tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post5637931018823209151..comments2024-03-28T10:15:57.792-04:00Comments on Social Security News: Field Offices To Open To Public On Saturdays?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-30774746698868867002019-12-31T02:02:22.530-05:002019-12-31T02:02:22.530-05:00Or rehires! I'm sure there are some that woul...Or rehires! I'm sure there are some that would like to return to work part-time! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-8497724358053868702019-12-17T09:13:46.969-05:002019-12-17T09:13:46.969-05:00@6:02, you're completely incorrect. When you ...@6:02, you're completely incorrect. When you welcome yourself with a statement which essentially craps on the employees and then kicks them when they are down by removing a program that has been in place for years, you are going to reduce, eliminate, destroy morale. There barely ever was a push towards work-life balance. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-82684973787926900372019-12-17T07:36:01.627-05:002019-12-17T07:36:01.627-05:00@6:02PM I thought your comment was going to make s...@6:02PM I thought your comment was going to make sense and then you started spouting off "employee engagement" and "work-life balance" as though any real energy has been put into these that takes away from customer service at all. "Integrity Workloads"-- that is the one thing you could cut back on in order to focus on customer service, but I doubt you or anyone else like you supports that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-38882155496766002872019-12-16T23:46:00.104-05:002019-12-16T23:46:00.104-05:00@ 9:59 Bingo! Current employees will begin to wor...@ 9:59 Bingo! Current employees will begin to work Tue-Sat thus eliminating all OT.<br /><br />Then there are the mysterious 500 yet to be named hires the COSS has said are to be hired for Operations in 2020. These will be 1-3yr NTE GS 5's with no path to status. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-32375598904715085392019-12-16T18:02:26.778-05:002019-12-16T18:02:26.778-05:00Saul is trying to make customer service a priority...Saul is trying to make customer service a priority the way it should be like he did for TSP. SSA for to long has made other goals a priority. Employee engagement, work-life balance, diversity, etc. These are important but at the end of the day we need a quality workforce willing to roll up it's sleeves to get the job done. Public sector has always been a tough place to work. It seems alot I read is resentment that a boomer is the commissioner for the next 6 years. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-89673363194432505102019-12-15T20:03:44.118-05:002019-12-15T20:03:44.118-05:00@927 You do realize that Monday is the busiest da...@927 You do realize that Monday is the busiest day of the week?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-66860924189851116072019-12-15T18:44:04.715-05:002019-12-15T18:44:04.715-05:00@12:38 - This is a ridiculous question. As a 20 ye...@12:38 - This is a ridiculous question. As a 20 year bureaucrat with SSA, I can say I don't think I've met a single person who didn't want to improve customer service. What most of us take exception to are political appointees who want to make a quick show of what they are able to "accomplish" based on optics and without regard to overall impact. The reality is Social Security's issues are deep and complicated and there are not easy fixes. They mainly revolve around old, antiquated computer systems and lack of sufficient staffing. Many executives, career employees and event the occasional political appointee know this and some will acknowledge it. Others, knowing the truth, will still look for creative window dressing so they can say, "look what I've done to improve service." The scary ones are the ones who haven't taken the time to learn the truth and yet charge ahead on some quixotic quest. I'm afraid this may be Saul. Time will tell.<br /><br />I"m not opposed to working on Saturdays. The reality is I doubt we get substantial traffic on Saturdays and unless we hire additional employees the end result will be reallocating staff from weekdays when we have lots of customers to weekends when we will have fewer. Doesn't sound like a recipe for better service to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-33394070802648246362019-12-15T12:38:27.647-05:002019-12-15T12:38:27.647-05:00The comment above that comparing the SSA to retail...The comment above that comparing the SSA to retail is what one would expect from a government bureaucrat. This translates to, because we are the government, we shouldn't be expected to provide good customer service. The bureaucrats are almost always going to resist change and advocate for the status quo. I would ask this commenter, is it your position that the SSA should not try to improve customer service simply because it is a government agency and not a business?