“At the point where we get further White House guidance and … we are at a point where we can revisit instituting a telework program, we will be engaging with the union in good faith negotiations about that,” Kim said. She didn’t preview or explain, however, how SSA might use telework or remote work in the future. Kim said SSA has learned more about what Social Security workloads are truly portable, and she acknowledged the agency could eventually hire and employ completely remote workers who never set foot inside an SSA office.
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Want to stay up to date with the latest federal news and information from all your devices? Download the revamped Federal News Network app The work that makes to do teleworking, great, but the work that makes sense to do in the office, we want our employees back in the office as well.” “Now they love it, so we have to balance that as well. “My employees … were not excited to be teleworkers,” she said. Murphy, who also serves as the immediate past president for the National Council of Social Security Management Associations, said employees at her offices in Montana adjusted to telework well, better than they anticipated.
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Throughout the pandemic, SSA employee unions have said they’ve been productive thanks to permanent telework, even after the agency made a series of contentious cuts to its remote work program in the month leading up to the pandemic. “So long as I can do safely, I plan to incrementally increase staff on site to meet the demands,” Kim told the committee. But she didn’t offer any details about how many employees would return to the office. Kim said SSA would start to incrementally increase the number of staff on site as long as the agency stayed within its parameters of its workforce safety plan.
Mark Warner (D-Va.) said his office has been “inundated” with “heartbreaking stories” from his constituents who have struggled to access SSA services. “It’s not working for people, I can tell you that,” said Sen. Kim said SSA is still following January guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, which capped the number of employees working in person at agency offices to 25% of the usual capacity.īut several senators, both Democrats and Republicans, said the current policies aren’t working. In some cases that is definitely face-to-face.” However, we need to reopen our offices with the right mix of office workers and teleworkers to ensure customers are getting the service they need. We have realized advantages of telework and so have our employees. “Each office is managing their own unique service area challenges the best they possibly can, and some face additional obstacles depending on size, location, demographics and available resources. “This current model is not sustainable, because it leaves managers with very little time to perform their duties, which includes facility and personnel responsibilities,” said Peggy Murphy, district manager of the Great Falls, Montana Social Security office. The workarounds they created for the pandemic “caused bottlenecks for certain workloads and service deterioration beyond our control,” SSA said. In a lengthy letter to Congress ahead of Thursday’s hearing, SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul said it took the agency’s field offices 20% longer to complete actions in fiscal 2020. Scanning these documents allows SSA employees to continue working from home, but it ultimately reduces productivity, Kim said. Those who are working at the offices are handling dire-need appointments with members of the public and are scanning 1.5 million pieces of mail and other documents into the agency’s systems each week. About 3,000 SSA managers and managers are working at field offices across the country today, said Grace Kim, the agency’s deputy commissioner for operations. SSA managers have been working out of the field and local offices during the pandemic, and some employees have joined them. “Despite that, the reality is social distancing and Social Security go together like water and oil.” “The employees at Social Security have worked hard to get payments out on time while undergoing big changes to the way the agency operates,” Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Thursday at a hearing on SSA’s operations during the pandemic. Insight by Carahsoft: This exclusive e-book demonstrates just how far agencies have come and where they still need to go to take fully advantage of DevSecOps to drive modern capabilities to their customers.