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Post by robespierre on Sept 15, 2014 12:56:18 GMT -5
Word yesterday is for 200 ALJs hired "by end of FY15". Does this mean many smaller certs or just a longer wait for cert #2? This is somewhat consistent with what was bandied about in the Spring - ~200 by the end of calendar 2014 and another 100 or so in 2015. That would make 300 total - we're 70 in, so another 200 would be in the ballpark. I do not believe the 200 would mean "including the 70 we already have", because that would get them back to full from 6 to 12 months ago - and not replace continuing retirements. Without any additional knowledge, it appears to me they want to get back to "full" and hire on an annual basis to replace losses. That's what a "normal" HR department would do - the time and complication of building the most recent register, while not completely unprecedented, has put them behind 6 to 9 months from their overall ALJ staffing plan (also complicated by the budget issues of a year ago) - this is 100% my opinion, not based on any direct knowledge, but rather from statements and actions over the past 2 years. Ace, could you explain what you mean by "their overall ALJ staffing plan"? I didn't know there was such a thing, other than to add some undefined number of ALJs in order to reduce case backlogs. Not disputing with you; just would like to hear more.
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Post by Ace Midnight on Sept 16, 2014 8:06:40 GMT -5
Ace, could you explain what you mean by "their overall ALJ staffing plan"? I didn't know there was such a thing, other than to add some undefined number of ALJs in order to reduce case backlogs. Not disputing with you; just would like to hear more. Well - they're not "adding some undefined number" - none of these are new seats - to my knowledge - like some of the hires from 2007 to 2010 (and not all of those were new either) - these rounds of hiring are mainly to replace attrition - as you may know approximately half of the ALJ corps is eligible for retirement. Many ALJs retire (or die) every year. Once the budget was set after the unpleasantness of last fall, SSA/ODAR knew how many FTE (full time equivalents) they were working with and generated a staffing plan going forward - they had a plan for hiring case techs, writers and ALJs. That's where those numbers from the spring came from (~200 this year). It is primarily a budget driven/cost-benefits analysis process, now. If you look at the 70 out of the intended 90 that they filled in the first round - they, by and large, picked the places that were most in need (e.g. Mount Pleasant) and did not hire a few singles/doubles here in there without as much of a backlog. These next few rounds will, essentially, be topping off of the ~200 they were short, originally. Going forward, it makes sense that, after they're topped off, to then replace on a case-by-case basis. The other significant thing to note is - once topped off, transfers will be much less available for a while. That is, potentially, another reason to space out these hires a little - to allow the existing corps at least an opportunity (or two) to transfer before things get locked down for another couple of years.
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Post by floss on Sept 16, 2014 12:43:21 GMT -5
My understanding from previous posts was that there were to be 200 (total) hired by December 2014. Also, I remember a post from Funky that interviews were to be during the first two weeks in November. Does anyone know whether a second cert has been requested officially? If it has not, then doesn't it appear doubtful that another 130 people can even be hired (much less trained) in the time between now and December 31? I certainly hope that I am wrong, but as long as the process took for the first cert, it doesn't look good for a second cert to be done by Dec. 31.
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Post by saaao on Sept 16, 2014 13:17:44 GMT -5
My understanding from previous posts was that there were to be 200 (total) hired by December 2014. Also, I remember a post from Funky that interviews were to be during the first two weeks in November. Does anyone know whether a second cert has been requested officially? If it has not, then doesn't it appear doubtful that another 130 people can even be hired (much less trained) in the time between now and December 31? I certainly hope that I am wrong, but as long as the process took for the first cert, it doesn't look good for a second cert to be done by Dec. 31. There is actually a discussion on this topic in the sound of silence thread. ODAR could not get 130 new ALJ's trained by the calendar year's end, but if they release a cert between now and the first week of FY 15 they could possibly interview all the candidates who had not previously been interviewed and make offers in time to have ALJ's hired on the books prior to the end of calendar year, with report dates in early 2015. I tend to think January is more likely for the next hiring push to start, but if it does happen this calendar year, the Certs will have to come out very soon.
