Sean Brune, Steven Evangelista, Florence Felix-Lawson, Karen Glenn, Jay Ortis and Chad Poist, who are career Social Security federal employees, have penned an op ed for the Baltimore Sun touting Frank Busignano’s term as Social Security Commissioner. The piece is quite a fluff job. I wonder who actually wrote it and how these execs came to sign on to it. It’s really quite an extraordinary politization of career employees. I don’t think any of these signatories have a future in a Democratic Administration.
A hundred pieces like this cannot change the circumstances on the ground. A day of reckoning approaches.
Complete nonesense Frank!
ReplyDeleteDecisions are going out faster in OHO, but the quality has never been worse in my experience, and the whole rig is a house of cards ready to collapse at any moment. Even a hundred more retirements would probably push it over the brink. Not to mention the future consequences that will someday come back to roost.
ReplyDeleteMeets the criteria of a “fluff piece”
ReplyDeleteWho are these individuals?
A "fluff piece" is a lighthearted, entertaining news story, article, or broadcast segment lacking significant hard news value, often intended to fill time, improve ratings, or provide a feel-good story.
Politicization? What’s O’Malley say about this given he may be the COSS again?
ReplyDeleteAll of those individuals need their jobs and depend on the income. Several are taking care of family members in need. Two have recently been divorced and have young children. Others have lived beyond their means for years, and it has caught up to them. Hold a gun to a person's head, demand strict obedience, and this is what you get.
ReplyDeleteMany individuals have left government due to the politicization of the agency. What makes these SSA employees so special? Don’t sign on to an article that has no merit. Is that too much to ask?
DeleteThey are the last remaining career SES executives at the top of the pyramid. Less then 75 SES remain nationally. If they leave, the whole system collapses. Treasury can keep running the same payment tape forever. It's just the end of the line for everyone else.
DeleteI'm sorry but SESers have not been our friends. They have not taken a stand when needed, stand up for the wrong things, and have steered the ship into the iceberg.
Delete@4:46, perhaps the system should collapse. We as informed individuals on this blog can read between the lines. Ordinary citizens read these puff pieces and continue to support Orange Julius Caesar and his hench(wo)men. At a certain point the truth will come out. Paycheck or no, are you on the side of truth or not? If not, you are not the glue holding an Ageny/Policy/Budget together you are just another liar
DeleteI left because of the politicization of the agency. The damage Sleazy E and his Peter Pan Posse have done to the agency is FAR worse than I feared.
DeleteAs for the partisan hacks praising Frankenstein...well they sold their souls to him...and they have to live with that decision. As for me, I hold them in contempt.
Really disappointed to see the Chief Actuary on this. Staying apolitical is an important part of OACT's forecasts being taken seriously by both sides of the aisle in Congress.
ReplyDeleteYes, very much concur. None of the issues discussed in the article have anything to do with her office or her personal expertise.
DeleteKool Aid drinking ****s.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a "puff " piece, rather than a "fluff" piece
ReplyDeleteI am demoralized by leadership's constant refusal to acknowledge any of the legitimate hardships the agency sees on the regular. The communication we are getting goes beyond optimism and into pure cult territory, and the disconnect with reality is staggering.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone out there actually believe this? Sure, they can make some numbers look great, but what does it count for if everything overworked and undertrained employees are touching is wrong? Or even if close to half of it is? Maybe processing time/answer rates look great on paper, but once you scratch the surface even a little bit you can see that it’s smoke and mirrors. You can’t always do more and more with less and less and deliver great, accurate results.
ReplyDeleteAll these people care about is numbers- not accuracy, not the actual people working the cases, and most importantly, not the public who depends on SSA.
It's a FrankB version of what happens with Trump and his sycophants who praise him and call him a genius. Leader MUST be praised and acolytes must sing such praises (or else). It's a pushback to the New Yorker piece online today. It's a sad piece of writing when the people "responsible" for these "advances" write such a public self-serving tribute to their own work in order to praise the "dear leader" to whom they give the credit. Looks like the North Koreans have gotten their "Dear Leader" style manual firmly into agencies now.
