Unhappy Employees

     From the Partnership For Public Service report on Best Places to Work ranking for the Social Security Administration. (The rankings are of agencies with large workforces):

Click on image to view full size

    Parts of the agency are also ranked against all federal agencies. The personnel under the Deputy Commissioner for Hearings Operations ranked 429 of 459 agencies. The personnel of Social Security's Office of Inspector General ranked 430 of 459 agencies. The personnel under the Deputy Commissioner for Operations ranked 456 of 459 agencies.

Severe Problems Remain After SSA Appropriation Determined

     From Federal News Network:

After a months-long hiring freeze, the Social Security Administration is once again facing even further declining staffing numbers.

But with agency spending now determined for the rest of fiscal 2024, and hiring now unfrozen, SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley is readying the agency’s plans to rebuild its workforce as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Currently, SSA is at its lowest staffing levels in 27 years, while serving more customers than ever before, O’Malley told lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee during a hearing last week. As a result, customer service has worsened — there are longer wait times on phone lines, and longer delays in receiving decisions on disability applications and appeals. ...

In the 2024 spending agreement Congress reached last week, SSA received $14.2 billion for its administrative expenses. It’s a slight increase over SSA’s enacted budget of $14.1 billion for 2023. ...

Although SSA’s latest hiring freeze has ended, there have already been net staffing losses as a result of a months-long string of continuing resolutions — landing the agency once again at the lower staffing levels it had a year ago. ...

Right now, SSA employees “are understaffed, and they are overwhelmed,” O’Malley said. “Not surprisingly, when somebody’s been on hold for an hour, they come off that call hot. We right now have an attrition rate of about 24% in our teleservice centers.”     ...

“We need to change our [hiring] strategy as an agency,” O’Malley told lawmakers. “I think we target too much on college graduates and not enough on high school and community college graduates. And with proper training, that could really be an investment that holds for a long time.” ...

If Congress Wants Better Service At Social Security, It Needs To Give The Agency A Greater Operating Budget

     From the testimony of Chad M. Poist, Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance, and Management, Social Security Administration, before the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce

Click on image to view full size

 

Union Complaints About Training

     From Government Executive:

... Rich Couture, president of AFGE Council 215 and the union’s chief negotiator with Social Security management, said a poor “self-taught” training model employed by the agency is leaving new hires unprepared for their duties and already looking for work elsewhere. Council 215 represents Office of Hearing Operations staffers.

“We have folks leaving the agency, because the training stinks,” Couture said. “I’d use another word, but we’re in polite company, but the training is terrible. The mentoring, based on an agency focus group report we just got last week, it looked like it was written by us, saying all the same things [we’ve been saying]. There’s not enough time; there’s not enough accommodation to make sure that it actually works. So instead, our folks are telling us, and they’re telling management when they leave, ‘I feel unsupported, I feel unprepared and I feel set up to fail.’ ” ...

13% Of Female Employees At Social Security Say They Experienced Sexual Harrassment In 2021

     From Government Executive: 

I’m Torn; Was There Any Point In Sending This?

      An e-mail to Social Security employees:

From: ^Human Resources

Sent: Monday, April 24, 2023 8:10 AM

Subject: 2022 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government

 

A Message to All SSA Employees

Subject:  2022 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government

 

The Partnership for Public Service recently released its 2022 Best Places to Work (BPTW) in the Federal Government Rankings, which is based on results from the 2022 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS).  SSA now ranks 17 amongst 17 large federal agencies.  Our 2022 BPTW and FEVS results reflect your experiences from last summer – one of our most challenging periods in recent years.  Over the past year, we used that feedback to make workplace improvements to support you in providing trusted service to our customers.

While faced with our lowest staffing levels in more than 25 years, resuming in-person service amidst the ongoing pandemic, and juggling increasing workloads, you worked tirelessly to serve the public.  Because of your commitment to service, the public rated us as the 2nd most trusted agency in the federal government, second only to the National Park Service.  You are the reason for that rating – your service to the public makes a difference.

