… GAO [Government Accountability Office]tracked SSA telework from July 2019 through May 2025 and found a sharp cliff after the White House memo [limiting telework] Telework hours fell from 35% of total hours in January through March 2025 to 13% in April through May 2025, a telework hours drop that matched the new posture. That speed matters because SSA employees had built their lives and budgets around flexibility.
Agency leaders told GAO that telework acted as a recruitment lever during a tight labor market. In a fiscal year 2023 new hire survey, more than half of new employees said telework ranked as a very important factor in applying and accepting the job. Managers also described candidates who expected hybrid schedules as a baseline benefit, especially in high-traffic metro areas.
Retention signals flashed even before the decree. GAO reports that around 37% of SSA respondents to the 2024 employee viewpoint survey planned to leave within a year. Among those planning an exit, almost half said telework or remote options in their unit shaped that decision. Frontline staff singled out newer hires and retirement-eligible experts as the most ready to move, since both groups value lighter commutes and focused work time. GAO then warned about skills gaps in mission critical roles, right as SSA pursued a 50,000 employee target announced in a February 2025 agency workforce plan aimed at cutting costs. …
Trump’s administration framed the return push around supervision and fairness, echoing language from the January 2025 guidance memo. GAO’s SSA findings show the hidden trade: Forcing the same schedule on every job drains the very talent that the public relies on for timely benefits decisions. A smarter approach uses job-based eligibility, transparent metrics and targeted onsite time for training, mentoring and complex customer work. Agencies that build that system keep their best people longer, save money and deliver service with steadier staffing. …
Feb 4, 2026
RTO Criticized
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I have worked for SSA since 1989.
Upper level management has never cared about what employees want or need.
Return to office is another tool to keep employees in line and it's easier to control what we are doing if we are in office.
I've had pretty good experiences with the reps that are working from home. I'm thinking it's probably less stress on them. They don't seem as rushed, or as "brash/abrasive". That's just my experience, however. Others my be vastly different.
Yet, the Commish gets to telework from his mansion in New Jersey three days a week, and then commute via private jet two days a week to be in person at the another agency in DC. However, when we were allowed to telework, we had to be within a 2-hour driving distance of the SSA office to which we were assigned. Now, SSA has posted job announcement for hundreds of IT positions. What top-tier talent is going to want to come into the office every day? So they’ll probably wind up getting inexperienced recent college graduates who just need a job with a dental plan until they can find something else that offers the flexibility they want.
Well they're not different from the private sector in this regard, I guess.
@ 10:04 AM. Exactly!! In some offices, (not Field Offices) Managers are telling workers to try and get an RA.
The reference to a tight labor market along with 37% of SSA employees in 2024 saying they were planning to leave within a year suggests to me that even if by some miracle, the SSA decided to increase staff, not just maintain current levels, the chances of finding the thousands of new employees even willing to consider working for SSA is exceedingly small.
Except that you’re flat wrong because a majority of white-collar jobs requiring college degrees do provide for telework. But don’t let fats get in the way of your mindless FoxNews regurgitation.
The new SSA postings for developers state that telework is available, but employees are required to be onsite 75% of the time.
https://ssa.usajobs.gov/job/855330700
So does that mean all current and existing employees will have flexibility as well?
So…technically the two-hour requirement is commute. It just so happens that for us common folk that means by car. However commish can get here in two hours with private plane. Sarcasm of course. Other reality is most people not providing direct service are meeting with people by Teams. Even with people who sit near them. In-person for these people is nearly all virtual for getting things done. Coming to office to speak with work mates on screen who half the time you can hear without Teams. May as well be home.
What happened to the hundreds of OCIO staff that took a reassignment last April. Were they brought back to OCIO or can they bid on the new positions?
It says “as determine by agency policy”. All SSA jobs telework eligible as determined by agency policy and that current policy is basically be onsite 100% of the time unless there is a building closure. I’d bet money they are not going to get 25% telework. I hope applicants read this and know that even if the agency guarantees your telework in writing, they don’t have to honor it. Ask everyone with a contract who lost telework this year. I’d go somewhere else if have the opportunity.
Telework. Yawn!
The postings are for developers, not your average GS-27 2210 that did ??? at HQ.
How does SSA plan to recruit anyone decent (which is what is needed thanks to the complex workloads and difficult policies)?
Great pay? Nope- can’t find that for most entry level jobs at SSA. If you’re lucky you’ll earn a livable wage.
Okay, so if they don’t offer great pay, surely they offer other benefits. You can get a pension, but you have to sacrifice 4.4% of your already low salary for a small pension, plus anything else you choose to put in thrift savings. Insurance? You get it, but the costs are increasing at a higher rate than the annual cost of living increase.
Hmmm- so the benefits aren’t great. What about stability and job security? That’s out the window. You might be fired if your job is “too woke” or just if you are too new.
Okay- well surely the jobs are easy and low stress, right? Nope, think again. You get to deal with subpar training and complex policies and procedures- good luck learning all of that! And then you get to deal with claimants, which adds another layer of stress. You want to do your best for them, but you’re already stretched way too thin doing the job of 3 people, and not really knowing what you’re doing, because of the subpar training. And at any moment you might have to answer the 800 number, even if that’s not your actual job.
