I'm tired of deleting comments from readers who try to post their views about telework in response to every post I make, whether telework is relevant to what I posted or not. So, here is a post about telework. I don't have anything to say about it. Unlike most of my readers I don't have strong feelings about it. I just want to let readers speak their minds about telework. Have at it. Make endless, tedious, pointless comments if you want and let the comments on the other posts be about those posts.
Nov 22, 2024
Telework Thread
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11 comments:
Telework is great for employees but not so much for the agency and public that SSA serves. It's amazing that a pandemic emergency measure is now held by many employees as a basic right in their employment. Public service be damned. I speak only regarding telework in field offices. No experience at TSCs, payment centers or regional offices. Public service has declined since the advent of telework in March 2020. It's not all due to telework as staffing has declined and new hires haven't stuck nearly as well as previously. Staffing is difficult for the agency to fix but the decline in service due to field offices telework is fixable.
Has anyone heard any rumblings about SSA offering early out in the near future?
I plead guilty to making a recent comment on remote work that was only tangentially related to the posted topic. However, my comment was not addressed to the merits of remote work but rather to the fact that the Republicans are about to make a huge effort to eliminate it for federal employees.
Here is a quote from an NBC news story:
"Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk's new effort to increase government efficiency could initially target the nearly two-thirds of federal workers who are still approved to work from home 18 months after the pandemic ended. "
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/ramaswamys-jackhammer-chain-saw-plan-force-federal-workers-back-office-rcna180732
So the fictional Department of Government Efficiency, which is so efficient it needs two people to run it, is coming for federal employees remote work. Based on what I have seen in the media, I think the Republicans don't have any interest in debating the pros and cons of remote work but rather want to promote their goals of reducing the size of government and replacing current government employees with their own people.
So the real debate is what effect that will have on the federal workforce and particularly on the Social Security workforce.
Musk and Ramaswamy are heading Trump's Dept of Gov Efficiency. They are planning a big push for an end to remote work across federal agencies, including SSA.
I don't think it will happen at SSA, at least not for another year or so.
Existing union/management contracts with AFGE, protect current levels of telework for the remainder of the contract, which runs to late 2025.
Under this contract, Operations employees such as Benefit Authorizers and Claims Specialists, only have to come in 1 day per week. It makes sense because those jobs are easily portable, do not require public contact, and the work can be done just as well from home.
What might be instructive is whether the disability community has an opinion on whether telework for SSA employees (and the rep community) is a net positive or negative in terms of customer service, from initial filing to appeals at OHO. With threats that the incoming administration will gut telework for fed employees, this could return SSA to pre-COVID telework levels. Does the rep community find claimants are better served by SSA employees under the current telework situation or was it better when the staff were primarily at the office?
My understanding is when SSA was authorized for Direct Hire Authority (through 2026 I believe), that gives up the ability to also offer early out. Agency can't say they have a need to streamline hiring and also say they want to let employees walk...
I have a simple thought. Those just answering phones, sure, working from home is fine. If one is NEEDED in the office, then they need to be there. As far as telephone service, hire MORE to work from home with access to SSA's computer systems. Saves a bit (probably not a ton) of money, and those in the offices can concentrate on those that will now have to have appointments (ugh..like the DMV... yuck). Sure tho, just to answer a phone? Working from home would be great as long as they have the support they need from a main office if needed. That's just my opinion, take it for what it's worth. I don't usually comment on tele-work, but yes, those that need to be in the office that are still tele-working, they need to return to the office.
Jumping ship like O’Malley? No early out talk but much misery for federal employees.
Union contracts will be thrown out the window with executive orders.
Is there any thought about the cost associated with ending telework? My office downsized when the decision writers started teleworking most of the time and our lease was up. We physically don’t have the space for them to come back full time. We don’t have offices for half of them. Or chairs. Or docking stations. We’ll need more office supplies. Where is the money for all of that going to come from? I’d love to telework more like they do but my job deals with the public. They don’t so I don’t know why we’d spend money to bring them back to the office. Same with the paralegals. And they all have quotas so if they aren’t working the managers know. Some big executive order that tries to end telework across all government ignores that some jobs like mine (working the front desk) involves working with the public and some (like the decision writers and paralegals) don’t.
@248 Not a bad idea if it would work. In my field office SRs answer the phones for the most part in addition to handling the front desk. If those who were to work front desk were depleted by illness, normally the phone SRs would take over front desk work and phones would be juggled between claims specialists. If some workers are out of the office assigned to telework (currently 40%) it limits how in office work can be assigned. When everyone was in the office, pre covid, if there was a big rush sometimes everyone who wasn't in an interview was sent up front, something difficult to do when 40% aren't there.
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