Your commitment to public service is unwavering, but changes are needed.  For over a decade, we received insufficient and inconsistent funding to administer our programs.  This led to hiring freezes and staff losses, resulting in workload and workplace challenges that directly impact your experiences.  Thankfully this fiscal year, we received a higher funding level, which allows us to start rebuilding our workforce.  Hiring is a priority; and so far, we have onboarded over 3,200 new team members across the agency.  Also, our latest data shows attrition rates are starting to slow down.

Senior leaders value the feedback you provide.  We reviewed last year’s FEVS results, as well as surveys of new hires and those leaving our agency.  Based on that input, we instituted several workplace improvements to accompany our hiring strategy.  For example, you told us transparency is important, so we increased our communications to keep you informed of our priorities and challenges.  We learned how we can better support your work-life balance and help you navigate the hybrid work environment through workplace flexibilities and wellness resources.  We are also improving access to career and professional development offerings to help you take charge of your career.

We know these changes are just a start.  Sufficient funding for future years will allow us to maintain the progress we’ve made, and we will continue to advocate for the support we need.  Additionally, your continued feedback is always welcomed.  The next FEVS – scheduled to occur later this spring – presents another opportunity for you to weigh in on future workplace improvements.

Thank you for your resilience and dedication to the public and our agency!  The public’s high level of trust in our agency is a direct reflection of the service that you provide.  As we pursue our mission, we will strive to make the agency a truly great place to work.

Union Seeks Additional Funding For SSA

     From Federal News Network:

Social Security Administration employees are back in the office, but understaffing and a restrictive telework policy are making them less productive, according to one of its unions, and may lead to an exodus of more employees.

The American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents SSA employees who work in field offices and teleservice centers, is asking Congress for $16.5 billion in “emergency funding” to support SSA for the rest of fiscal 2023. ...

Sherry Jackson, AFGE Council 220’s second vice president and legislative action coordinator, said during a virtual town hall Thursday that SSA is running with 4,000 fewer field office and teleservice center employees than it did 12 years ago. ...

The emergency funding request amounts to a $1.7 billion increase above the Biden administration’s fiscal 2023 budget request for SSA. Congress passed a continuing resolution that lasts through Dec. 16 and is still working out a comprehensive spending deal for the rest of FY 2023. ...

Chaotic Budget Process Makes Hiring Difficult

    From a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) on The Social Security Administration's Human Capital Planning (footnotes omitted):

... In a May 2022 hearing on customer service, Grace Kim, SSA’s Deputy Commissioner for Operations, explained “. . . insufficient funding over multiple years to hire the level of staff needed, and higher than average attrition rates across the agency” had driven SSA to its lowest staffing levels in 25 years. SSA’s ability to hire during the year is affected by when SSA receives its funding. SSA’s final budget is not usually passed timely as appropriations for agencies are not always signed into law when the FY begins on October 1 each calendar year. Congress and the President must approve the budget or a continuing resolution (short-term legislation to keep the Government open). Otherwise, a funding lapse may result in a Government shutdown where agencies can only conduct mission-critical activities, and non-essential work like training is suspended. As a result, SSA will send guidance as to when components can hire. SSA stated it is difficult to plan and manage funding under the Federal budget process especially if there are funding lapses or continuing resolutions. Office of Operations staff explained they cannot over-hire to account for losses throughout the year. 

When SSA can hire, it often hires staff in large numbers after it receives an approved budget and trains the new hires together. One Regional Commissioner noted a “steady source of income” would allow for more balanced planning and hiring all year as uncertain budgets create cycles of hiring and freezes. Other Operations subject-matter experts explained hiring staff in large numbers creates a strain on human resource support staff who need to address a large number of staff hired at one time. Also, SSA reported the timing of funding can limit SSA from strategically hiring staff during advantageous times of the year, such as recruiting before students graduate and during the times college campuses typically hold recruitment and job fairs. Not being able to strategically time when to hire staff places SSA at risk of not hiring the most qualified candidates as they may have accepted offers from other employers and are no longer seeking employment opportunities when SSA receives funding. ...

