I noticed several writers mentioned the time constraints they are under in this thread. Judges have approximately 2 1/2 hours to review, hear, write instructions, edit, and sign a case from start to finish.
Post by JudgeRatty on Sept 1, 2015 12:14:55 GMT -5
It's called TEAM effort people! Stop throwing mud. We all have a job to do and we depend on each other. And if there is a problem employee (ALJ or whoever) it is also our responsibly to do whatever is helpful to change things and not just whine. Yes yes, some folks have better management teams than others, but do what you can to make everyone succeed. All you can do is to do your best!
This job is no different than any job in that there are hard workers and slackers in every role. You make the best of it. Half full/half empty. Depends on your view.
Well - at least 1 ALJ did get "disciplined" at least in part for being an extreme outlier in terms of dispositions if I recall correctly . . . . So it can happen.
Tired of playing with the Avatar settings - so going with the pet theme.
I noticed several writers mentioned the time constraints they are under in this thread. Judges have approximately 2 1/2 hours to review, hear, write instructions, edit, and sign a case from start to finish.
You're only working 31-32 weeks a year and never work credit? That must be nice. I've got to figure out how to get my schedule there, too.
and make double the salary, are not performance rated, and have 0 fear of being fired for failing to meet said time constraints... cry me a river
I think asking for a river of tears is over the top, I would of went with cry me a "baby food jar" full of tears as more realistic with ALJ's current workload.
lonelywriter is correct about the major differences and I always tell the writers that I appreciate what they say and their opinions as suggested changes in opinions as the remand effects them a lot more than it does me until I get too many remands.
Bartleby, hopefalj was doing his math based upon 500-600 decision a year, if you take 550 cases x 2.5, you only get 1,375 hours, I always use 2,080 as the normal hours worked in a year, but it's not an exact science except that 2.5 hours per case leave alot of weeks still open for something. Anyway, lunch is over, and back on the bench. Have fun! tiger
Post by Propmaster on Sept 1, 2015 16:02:01 GMT -5
2080 - 80 hours for Federal holidays - at least 4x26 hours annual leave you are allowed to use (104 hours) - quarterly training and mandatory monthly ALJ meeting potentially required (20 hours) = 1876 hours, which, with a goal for ALJs of "500 to 700" cases (averaging out to 600 cases) in about 1800 hours = 3 hours, but without considering: inclement weather closures, travel time required for remote hearings, additional staff meetings, sick leave (cause, you know, ALJs are old), 4 mandatory fire drills per year, yearly ethical training and information security trainings, etc.
Last Edit: Sept 1, 2015 16:04:43 GMT -5 by Propmaster
and make double the salary, are not performance rated, and have 0 fear of being fired for failing to meet said time constraints... cry me a river
I think asking for a river of tears is over the top, I would of went with cry me a "baby food jar" full of tears as more realistic with ALJ's current workload.
lonelywriter is correct about the major differences and I always tell the writers that I appreciate what they say and their opinions as suggested changes in opinions as the remand effects them a lot more than it does me until I get too many remands.
Bartleby, hopefalj was doing his math based upon 500-600 decision a year, if you take 550 cases x 2.5, you only get 1,375 hours, I always use 2,080 as the normal hours worked in a year, but it's not an exact science except that 2.5 hours per case leave alot of weeks still open for something. Anyway, lunch is over, and back on the bench. Have fun! tiger
If I recall correctly tigerlaw was a former Sgt. in the Army in charge of a bunch of guys in a war zone. I know something about this and know a leader when I see one.
The point of course is that he knows the writer's job and while he cannot lead by example per se, he does it in other ways, like adherence to the Golden Rule and in his disposition and general comportment.
In Threads bemoaning crappy writing and Dickensian management demands I often just shake my head. Yes, its hard work and your inbox is deeper than the ocean. But I remember, nearly every day, the incredible joy of getting this Job and when the memory fades I have this Board to look to. Amazing how I can then prove Einstein the genuis he was as time is indeed relative as is my approach to a day's work. I am blessed and now I am happy to see others will be soon as well.
Prop, you need to sharpen your pencil. First off, we work 7 1/2 hours a day. Therefore we work 1950 hours a year. Those of us that have been around have 208 hours of leave a year. I lost 8 days last year by overbooking my docket to get numbers. We have 80 hours of Federal Holidays. We have 40 hours of AALJ Training/Conference. We have 40 hours of training at Falls Church some/most years. We have 20 hours of ALJ meetings in the office. We also have 32 hours of VOD days when we are not allowed to hear cases. If we are trying to do 600 cases a year, we have 2.55 hours each from go to gone... That doesn't include the biannual fire/active shooter/in place shelter training or the unknown hours waiting for the computer to come up or be fixed.. But I digress.
