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Post by christina on Feb 13, 2016 16:34:34 GMT -5
There is no way in Harligen I am dying at my desk (unless I check out way earlier than I am hoping and with no notice). One of the primary reasons I left private practice and perhaps the best thing about gov employment is the retirement benefits. I mean, damn, name another employer in the modern Era that gives you both a guaranteed pension and a 401k. I love the job, but first time I run the numbers and see eligibility for retirement benefits that meet my needs, Funk's going fishing. Forever. Excuse me.harlingen is not hell  .although I'm with u on rest of post |
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Post by ncatty007 on Feb 15, 2016 23:05:37 GMT -5
I know of an ALJ who was hired at 64. That was me. I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and chillax. There will be hiring now and forever, as long as there are SSA ALJs. Two judges just retired in the HO where I have temporarily resided for the past few months. That will continue to happen everywhere. to me, the question is how long the ALJ position will continue to exist. I see disturbing signs that the agency wants to deconstruct the ALJ job, hand over our bargaining unit work to non-APA "judges", change the title and make us into hearing officers under the control of the agency. I agree. My takeaway from the call was not positive. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2016 1:15:45 GMT -5
I know of an ALJ who was hired at 64. That was me. I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and chillax. There will be hiring now and forever, as long as there are SSA ALJs. Two judges just retired in the HO where I have temporarily resided for the past few months. That will continue to happen everywhere. to me, the question is how long the ALJ position will continue to exist. I see disturbing signs that the agency wants to deconstruct the ALJ job, hand over our bargaining unit work to non-APA "judges", change the title and make us into hearing officers under the control of the agency. I agree. My takeaway from the call was not positive. I guess this is where perspective differs. I understand and appreciate ALJ hostility toward AAJs holding hearings as both an existential threat and a potential erosion of due process rights for claimants. I do. But I was on that all ALJ call, and to me it was so deferential and praising of/to ALJs. The only thing I heard that remotely critiqued ALJs was the word " timeliness," and it wasn't even directly linked to ALJs and the topic was changed after a couple seconds. Mgmt went out of their way to praise you all, stress their commitment to keeping ALJs (you can argue that this AAJ thing is the beginning of the slow march to no more ALJs, but considering all the ALJ hiring the agency is committed to doing, that march, if it ever happened, would be mighty slow indeed), and show you all the iniatives they want to try that will allow you all to more quickly and easily issue decisions (and ask you to suggest ideas of your own in that vein) at the cost of mgmt and hearing office staff doing some things that are not desirable for them. In my R4 all mgr call just before the ALJ call our RCALJ spoke to and critiqued ALJs for not scheduling enough cases, having too many cases in ALPO for too long, and for having too many postponements. She pivoted to HOCALJs for failing to issue those telwork memos and directives (she framed it as treating everyone equally). Gruber, Calvert, et al didn't say word one about those things and had a tone far, far different from hers. You may not like the AAJ program and mgmt's explanations, but every other part of that call was extremely deferential, positive, etc. for ALJs. Maybe it was the juxtaposition with the R4 call, but that was my and my HOD/fellow GSs' impression. Please don't flame too hard  |
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Post by christina on Feb 17, 2016 5:58:50 GMT -5
I agree. My takeaway from the call was not positive. I guess this is where perspective differs. I understand and appreciate ALJ hostility toward AAJs holding hearings as both an existential threat and a potential erosion of due process rights for claimants. I do. But I was on that all ALJ call, and to me it was so deferential and praising of/to ALJs. The only thing I heard that remotely critiqued ALJs was the word " timeliness," and it wasn't even directly linked to ALJs and the topic was changed after a couple seconds. Mgmt went out of their way to praise you all, stress their commitment to keeping ALJs (you can argue that this AAJ thing is the beginning of the slow march to no more ALJs, but considering all the ALJ hiring the agency is committed to doing, that march, if it ever happened, would be mighty slow indeed), and show you all the iniatives they want to try that will allow you all to more quickly and easily issue decisions (and ask you to suggest ideas of your own in that vein) at the cost of mgmt and hearing office staff doing some things that are not desirable for them. In my R4 all mgr call just before the ALJ call our RCALJ spoke to and critiqued ALJs for not scheduling enough cases, having too many cases in ALPO for