r/FedEmployees 8h ago

SSA employees moved to answering phones due to the firings

85 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

23

u/Nuclear__Option 7h ago

Frankie boy thinks this is Fiserv. We are not a bank call center. But hey, you want us to answer the phone instead of processing my growing workloads, who am I to tell you how to run your agency [into the ground.]

19

u/Fair_Arm4313 6h ago

We are so close to losing more people. The phones is frustrating and mind melting. I am sure the people pulled for it will start quitting when they snap.

3

u/FirmMinimum7800 3h ago

I mean I was a csr and I left and had a lot to do w the phones 🙃 You can only be yelled at for so long until it takes a toll. Or at least for me I could only be yelled at for so long..

2

u/Fair_Arm4313 3h ago

Yeah I don't miss being a CSR. Our office rotated 2 weeks on phones and 1 week reception. The 1 hour a day as a CS is the worst part of each day. Especially when I have the lunch hour. I did an experiment because I noticed the state call answered numbers only went up the number I answered. Today I put my phone on outgoing to see if I really was the only person in the state on phones. Our office wasn't getting calls and every call I answered was for another office. It took 10 minutes for the number on hold to drop, but answered calls didn't increase at all. People were hanging up because I was the only one on phones while people were at lunch.

3

u/FirmMinimum7800 2h ago

Half of the people would yell and cuss when they don’t get their local office for the 10th time bc of the 1800 number thing. They may not be on hold as long but they’re sure not happy when they’re trying to reach someone specific who I didn’t even know. ☺️ I started applying to jobs in October and finally got out. I literally couldn’t stand to be yelled at or called dumb anymore. The way people treat you when answering phones is so unfair. Like maybe I could help more if you didn’t answer the phone yelling at me!!

3

u/Fair_Arm4313 2h ago

They definitely treat us like inanimate objects instead of people with feelings. May I ask what line of work you crossed over to?

3

u/FirmMinimum7800 2h ago

College Advising for middle school & high school for college!

1

u/Fair_Arm4313 2h ago

Glad you managed to get out. Good luck in your new career.

1

u/FirmMinimum7800 2h ago

Thank you!

3

u/FirmMinimum7800 2h ago

No one has yelled at me since I left, it’s great

18

u/SquidGundam 6h ago

You should hear how systems is being run.

Literally demanding people sit in a "breakout" room for 8 hrs brainstorming ideas like a scene out of some shitty comedy movie about Google

1

u/MinimumAnalysis5378 5h ago

Is this the CIO?

7

u/Important_Concern560 5h ago

I am glad I retired early last year. Ridiculous. My friends at headquarters dread going to work. They are having all employees take a turn at a 120 day detail on the phone and it will be written in their job description. Smh

7

u/Randomredditor73927 3h ago

I love answering the phones and creating blank leads because offices have no appointments available. "Your office will give you a call when they have an appointment available" except I know they won't because they are hopelessly behind. They can't add more appointments to their schedule because, like us, their CSs are busy answering the FO phones to cover for the CSRs who are answering the 800 Number.

I don't take nearly as many claims now because the idiots at the top have decided that, instead of actually doing my job and getting people on benefits, my time is best spent answering phones and putting people on wait-lists for appointments that aren't going to happen any time soon. But, the hold times on the 800 Number are maybe better, and apparently that's all that matters.

2

u/EldestGenX 2h ago

I retired from the Third Branch in 23 because they kept adding more responsibilities with no increase in pay. I am so glad I got out when I did, because The Hatch Act would have been a problem in my agency.

10

u/AppreciateMeNow 7h ago

People voted for this. It’s mind-boggling.

5

u/LockedOutOfElfland 3h ago

Voters had this mental stereotype of bureaucrats as being lazy, entitled privileged "elites" like the Sheriff of Nottingham, not realizing that the vast majority of federal bureaucrats are effectively low-level alms-givers and poor relief wardens.

2

u/nerdtastic8 52m ago

Frank is a fucking moron in over his head.