Workforce Decline Continues

    The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency. Note that these numbers do not tell the whole story. They don't account for part time employees nor for overtime. Overtime is a huge part of the story at Social Security. A Full Time Equivalent (FTE) report would cover that but we seldom see FTE reports. I'm not sure why. Here are Social Security's numbers as of June with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:

•  June, 2022 58,332
  
• March, 2022 59,257
  
• December, 2021 60,422
  
• September, 2021 59,808
  
• June 2021 59,707
  
• March 2021 60,675
• December 2020 61,816
  
• September 2020 61,447
  
• June 2020 60,515
  
• March 2020 60,659
  
• December 2019 61,969
  
• December 2018 62,946
  
• December 2017 62,777
• December 2016 63,364
• December 2015 65,518
• December 2014 65,430
• December 2013 61,957
• December 2012 64,538
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• December 2008 63,733

House Appropriations Releases Report On Bill To Fund SSA

     The full House Appropriations Committee has approved its version of the appropriations bill covering the Social Security Administration. There were no amendments affecting Social Security. The report that accompanies such bills has been released. These reports typically contain precatory language that agencies generally try to follow even if they are not legally required to do so. Here's some excerpts that affect Social Security (beginning at page 310):

• ... Within the total recommended increase, the Committee expects SSA to direct not less than $630,000,000 for field offices, teleservice centers, and program service centers, and $190,000,000 to replace losses and build capacity at the State Disability Determination Services (DDS) agencies that make disability determinations for SSA.
• In addition, within the recommended funding level, the Committee provides $89,500,000 for SSA to mail paper statements to all contributors aged 25 and older not yet receiving benefits ...
• Hearings.—The Committee continues to consider the Final Rule ‘‘Hearings Held by Administrative Appeals Judges of the Appeals Council’’ (85 Fed. Reg. 73138, December 16, 2020) to be an unjustified erosion of due process for individuals who are appealing a denial of Social Security or SSI benefits. As part of a beneficiary’s right to an impartial appeal process, an on the record hearing, conducted by an impartial judge with decisional independence, must be conducted in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act to ensure due process, without agency interference, or political bias. Replacing this appeals step and the role of independent administrative law judges (ALJs) with SSA employees jeopardizes the independence of the process. In light of the harm that would be caused by this policy change, the Committee strongly urges SSA not to exercise this authority. ...
• The Committee requests SSA submit to the Committee within 90 days of enactment of this Act a plan for reducing the initial and reconsideration claims backlogs, and continue to submit to the Committee quarterly reports on disability hearings backlogs until SSA has eliminated the hearings backlog and achieved its monthly average processing time goal. The Committee urges the Commissioner to prioritize the hiring of additional staff at the DDS agencies to determine initial claims and reconsideration appeals, as well as ALJs and requisite staff to adjudicate backlogged hearings claims. ...
• The Committee remains concerned about the time it takes SSA to effectuate favorable SSI and/or SSDI disability determinations and requests a briefing on the issue withing 30 days of receiving the report on Disability Determinations as requested in House Report 117–96. ...
• The Committee directs SSA to submit a report to the Committee within 180 days of enactment of this Act exploring the feasibility of using employee incentives, including an agency student loan repayment program, to improve recruitment and retention for qualified candidates across the agency. ...
• The Committee recognizes the essential role that field offices play in the public’s ability to access SSA benefits and services and strongly encourages the Commissioner to take every action possible to maintain operations at existing field offices. ...
• The Committee understands that the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) relies on legal assistants to conduct a broad range of work supporting hearings and reviewing work of its administrative law judges, and urges SSA to examine the position descriptions of legal assistants, pay and actual work conducted, to ensure that job classifications and compensation are commensurate with current duties. ...
• The Committee believes that quality representation in matters with SSA assists claimants and beneficiaries, and can also help SSA work more accurately and efficiently. The Committee appreciates that the Commissioner is raising the cap on fees payable via fee agreement, and encourages the Commissioner to index the cap to account for inflation in future years. ...
• The Committee reiterates its support for well-managed telework programs in the Federal workplace and understands that SSA is in the process of evaluating how telework affects service delivery during the reentry evaluation period of March 30 through September 30, 2022. Within 90 days of enactment of this Act, the Committee requests a briefing on how the results of that evaluation will be used to measure and monitor the impact of telework on customer satisfaction, service availability including continuity of operations, workloads management, employee experience, stewardship, and environmental considerations. ...

