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Post by pepsifan on May 9, 2020 8:36:25 GMT -5
As to AWT, policy research does not require prior supervisor approval. I believe it should be case specific, but still does not require prior approval. Listen to your supervisor advice. If they say you need to participate, develop, and engage, ask them how you can do so, ask for time to work on development, volunteer for everything, ask how or if you can learn how to do things. Tell them you are trying to do as they suggested during your PACS meeting. If they say no, workload don’t allow it. You remind them of that in your self-assessment. You sounds like a good manager, which is not always the case. I have tried to take AWT for policy research; I was told that I could only take the time if the ALJ specifically asked for it. I contested this, though not through the union, and still got shot down. (It was less than a hour, so not a great deal of time.)
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Post by bippity on May 9, 2020 12:45:31 GMT -5
The sad fact is, and it pains me to say this, neither DWs nor SAAs are attorneys at this point. The agency has become a complete deathtrap for a legal career. Don't believe me? Try and escape. This. Escaping is so hard to do. The people I know who were successful in escaping had to take a large pay cut, and/or take an insecure term position, and/or giving up the life they built in their current location. Some, all three.
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Post by intothewild on May 9, 2020 12:56:52 GMT -5
The sad fact is, and it pains me to say this, neither DWs nor SAAs are attorneys at this point. The agency has become a complete deathtrap for a legal career. Don't believe me? Try and escape. This. Escaping is so hard to do. The people I know who were successful in escaping had to take a large pay cut, and/or take an insecure term position, and/or giving up the life they built in their current location. Some, all three. Honestly it is hard for attorneys to escape the feds in general. The private sector sucks bad. You get institutionalized after awhile.
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Post by bippity on May 9, 2020 13:03:02 GMT -5
Sadly, in my office we are not encouraged to take advantage of AWT for training or research purposes. Interesting thing is, it's extremely difficult for a DW to get a 5 on a PAC's in "interpersonal skills." I, as well as many of my coworkers, are repeatedly told that to get a 5 we need to participate more, develop our skills, or engage others. As a DW, there are rarely opportunities to develop our skills or engage others with the constant drumbeat of DWPI. In fact, there is scant opportunity to perform vital research on regulations, guidelines, rulings, or other pertinent information that could not only develop our skills, but improve our decisions overall. Good for you for encouraging your employees to develop their skills. Too bad your employees are not taking advantage of the opportunity. ....Sorry, I can’t recall Level 5 standards at the moment since I won’t be working on my until the end of the month. Interpersonal skills is one of the most important professional skills but also one of the worst performance elements. You can be a great person with a great personality, but it doesn’t always raise to level 5 in PACS. By far the element worst element to rate. I don’t hand out 5s and plenty of employees have been pissed at me over PACS.... Getting all 5s is so hard now, since they "improved" the requirements. It is also very frustrating that the requirements are not applied uniformly between supervisors and offices. Or even between coworkers doing the same job in the same office. Even worse when trying to escape to an agency where anyone who isn't trying to get fired gets all 5s. Oh, and training? I'm not allowed to get training in anything that isn't directly related to my current workload, even if it would improve my understanding and processing of that workload.
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Post by nylawyer on May 10, 2020 13:10:49 GMT -5
We are supposed to call the rep for every single claimant and read form the same script. For these national firms, I would imagine that they are fielding calls from decision writers all across the country and hearing the same script over and over again. Won’t be long before they stop answering the phone all together. Out of curiosity, does the script ask the rep if they have spoken with the claimant and gotten permission to agree to a phone hearing?
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Post by roymcavoy on May 11, 2020 7:45:21 GMT -5
....Sorry, I can’t recall Level 5 standards at the moment since I won’t be working on my until the end of the month. Interpersonal skills is one of the most important professional skills but also one of the worst performance elements. You can be a great person with a great personality, but it doesn’t always raise to level 5 in PACS. By far the element worst element to rate. I don’t hand out 5s and plenty of employees have been pissed at me over PACS.... Getting all 5s is so hard now, since they "improved" the requirements. It is also very frustrating that the requirements are not applied uniformly between supervisors and offices. Or even between coworkers doing the same job in the same office. Even worse when trying to escape to an agency where anyone who isn't trying to get fired gets all 5s. Oh, and training? I'm not allowed to get training in anything that isn't directly related to my current workload, even if it would improve my understanding and processing of that workload. it’s office by office. I got all 5s multiple years in a row in one office (from different Supes) and cannot get more than two 5s in my current office.