I need a raise (besides the one I got last week)! I didn't know we couldn't hear cases on OCEP days, but now I know. I think Funky broke it down one day in his office for me and it was about the same numbers, but no matter how you break it down, bartleby is correct on the simple fact that at 500-700 cases a year, there isn't a lot of time to spare beyond the 2.5 to 3.0 hrs per case.
Prop, you need to sharpen your pencil. First off, we work 7 1/2 hours a day. Therefore we work 1950 hours a year. Those of us that have been around have 208 hours of leave a year. I lost 8 days last year by overbooking my docket to get numbers. We have 80 hours of Federal Holidays. We have 40 hours of AALJ Training/Conference. We have 40 hours of training at Falls Church some/most years. We have 20 hours of ALJ meetings in the office. We also have 32 hours of VOD days when we are not allowed to hear cases. If we are trying to do 600 cases a year, we have 2.55 hours each from go to gone... That doesn't include the biannual fire/active shooter/in place shelter training or the unknown hours waiting for the computer to come up or be fixed.. But I digress.
Hmmm. It's a good question, one relevant to writers in terms of the upcoming DWPI. How does one count the 2 15-minute rest periods each day that are paid breaks from work. I have assumed that they are dispersed pro rata in any workload analysis. In other words, if you get 15 minutes every 4 hours, you get 7.5 minutes every 2 hours, so working on a case for 2.5 hours was assumed to include 8-9 minutes of break. It could go either way, in my opinion, but starting from 1950 is reasonable.
The AALJ training conference is duty time? That surprises me. No wonder people go to it. I assumed people had to take annual leave to go to it. I also have seen very few ALJs except the one-year olds go to Falls Church training again. Most of our judges accidentally schedule hearings during that time. I didn't use an 8-hour leave category, since that takes 10? 15? years of federal service, not relevant for most/many of the board members.
Most of your other numbers are the same as mine. I hope you realized I was actually backing you up, albeit with different numbers than above.
I need a raise (besides the one I got last week)! I didn't know we couldn't hear cases on OCEP days, but now I know. I think Funky broke it down one day in his office for me and it was about the same numbers, but no matter how you break it down, bartleby is correct on the simple fact that at 500-700 cases a year, there isn't a lot of time to spare beyond the 2.5 to 3.0 hrs per case.
I have never heard that you can't hear cases on OCEP days - only that you need to be free to view the video and joint the meeting. I have never seen my office even keep the afternoon clear for all judges for the mandatory meeting during which no hearings are supposed to be scheduled. That's the kind of error that management overlooks because it helps them.
2080 - 80 hours for Federal holidays - at least 4x26 hours annual leave you are allowed to use (104 hours) - quarterly training and mandatory monthly ALJ meeting potentially required (20 hours) = 1876 hours, which, with a goal for ALJs of "500 to 700" cases (averaging out to 600 cases) in about 1800 hours = 3 hours, but without considering: inclement weather closures, travel time required for remote hearings, additional staff meetings, sick leave (cause, you know, ALJs are old), 4 mandatory fire drills per year, yearly ethical training and information security trainings, etc.
Then it varies by office. I've never been in an office that precludes ALJs from holding hearings in OCEP days, and I'm in my third. We don't have to go to staff meetings, and I am genuinely curious how many offices actually have monthly ALJ meetings.
And what's with the 600 number? Just because the goal is 500-700 doesn't mean anyone has to pump out more than 500. Nobody has to do 600 per year, and 500 got you a pat on the back. Going over 500 in a hypo is simply trying to reach a desired result by decreasing the average time per file.
And in the mishmash of vague extra time kills (4 quarterly fire drills at 15-20 minutes per drill... really? ) are the built in time savers, like short FREV hearings with amended onset dates, no shows, OTRs, withdrawn requests for hearings, untimely requests for hearings, etc. There are plenty of opportunities to make up lost time and ease the burden of hitting 500 in the job.
That said, it is much easier to do in some offices than others simply because of file size, quality of representation, level of care available to the indigent, etc., but the 2.5 hours per file number is a highly manufactured and exaggerated figure thrown around by the AALJ. Even if you assume an ALJ needs 10 weeks of non-work per year (2 weeks fed holidays, 5 weeks annual leave for a 15+ fed employee, a week for CLE/AALJ conference, and two weeks of misc leave like sick leave, inclement weather, etc.), you're at ~3.4 hours per file to hit 500. And that number doesn't include any of the made up time I discussed above that probably happens on a quarter to a third of all cases.