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-978458454082501312019-12-15T09:27:32.947-05:002019-12-15T09:27:32.947-05:00What I think might work instead is to hire more pe...What I think might work instead is to hire more people for a second Tues-Sat shift. Hire people who are specifically willing to work Tues-Sat (adjust pay rate as needed) and supplement gaps with OT. I would then set the schedule like this: each employee has 4 days in the office/dealing with the public (the days depending on what shift they are hired for), and one day telework (no Mondays or Saturdays as these days have less staff working) to deal with backend work and to provide phone support only if backend work is complete. The telework day would be staggered to ensure adequate staffing. <br /><br />The bottom line here is that, if Saul wants better customer service, there are ways, but he's going to have to pay for it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-91852895780081880742019-12-15T07:39:16.739-05:002019-12-15T07:39:16.739-05:00Comparing SSA to retail is a mistake. Perhaps the...Comparing SSA to retail is a mistake. Perhaps the better comparison is with a financial manager. I say that because while SSN cards seem to be simple commodities, they have requirements in order to be "sold". And benefits aren't "Walmart" simple (find item, pay money, take item). It's a false analogy to look at SSA field offices in a retail lens. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-57864783188604495332019-12-14T11:24:57.085-05:002019-12-14T11:24:57.085-05:00Maybe he plans to get re-employed recent annuitant...Maybe he plans to get re-employed recent annuitants to do it. <br /><br />Who knows? I predict this will die quietly in the end.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-60740644595515260432019-12-14T11:22:44.537-05:002019-12-14T11:22:44.537-05:00anon@11:03am,
That was bull. The Worktrack syste...anon@11:03am,<br /><br />That was bull. The Worktrack system the agency uses to track unworked workloads like your letter can easily be searched by SSN to find things. <br /><br />She just didn't want to look for it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-19129308028120927092019-12-14T11:03:24.976-05:002019-12-14T11:03:24.976-05:00A field office employee recently told me the lette...A field office employee recently told me the letter I had faxed and mailed in August had to be sent again with her name on it because management divides up the workload by reviewing the mail and faxes and assigns them, and they are three months behind.She said the same thing happens to any documents generated or received at the window. There are two problems. One is that the people at the window don't actually solve the problem or put you to the window of the person who can either 1) solve it while you are there, or 2) tell you what to bring and make an appointment for you to bring it back to that same person so you can get it resolved on the second visit. The second problem is there is no tracking of incoming contact and how quickly ir correctly the incoming contact is handled to resolution. There needs to be an identification of the issues and a check off that the issues were resolved, not just a phone call was made and a message was left, and the whole process has to start over. That would reduce your backlog.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-37632881481612088702019-12-14T10:40:01.296-05:002019-12-14T10:40:01.296-05:00If you want to compare it to a retail environment,...If you want to compare it to a retail environment, at least when you call the hardware department at Walmart, someone actually answers the phone. You dont have to leave a message and hope someone calls you back in 3 weeks to tell you about the screwdriver, if you ever hear anything ever at all. Or imagine going to the front buggy area at Walmart and filling out a paper to see the screwdriver and being told someone will call you back but you can't even get a name of who is going to call you. And when you ask for a manager at Walmart, a manager gets on the phone and resolves the problem. It isn't the worker at the next desk who got handed the phone, or another voice mail that never gets returned.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-4954420082916494102019-12-14T09:31:41.367-05:002019-12-14T09:31:41.367-05:00I retired in 2011. If i were still working now, I ...I retired in 2011. If i were still working now, I would retire rather than work forced Saturdays.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-88919549963187842982019-12-14T09:30:00.795-05:002019-12-14T09:30:00.795-05:00With Wednesday afternoon gone, anyone who works Sa...With Wednesday afternoon gone, anyone who works Saturday will be trying to process the backlog and that’s assuming morale is still high enough that people will come in. Saul has no idea how bad this will increase the backlog. From my brief interaction with him and hearing him speak to us and answer questions he is completely out of touch with day to day operations and what the field and PC actually do. