when the topic of telework is brought up in this blog the comments increase. Why is telework by far the most talked about topic by SSA employees? Shouldn’t lack of staffing, workloads or federal employees pay be given the same amount of attention?
These people who keep harping on telework are the same people that think the cashier at McDonald's makes their food. They have no concept of how work is done.
And apparently, none of these congressional dipsticks have ever made a phone call because apparently that technology is beyond their understanding.
But yeah, cut the budget and eliminate telework. See what happens. I for one, look forward to the American people getting the goverment they voted for.
Just guessing here, but probably because telework is the last thing keeping this overworked and low morale SSA workforce from making a mass exodus. Congress loves to cite it as the root of all issues in govt so it's always in the news and perpetually in flux depending on the political party in power.
@5:51 regarding telework: It is the #1 perk of the job. For years SSA was distinguished by the amount of telework we had. Now all of my once-jealous private sector friends laugh at me as I'm back twice a week thanks to O'Malley, and they are all full-time from home. Removing it like he did has caused a mass exodus, lowered morale, and new backlogs are growing. Now he has set us up so that Vivek and Elon can crush us.
USA TODAY
Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy outline plan for 'large-scale firings' in federal workforce under Trump.
It’s tough to telework if one doesn’t have a job.
But Aderholt said many members of the subcommittee remain concerned about the current telework levels for SSA employees. He blamed telework for SSA employees as a key reason behind the customer service challenges the agency has been experiencing.
“Prior audit reports have highlighted concerns with Social Security Administration’s ability to measure productivity in telework and noted that the agency did not restrict telework by job position,” Aderholt said. “I think it’s unacceptable that an agency with more than 50,000 employees would not have some policy of determining whether an employee’s job is inherent frontline customer service.”
“There have to be people manning the field offices,” Clyde added. “If three days out of the week is the requirement, then why is it not five days out of the week?”
“President Trump has pledged to take action to bring accountability to the federal workforce and ensure there are measures in place to appropriately deal with poor performers and those who actively resist implementing the policies of a duly elected president,” Comer said said during a hearing ostensibly on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “and he will have strong allies in the Republican members of the House Oversight Committee.”
He added the current system “does not have strong enough mechanisms” to hold employees accountable and was instead designed by civil servants to protect themselves, though civil service law has been codified by Congress via several pieces of legislation over the last 150 years. After the hearing, Comer told Government Executive he would follow the Trump administration’s lead on what civil service reforms are necessary.
Oh, telework - the albatross that changed everything for everyone. My experience is that people do just fine without telework. They've only come to believe they will suddenly die if telework were to come to an end. Life would cease, and all would perish. Come on, get over yourselves. We did just fine with zero telework in the field. Staff actually knew each other and dare I say may have actually cared a bit for each other. Now, nobody cares about anything but themselves and ensuring they get their time away from the office. Telework put people's personal desires over work, and we are forever worse because of it. If you want to know why people are willing to so quickly up and leave when the job is tough, put telework #1 on the list of why. See, when people had actual relationships with their coworkers it's tough to leave. When you only care about yourself, well, you know what happens when things get tough. This job doesn't pay well enough to stick around when it sucks, except of course if you actually cared about each other or heaven forbid our customers. But we are doing all we can to remove the customers from the equation too with this appointment focused model. Clearly, the true intent is to run customers out of the office to support increased telework. Honestly, it's disgusting. A once proud customer focused agency is now employee focused to the detriment of what we once stood for. Just nasty.
Yes. Telework is a big deal for SSA employees because it’s the only light at the end of a tunnel , with low to no funding, low staffing and bully managers and constant government shutdown looming every fiscal year and knowing you pay check is just a game and joke to the ppl in charge. That’s why telework is so important! It keeps good employees motivated since Pizza Party don’t cut it! And the public is abusive and rude and SSA employees don’t get hazard pay !
Bully managers? Hmm, really? I haven't seen those. If you are talking about expectations to get things done, yes, I've seen that. Is it a grind with shifting needs, yep, I've seen that too.
Have staff really been harmed by government shutdowns? Last I checked, those that did have to stay home got paid. In my parts, people look forward to shutdowns. They represent free leave for anyone who takes furlough.
9:30 am, believe it or not there are good employees who do have lazy sorry abusive mangers!
Also , should I assume you have never worked in customer service? You don’t understand how good people get bullied because sorry employees don’t do their work? Yet good employees are penalized bc of a couple bad apples?
Most employees that I know that have to work during a shutdown, have to figure out how to pay bills and get to work , while they are uncertain they when they will get their next pay check ! Realizing that most of your benefits are take out of the partial payment you may get because the shutdown happened between pay periods? That partial paycheck you didn't get is placed on your next full pay check putting you into a new tax bracket and you lose more money out of your check than Normal? Let me guess they should save and people shouldn’t live pay check to pay check , is your answer?
Let assume like you assume that federal Employees don’t do their jobs, that SSA employees continue to face an uphill battle: out dated systems, lack of funding , etc but again it’s the employees fault ?
Whereas money can be saved by having telework and spending the money on programs to Make SSA more efficient. Noo, that’s to simple ! Instead they spend tons of money on renting old dilapidated buildings from landlords that just want money, don’t want to update or upgrade the facilities. They know renting to federal government is good money !!
You’re the problem! If you care soo much spend a day working at an office and see how lazy the SSA employees really are!
WFH is my ability to have a better work life balance. No commute and better time spent. Of course I do none work things during the day, run the dishwasher, a load of laundry, let the dogs out, but no different than getting a cup of coffee and talking to coworkers. People just hate to see other people remotely happy. Its a control thing. Simple as that.
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