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Post by prescient on Apr 23, 2014 22:28:21 GMT -5
There is something going on with NHC's expansions. I don't know if there will be more of them or just larger ones. With VPN on the way, it will be so much easier for work to be shifted all over. . It's my understanding that the push to nationalize the hearing process is going ahead full throttle. Sooner rather than later.
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Post by crab on Apr 24, 2014 6:12:57 GMT -5
Day 42 on 4/24 ... 42, folks ... it's THE Answer after all. If not, I'm backing Devildog's theory since it's the most sound by far!
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Post by moopigsdad on Apr 24, 2014 7:12:14 GMT -5
There was some retirement after the first of the year. we are probably down 125-140 Judges right now, but, something strange is going on, what it is isn't exactly clear (from one of my favorite tunes). There is something going on with NHC's expansions. I don't know if there will be more of them or just larger ones. With VPN on the way, it will be so much easier for work to be shifted all over. I believe they need to hire 125 right now and probably 125 next year if they want to keep things as they are. The fact that the 90 number has come up is troublesome. Further, Bart, from one of your favorite tunes, I think "paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep, it starts when you're always afraid"..sometimes we let the little things get the better of us. However, sometimes the paranoia is warranted and exists in our minds for a reason. Is there further change coming to ODAR and SS?, Of this, I have no doubt. The day of the local office hearing will be going by the wayside at some point in the future. More and more work, hearings, decision writing will be shifted from a busy location to a not so busy location. Hearings by video will be the norm, instead of the exception. Consolidation, instead of localization, will be the norm. You will have to get use to the changes or move on to another occupation or retirement. None of us will have a "real" choice. Does it improve the overall process and quality for the claimant? Probably not, but it "supposedly" will save the Federal Government money. It "supposedly" will speed up the process of decision making, but perhaps the decision making won't always be as correct. However, trade offs in decision making are made to increase productivity and save money.
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Post by bartleby on Apr 24, 2014 7:28:40 GMT -5
MPD, you wouldn't even believe the "changes" I have gotten used to in my life. I would prefer to sit home and do my video hearings from my private office and issue instructions, edit and sign decisions all from home. I can't wait. I have been around this Agency long enough to know that anything can and will happen and we just roll with the punches. The battle will go on with the Union and the Agency forever. It just depends who is ahead the day the spotlight falls on you. As I have read, "Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care." I think I have reached that point and it is all okay from here on out. For a while I actually thought someone cared about making the "right" decision. It don't matter, it's all good as long as you can do the numbers or manipulate them enough, no one cares. It's all cool. I have grown teflon and will slide like so many others. Stay thirsty my friend.
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Post by moopigsdad on Apr 24, 2014 7:44:39 GMT -5
Bart my post wasn't in any way aimed as a slap at you or your earlier comment, it was just my opinion of a likely future for everyone who works or will work for SSA/ODAR. Some changes will make things better and some will not. As you said "just roll with the punches" is probably the best advice you could give. I appreciate your posts for the advice, information and personal observations. I tend to agree with most of your personal observations, but like all things, one's observations are usually determined by their environment, upbringing and life's experiences, thereby causing most of us to have differences in our observations or opinions. Stay thirsty my friend.
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Post by gary on Apr 24, 2014 9:32:41 GMT -5
Bart my post wasn't in any way aimed as a slap at you or your earlier comment, it was just my opinion of a likely future for everyone who works or will work for SSA/ODAR. Some changes will make things better and some will not. As you said "just roll with the punches" is probably the best advice you could give. I appreciate your posts for the advice, information and personal observations. I tend to agree with most of your personal observations, but like all things, one's observations are usually determined by their environment, upbringing and life's experiences, thereby causing most of us to have differences in our observations or opinions. Stay thirsty my friend. You and Bart cannot both simultaneously be the most interesting man in the world. So which of you is it?
