Social Security Administration and taking away telework

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do folks think this is the new trend for federal agencies? I hope they don’t abolish it.

They should. I know people who "telework" who go grocery shopping, take kids to medical appointments and one who went Christmas shopping. It's a sham. You have a job and it should be performed at your office!

Our agency showed that teleworkers were more productive and had better quality on average. Those that began teleworking had higher production than in when in the Office. I telework. If I go to a kid’s medical appointment I use my sick leave which is allowed which is the same as if I were in the Office. If I use mid-day Flex to run an errand (also allowed), I make up the hours later in the day/week or weekends and if I can’t I use my leave.

All of my friends who are NOT Feds telework— in IT, software, lawyers, etc. It is commonplace in 2019. I think 95% of workers in my HHI neighborhood telework at least part of the week, many full-time.

How did they do that? Seriously curious.

My SSA component tracks the number of cases we process at telework vs in office, and the number that are found to have quality issues performed in both places. It’s not surprising you do more work with fewer errors when you aren’t in a cube with people talking and interrupting you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seemed odd to me that they cut the program entirely rather than curtail it for individuals with productivity issues. Alternatively, perhaps the jobs in that division are public facing and don't lend themselves well to teleworking but one wonders why that was not readily ascertainable prior to launching the pilot program.

From a fed manager's perspective and from what I see attending management meetings throughout my department, it's very hard to curtail things for some employees (those with productivity issues) but not others. They file grievances, fake EEOs and even sometimes get lawyers. Even when you have ironclad evidence, it's still very difficult and you basically can't ever fire someone. It would be great to have a more dynamic hiring and firing system, but it doesn't exist.

PP here and if there is enough management support to cut telework en masse presumably there is enough support to implement some form of a disciplinary system with respect to telework. I mean, I get that in your situation maybe senior management doesn't care or is too lazy but here senior management is clearly on board with making changes by axing telework for this subset of people. They could just as easily come up with some measure by which if people fall behind they lose telework for six months or a year or whatever.

Such a system exists for attorney advisors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is going to apply for the SSA attorney advisor jobs with no telework?

No one. And I say this as an SSA attorney. The big draw is the flexibility and telework. Without it, morale will tank and retention will be a huge issue.

+1. The SSA attorney advisor corps is made up of women who do the job because it works so well with kids. If telework disappears, half the people would quit immediately. And we have made real progress on our backlog, which Congress was yelling about. It would be incredibly stupid. But could well happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do folks think this is the new trend for federal agencies? I hope they don’t abolish it.

They should. I know people who "telework" who go grocery shopping, take kids to medical appointments and one who went Christmas shopping. It's a sham. You have a job and it should be performed at your office!

Our agency showed that teleworkers were more productive and had better quality on average. Those that began teleworking had higher production than in when in the Office. I telework. If I go to a kid’s medical appointment I use my sick leave which is allowed which is the same as if I were in the Office. If I use mid-day Flex to run an errand (also allowed), I make up the hours later in the day/week or weekends and if I can’t I use my leave.

All of my friends who are NOT Feds telework— in IT, software, lawyers, etc. It is commonplace in 2019. I think 95% of workers in my HHI neighborhood telework at least part of the week, many full-time.

How did they do that? Seriously curious.

My SSA component tracks the number of cases we process at telework vs in office, and the number that are found to have quality issues performed in both places. It’s not surprising you do more work with fewer errors when you aren’t in a cube with people talking and interrupting you.

That makes sense. Most agencies, however, don't have "cases" to measure against. My agency is one of those. All of our work is "level of effort" type.

[Anonymous]

Most telework is monitored by key strokes and/or phone time.

[Anonymous]

I work in Woodlawn in frontline management. My component (operations), is losing telework. I don’t think that the legal staff is losing theirs but I am not certain. The field offices that deal with the public AND the backend payment centers (where I work) are directly affected.

Morale was already low but this is the nail in the coffin.

We were told by the Associate Commissioner that there were NO metrics that could track if telework was a success. They did say that waiting time increased for the public facing staffs.

So others are being punished basically because the newly appointed Commissioner doesn’t like telework at all. He doesn’t understand the internal problem with operations is chronic understaffing. We are rapidly losing people due to retirement and we don’t replace them due to funding. Our volume of work keeps increasing because the number of disabled and retired applicants keeps growing.

Without telework we’re not going to attract the best applicants and people will leave for other jobs.

The union also dropped the ball by allowing the upper management to decide how to run the telework program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is going to apply for the SSA attorney advisor jobs with no telework?

there is a hiring freeze at SSA now, plus backlog is going away (so not sure if they will be hiring any time soon)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in Woodlawn in frontline management. My component (operations), is losing telework. I don’t think that the legal staff is losing theirs but I am not certain. The field offices that deal with the public AND the backend payment centers (where I work) are directly affected.