    Note that we are a long, long way from having a final bill. The Senate has to act. The filibuster in the Senate gives the minority a veto over appropriations bills. The House of Representatives may be in Republican hands by the time there is final action.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

     From Federal News Network:

The Social Security Administration wants to hire 4,000 new frontline workers to address a growing backlog of cases.

But with many employees citing unreasonable workloads and one of every eight SSA workers leaving the agency, the process of increasing staff is a steep hill to climb.

The fiscal 2023 budget request includes funding for workers in both disability determination services and frontline operations, not only to improve customer service, but also to ease the burdensome and mounting work that current SSA employees face. ...

    Note that this says Social Security WANTS to hire 4,000 new employees. That would only happen in the NEXT fiscal year IF Social Security gets the entire appropriation requested by the Administration which is unlikely. In the CURRENT fiscal year Social Security's workforce is actually DECLINING.

How Does It Feel?

online polls

In 2020 SSA Had Its Lowest Staffing In At Least 25 Years

      Social Security has released its Annual Statistical Supplemental for 2020, the mother lode of statistics about Social Security.

     Below is an interesting table from the Statistical Supplement. I often post Office of Personnel Management statistics showing the number of employees the agency has. This can be misleading since some are part time or out sick. The table below shows the number of work years. Click on the image to view full size. Notice the decline after Republicans gained control of Congress in the 2010 election. In 2020 the agency had the lowest staffing level in at least 25 years.

Reduction In SSA Workforce During Trump Administration

 

From Government Executive

The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

     A press release from Social Security:

“Thank you for your interest in the Social Security Administration and for reading this Open Letter to the Public to learn more about what we are doing to improve service.

A Little about Me:
I have been frequently asked why, at age 73 with a loving wife of 51 years, a beautiful family, and a successful business career, I would want to take on the responsibility and stress of running a huge government organization that affects nearly every American. My answer is simple. I took the job as Commissioner of Social Security because I saw that this very important agency faced an increasing number of challenges. Millions of Americans depend on SSA to do our job well, each day, no excuses—because when we don’t, people suffer. I took the job because SSA must dramatically improve customer service for you, your loved ones, and everyone who depends on our programs.

What is My Plan?
When I speak to groups of SSA employees, to my senior managers, and to external groups including Congress, they ask what I plan to accomplish. It is no secret that the government is full of bureaucratic processes. There are Agency Strategic Plans, Annual Performance Plans, Budget documents for this and future years, IT strategic plans, and any number of internal organization planning documents. I understand that these writings serve to provide direction and transparency, but I doubt most employees or members of the public read them. I am hopeful that this letter will answer your questions in a straightforward and easy to follow way.