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Post by hopefalj on Apr 24, 2014 9:47:27 GMT -5
Day 42 on 4/24 ... 42, folks ... it's THE Answer after all. If not, I'm backing Devildog's theory since it's the most sound by far! If it's today, I'm buying another copy of THGttG to add to Adams' estate.
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Post by JudgeRatty on Apr 24, 2014 9:51:59 GMT -5
Day 42 on 4/24 ... 42, folks ... it's THE Answer after all. If not, I'm backing Devildog's theory since it's the most sound by far! If it's today, I'm buying another copy of THGttG to add to Adams' estate. And now I must read it again! Or heck, even watch the movie!
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Post by luckylady2 on Apr 24, 2014 9:57:20 GMT -5
The movies were not nearly as good as the 4-book trilogy
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Post by bartleby on Apr 24, 2014 10:12:41 GMT -5
Gary, I am, but MPD is in line for the position if I should disappear... Along with a few otehr scallywags on the Board.
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Post by gary on Apr 24, 2014 10:20:08 GMT -5
Gary, I am, but MPD is in line for the position if I should disappear... Along with a few otehr scallywags on the Board. Thanks for clearing that up for me, Bart. I had no idea that the most interesting man in the world had an heir presumptive.
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Post by crab on Apr 24, 2014 10:29:58 GMT -5
I think many of us at this point feel that we've indulged in far too many situational Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters ...
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Post by moopigsdad on Apr 24, 2014 10:32:10 GMT -5
After a few Dos Equis, Gary, there are many presumptive heirs to the crown of the "Most Interesting Man in the World." Bart started the trend and I am following in his shadow.
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Post by queenie262 on Apr 24, 2014 10:38:33 GMT -5
Devildog I'm pasting something from Wikipedia to explain the references above.
The number 42 is, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years. Unfortunately no one knows what the question is. Thus, to calculate the Ultimate Question, a special computer the size of a small planet and built from organic components was created and named "Earth". This appeared first in the radio play and later in the novelization of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The fact that Adams named the episodes of the radio play "fits", the same archaic title for a chapter or section used by Lewis Carroll in "The Hunting of the Snark", suggests that Adams was influenced by Carroll's fascination with and frequent use of the number. The fourth book in the series, the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, contains 42 chapters. According to the novel Mostly Harmless, 42 is the street address of Stavromula Beta. In 1994 Adams created the 42 Puzzle, a game based on the number 42.
The book 42: Douglas Adams' Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything[15] examines Adams' choice of the number 42 and also contains a compendium of some instances of the number in science, popular culture, and humour.
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Post by sandiferhands (old) on Apr 24, 2014 10:48:08 GMT -5
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Post by wingnut on Apr 24, 2014 11:00:34 GMT -5
I don't even know why I bother to check here every day. There is probably no change in Hell that I would be on a cert given my GAL and downside-of-the-bell-curve score. I guess it is a sad need for some (at least temporary) "closure." Or, to watch y'all get incredibly slap happy.
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Post by crab on Apr 24, 2014 11:07:35 GMT -5
Queenie: thanks, I'm hip now. Sorry DD, would have 'splained earlier but your hilarious bunny was just showing as a broken link for me! And you're just extra hip now, you were already in the higher-scored sub-group hipness-wise.
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Post by sealaw90 on Apr 24, 2014 13:24:09 GMT -5
If it's today, I'm buying another copy of THGttG to add to Adams' estate. And now I must read it again! Or heck, even watch the movie! Damn, I forgot to write "42" on the WD. Now I know why I didn't score higher.
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Post by moopigsdad on Apr 24, 2014 15:16:55 GMT -5
And now I must read it again! Or heck, even watch the movie! Damn, I forgot to write "42" on the WD. Now I know why I didn't score higher. Hopefully, your NOR score wasn't a 42 sealaw.
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Post by sandiferhands (old) on Apr 24, 2014 15:47:49 GMT -5
Damn, I forgot to write "42" on the WD. Now I know why I didn't score higher. Careful. You don't want to violate your confidentiality agreement and lose your place on the Register.
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