The Internal Revenue Service is asking seasoned employees without any direct tax experience to perform entry-level tasks of answering phones and processing tax returns, a step impacted staff call unprecedented as the agency scrambles to prepare for filing season.
The reassigned workers, who are being detailed out on an involuntary basis, are coming from the IRS human resources and, potentially, the IT departments. Some employees reported that supervisors first asked for anyone who had experience in the front-line fields to consider the roles, but they ultimately chose many individuals with no prior experience working directly on tax issues.
The details come as IRS has dramatically slashed its workforce, cutting more than 20,000 employees—or more than 20% of total staff—in the last year. The divisions seeking internal staffing support have seen similarly significant losses to their workforces and have struggled to rebuild in time for filing season, according to a new report from the IRS inspector general. …
24 comments:
I think I have seen that movie and it had a tragic ending. Best of luck IRS!
You would think that this administration would love to collect taxes but they can’t since our leader doesn’t believe in paying any. Only suckers pay taxes was the quote.
DJT is protecting his rich friends..once again. Less audits is very helpful for the pocketbooks.
Frank is a one trick pony. Turns everything he touches into a giant call center.
Same playbook coming to an SSA phone line need you!
More of the same starting at SSA today. They’re pulling 1,000 IT staff to work the 800# and answer non-programmatic questions like how to login to MySSA, after two days of training.
Big surprise, Frankenstein running both SSA and IRS into the ground. Wake up Americans!
Chalk up another screwup by Frankenstien!
No worried. AI will process our tax returns with the greatest accuracy and efficiency. I mean Frank's has been unburdened so much that he can run two agencies. Good grief. We all saw this coming.
The one and only time I ever asked the IRS for assistance they didn't know the answer to my question. I was told to ask my tax professional. I didn't have one at the time. They wrote the rules yet could not tell me how to apply them and I was required to pay someone else to do that. This was years go and apparently the people helping the public back then didn't know anything so doesn't sound like a big change.
This is what happens when you take a chainsaw to government. How is this efficient?
Very familiar. SSA HR informed the unlucky candidates yesterday that they get to man the 800 number. Trying hard to see the value in taking disability examiners off casework to tell people “I’ll have to refer you to someone else” or “Let me set up an appointment for you.” Solving one backlog by creating another one. That’s the new SSA way!
Well SSA just pulled people from disability processing and CIO to answer phones. If you’re wondering why claims are taking longer that’s why. That’s on top of a few hundred examiners that were voluntold to mentor the reassigned folks. No end time was given by management as to when this phone reassignment will end. Now you have $100k salary people doing $60k salary work. Sooo much efficiency and waste reduction.
They are not pulling 1000 people from CIO. Did you actually see the list, because I did.
Only $100k? There were GS15s on the list. Heck a mid grade 13 from CIO in HQ is about $150k.
How many is it?
Clown ... it's not even 10% of that number from CIO
But it's an effective way to force underachievers into jobs they'll hate...some will probably quit and be ultimately backfilled by more competent IT staff.
Trust me - the superstars weren't voluntold to answer the phones.
Yup that too, some are close to the $200k range. And the reassigned $200k folks from HQ also doing nothing bc the mentor/mentee ratio is 1/6. Now you’ve got every single component reading letters out loud to claimants and not addressing the backlog of claims/cases. We are so incredibly efficient!
This is just to get the wait time down and the call answered numbers up. It's not that there will be any meaningful or productive interaction taking place. It's just optics.
Idk about the phones but the people that were told to mentor were in fact the superstars in our office. The ones that closed the most cases per week and the ones that had very little if any errors given for incorrect case processing. They took all the “producers” and stuck them with people that got 4 weeks of disability training vs the normal 6 months….so all the “good” ones are staring at teams screens telling others click here, click there etc
How many agencies can Frank destroy before 2029?
Here are just a few things that are needed:
- Frank, Arjun, and the “chiefs” must take the same so-called training and actually take calls for at least a full day. Let’s hear the recordings and see the data about how helpful they are.
- Head of HR needs to explain herself about this (and all the blatantly illegal practices she has supported). These voluntolds were told their supervisor, position (therefore technically their duties), etc., won’t change while on this so-called assignment. Now hearing that the 800 number managers are not allowed to talk to the voluntold’s supervisor about performance. This is contrary to personnel practices when someone goes on a detail.
- Congress needs to demand the data about all these voluntolds’ performance. Frank keeps touting how many more calls overall are being answered. Sure, that’s because people have to call back and hope they get someone who can actually help them. Let’s see data about people calling back. They can tell by looking at when a person with the same SSN has called.
Come on, Frank. Let’s see it. And someone demand answers from HR.
This is insane. It’s from across the agency not just CIO. They took one of our analysts and we are a small team. I have no idea who is going to take their work because we are still reeling from losing people in the buyout last year. Before the trolls comment about quality of work etc, this analyst is/was the lead for a mandatory report we have to send to Congress on a recurring basis and they are the lead for a program i guarantee every employee who reads this has used this year. It’s crazy. This analyst wasn’t allowed to take reassignment during the reorg last year because this project was “mission critical” even though they volunteered. When is the “technology” going to kick in to be the solution, because adding more bodies to the 800# is like sticking a finger in the hole on the titanic.
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