My plan is rooted in common sense. SSA has many departments and over 60,000 employees who perform millions of functions each year. But, whether it is issuing retirement checks, processing disability claims, or providing Social Security cards, our fundamental mission is to ensure timely and accurate service for the public. My plan is to emphasize and restore fundamental public service so that when you call us, we answer timely. When you come to our offices, we serve you timely. When you apply for benefits, you receive a timely answer from us and, if you are approved for benefits, you receive a timely check from us. Some SSA employees and the three unions who represent them may suggest we simply want to push employees even harder. I’ve run enough businesses and organizations to know that no employer gets 100% from every employee every day—there is always room to improve. Over the past 5 months, I have met with and observed many, many SSA employees. Let me tell you what I determined: they care. They are just as concerned and stressed about work piling up as I am. They dread the feeling of coming into work knowing the public will line up and wait far too long for correct answers. That is demoralizing. I don’t want our excellent employees to feel beaten down or think that headquarters fails to appreciate their challenges. By getting wait times down, we allow our employees to do their work in a better environment where they can focus on the action in front of them not the piles of work around them.

As important as it is to serve you timely, we need to serve you well. We need to evaluate how we train our employees, review their work and give feedback, and appropriately simplify our policies to be easier to implement and understand. I have reviewed audits and noted that we consistently receive poor marks in certain areas. You should expect that we will properly pay benefits to only the folks who are entitled to them and we should always pay them the correct amount. That is important not only for stewardship but also to each of you who receives a check from us. I also cannot ignore the message from significant workloads like litigation, which can occur when we do not properly apply policy. Yes, we must address the affected cases but we must also fix the root cause. Getting things wrong has been very costly to us. It is time to invest in ensuring we get things right.

Part of the answer is technology. However, before we can readily implement more efficient systems, we have to fix some core issues. Did you know we store a beneficiary’s address in something close to 20 different systems? If you move, we can change your address in one place but that may not change it in the others. We are working to fix this and other problems. Our new approach will not look at our services from our vantage point, such as using a specific system to complete a singular action we are working on in the moment. We will look at our work from your perspective. Meaning, if you go online and then call us and then come in to an SSA office, our employees will know that history and you don’t have to start from square one each time.

However, technology alone is not the solution. Sure, many people like the idea of going online for convenient service and we need to modernize and meet that need. But, many other people need a little extra help, a little more information, maybe even some reassurance from an expert. Thus, we need a responsive workforce. We already have people who care deeply about our mission and the public. Now we need to have enough folks to meet the demand so that they can spend the time they need to handle each customer’s need correctly. We need to implement additional quality checks so that we can let our employees know when they misapplied a policy or missed a key issue. Our employees want this feedback. We need to give our employees what they need to get you the right result.

We need to assess how we do our work, how we use technology, and how we empower our employees at SSA. All of those things are complicated, but they are necessary to accomplish my plan for SSA. What is the plan? We are going to work every day to improve the public service you receive from us. As I said, common sense.

What happens next?
Right now, SSA’s Office of Systems is working with public and private sector experts to modernize our technology infrastructure so that we can serve you more efficiently and with greater accuracy. At the same time, we are shifting resources to the front lines of our public service operation. Our Office of Operations manages nearly all of our public facing services like the field offices in your communities and the National 800 Number. It is logical and appropriate that we focus on these offices first. Some people may believe that is a “hiring freeze” but I call it “smart hiring”—sending our resources to the front lines where you benefit most. Dependent on our final appropriation for fiscal year 2020, we are targeting additional hiring in these public service offices, and I have already directed that SSA hire 1,100 more people to do this work. During a time of more constrained resources, the agency closed field offices early on Wednesdays. We are ending that practice to provide you with additional access to our services. We are also ending a telework pilot, which was implemented without necessary controls or data collection to evaluate effectiveness or impact on public service. I support work-life balance for SSA employees consistent with meeting our first obligation: to serve the public. A time of workload crisis is not the time to experiment with working at home, especially for the more than 40,000 employees who staff our public facing offices.

Modernizing technology and getting more employees back into the offices are critical first steps. We will take additional steps to chip away at our current wait times; however, the first obvious move is an infusion of resources into key offices, increasing the availability of those offices to the public, and holding all of our employees accountable. We know how important our work is and understand the consequences of poor service.

