From the Washington Post:
... The $1 spending limit on government-issued credit cards has also caused chaos at several other agencies since February, when DOGE began enforcing it. A Feb. 26 executive order imposing a “freeze” on these cards, with exceptions for “critical services,” cast the measure as an effort to ensure that “employees are accountable to the American public.”
Within parts of the Social Security Administration, the spending limit has for months left staffers unable to pay for phone bills, foreign-language interpreters and basic office supplies, according to several employees and records reviewed by The Post. That’s because less than a dozen people are responsible for approving most new purchases made by 1,300 offices.
One employee in an Indiana field office said that basic office supplies are running low, and managers have instructed staffers to ration paper and to avoid printing unless necessary. Some staffers have begun buying their own pens, but toner cartridges, at $200, are too expensive, the employee said.
In an email, a Social Security spokesperson said that the agency “is committed to operating with the highest level of financial control and efficiency.”
“We have a process in place to review all spending and eliminate wasteful or duplicative expenditures,” the spokesperson added. “It is critical that we protect taxpayer dollars so that we can effectively serve all those who depend on us.” ...
48 comments:
Literally all of my purchases down to a $5 box of pens was already heavily scrutinized and required layers of approval.
Limiting my card to $1 is just purposely choking the system. There is zero good faith here.
Ok so is paying a GS 14 their salary for the next two years as they are forced to an FO. Once there they have to be trained. So basically they are at the entry level but getting paid a GS 14 and the agency pays for their move if they have to more to their new office. Is this fraud, waste or abuse? Explain it to me like I am two because I do not seem to understand!
You mean the return to office is expensive? And what about all those who don’t have to do it? You’re pitting one group of employees against another? Seems like an unfortunate yet highly visible consequence to such poor management.
Reminds me of the 1990s when I was told the office had only red ink pens. SSN applications.at the time required balck/blue ink. Sigh.
I think it was the folks reassigned to FO from other departments the poster was speaking about. Not everything is connected to WFH even if every major business in the US is reducing WFH because it doesnt work.
Why are individuals buying office supplies on their own? Seems like the government should have a better system to use its enormous purchasing power to get those things much cheaper than buying them from retailers on an individual basis. This just doesn't sound right to me.
I am surprised we are still providing interpreter service at government expense following the EO declaring English as the official language. For the record, most interpreter service is provided via telephone interpreters under a standing BPA with central payment, so they should not be directly impacted by the reduced purchase card limit.
Because hiring enough extra people to handle that logistical cluster**** would cost way more than whatever marginal savings might be gained through placing one ultra-massive order for pens rather than several dozen slightly less massive orders for pens.
I get that it’s fun to poke fun at red tape and things like this, but things are done this way because the alternative proved to be even worse.
It’s not just GS-14s forced into FOs. Keep your eyes out. There are even SES folks coming to FO roles.
Documents have to be translated.
The best is when you have to buy 3rd party certificates before they expire and if you don’t replace them nothing will work!
Why are they not using this: GSA Global Supply online ordering
Don’t forget about all the GS 15s who are doing the same thing. Which makes even less sense.
Not trying to be mean, but some of them are about to be on the butt-end of an eye-opening revelation.
Reading about and then trying to dictate what happens in the field and actually having to do it are two entirely different colliding realities.
In my experience taking claims over 30 years, I found that the telephone interpreters weren't all that great. There were so many instances where the foreign language speaking claimant would talk for a few minutes and the phone interpreter would just summarize it with a short sentence. In person interviews with relatives were sometimes better, although not always.
They are! But they still have to pay for it!
Use Google translate for documents
I seem to be able to buy things on Amazon or Walmart and they can be delivered in other parts of the country or world, even a single pen.
ALJs love telework and it works lovely for them. Very happy with the flexibility.
They aren't getting paid for two years...they are getting paid their current rate indefinitely. The reassignments, as would bump and retreats, come with two year grade retention but "indefinite" pay retention.
Can you point me to a credible source for your premise that WFH doesn't work? Maybe a source that includes objectively measurable and material metrics? Thanks a bunch! ðŸ¤
From Bad to WORSE
President Trump's top budget official, Russell Vought, has been tapped to take over the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency, where the Project 2025 architect will continue slashing the federal government.
https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/creator-controversial-project-2025-creator-35213359
Their positions are only safe until FY26 then the reassigned staff will be required to meet quotas. If they do not then the 2nd RIF will occur. All the reassignment bought was a few more months.
@4:41, you probably can buy your single pen for under $1.00 (assuming you already paid for Prime shipping), but are you then going to share that pen with the entire office?
I took DRP2 as a headquarters employee. My last day in the office was about seven work days ago and I found myself, wondering how it is going to be for the employees who reassigned to the field when they are comparatively overpaid and not familiar with the work, which is truly Challenging. The work environment in the field and hearing offices is going to be so toxic because of these disparities. Imagining what if I had taken reassignment like that? - made me feel a little sick to my stomach, So I think I made the right decision.
To those of you who decided to reassign to the field, and those of you already in the field, I wish you all the best sincerely. It was a terrible difficult decision, but we all had to make the best one for ourselves. It’s going to be so difficult to serve the American people well when DOGE and Trump Are trying to make it as difficult as possible
The same Vought who served as vice president of Heritage Action, the lobbying arm for the Heritage Foundation, which proposes cutting Social Security benefits? He's not the guy you put in charge if you're saying "I won't touch Social Security benefits," and mean it.