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Post by jimmy224 on May 11, 2020 7:51:48 GMT -5
Getting all 5s is so hard now, since they "improved" the requirements. It is also very frustrating that the requirements are not applied uniformly between supervisors and offices. Or even between coworkers doing the same job in the same office. Even worse when trying to escape to an agency where anyone who isn't trying to get fired gets all 5s. Oh, and training? I'm not allowed to get training in anything that isn't directly related to my current workload, even if it would improve my understanding and processing of that workload. it’s office by office. I got all 5s multiple years in a row in one office (from different Supes) and cannot get more than two 5s in my current office. I think that would be a problem for a RIF. They look at performance reviews in determining who stays during a RIF (the person with all 5s gets preferential treatment over someone with lesser scores in their performance evaluation
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Post by pinka7 on May 11, 2020 9:06:29 GMT -5
I am curious how these CEO calls are going? Decision writers have you started the calls and if so are the reps receptive to the calls? Or are you leaving lots of messages and waiting to hear back?
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Post by roymcavoy on May 11, 2020 9:29:26 GMT -5
it’s office by office. I got all 5s multiple years in a row in one office (from different Supes) and cannot get more than two 5s in my current office. I think that would be a problem for a RIF. They look at performance reviews in determining who stays during a RIF (the person with all 5s gets preferential treatment over someone with lesser scores in their performance evaluation you are exactly right. PACs score also used to be a multiplier component in the point computation (“last PACs x 7”) for Senior Attorney jobs. I was told by HOD last spring that they would no longer be using PACs for hiring (I asked about ALJ), so maybe they realize these are too subjective for accuracy. as I noted somewhere earlier in this thread, the 2018 DW hires in our office were done under a NTE 4 years, so any DW RIF would presumably start with those who have not been made permanent from that hire.
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Post by Pixie on May 11, 2020 13:21:19 GMT -5
I think that would be a problem for a RIF. They look at performance reviews in determining who stays during a RIF (the person with all 5s gets preferential treatment over someone with lesser scores in their performance evaluation you are exactly right. PACs score also used to be a multiplier component in the point computation (“last PACs x 7”) for Senior Attorney jobs. I was told by HOD last spring that they would no longer be using PACs for hiring (I asked about ALJ), so maybe they realize these are too subjective for accuracy. as I noted somewhere earlier in this thread, the 2018 DW hires in our office were done under a NTE 4 years, so any DW RIF would presumably start with those who have not been made permanent from that hire. I just don't see a RIF happening at OHO. With unemployment now over 20%, I think we will soon see a flood of applications at the DDS level. If they haven't started yet, I don't think it will be long. Pixie
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Post by nylawyer on May 11, 2020 16:45:14 GMT -5
Besides the possible flood of new applicants, there is also the reality that at a time when Senators are proposing just sending out checks that would be for a family of five be the equivalent of at least a salary of $120k (I say at least because I don't know if the money is taxable- if not it's more like $150k), it's kind of hard to justify laying off federal employees.
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Post by jimmy224 on May 11, 2020 16:48:24 GMT -5
Are there folks that are still on NTE appointments or did they get converted to permanent? If not, it is probably coming up soon on when those appointments expire, no?
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Post by generalsherman on May 11, 2020 17:01:22 GMT -5
Are there folks that are still on NTE appointments or did they get converted to permanent? If not, it is probably coming up soon on when those appointments expire, no? I’m 1.75 years into my 4-year NTE. No word from on high regarding what happens next. At this point my next goal is to make it out of the probationary period (2 years.) We’ve had a bunch of SAA retirements in my office since I got here, which hopefully means there is space for me and my fellow NTEs. When the hiring freeze was announced there was a guy in here who said his NTE was about to expire, but I don’t think he’s posted since then. So I don’t know what happened there.
