From a piece in Government Executive about Martin O'Malley's too brief tenure as Commissioner of Social Security:
Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley on Wednesday described his nearly a year in charge of the embattled agency responsible for administering Americans’ retirement and disability benefits as one of the “greatest honors” of his career in government and politics. ..
O’Malley told Government Executive on Wednesday that he was “enormously proud” of the agency’s beleaguered workforce, which was able to find significant customer service improvements despite operating at a 50-year staffing low and serving the most beneficiaries in history. ...
[T]he public’s preference for telephonic and video disability hearings–with 90% of new requests being through those avenues–has made it easier to optimize administrative law judges’ workloads regardless of geographic location. ...
Jim Borland, the agency’s assistant deputy commissioner for analytics, review and oversight, said he will be retiring after a 40-year career in the federal government next month, and that this final year was “the most fun” he’s had at work in those four decades. ...
9 comments:
O’Malley was great. Wish he could’ve been here longer
Borland should’ve been fired after calling all decision writers wildebeasts.
Most of the good things he did were bandaids or cutting corners. A lot of what he did is going to rebound and make things worse. Like getting initial DIB times down by suspending CDRs. Those CDRs still need to be done, on top of all the CDRs that would have to be done normally.
So many changes that were just thrown at the field, with no training or oversight. I've seen major policy changes announced on this blog before they were sent out to the people who actually have to implement them.
If Harris had won and O'Malley had continued, it probably would have been fine. But that's not what happened. It's going to get much, much worse.
Fascinating. Can you provide any context for that comment about decision writers?
Ditto
O’Malley was terrible and I’m so happy he’s gone.
O’Malley was a terrific Commissioner and will be missed. It is amazing what he accomplished in his brief tenure.
Borland's loss will be a big one. He's a great guy and amazing leader.
He's a piece of work really, and not in a good way. The latest news is he signed an update to the contract guaranteeing telework stays at the same level. He signed it before he ran out the door. No joke. Check the news. The gifts that guy gave to the union set the agency back for a long time. The agency had made significant progress in getting more useful tools for management under Trump, and then Biden came along, found a couple of commissioners to agree to destroy any favorable tools management had finally gained. Nasty stuff the giveaways that O'Malley did. I'm thrilled he is gone. Unfortunately, he was here long enough to do aot of permanent damage. Seriously, who doesn't honestly think management needs better tools? The union owns us, and we stink because of it.
Amazing? You mean leaving us with inoperable phones and VIP system after implementing appointment based service. How's that working out? How are those appointments getting scheduled when a once proud public service agency can't even answer the phone reliably. I know somebody will say it's not his fault. Well, it was on his watch, and it took his signoff. It's his fault, and SSA looks pathetic because of it.
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