too long, and for having too many postponements. She pivoted to HOCALJs for failing to issue those telwork memos and directives (she framed it as treating everyone equally). Gruber, Calvert, et al didn't say word one about those things and had a tone far, far different from hers. You may not like the AAJ program and mgmt's explanations, but every other part of that call was extremely deferential, positive, etc. for ALJs. Maybe it was the juxtaposition with the R4 call, but that was my and my HOD/fellow GSs' impression. Please don't flame too hard Timeliness is an issue. And I don't have the answers other than better prescreening on the front end. Not necc solely by SAAs's and not by the ALJ's cold. There has always been the tension between using the writing staff for this function as the writing staff is desperately needed in the latter case processing part too. RE ALJ's, ALJ's don't have time to look at files they are not hearing in very near future when there has not been at least some prelim screening to get ALJ going in the right direction. So ALJ's really can't be used in this part of the prehearing role too much to solve the issues as we need them hearing cases, something only they can do, and delegate some of the other issues to other folks(for screening, writing staff is who comes to my mind first). Some of the best SCT's also have the capability to do a rudimentary screening, and my guess is there are many who can do even a lot more than rudimentary, if they got the chance. But we need the SCT's, esp the best ones, pulling too. We have thousands of cases in my office and a lot that are in a prehearing status waiting for the next person to work on it. A lot of this is sheer volume and im not throwing blame at anyone. But ODAR, and we as part of ODAR, need to come up with better strategies or have more people available to workup cases, esp those who workup well and fast, to move every case in a waiting pattern more efficiently. Again, i do not have answers but this is a fair point for the DC to raise an an area where she wants to see improvement. |
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Post by ba on Feb 18, 2016 5:13:43 GMT -5
I agree. My takeaway from the call was not positive. I guess this is where perspective differs. I understand and appreciate ALJ hostility toward AAJs holding hearings as both an existential threat and a potential erosion of due process rights for claimants. I do. But I was on that all ALJ call, and to me it was so deferential and praising of/to ALJs. The only thing I heard that remotely critiqued ALJs was the word " timeliness," and it wasn't even directly linked to ALJs and the topic was changed after a couple seconds. Mgmt went out of their way to praise you all, stress their commitment to keeping ALJs (you can argue that this AAJ thing is the beginning of the slow march to no more ALJs, but considering all the ALJ hiring the agency is committed to doing, that march, if it ever happened, would be mighty slow indeed), and show you all the iniatives they want to try that will allow you all to more quickly and easily issue decisions (and ask you to suggest ideas of your own in that vein) at the cost of mgmt and hearing office staff doing some things that are not desirable for them. In my R4 all mgr call just before the ALJ call our RCALJ spoke to and critiqued ALJs for not scheduling enough cases, having too many cases in ALPO for too long, and for having too many postponements. She pivoted to HOCALJs for failing to issue those telwork memos and directives (she framed it as treating everyone equally). Gruber, Calvert, et al didn't say word one about those things and had a tone far, far different from hers. You may not like the AAJ program and mgmt's explanations, but every other part of that call was extremely deferential, positive, etc. for ALJs. Maybe it was the juxtaposition with the R4 call, but that was my and my HOD/fellow GSs' impression. Please don't flame too hard Have you ever heard someone say, "With all due respect," and then say something disrespectful? How about, "You are doing a wonderful job, except..." When you deliver information that you know is negative, the best way to do it is couch it around positive in the hope that it will blunt the sharp edge. They knew how that was going to be received, so they tried to put it in the shiniest package available. But you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. |
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Post by christina on Feb 18, 2016 7:51:47 GMT -5