2080 - 80 hours for Federal holidays - at least 4x26 hours annual leave you are allowed to use (104 hours) - quarterly training and mandatory monthly ALJ meeting potentially required (20 hours) = 1876 hours, which, with a goal for ALJs of "500 to 700" cases (averaging out to 600 cases) in about 1800 hours = 3 hours, but without considering: inclement weather closures, travel time required for remote hearings, additional staff meetings, sick leave (cause, you know, ALJs are old), 4 mandatory fire drills per year, yearly ethical training and information security trainings, etc.
Then it varies by office. I've never been in an office that precludes ALJs from holding hearings in OCEP days, and I'm in my third. We don't have to go to staff meetings, and I am genuinely curious how many offices actually have monthly ALJ meetings.
And what's with the 600 number? Just because the goal is 500-700 doesn't mean anyone has to pump out more than 500. Nobody has to do 600 per year, and 500 got you a pat on the back. Going over 500 in a hypo is simply trying to reach a desired result by decreasing the average time per file.
And in the mishmash of vague extra time kills (4 quarterly fire drills at 15-20 minutes per drill... really? ) are the built in time savers, like short FREV hearings with amended onset dates, no shows, OTRs, withdrawn requests for hearings, untimely requests for hearings, etc. There are plenty of opportunities to make up lost time and ease the burden of hitting 500 in the job.
That said, it is much easier to do in some offices than others simply because of file size, quality of representation, level of care available to the indigent, etc., but the 2.5 hours per file number is a highly manufactured and exaggerated figure thrown around by the AALJ. Even if you assume an ALJ needs 10 weeks of non-work per year (2 weeks fed holidays, 5 weeks annual leave for a 15+ fed employee, a week for CLE/AALJ conference, and two weeks of misc leave like sick leave, inclement weather, etc.), you're at ~3.4 hours per file to hit 500. And that number doesn't include any of the made up time I discussed above that probably happens on a quarter to a third of all cases.
Without trying to rebut your personal observations in any way, but purely from a logical standpoint, I need to point out that you can't offset an amount of non-work time with work time in which easy work is done. The easy cases are already included in whatever average is eventually derived from work hours consideration. You could only "save" hours on a case if there was some kind of minimum number of hours every case was deemed to take prior to applying an averaging factor. I'm not sure I'm clear, but basically, you can't make up time doing work quickly when doing that work quickly is already part of the average time per case you are trying to achieve.
Also, I picked 600 because 500-700 is the stated goal. Check out your colorful "on pace" graphic in How MI Doing? There's a helpful "how to get to 700" line, to prepare for the planned increases.
Last Edit: Sept 1, 2015 17:55:59 GMT -5 by Propmaster
2080 - 80 hours for Federal holidays - at least 4x26 hours annual leave you are allowed to use (104 hours) - quarterly training and mandatory monthly ALJ meeting potentially required (20 hours) = 1876 hours, which, with a goal for ALJs of "500 to 700" cases (averaging out to 600 cases) in about 1800 hours = 3 hours, but without considering: inclement weather closures, travel time required for remote hearings, additional staff meetings, sick leave (cause, you know, ALJs are old), 4 mandatory fire drills per year, yearly ethical training and information security trainings, etc.
Then it varies by office. I've never been in an office that precludes ALJs from holding hearings in OCEP days, and I'm in my third. We don't have to go to staff meetings, and I am genuinely curious how many offices actually have monthly ALJ meetings.
And what's with the 600 number? Just because the goal is 500-700 doesn't mean anyone has to pump out more than 500. Nobody has to do 600 per year, and 500 got you a pat on the back. Going over 500 in a hypo is simply trying to reach a desired result by decreasing the average time per file.
And in the mishmash of vague extra time kills (4 quarterly fire drills at 15-20 minutes per drill... really? ) are the built in time savers, like short FREV hearings with amended onset dates, no shows, OTRs, withdrawn requests for hearings, untimely requests for hearings, etc. There are plenty of opportunities to make up lost time and ease the burden of hitting 500 in the job.
That said, it is much easier to do in some offices than others simply because of file size, quality of representation, level of care available to the indigent, etc., but the 2.5 hours per file number is a highly manufactured and exaggerated figure thrown around by the AALJ. Even if you assume an ALJ needs 10 weeks of non-work per year (2 weeks fed holidays, 5 weeks annual leave for a 15+ fed employee, a week for CLE/AALJ conference, and two weeks of misc leave like sick leave, inclement weather, etc.), you're at ~3.4 hours per file to hit 500. And that number doesn't include any of the made up time I discussed above that probably happens on a quarter to a third of all cases.