You will hear from me again with straightforward information about our progress. I appreciate your patience as we work to improve our performance in service to you.”

     Am I wrong to think that this shows that Saul shares the standard right wing assumption that poor service at federal agencies is due to lazy federal employees? That's so naive.
     I really want better service at the field offices but I strongly doubt that keeping field offices open on Wednesday afternoons will achieve that goal. I suspect it will have the opposite effect. This is the sort of thing that comes out of the assumption that federal employees are lazy.
     Adding an additional 1,100 employees to front line positions is great but funding is going down, not up, so the question has to be "What other jobs will be cut?" He doesn't answer that question. Hearings operations is the obvious answer but who knows?
     By the way, "successful business career"? I'm not sure what he's done that's so successful other than being born extremely wealthy and not completely screwing up his inheritance.

Social Security Offfers Employees Early Retirement -- Except For ALJs

     From Federal News Network:

For at least the third time in the last seven years, the Social Security Administration is trying to reduce the average age, if not the size, of its workforce.

SSA sent out a note to all employees April 2 saying it would be offering Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) to all employees except for administrative law judges. ...

Employees must have at least 20 years of federal service and be at least 50-years old, or have at least 25 years of federal service regardless of age.

     It's interesting that ALJs are excluded. The Office of Hearings Operations, where the ALJs work, is probably the only part of Social Security with a declining backlog.

If You Thought That Social Security's Workload Would Decrease After All The Baby Boomers Retired, You Were Wrong

     This is from a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG). Online services will only get the agency so far. Social Security needs more funding so it can hire more warm bodies to get the work done.

Click on chart to view full size

Annual Statistical Supplement Released

     The Social Security Administration has issued its Annual Statistical Supplement, a huge compendium of all the stats the agency keeps and is willing to share with the public. Here's a table from the Supplement that may surprise some.

 Number of SSA employees and percentage with selected characteristics by grade, September 30, 2014

Characteristic	All grade levels	GS 1–4	GS 5–8	GS 9–12	GS 13–15	SES
	Number
Total a	64,838	343	18,151	33,923	10,538	147
	Percentage of total
Women	66.5	59.8	69.0	70.4	56.3	42.9
Minorities	51.7	60.9	60.7	52.6	38.4	35.8
Black	28.9	33.8	36.9	27.4	22.6	23.1
Hispanic	14.9	16.3	16.6	16.6	8.1	6.8
Asian/Pacific Islander	6.3	9.6	5.4	6.9	6.4	4.1
American Indian/Alaska Native	1.3	0.3	1.3	1.4	1.1	1.4
Employees with targeted disabilities	2.0	10.5	3.6	1.5	0.9	0.7

If You Really Think They Can Work, Why Don't You Hire Them?

     The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) has proposed that federal agencies do a better job of hiring individuals with what they refer to as "disabilities", which I would call medical impairments. The EEOC wants to increase the goal for federal agencies from 7% of the workforce to 12% of the workforce having a "disability."  

     Claimants for Social Security disability benefits are usually incredulous when told that Social Security believes there is some work they can still do. They often ask the question "If Social Security thinks I can work, why don't they give me a job?" I'd like to see Social Security offering jobs to some of the people whose disability claims they turn down despite the fact that the claimants are in and out of psychiatric hospitals. Plenty of them have a history of doing office work. Some are former government employees. If you really think they can work why don't you hire them? You can't hire them all but you can hire some.

President's Budget Would Restore Some Of Social Security's Workforce

     Social Security would be in for a significant restoration of its workforce if the President's budget for fiscal year 2015 is adopted but it won't since Republicans still control the House of Representatives.

Social Security Administration

2014 Estimated 62,200

2015 Estimated 64,100

▲ 3.1 percent

      This would still be well below the 70,000 peak achieved just before Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.