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Post by noah on Mar 8, 2014 14:00:02 GMT -5
If that's the case, why don't you privately work one-on-one with this person to find a solution, rather than to malign her.
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Post by bartleby on Mar 8, 2014 18:18:24 GMT -5
And your suggestion would be? No one is maligning her. One might be maligning the recording equipment we have to work with, bit no one maligned her. Perhaps pointing out the idiocy of management to think this is somehow supporting a Judge in the ability to hold hearings? No one is maligning her. Perhaps demonstrating the consideration the Agency gives to it's Judges? No one is maligning her. Would the Agency continue to pay a Judge if the Judge was incapable of doing their job? I hope you have the time to work with all of the difficult people in your office to find solutions. I find most Judges are a little busy these days. Why would you accuse me of maligning her?? Why are you attempting an ad hominem attack on me?? I am not her employer, I owe her nothing, however, I am not maligning her.
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Post by 71stretch on Mar 8, 2014 18:25:13 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the point is of letting us all know about her, either..., call it "maligning" or not. It comes across as mean- spirited, at best, IMO.
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Post by JudgeRatty on Mar 8, 2014 19:46:34 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the point is of letting us all know about her, either..., call it "maligning" or not. It comes across as mean- spirited, at best, IMO. I agree. This is a specific isolated event. Totally not the norm. But I do have to concur that the overall quality of the reporting is quite poor. Frankly their notes are nothing more than a mark in the record to show where certain conversations happen. The accuracy is terrible and what is written is often very wrong. It cannot be relied upon to use in the decision. The writers must listen to the hearing to get the true testimony. At least this is the case where I work. Maybe it varies according to office or area.
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Post by bartleby on Mar 8, 2014 19:52:05 GMT -5
It is an example of how the Agency is not assisting the Judges in being able to complete the amount of work assigned to them. Would you appreciate it if management placed hurdles in your way? Management has said hearings may be rescheduled if they are going to run late and cause the VHR to have to pay extra for child care services, but management denied a Judge his request to reschedule cases when he had to travel to a remote site 2 hours away travelling into 3-5 inches of snow and the worst ice storm of the century, placing him in the way of bodily injury or death. This Agency is being driven by the lowest common denominator.
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Post by JudgeRatty on Mar 8, 2014 20:52:46 GMT -5
It is an example of how the Agency is not assisting the Judges in being able to complete the amount of work assigned to them. Would you appreciate it if management placed hurdles in your way? Management has said hearings may be rescheduled if they are going to run late and cause the VHR to have to pay extra for child care services, but management denied a Judge his request to reschedule cases when he had to travel to a remote site 2 hours away travelling into 3-5 inches of snow and the worst ice storm of the century, placing him in the way of bodily injury or death. This Agency is being driven by the lowest common denominator. I wonder if management goes through an actual management course of some sort before taking the position or at least soon after getting the position. I know I had to do that in other jobs. It helps to gain perspective into decision making without a doubt. But I have no idea what SSA dictates in this regard. Maybe that is an issue?
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Post by eyre44 on Mar 9, 2014 0:16:56 GMT -5
I wonder if management goes through an actual management course of some sort before taking the position or at least soon after getting the position. I know I had to do that in other jobs. It helps to gain perspective into decision making without a doubt. But I have no idea what SSA dictates in this regard. Maybe that is an issue? Management hires do go through training after they are hired. However, I don't think it is the type of training you are referring to. It is run by ODAR and just reinforces the management status quo, which is not progressive at all. It actually seems pretty regressive currently.
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Post by timc58 on Jan 17, 2015 21:21:23 GMT -5
So you've seen many VHRs then? I can't imagine. 100-150 WPM with few errors? Doubtful. An average professional typist types 50-80 wpm. All the temp agencies now being used to provide VHRs advertise looking for typists with a minimum typing speed of 55 wpm. (By the way, those folks are paid between $9 and $12 an hour in our area and the temp service is bidding in excess of $60/hearing.) Have you ever done research on how fast people speak and especially in rapid-fire, back and forth in testimony/questioning? How about considering actually READING the VHR contracts. It wasn't all that many years ago that they were taking notes by hand and providing a time stamp for the writers to use when providing their decisions. The time stamp is the key, not to mention set up and at least in my office, sitting down with the unrepped claimants and going over their files with them. A couple of our more technologically savvy reporters have told me they do go back into the annotator and clean up--especially--the hypotheticals and VE testimony since that is the most critical. I asked them if they were provided training on how to do this and an emphatic NO was provided because management seems to fear anything that smacks training...even training them on our agency-specific software. $5/hour isn't even minimum wage. The "going rate" around our office varies widely from $30/hearing to over $60. If you're an ALJ and you want more than they're giving you, why don't you consider providing some direction rather than criticizing?
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Post by JudgeRatty on Jan 18, 2015 9:25:16 GMT -5
So you've seen many VHRs then? I can't imagine. 100-150 WPM with few errors? Doubtful. An average professional typist types 50-80 wpm. All the temp agencies now being used to provide VHRs advertise looking for typists with a minimum typing speed of 55 wpm. (By the way, those folks are paid between $9 and $12 an hour in our area and the temp service is bidding in excess of $60/hearing.) Have you ever done research on how fast people speak and especially in rapid-fire, back and forth in testimony/questioning? How about considering actually READING the VHR contracts. It wasn't all that many years ago that they were taking notes by hand and providing a time stamp for the writers to use when providing their decisions. The time stamp is the key, not to mention set up and at least in my office, sitting down with the unrepped claimants and going over their files with them. A couple of our more technologically savvy reporters have told me they do go back into the annotator and clean up--especially--the hypotheticals and VE testimony since that is the most critical. I asked them if they were provided training on how to do this and an emphatic NO was provided because management seems to fear anything that smacks training...even training them on our agency-specific software. $5/hour isn't even minimum wage. The "going rate" around our office varies widely from $30/hearing to over $60. If you're an ALJ and you want more than they're giving you, why don't you consider providing some direction rather than criticizing? It is not that simple. The contract hearing reporters are governed by what is in their contract. The ALJ has no supervisory authority over the reporters.
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Post by Pixie on Jan 18, 2015 9:37:45 GMT -5
OK, time to quit jumping on Bartleby. His remarks were made almost a year ago. Plus, I agree with him that he was using the HR as an example, not being mean spirited.
Some may not agree with me, but I have found that Moderators are always right.
SRatty, this post comes directly after yours, but it isn't directed at you. Pixie.
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