empty alj offices

[learnedhand]

OK, this is an ambitious thread. Are there any people out there who know of hearing offices where there are empty alj offices? Maybe you know someone who know maybe you are in a position to have that information. For example, is anyone familiar with the Tampa office? A number of people have asked for a transfer there, but are there any empty offices through retirement, etc.?

[hooligan]

While I recognize it is frustrating not to know where the openings will be, this inquiry is not likely to be very helpful. Chief Judge Cristaudo has gone on record indicating that new judges will be assigned according to need rather than mere space availability. Space will not be irrelevant, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. He has specifically instructed Regional management to take into account each office's backlog, staffing, facilities and production. Each Region is projecting how many of the 150 or so they can absorb. There are contingency lists for priorities if there are 50, 100 or 150 hires. This will all change once the judges on the transfer list are given a chance to move. Some of the secondary openings may not be backfilled. Other unanticipated locations may get a new judge if one leaves.

Two certainties seem to be that there will be a number of openings in Falls Church (or DC) and in New Orleans. Fall Church involves the new National Hearing office and New Orleans involves repopulating an office that was dispursed after Katrina. There are new offices planned for other locations, but it is doubtful the planning is far enough advanced to accommodate openings for new judges.

[aljsouth]

The problem is that you can put a new judge in an empty writer's office only for so long before a grievance is filed which the agency will lose. The space standards were set by the agency and a grievance was filed once about them for reducing the square footage of space. The agency won because the standards were published before the judge's unionized. The decision required the agency to negotiate any future changes.

Of course this is an agecy that builds new sites and refuses to negotiate anything so who knows what they will do.

[hooligan]

ALJSOUTH -

You are correct, of course, that they will not put an ALJ into an office without a plan to find space for him/her. However, they used to just look for open space in making allotments. The current rhetoric indicates that just because there is an open office it will no longer be a foregone conclusion that a body will be slotted into it. It is not irrelevant but no longer controlling.

[learnedhand]

As you noted, hooligan, it is not irrelevant, so I figure, why not take a look at it?

[oldtimer]

The irony (at least to me) is that ODAR's former practice of assigning new ALJs according to where there's an available office (rather than merely where there's need, vis-a-vis caseload) finally makes sense, now that we have at least one VTC hearing room in every office (and, I'm told, all hearing rooms in Region I, in anticipation of DSI rolling out). Thus, if hearing office staff could work-up the cases and/or draft the decisions (or work could be done in the appropriate regional unit), there's no reason a new judge couldn't be physically assigned to, say, Buffalo North, yet hear many of his/her cases by VTC from, say, Dallas North.

[aljsouth]

oldtimer said:

The irony (at least to me) is that ODAR's former practice of assigning new ALJs according to where there's an available office (rather than merely where there's need, vis-a-vis caseload) finally makes sense, now that we have at least one VTC hearing room in every office (and, I'm told, all hearing rooms in Region I, in anticipation of DSI rolling out). Thus, if hearing office staff could work-up the cases and/or draft the decisions (or work could be done in the appropriate regional unit), there's no reason a new judge couldn't be physically assigned to, say, Buffalo North, yet hear many of his/her cases by VTC from, say, Dallas North.

You are forgeting politics. Many congressional offices don't mind a transfer of some cases to bring down a case load; but will scream if their people have their cases assigned more permanently to "out of state" judges. Also, the idea of the central hearing office, supposedly, is to create a flexible cadre of VTC judges to work down caseloads across the nation.

You are also ignoring regional politics that has sent new judges repeatedly to offices that have low caseloads while ignoring other offices entirely. This has created the large disparity among the H.O.'s in the caseload per judge that exists today. Let us wait and see who actually gets new judges. Sorry to be so cynical.

[ruonthelist]

hooligan said:

Chief Judge Cristaudo has gone on record indicating that new judges will be assigned according to need rather than mere space availability. Space will not be irrelevant, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. He has specifically instructed Regional management to take into account each office's backlog, staffing, facilities and production.