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Post by luckylady2 on Sept 16, 2014 13:42:12 GMT -5
My understanding from previous posts was that there were to be 200 (total) hired by December 2014. Also, I remember a post from Funky that interviews were to be during the first two weeks in November. Does anyone know whether a second cert has been requested officially? If it has not, then doesn't it appear doubtful that another 130 people can even be hired (much less trained) in the time between now and December 31? I certainly hope that I am wrong, but as long as the process took for the first cert, it doesn't look good for a second cert to be done by Dec. 31. There is actually a discussion on this topic in the sound of silence thread. ODAR could not get 130 new ALJ's trained by the calendar year's end, but if they release a cert between now and the first week of FY 15 they could possibly interview all the candidates who had not previously been interviewed and make offers in time to have ALJ's hired on the books prior to the end of calendar year, with report dates in early 2015. I tend to think January is more likely for the next hiring push to start, but if it does happen this calendar year, the Certs will have to come out very soon. Welcome to the Board, Floss! Yes, we're thinking that the goal is pretty much to make the selection by the end of the year. Bear in mind that the process has changed to a cert-per-city, instead of one large second cert. During the last round, SSA apparently had some new experiences (for them) with people needing a little time to accept an offer and SSA not being able to make other offers until it heard back. I think we're not sure how they'll try to correct or deal with that in the next round. I think we're all anticipating another group of cities certed at about the same time again, as Ace noted, to try to get themselves back up to full staffing as soon as is reasonably possible. There were several people who have already been interviewed during the first round of certs, so the November interviews will only pick up those that 1) are on one of the second-round city certs and 2) have not been interviewed. I think we're all anticipating that there may be some repeat cities in the second round. So no, they won't get "done" (if "done" means completing training) by the end of the year, but it looks like they'll make a good effort to get as far as they can with a second round of certs, rather than just waiting for the new year to start, and they probably will have started making offers and receiving acceptances on this second round by the end of the year.
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tr33
Full Member
Posts: 37
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Post by tr33 on Sept 17, 2014 18:52:25 GMT -5
A nugget of good news. A judge who is on the interviewer list told me today that she was advised to keep November open for interviews. The way I see it b/c of Thanksgiving the November interviews would have to be during mid November at the latest. And if the next cert's timeline is like the others, the second cert should be coming out anywhere from next week to at most 4 weeks from now.
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Post by gary on Sept 17, 2014 19:01:25 GMT -5
A nugget of good news. A judge who is on the interviewer list told me today that she was advised to keep November open for interviews. The way I see it b/c of Thanksgiving the November interviews would have to be during mid November at the latest. And if the next cert's timeline is like the others, the second cert should be coming out anywhere from next week to at most 4 weeks from now. If this pans out it is good news.
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Post by chessparent on Sept 17, 2014 19:26:48 GMT -5
Yeah, way to join the board tr33!
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tr33
Full Member
Posts: 37
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Post by tr33 on Sept 17, 2014 19:33:43 GMT -5
I know that November interviews were reported previous, but this was just told to her today so at least the plan is still for November. Just thought I should share the potentially good news.
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Post by orchid on Sept 17, 2014 19:39:50 GMT -5
I know that November interviews were reported previous, but this was just told to her today so at least the plan is still for November. Just thought I should share the potentially good news. Great news tr33. Thanks for sharing!
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Post by mikeinthehills on Sept 17, 2014 19:57:49 GMT -5
Love it tr33. It's the next link in the chain. Thanks for the intel. It's very much appreciated by those of us watching and waiting. And chip in any time. The more the better.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2014 20:07:59 GMT -5
A nugget of good news. A judge who is on the interviewer list told me today that she was advised to keep November open for interviews. The way I see it b/c of Thanksgiving the November interviews would have to be during mid November at the latest. And if the next cert's timeline is like the others, the second cert should be coming out anywhere from next week to at most 4 weeks from now.