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-49041493829311337342019-12-13T19:20:21.920-05:002019-12-13T19:20:21.920-05:009:20am: SSA can't hire contractors for 1 day&...9:20am: SSA can't hire contractors for 1 day's work per week. What would untrained new hires do if working on a Saturday? Call numbers? and then do what? It takes years of training to learn the complicated programs. Training itself takes lots of time, which cannot be spent on clearing cases. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-71879349266817676202019-12-13T15:47:09.441-05:002019-12-13T15:47:09.441-05:00am concerned about bill of rights because some of ...am concerned about bill of rights because some of worship on Saturdays will we be in trouble because of our reglion?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18181021684993251772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-3512973308880343722019-12-13T15:17:55.051-05:002019-12-13T15:17:55.051-05:00This is a terrible idea. Nobody says Saturday will...This is a terrible idea. Nobody says Saturday will be OT. It could become schedule shift work, where the work week for some people becomes Tues-Sat. It would be interesting to see if there will be weekend differential pay or if everyone will be told that if they offer OT to employees on a Sat. then the office will be open to the public. <br /><br />There is no way that hiring new employees will help with this problem. New hire training takes 16 weeks still plus close to a year of case reviews in ePAD to be proficient. Time spent training takes away from production too, so a new hire today won’t help anything for 6 or more months. And that’s assuming mass retirement doesn’t just offset the new hires. <br /><br />Has anyone confirmed this is an actual proposal being discussed or just a rumor about Saul?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-61772424291145319182019-12-13T14:39:37.732-05:002019-12-13T14:39:37.732-05:00Do you seriously think they are going to give you...Do you seriously think they are going to give you overtime? Wake up, theres no funding for overtime. This would mean they would have to create schedules, similar to retail markets, giving you sunday off plus a day during the week off to cover opening on Saturdays. This isnt for your(employees benefit) or the publics benefit. If the agency doesnt hire more staff, then its not going to work! Botton line is the agency needs more staff!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-14231348234759428402019-12-13T13:33:57.737-05:002019-12-13T13:33:57.737-05:00Worst decision ever! First telework, the vision p...Worst decision ever! First telework, the vision program, then wed afternoons, now this! All this will do is cause a wave of retirements, and destroy the morale of those who cannot leave. Saul is terrible and needs to go!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-16449596803590167852019-12-13T13:18:24.482-05:002019-12-13T13:18:24.482-05:00If you worked in the fo and actually dealt with th...If you worked in the fo and actually dealt with the people I'm sure you would be singing a different tune. Im surprised that you feel this way especially when PC is already backed logged and unable to process current workloads in a timely manner. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-87292105964824590782019-12-13T12:18:41.239-05:002019-12-13T12:18:41.239-05:00The idea sounds good if one thinks about the perso...The idea sounds good if one thinks about the person with a job that wants to file for Medicare and can't do it online for some reason. Rather than taking time off work, he or she could come in Saturday and file. Unfortunately, this is a tiny minority of the folks that come into an office. A substantial number of people that come in are on SSI--check reduced, check stopped, redetermination needed, change in living arrangement, spend down, etc. <br />The number of people that need to come in on Saturday is a tiny percentage of the people who do come in to SSA offices.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-87913265601351092032019-12-13T12:14:16.623-05:002019-12-13T12:14:16.623-05:00A quarter of my office, my self included, are elig...A quarter of my office, my self included, are eligible to retire and should this nonsense come to fruition we would all retire immediately. Then the office would be staffed by mostly rookies that are still learning their job. Good luck with that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-63688625312779756212019-12-13T11:52:01.431-05:002019-12-13T11:52:01.431-05:00@7:35, it's clear you have no real understandi...@7:35, it's clear you have no real understanding of what it's like in a local FO, so i'll give you a pass, but Saturday is not an option for public interaction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com