If CALJ Cristaudo is trying to bring management practices on Bizarro World more in line with how things are done on Planet Earth, good for him. On Earth an organization like ODAR with a big backlog spread among scores of field offices would assign new judges based on (1) where the cases that need judges are and (2) where there was sufficient support staff for the new judges to be productive. The availability of office space would be a distant third, and chiefly would be a limiting factor--lack of an office might prevent you from placing a judge where the first two factors indicated that one should go.

However, that is on Earth. The customary Bizarro World approach is to ignore the first two factors and make assignments based solely on the existence of open office space. The fact that Judge C apparently wants to change that is good news.

[judicature]

Is it very likely that existing office space could accomodate 150 - 170 new ALJs??

[ruonthelist]

Judicature: I don't know, but Falls Church presumably does. That's why, early in every hiring cycle, they check with the field offices to see where the empty offices are. 150 offices would be an average of only a little more than 1 per office. I've only been to a few ODAR offices, but I have never seen one that didn't have at least one empty ALJ office. From time to time I poke fun at ODAR management, but to give credit where it is due, they seem to have planned for expansion in procuring office space. Maybe they did it because they were planning for increased caseloads resulting from the aging baby boomers, or maybe it was the bureaucratic instinct for empire building, but for whatever reason I suspect that they have the office space for the number of judges that they plan to hire.

Also, if the new DC based VTC hearing unit is established, every new judge assigned there is one that will not require an office in an existing field office; and every current judge transferred to the new unit will free up an office in the field.

[judicature]

Interesting post ruonthelist.

It makes a great deal of sense for SSA to staff the new centralized office with transfers (read experienced ALJ's) rather than new hires. Since the DC area is one of the more coveted locations, some folks who have been waiting a very long time could finally have their chance thereby creating space in the offices they are relocating from.

[odarite]

Not to mention when you have a completely new concept (a video hearing center where everything will be remote) it makes a great deal of sense to have experienced ALJs begin the process, whatever may happen down the road.

[techgeek]

I am curious as to how the union justified the large space given to the Judges when the rest of the staff has small offices and cubes and why ODAR went along with it in the first place.Some offices actually have a space shortage. Now, I figure the Judges spend X amt of hours in hearings daily so they are not in their office and then many work at home a few days per week. Some work out of remote sites. So, many of these large offices sit empty many days per week. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Especially when paper folders were the only way to work a case, the CT, SCT and leads sure don't have enough desk space and dual monitors has cut that down also.

The hosa barely has enough space to breath and now has to have table space/deskspace to work on the flexiplace laptops.But, there is no office in our contract and really , are we not as important as anyone else. Without us, nothing runs! I really can't figure out the thought process that goes into decision making in this agency. I want to belong to the Judges union cause AFGE is for the birds!

[learnedhand]

The clerical staff does not have offices either, nor does the admin staff. As far as the judge office size, it was explained to me that judges held hearings in their offices when they were first built because there were no hearing rooms. In our building, we have asbestos in the floors so to tear up the space to reconfigue would result in having to evacuate the rest of the building, for who-knows-how-long.

[chris]

Techgeek, no justification is needed. Judges have earned their positions through years of education and years of work as an attorney. To say that clerks and techs have equal status is simply not reality. There are perks associated with being a judge and one would hope that one of those perks would be a decent office. I can't remember the number of times in my legal career that I have heard paralegals whine that attorneys make more money than they do or have better offices. My response is always the same: If you want the salary and the perks, go to law school. Then you can deal with eating sphagetti with cheap canned tomato sauce every night in law school because it's the only thing you can afford to eat. After that you can deal with paying back thousands of dollars of loans on top of your undergrad loans. And once you become an attorney you get to go to court and argue with people all day long, then come back to the office and argue with your clients, then listen to your staff whine about their jobs. If any paralegals and clerks think they deserve the big money and the big offices, let them earn it.

Chris

[learnedhand]

Apparently, the agency has a standard size for every office and many judge offices are larger than they are supposed to be, according to these standards. This is how SSA functions and the space police are relentless at looking at space and ways to reconfigure. As I explained above, the larger office size served a purpose and, aside from the huge cost to reconfigure in time and money (which is irrelevant to the beancounters, seriously), there may be environmental issues in the older buildings as well.