As others have posted in one form or another, ODAR would like to hire a lot of ALJs quickly. I'm a NODAR, now ALJ in the current class, but I have heard the same thing here in Falls Church. The second cert is ready to go, but the Agency has one class going and another coming the week after we finish our training.
Basically, they are busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest. We have great instructors (and great is an understatement) and having this many ALJs teaching for the next two classes while trying to have more ALJs come in for interviews will cause a few problems, but I believe interviews will happen in the next couple of months.
I would predict that before my class leaves on October 10, the 2nd Cert will be out there with interviews happening before Thanksgiving, but what do I know? I thought I would never get selected and here I am. Good Luck to all. Tiger
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Post by gary on Sept 18, 2014 7:38:38 GMT -5
A nugget of good news. A judge who is on the interviewer list told me today that she was advised to keep November open for interviews. The way I see it b/c of Thanksgiving the November interviews would have to be during mid November at the latest. And if the next cert's timeline is like the others, the second cert should be coming out anywhere from next week to at most 4 weeks from now.
As others have posted in one form or another, ODAR would like to hire a lot of ALJs quickly. I'm a NODAR, now ALJ in the current class, but I have heard the same thing here in Falls Church. The second cert is ready to go, but the Agency has one class going and another coming the week after we finish our training.
Basically, they are busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest. We have great instructors (and great is an understatement) and having this many ALJs teaching for the next two classes while trying to have more ALJs come in for interviews will cause a few problems, but I believe interviews will happen in the next couple of months.
I would predict that before my class leaves on October 10, the 2nd Cert will be out there with interviews happening before Thanksgiving, but what do I know? I thought I would never get selected and here I am. Good Luck to all. Tiger
Hmmmm . . . . Tiger, would you do me a big favor and predict I will not get hired as an ALJ? That way maybe I'd get to meet you at some ALJ function down the road.
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Post by robespierre on Sept 18, 2014 12:55:23 GMT -5
A nugget of good news. A judge who is on the interviewer list told me today that she was advised to keep November open for interviews. The way I see it b/c of Thanksgiving the November interviews would have to be during mid November at the latest. And if the next cert's timeline is like the others, the second cert should be coming out anywhere from next week to at most 4 weeks from now. Thanks for the info, TR. My gut is telling me: second cert comes right after the new FY starts on Oct. 1.
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Post by orchid on Sept 18, 2014 12:59:57 GMT -5
If anyone has any information they do not want to personally post, I'd be happy to be an intermediary to inform the rest of the board. Just offering
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Post by jonsprag1 on Sept 18, 2014 14:12:07 GMT -5
A nugget of good news. A judge who is on the interviewer list told me today that she was advised to keep November open for interviews. The way I see it b/c of Thanksgiving the November interviews would have to be during mid November at the latest. And if the next cert's timeline is like the others, the second cert should be coming out anywhere from next week to at most 4 weeks from now. Thanks for the info, TR. My gut is telling me: second cert comes right after the new FY starts on Oct. 1. That's my take also---
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Post by orchid on Sept 19, 2014 13:51:15 GMT -5
Both the House and Senate passed a Continuing Resolution that will fund the federal government through December 11, 2014. The Pres. will sign off on the CR shortly. Anyone have any new theories on how this may impact the second cert?
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Post by JudgeRatty on Sept 19, 2014 15:17:44 GMT -5
Both the House and Senate passed a Continuing Resolution that will fund the federal government through December 11, 2014. The Pres. will sign off on the CR shortly. Anyone have any new theories on how this may impact the second cert? This is likely what we are waiting on, that final signature. I bet the games begin soon.
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Post by anotherfed on Sept 19, 2014 19:03:04 GMT -5
I thought the SSA hiring was funded thru the end of FY15 in a two year deal to get the staffing up to levels.
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Post by JudgeRatty on Sept 19, 2014 19:57:39 GMT -5
I thought the SSA hiring was funded thru the end of FY15 in a two year deal to get the staffing up to levels. I did too but apparently the budget was there, but not fully funded. Now we are back to the same ole CR issue. At least once this is signed we will be good through December.
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