New Hires from Astrue?

[mrjones]

Each new commissioner comes in with their "plan" and we just try to suffer through it.

But in an Agency that has really been starved for employees, like ODAR, I think any Commissioner would be in favor of hiring, in general, as their budgets allow.

A current rumor: a promise was made to Congress to dispose of 1,000 day old cases at ODAR - a real blemish - and we carried this through and were rewarded by the present ALJ hiring.

[morgullord]

Hey, mrjones--

Dude, some of us are closer to 60 than you might imagine.

There are three warning signs of senility: (1) forgetfulness; (2)...Hmmm, I can't remember the other two.

[gromit]

mrjones said:

most of the sitting ALJs are rather old, in their 60s. . .

So are the rolling stones but you don't see them retiring




Oops, maybe I've made your point. ;D

[deadwood]

Nevermind.

[oldjag]

You all also have to remember that judges and staff have to be trained and that is a big investment in time for the instructors. I think that there will be a tendency to spread out the training of both the staff and judges to lessen the impact on the offices who provide trainers.

[goodoleboy]

Robert Ball was the longest serving Secretary/Commissioner. He was in office from 1962 until 1973. Shalala is second.

We old guys are not retiring because of computer or technological advances. They are not that big a deal and some of them even make sense when they are functional. Factors that have increased frustration over the past few years among judges are things like HPI, increased production numbers that most of us see as unreasonable if true due process is to be afforded to claimants, increased hostility toward judges by upper level management at SSA, lack of staff to accomplish increased production, and the increased incompetence and lack of knowledge exhibited by the appeals council, among other factors. The ac factor results from a push to remand the ac backlog and a hiring of "judges" at the ac without proper screening. The frustration with the ac is compounded by a lack of a reasonable way to let someone know when they screw up. That may be a purposeful way to put an end to argument but it is frustrating to ALJs when they are clearly correct in a decision and there is no way to correct the remand. Just hold another hearing which adds to the backlog which adds to the frustration of not having enough staff ...and the circle goes on. I plan on retiring soon as do half of the judges in my hearing office...and none because of new technology.

[morgullord]

Staff training, except for attorney-advisors, is usually performed OJT and in-house.

[oldjag]

Hate to disagree, but the paralegals, attorneys, group supervisors, and senior case techs are all given formal training. Even when the training is done in house, it is disruptive and the goal is to spread it out to lessen the impact. All of the formal training involves some judges also.

[morgullord]

Some of our SCTs were on the ground for months before they were "trained" by SSA.

[Pixie]

And some attorneys and paralegals have spent upward of a year in the hearing offices with OJT before going to training.

[aaa]

And then some of us never were sent to training! I came on at a time when the Agency wasn't doing much training. I hand wrote my first decision. I was also here when the PCs were first rolled out and I had to write a justification as to why I should have one of the 2 PCs allotted to my office. I actually have a picture of my private office with no PC in it. My how times change!

My only decision writer training consisted of OJT and a one week session where an attorney came from another city and critiqued my work with a heavy hand and told me how bad my decision drafting skills were.

[morgullord]

I was on the job for 6 months before attending a 2 1/2 day training session in the region HQ city. I recall that a claimant's attorney named Frank Cristaudo was present as an observer/panelist.

[secondchance]

morgullord, that posting gave me a chuckle!

[yogibear]

Perhaps with the dismantling of DSI and disbanding of the FedRO, Region I will have an influx of cases and the Commissioner will see fit to send some of those new hires to New England...

[mrjones]

morgul - geesh, you are "rather old" aren't you? anyway, I also started at a time before computers and before trainings. I used to dictate cases and now I'm getting carpal tunnel writing them w/ computers - so much for technology. staff like myself bear the disproportionate brunt of technology, goodoleboy, and I have had close personal experience with too many of your colleagues who loathe the computer to agree with you - you are an exception, so kudos to you. if you don't edit or red mark a paper decision, good for you. if you check your emails, good for you. if you can use a laptop effectively at home and at your away sites, kudos to you. and if you enjoy flipping thru the medical documents on the monitor at work instead of flipping pages the old fashioned way, by hand, then we would get along just fine.

[dazedandconfused]

I could have posted this in a few different threads, but think it fits best here. We have heard from a numbers of trusted sources that the number of those interviewed was 425. Not 400 as suggested in another post. Additionally, the consensus is the additional 25 positions will be filled from a supplemental cert. So the odds (not factoring in available cities and scores and interview performance) are still only slightly better than one in three. However, I think the real wildcard in all this is the housing market. I would think at least half of the offers could go to folks outside the federal government. That means no paid move. I would wager a lot of folks are still hoping to be selected for a city within commuting distance (or at least within the region of the country they live so they dont have to sell their house). When faced with the actual decision of having to move the family to a far off city, and taking a killing on the price of selling their house, I would not be suprised if many folks pass up the offer. A conservative guess is another 25 will decline for this reason. That could move the odds to 1 in 2.5.

Now that interviews are over, I think I have the most horrific story to tell. One of my two interviewers fell asleep during the interview. I dont mean yawned and closed their eyes for a moment; I mean chin on the chest, out cold for a good 20 seconds. I had thought about saying something, but just kept talking to the other interviewer, who seemed sympathetic. I hope the sleeping was due to a poor nights sleep the night before and not as a result of my answers. Overall, I still had a good feel coming out.

Good luck to all.

[Pixie]

Yes, D&C the lower number is correct. I think I posted in another thread that the number remaining on the certificate is fewer than 420. There have been more declinations for interviews this time than in the past. The housing situation may play some part in it.

If the drop in the housing market is a major factor, then there may be more declinations as the offers are made. Many candidates may decide, as you said, to stay relatively close to home and commute. If so, then there will be even more opportunity for those who are willing to go anywhere. If one candidate declines the offer, Falls Church just moves down the list to number two or number three.

It is starting to get interesting. You all should know something within the next two or three weeks. Pix.

[judicature]

Two to three weeks would be wonderful indeed!!

[privateatty]

odarite said:

My experience mirrors nona's. I have been hearing of ALJs I had expected to stick around a few more years talking retirement.. And given that this year the Commish is strangling the operations side, it will take a lot of money to make the staffing ramp up to where it is needed. And when Congress is patting itself on the back for a funding increase that pays for a measely 150 ALJs when 250 are needed but virtually NO new staff for ODAR or operations (and don't even talk about attrition), I am much less sanguine than some of the other posters about how ducky the next year or so will be. As late as this prior summer DC de Soto was saying that 1250 ALJs were needed but would not happen, so don't get too excited. The operations side is really getting very hard up and as congressional pressure increases is almost certain to get some of the future resources.

I'm confused. Isn't the funding already in place for the existing number of judges at the time of the Budget? Is the 71 city cert list and what that represents (150) totally irrespective of the Agency's "need" to replace retiring judges?

[southerner]

I believe the funding is already in place. The 150 spots for judges are only the first wave. There are more openings in the SSA ALJ corps than that, due to retirements,attrition, and increasing application numbers, and that would explain the additional ALJ positions that the Commissioner would like to see filled over the next couple of years, fiscal or calendar. Given the Congressional interest in dealing with the backlog as well as more expeditious dispositions in general, I would think the Commissioner would receive great support, monetarily and otherwise, from members of Congress in addressing those issues.