OMG please do not feed PII to Google.
There are way too many GS12-14 at SSAHQ and systems. . Many were promoted from their front line positions (such as Claim Specialist) into high grade, (and unnecessary) positions, such as "program analyst" at high expense to taxpayers.
For decades it was SOP for the best Claims Specialists in PC7 to fight to get out of that job into a cushy, high salary, front office position "across the street" at HQ.
Enough! If someone is hired as a CS or other front line position, that is where they should generally stay. For their career. They are needed where they are. They are experienced and knowledgeable. No more phony promotions into high grade jobs, at taxpayer expense.
And yes many of those who were promoted, should be forced back into their former front line positions. They knew the job, they can relearn it.
Salary retention for a couple of years then back to GS-11 salary is appropriate. GS-11 is more than enough, well over 100K, with overtime.
I used SSA supplied pens for claimants to use. I bought my own at the dollar store (similar quality as SSA bought pens) for my use. Before I did this I discovered it was easy to bring home pens by accident.
It's always inspiring to see forward-thinking folks like 10:29 opine about what they think should be done in the Agency. How did you determine that there are too many folks in Systems? I imagine it was a study similar to what DOGE did. How will you determine that there aren't enough folks in that component? I suspect you'll think differently when changes need to be made but there is no one available to effectuate the changes. Or when changes have severe unintended consequences due to a lack of sufficient testing. Do you seriously believe that once hired, a person should be stagnated in that job? Ridiculous. That's why you aren't in charge, clearly. Your empathy shows how you truly align.
Wow Leland, when do you leave your post because you sound very ignorant right there?
GS-11 is “more than enough” for what? Certainly not for anything approaching a traditional American middle class life in any locality where the GS payscale goes into six figures.
What a hoot! Obviously someone with no inbred inititiave and knows nothing beyond what they do, if they really are a cs.
Man - now I know why the CSRs are all complaining. Their measly GS-8 pay leaves them unable to buy groceries.
Hahah 10:29. HQ envy I see, lol. Clearly you have no concept of what happens with the agency outside the narrow scope of the field. I’m one of those “bloated program analysts who left the field.” Believe it or not what I do is not only important but required. Writing reports to Congress, publishing to Policy Net in response to executive orders, working with other components such as OGC, Operations, Law and Policy whenever a legislative change is required. Believe it or not there is more to this agency than just taking claims.
And by the way, that support you do need is getting harder to find. I bet you can’t tell me who you contact to approve a waiver that required RO sign off, or who will approve a referral to state agencies for suspected abuse. We can’t get systems to respond to update websites, we can’t get policy to respond to publish mandatory updates, we can’t get OCOMM to respond to requests for metrics for congressional oversight reports, and we see that stuff. You don’t have to worry about that because it’s outside of your scope. But it doesn’t mean it wont affect the agency because it will and it is.
Does anyone have an updated Org Chart? This is getting ridiculous and laughable. Nobody has any idea who works where, what offices still exist etc. It’s an absolute cluster F and someone should be telling Congress and the news about this. I guarantee works is backing up and falling through the cracks right now and nobody will have a clue since we are so woefully mismanaged and disconnected right now. What is the actual organizational plan? Embarrassing.
Our FO, and the Area as a whole, is in dire need of support. We have no or very limited support or guidance from any Regional, if we even have one, or HQ staffs. We have systems issues, programmatic issues and physical site support issues that are not being addressed since those staffs responsible are no longer there. For those that answer the phone, we are being told no one knows who is doing what, where it is being done from or when it will be handled. Issues are critical and will soon flash into a catastrophic ceasing of internal operations.
Hahaha and today, Stephen Evangelista, sends out an email telling frontline managers and employees to be creative in order to devote more time and focus on backlogged RSI claims. Ummm out of touch much Stephen? How about you go f**k yourself! Agency losing employees but hey let’s do more…
The email appeared to lack information stating what the agency wants? Are we expected to solicit more claims? Clear existing claims pending evidence claimants need to submit?
This! I don’t know why people think we don’t need RO and HQ staff. We need assistance. We need vhelp back among other things.
Be creative? I thought they knew better and had a plan.
Did you expect the arse-kisser to do anything else?
Hey FO people what gives? You lose a bunch of staff and you lose ground on claims? That doesn't add up. Do better. You know what - while you're at it go ahead and clear more RZs. It should be no problem. No excuses.
Stephen has spent 29 hard years taking credit for what others have done, so could you FOs and WSUs give that extra 10% to 15% more effort clearing claims while you’re out there doing nothing, that way he can check that off as his accomplishments
In one email he simultaneously exposed his ignorance, *** ****ed his credibility, and destroyed any goodwill in the FOs that might have survived until now.
Beatings will continue until morale improves.
Anon@8:28am,
Uh, you know somebody in an FO that still had any goodwill towards HQ?
And, where is Frank in all this? I wonder if he is still looking for the bathroom in his home/workplace that he is teleworking from?
Rare prior to this year, nobody now - thats why I said "might" LOL.
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