Okay- well surely there is flexibility and work-life balance? Nope- you are forced to be in the office 5 days a week, even though the agency has the technology to allow telework. Never mind that the agency started telework back in 2013, it’s not allowed anymore.
Good luck with that great hiring plan SSA. Can’t wait to see what top tier talent you are able to land with those benefits and flexibilities.
11:31, It sounds like your career peaked in the 80s. I, too, remember when candy bars cost a nickel and we walked to school uphill... both ways... barefoot... in the snow... while carrying cinder blocks over our heads. Ahhhhh, good times!
Now that we're done reminiscing, the private sector certainly uses telework as a retention and recruitment tool for jobs that can be done remotely. The government rejects that tool now (unless you're a crony with privileges, like Frank). But the rationale for RTO has never been tied to productivity. It's all about pandering to Republican voters (many of them older retirees), whose only political motivation is to make sure other people are worse off than they are.
Frank loves to boast about leading SSA and the IRS into the digital age, using CEO buzzwords like "modernization," and "operational efficiency," and "digital-first approaches." As soon as telework is mentioned, Frank is suddenly back in the Stone Age, conveniently forgetting that modern computers are portable and humans can communicate through them from anywhere, like magic.
The job market for recent college graduates is plummeting. Why wouldn’t these individuals apply for a job at SSA once there is a change in power in Washington? One can’t live in mommies basement forever.
This is the point/goal. It's easier to cull numbers via attrition and then create an environment where your applicant pool is so small it's useless than it is to fire people without cause. Strangle the Agency with a toxic work environment until it can't perform its mission well and the public will DEMAND change (ahem privatization).
The RTO decimated my agency. 75% loss of staff. Our backlog has doubled. Morale lowest ever. O'Malley wouldn't listen, now Frank won't listen. Another one just quit today. Other than HQ, each office has maybe 8 people come in. Outlook is bleak.
@7:09: Oh I don’t know, maybe the fact that they can make more money and have better working conditions tending bar, or even working at McDonalds or Trader Joes?
I just find it very funny that a year ago they said that IT was not critical, and they took away telework because no one was doing any work at home, it was not efficient, etc. However, couple weeks ago we were told to take our laptops home with us so we could telework during the snowstorm, So that we could continue to be support the agency, and there would not be a loss of productivity.
Well, they may get some people to apply, they may get some people to accept the job offer, They may get some people to actually work. The question will be, how long will they get these people to stay? If this is a recent college graduate, Millennial, or Gen-Z I don’t think they’re going to be able to retain any of those people because they are not going to like not having telework, being scrutinized to the minute for signing in and signing out, and monitored for 30 minute lunches. This is the generation with open floor plan, offices, catered meals, provided by the company, work from anywhere, experience or mentality. I’m sure most of them will be there long enough to get their training, and leave and go somewhere else.
Telework is a Human Right!
At this rate, we won't have any plumbers, electricians, grocers, restaurant workers, physicians, hospital workers, truckers, or many hundreds of other fields of workers. If they can't work from home, we might lose them all! How dare we ask these people commute into their workplace and burden them with these added responsibilities?
Let’s increase telework so additional identity theft could be done by employees home.
The Social Security data breach is a national-security disaster that could hurt Americans for the rest of their lives: whistleblower
Every American’s personal data is at risk of fraud after DOGE’s alleged mismanagement, Social Security’s former chief data officer tells MarketWatch
SSA employs "plumbers, electricians, grocers, restaurant workers, physicians, hospital workers, truckers, [and] many hundreds of other fields of workers" now?
Right on. I'm tired of the yapping about telework. Get over it already. Communication is streamlined in person. It's not that complex to figure out. All that complaining about training before poor -also much more effective in person.
Work/life balance is commuting to work, working and commuting home. Covid eliminated the commute for a couple of years, probably 1.5 years too many. Now it's back to the regular old grind. So many employees seem to think that covid policies should be permanent so they don't have to come into the office.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
@4:59 and 5- I started teleworking at SSA in 2013. I had a hybrid schedule (which I personally think works best) for 12 years until they yanked it away.
@5:00: Right on! Change is bad! Progress is bad! Everyone should have to needlessly spend 10% or more of their adult life sitting in traffic simply because you did!
We‘ve got an absolute Doctor F**king Einstein here, folks! A real visionary genius!
Why work for a place that is overseen by such a guy as Vought who will sent another "fork in the road" e-mail telling you to quit because you're useless?
Once we were all in the office, we continued to have staff meetings via teams. Wtf!! I retired 12/31/25!!! So happy!
I heard offices have been told how many new staff they will get. And that is all they have been told. No time frame, how they will be trained or under what authority they can hire.
Change can be good. Telework for field offices was a change that wasn't good for the public.
Employees are free to find other work that better suits their lifestyle.
What communication in person are you referring to specifically? I have 0 interaction with anyone at my office due to my work. No teams meetings, nothing. 0 reason to be talking to other coworkers. Now please explain to me why my taxes pay for the TP, soap, electricity, cleaning services, security and rent if all these extra expenses could be reasonably eliminated?
Because conservatives (the only group that pines for the glory days of poor working conditions) would gladly pay anything - and I do mean anything - to make sure that everyone else is as miserable as they are. Crapping on people they don’t care about is their North Star, which is also why they’re content to give ICE and the “War Department” a blank check.
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