Morale was already low but this is the nail in the coffin.

We were told by the Associate Commissioner that there were NO metrics that could track if telework was a success. They did say that waiting time increased for the public facing staffs.

So others are being punished basically because the newly appointed Commissioner doesn’t like telework at all. He doesn’t understand the internal problem with operations is chronic understaffing. We are rapidly losing people due to retirement and we don’t replace them due to funding. Our volume of work keeps increasing because the number of disabled and retired applicants keeps growing.

Without telework we’re not going to attract the best applicants and people will leave for other jobs.

The union also dropped the ball by allowing the upper management to decide how to run the telework program.

AFGE is the union that gave up telework and other employee rights in their new contract. The other unions (NTEU and ALJ union) are still fighting on issues such as telework. The attorneys at SSA belong are in different unions--it would be hard for mgmt to justify eliminating telework for AFGE attorneys only and not for NTEU attorneys (especially given they do same jobs and only difference is what union they belong to).

[Anonymous]

So weird. I know of a bunch of DOJ lawyers who are 100% telework. Like they live in a state far far from their job. But 1 day a week WAH is disruptive?

[Anonymous]

S S A cuts telework. This is being done so people will quit or retire. The administration wants to hire contractors at low pay.
Anyone forced to give up telework and are now financially strapped, file an Intentional Infilction of Emotional Distress Suit against Saul and Gruber. These two monsters nerd removed A S A P. Call Congress and ask for thier removal. No confidence

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't the Patent and Trademark Office greatly curtail or eliminate much of its telework several years ago? I'm pretty sure it did so.
So, it's not a new trend. But I agree with the PP saying it hurts federal hiring. Fewer and fewer people who are qualified for these SSA or PTO jobs are going to want to apply if there is no option for telework. Reducing or taking away flexibility -- not the way to go if the agencies want to hire and keep people today. It's sad because these agencies perform vital work.

Not true at all. The telework program still exist.

I worked in the trademark side of the PTO. I did not stay long enough to qualify for telework (the job is boring as hell and rote and youa re doing the same thing over and over). But after training was over the first few months, all I did was sit in a room alone and process applications and there was NO reason I could not have done that from home. The PTO tracks production and every action you do has a point value attached to it and you have to achieve a certain number of points or you get a bad review and potentially lose your job, dont get your bonus, etc. There is no reason to make those attorneys come into the office. And the reason people stay in such a dull job is the telework. They are very marketable and many would leave if that was taken away,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:S S A cuts telework. This is being done so people will quit or retire. The administration wants to hire contractors at low pay.
Anyone forced to give up telework and are now financially strapped, file an Intentional Infilction of Emotional Distress Suit against Saul and Gruber. These two monsters nerd removed A S A P. Call Congress and ask for thier removal. No confidence

I would also consider promissory estoppel and don't forget to cite to the 2nd restatement of torts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:S S A cuts telework. This is being done so people will quit or retire. The administration wants to hire contractors at low pay.
Anyone forced to give up telework and are now financially strapped, file an Intentional Infilction of Emotional Distress Suit against Saul and Gruber. These two monsters nerd removed A S A P. Call Congress and ask for thier removal. No confidence

I would also consider promissory estoppel and don't forget to cite to the 2nd restatement of torts.

Look up sovereign immunity; you cannot sue the federal government unless it consents to being sued.

[Anonymous]

I will concede that there are certainly jobs that are conducive to telework. Perhaps some are even done better from home. However, as a general trend, I find it utterly annoying that everyone is insisting that their job can be done from home. I have colleagues who insist that they have flexible schedules and their managers are not opposed to them working from home, yet employees who are actually in the office are picking up the slack on a lot of stuff just by the virtue of being there. "oh can you place FedEx this for me?" or "I have someone dropping off some paperwork, can you please put it on my desk?" No, Karen, I don't give a rats ass about it and will not be your secretary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will concede that there are certainly jobs that are conducive to telework. Perhaps some are even done better from home. However, as a general trend, I find it utterly annoying that everyone is insisting that their job can be done from home. I have colleagues who insist that they have flexible schedules and their managers are not opposed to them working from home, yet employees who are actually in the office are picking up the slack on a lot of stuff just by the virtue of being there. "oh can you place FedEx this for me?" or "I have someone dropping off some paperwork, can you please put it on my desk?" No, Karen, I don't give a rats ass about it and will not be your secretary.

Those Karens are the worst. Ugh