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Post by christina on May 11, 2020 18:06:45 GMT -5
Are there folks that are still on NTE appointments or did they get converted to permanent? If not, it is probably coming up soon on when those appointments expire, no? I’m 1.75 years into my 4-year NTE. No word from on high regarding what happens next. At this point my next goal is to make it out of the probationary period (2 years.) We’ve had a bunch of SAA retirements in my office since I got here, which hopefully means there is space for me and my fellow NTEs. When the hiring freeze was announced there was a guy in here who said his NTE was about to expire, but I don’t think he’s posted since then. So I don’t know what happened there. Did u run off your SAAs? 😀
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Post by nappyloxs on May 11, 2020 20:28:19 GMT -5
As to AWT, policy research does not require prior supervisor approval. I believe it should be case specific, but still does not require prior approval. Listen to your supervisor advice. If they say you need to participate, develop, and engage, ask them how you can do so, ask for time to work on development, volunteer for everything, ask how or if you can learn how to do things. Tell them you are trying to do as they suggested during your PACS meeting. If they say no, workload don’t allow it. You remind them of that in your self-assessment. You sounds like a good manager, which is not always the case. I have tried to take AWT for policy research; I was told that I could only take the time if the ALJ specifically asked for it. I contested this, though not through the union, and still got shot down. (It was less than a hour, so not a great deal of time.) Thanks. I guess it depends who you ask, but many people think I am a terrible manager. I won’t go into those details but I give hint. It isn’t anyone in my office. Sorry to hear about your GS. There are some who are overly strict, actually more than just some. AWT allows for some flexibility and managers should lean in favor of employees when it is permissible. There is a difference between managers and leaders. Unfortunately, OHO has tons of good managers and few good leaders. Those aren’t even my words.
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Post by 2rvrrun on May 11, 2020 22:37:02 GMT -5
I am not sure just how soon we will see a flood of applications. IMO there might be a clog in the system. With offices closed to the public and limited opportunities to apply, it may take some time before we see the numbers pick up.
When we had the 2008 economic downturn, folks could still go to the local office to apply for benefits. Now, claimants apply either online or by telephone with a prioritization process in place. It may take a while for the public to turn to the online application first and the call wait is very, very long due to high volume. I have so much respect for the ground troops (claim reps).
Let me just add, IMO when field offices do open on full schedule, I think it will be of a tsunami experience for the SSA and we will hear the P word (production) again.
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Post by Pixie on May 12, 2020 9:01:19 GMT -5
I’m 1.75 years into my 4-year NTE. No word from on high regarding what happens next. At this point my next goal is to make it out of the probationary period (2 years.) We’ve had a bunch of SAA retirements in my office since I got here, which hopefully means there is space for me and my fellow NTEs. When the hiring freeze was announced there was a guy in here who said his NTE was about to expire, but I don’t think he’s posted since then. So I don’t know what happened there. Did u run off your SAAs? 😀 No, worse than that; he burned them out. Pixie
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Post by ba on May 12, 2020 22:31:34 GMT -5
you are exactly right. PACs score also used to be a multiplier component in the point computation (“last PACs x 7”) for Senior Attorney jobs. I was told by HOD last spring that they would no longer be using PACs for hiring (I asked about ALJ), so maybe they realize these are too subjective for accuracy. as I noted somewhere earlier in this thread, the 2018 DW hires in our office were done under a NTE 4 years, so any DW RIF would presumably start with those who have not been made permanent from that hire. I just don't see a RIF happening at OHO. With unemployment now over 20%, I think we will soon see a flood of applications at the DDS level. If they haven't started yet, I don't think it will be long. Pixie Not to mention, putting federal employees out on the breadline in the middle of a situation where the federal government’s debt is a big reason the markets haven’t totally seized up, probably isn’t a good move from a macroeconomic perspective.
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Post by uboat on May 13, 2020 12:51:09 GMT -5
you are exactly right. PACs score also used to be a multiplier component in the point computation (“last PACs x 7”) for Senior Attorney jobs. I was told by HOD last spring that they would no longer be using PACs for hiring (I asked about ALJ), so maybe they realize these are too subjective for accuracy. as I noted somewhere earlier in this thread, the 2018 DW hires in our office were done under a NTE 4 years, so any DW RIF would presumably start with those who have not been made permanent from that hire. I just don't see a RIF happening at OHO. With unemployment now over 20%, I think we will soon see a flood of applications at the DDS level. If they haven't started yet, I don't think it will be long. Pixie Yep, the latest economic and medical data points to "U-shaped" recovery. This means high unemployment and other nasty economic conditions will likely be with us for quite some time. So my original musings about OHO downsizing seem to be fading into decreasing likelihood as time passes. One caveat, "never underestimate TPTB's ability to do the patently illogical thing."
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Post by uboat on May 13, 2020 12:52:25 GMT -5
PS I wonder if this might spark some movement on the ALJ hiring front?
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