I guess this is where perspective differs. I understand and appreciate ALJ hostility toward AAJs holding hearings as both an existential threat and a potential erosion of due process rights for claimants. I do. But I was on that all ALJ call, and to me it was so deferential and praising of/to ALJs. The only thing I heard that remotely critiqued ALJs was the word " timeliness," and it wasn't even directly linked to ALJs and the topic was changed after a couple seconds. Mgmt went out of their way to praise you all, stress their commitment to keeping ALJs (you can argue that this AAJ thing is the beginning of the slow march to no more ALJs, but considering all the ALJ hiring the agency is committed to doing, that march, if it ever happened, would be mighty slow indeed), and show you all the iniatives they want to try that will allow you all to more quickly and easily issue decisions (and ask you to suggest ideas of your own in that vein) at the cost of mgmt and hearing office staff doing some things that are not desirable for them. In my R4 all mgr call just before the ALJ call our RCALJ spoke to and critiqued ALJs for not scheduling enough cases, having too many cases in ALPO for too long, and for having too many postponements. She pivoted to HOCALJs for failing to issue those telwork memos and directives (she framed it as treating everyone equally). Gruber, Calvert, et al didn't say word one about those things and had a tone far, far different from hers. You may not like the AAJ program and mgmt's explanations, but every other part of that call was extremely deferential, positive, etc. for ALJs. Maybe it was the juxtaposition with the R4 call, but that was my and my HOD/fellow GSs' impression. Please don't flame too hard Have you ever heard someone say, "With all due respect," and then say something disrespectful? How about, "You are doing a wonderful job, except..." When you deliver information that you know is negative, the best way to do it is couch it around positive in the hope that it will blunt the sharp edge. They knew how that was going to be received, so they tried to put it in the shiniest package available. But you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. one of the more colorful judges i practiced before taught a CLE once. He said, look every judge knows when you say with all due respect, it means, you idiot judge, HOW did you miss this? You're not fooling any of us |
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Post by phoenixrakkasan on Feb 18, 2016 8:39:14 GMT -5
Have you ever heard someone say, "With all due respect," and then say something disrespectful? How about, "You are doing a wonderful job, except..." When you deliver information that you know is negative, the best way to do it is couch it around positive in the hope that it will blunt the sharp edge. They knew how that was going to be received, so they tried to put it in the shiniest package available. But you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. one of the more colorful judges i practiced before taught a CLE once. He said, look every judge knows when you say with all due respect, it means, you idiot judge, HOW did you miss this? You're not fooling any of us |
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Post by christina on Feb 18, 2016 8:44:24 GMT -5
lol, decent fake southern accent by Mr. Farrell. i have not seen the above "classic" yet so this was new and fun for me!!!
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Post by bartleby on Feb 18, 2016 9:44:33 GMT -5
Christina, thanks for the PM. Having spent a good deal of my youth in Harlingen and a couple of years of College at Pan American in Edinburg, if Harlingen ain't hell, you can at least see it from there. I was a proof reader for the Valley Morning Star when I was in College. Used to run to Progresso and bring back concealed illegal bottles of Black Bear Oso Vodka and Derby Whiskey. Pure rot gut.. Padre used to be nice before all of the commercialism. Met my first love in the Valley.. Okay, Maybe it's not hell after all...
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Post by christina on Feb 18, 2016 9:56:21 GMT -5
Christina, thanks for the PM. Having spent a good deal of my youth in Harlingen and a couple of years of College at Pan American in Edinburg, if Harlingen ain't hell, you can at least see it from there. I was a proof reader for the Valley Morning Star when I was in College. Used to run to Progresso and bring back concealed illegal bottles of Black Bear Oso Vodka and Derby Whiskey. Pure rot gut.. Padre used to be nice before all of the commercialism. Met my first love in the Valley.. Okay, Maybe it's not hell after all... Cool!!! Except i didn't know people snuck alcohol across the border?? i AM shocked! Actually, i am not shocked as i realized the truth is even funnier. i learned about these border shenaningins when i was 8... but not in Brownsville, Closer to Tuscon. why are earth we were there escapes me but it was me, my parents, and my grandparents. My parents, wisely having no desire to spend more time with immigration than needed, declared all alcohol, one bottle per person, as my mother has told me since. and of course, my grandparents being in their 70's, well it goes without saying they obeyed the law.. other than the tiny flask my grandma hid in her bra!!!! i am not kidding. She did not disclose this info to the younger generations until we were well past the border and was rather proud of herself! muttering about why should they care what i bring across. hmmmpph, as she put it. not surprisingly, my police happy uncle is on the other side of my family. he might have died young if his mother had pulled such a stunt  |
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Post by Ready-Now! on Feb 18, 2016 10:41:47 GMT -5
Progresso I liked when my wife and I visited there a few years ago. However, the machine guns at the intersections were a bit unnerving.