ReplyDeleteThis is a disgusting display by a group of desperate sycophants. At least Michelle King and co quit before doing something this pathetic. Sean Brune used to be considered one of the brightest execs. This is a sad low for him. Poist and Evangelista have always been errand boys so this isn’t surprising for them.
ReplyDeleteThis fluff was written up by the Press Office.
ReplyDeleteThese execs should be ashamed. Come spend one day in a field office and you’ll know this is total BS.
ReplyDeleteYay. Phones get answered faster. By taking the very people who process claims in the FO, WSU, and PC away from doing their actual job.
ReplyDeleteOh and my favorite claim: “ allows for the 100% accurate processing of claims”. Except the entire batch of Medicare online applications where people wanted Part B but the system processed them as refusals.
I stayed as it is a perfect time to take advantage of the current environment to move my program forward and get support. Worked so far. I get it much of my team left with no transition planning and the rest of us are overwhelmed. I do not agree with the current administration but I am focused on the people we serve. So I have shown them I am aligned with their mission to improve service to the public and reduce cost. Seems this message aligns with every administration. Dam the politics and figure out ways to better serve the people and leverage the current environment to improve what we do.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely disgusting! I thought it was bad when the official S.S.A. X account was sparring with members of Congress, but this is far worse. This is not normal. A Commissioner constantly doing interviews on right wing news networks is not normal. A bunch of boot licking sycophants writing an op-ed is not normal. The agency being politicized to this extent is not normal. Shame on these executives for being willing participants in this farce. And during a week when every one of them probably held meetings to tell their employees how much they were appreciated.
ReplyDeleteShame on each of these “co-authors”. An article by all the only career-SES chief-level executives? Please. No doubt they felt pressure. Shame on Karen, the supposedly independent chief actuary. Shame on Florence, the head of Human Resources who has helped Frank and Leland break laws and other rules that destroyed the lives, careers, and future plans of thousands of employees. Shame on Frank for directing this article to happen or, even if it wasn’t his idea, putting anyone in such a position. But that’s no surprise.
ReplyDeleteMy negative reaction isn’t about whether I agree or disagree with any specific policy or change. I’ve worked at SSA long enough and implemented policies under multiple administrations. We all do. SES frequently do what they need to survive at the top. I get it. They have families, financial obligations. I lost respect for these executives before this article. My thoughts have been further validated after seeing this article, much of which touts what appear to be positive statements, but lack context and other aspects that suffered as a result. But that’s nothing new lately. What a tone deaf piece during Public Service Recognition Week, for all the good and value it may still hold, to make it about Frank. Same with the ludicrous piece I read today about the History of Frank. It was longer than the A volume of my old Encyclopedia Britannica. Again, a tone deaf piece focused on the savior of SSA, who runs the same playbook in the bogus CEO of IRS.
I don’t know how the mid-terms will go but if either chamber turns Frank, and I hope these SSA chiefs, prepare to be called before Congress and held accountable.
Wow. I know and have worked with all of these executives. It’s just incredibly disappointing to see any of SSA’s career, supposedly apolitical, SESers put their names to something like this. It’s unheard of in my experience, but then so is a lot of what’s happened at SSA over the past 15 months.
ReplyDeleteI once sent a letter to the editor to the Sun. They completely rewrote it and made me look good, even though I wanted to look bad. The moral is don’t trust the Sun.
ReplyDeleteThey had to feel "dirty" after signing that opinion piece. It would be awful to be financially unable to leave a situation like that.
ReplyDeleteI have worked with many of these executives and they have lost their way. I'm shocked Jay and Florence would put their name to such a document. Disappointed at both of them--they must be very desperate to do such an irresponsible thing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I had the opportunity to work with Jay a little when he was with OGC. Very sharp guy. Disappointing.
Delete