The other thing, Chris, is that, historically, you had to be an attorney, manager or judge to have an office in OHA. With HPI, many clerks were promoted to decisionwriters, which gave them the right to an office. I think this created the attitude in many offices that clerical and admin staff, from which the HPI promotions came, should have offices as well. There is a very different culture in SSA from law offices and it was a serious adjustment for me when I came into the office from private practice. Your response was an apt one.

[techgeek]

Chris,

I can't argue with your statements about length and cost of schooling and the hard work you endure to become attorneys and then judges. I am just stating that the cost to gov't is very high. The people working the files and putting the files together barely have enough room to breath. I know you see this in your office. I see it in mine. It is a waste of needed space. Some other postings speak about placing future judges not just in offices that have available space but also in offices that have a huge pending workload. Well, how about offices that have huge pending workloads and no space. Maybe, if the judges offices were somewhat smaller, you would be able to have that many more judges(not that we have the budget for it).Or, your tech who may also need some quiet area to think through a technical issue has the space. I know I don't. Not trying to be argumentative and there are two sides to every coin. I am just looking at this whole equation from my side. As we are seeing gov't take a harder stance with employees and unions, there will obviously be stuggles from both sides.I think if a Judge needs an office that big, they should be in that office every day, not working from home. Same with writers, If they are going to work from home, then, their offices should be given to staff that are in the office every day. JMHO. Everyone wants their cake and wants to eat it also. That is human nature, But, it is time for some semblance of common sense to prevail or this agency will just be to busy dealing with bs to deal with anything else. We might be there now.

[chris]

TG, I understand your points and many are well made. But if you continue to look for a common sense approach by any federal agency you are going to be perpetually frustrated and disappointed. I have friends who work for the FBI and you would not believe the absurd things that are done over there. The management structure that exists within any federal agency is always poorly designed. The folks at the top almost never know what the folks at the bottom are doing. Even if they do, the upper level management is always constrained by financial issues and political issues.

Chris

[workdrone]

Folks,

Good points all around. I can't say how happy I am to see well reasoned discussions going on on this forum. If we were on the old forum, this thread would have degenerated to name calling and profanities probably 2 posts down the first page.

Thanks to everyone for keeping the discussions worthwhile!

[techgeek]

chris said:

TG, I understand your points and many are well made. But if you continue to look for a common sense approach by any federal agency you are going to be perpetually frustrated and disappointed. I have friends who work for the FBI and you would not believe the absurd things that are done over there. The management structure that exists within any federal agency is always poorly designed. The folks at the top almost never know what the folks at the bottom are doing. Even if they do, the upper level management is always constrained by financial issues and political issues.

Good points Chris and I appreciated your response. Yes, I am frustrated about how things are done (or not done). It seems like an idea is thought up and before any sense can be made about how to proceed, the rush is on to complete the new initiative. We had to have dual monitors but flexipalce folks can't. For all these years PII has been on personal computers. Have we had problems? Do we hear about an employees personal computer being stolen. NO. It is a risk and so is selling or trashing the system with PII on it. So, I understand the concern. So, let me think this through for a second. Why not just suspend working at home with PII as a national security concern? Is that drastic?? Maybe. But, if it is such a troubling problem for the agency, what court would not uphold the request to suspend work at home? Especially if the employees have a place to work from, and, they do. I would think on the next contract go round that the gov't will try to end flexiplace. For me, that would be a mixed blessing. The more people we have in the office, the harder I work. However, manually applying patches to laptops and having to change passwords every 30 days on a system I don't even use is a PIA. And, to be responsible to make sure that higher grade employees not only know how to check for PII but also checking to make sure they erase it..is BS. They don't want to give us a higher grade and they don't want to make us part of MGMT but they want to be able to blame us even though we literally can't tell the employee usiong the laptop what to do. Thank you AFGE for completely binding our hands together but letting the agency give us responsibilities we can't enforce and can be held liable for. Sorry, i guess I was venting.