Edit: toted by Federalies not cartel!
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Post by christina on Feb 18, 2016 11:08:36 GMT -5
Progresso I liked when my wife and I visited there a few years ago. However, the machine guns at the intersections were a bit unnerving. Edit: toted by Federalies not cartel! an important clarification these days! |
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Post by phoenixrakkasan on Feb 19, 2016 7:38:38 GMT -5
lol, decent fake southern accent by Mr. Farrell. i have not seen the above "classic" yet so this was new and fun for me!!! You should watch it. Have a couple of beers before starting the movie. You will appreciate it more. Crepes are delicious! |
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Post by christina on Feb 19, 2016 7:51:01 GMT -5
lol, decent fake southern accent by Mr. Farrell. i have not seen the above "classic" yet so this was new and fun for me!!! You should watch it. Have a couple of beers before starting the movie. You will appreciate it more. Crepes are delicious! i suspected it was a beer drinking kind of movie  my oldest has a Will Ferrell theory although he is more or less a fan despite his theory. He says the strength of any Will Ferrelll performance depends on how long Mr. Ferrell is in it. Skits, he is in, GET THEM ALL. My all time favorite is the Blue Oyster Cult song. Movies that's he's in but not the main star. probably gonna laugh through every scene he's in. Movies where he is the star- Proceed with caution!!!! Became our family motto so another reason we have not seen above movie. But since Zoolander (the first one) is a household favorite, we are not exactly sophisticated with all our movies anyway so i will have to take your recommendation seriously! |
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Post by chudley on Feb 19, 2016 14:03:35 GMT -5
Don't take mine as gospel, there might have been some hires earlier. But I would doubt 8/14, since that was right after everyone I knew went for the SI/WD in July 2014. I did not get a proper rejection letter until March of 2014. It was actually July 2014 that offers for the August class started rolling out. There were 70-something hired in FY2014. aljdiscussion.proboards.com/thread/2650/ssa-first-cert-offers-2014When were ODAR interviews for first round certs? |
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Post by christina on Feb 19, 2016 14:20:59 GMT -5
May??? Apparently judges have been contacted about interviewing applicants that month.
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Post by chudley on Feb 19, 2016 14:35:16 GMT -5
May??? Apparently judges have been contacted about interviewing applicants that month. Sorry I meant back in 2014 for the August hires. The timeline post stops at that point. |
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Post by redsox1 on Feb 19, 2016 18:20:05 GMT -5
May??? Apparently judges have been contacted about interviewing applicants that month. Sorry I meant back in 2014 for the August hires. The timeline post stops at that point. The interviews were in June 2014. |
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Post by sealaw90 on Feb 25, 2016 9:58:29 GMT -5
Good morning folks, let's get this thread back on track. With NORs for the September - December 2015 testers soon to be released, and the refresh/ALJ application opening announcement on the horizon (mid-late March) feel free to discuss the merits of appealing your NOR, whether a 2013 tester who received their NOR over a year ago should sit for the exam to try and raise their score, etc. etc. yodapug - this is where we can discuss your questions from the other thread |
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Post by Ready-Now! on Feb 25, 2016 10:03:13 GMT -5
I think it has been whittled down to waiting on NORs for the Oct-Dec testers now.
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.although I'm with u on rest of post
my oldest has a Will Ferrell theory although he is more or less a fan despite his theory. He says the strength of any Will Ferrelll performance depends on how long Mr. Ferrell is in it. Skits, he is in, GET THEM ALL. My all time favorite is the Blue Oyster Cult song. 
