Okay, at work we have been on a job at the new Social Security building in Birmingham. We are contracted by contractor/building management firm, who has built the building and will rent it to SSA and maintain the building for 30 years.

Let me tell you something about SSA, if you didn't know, because I didn't: Everyone that works there, and when I say everyone, I mean about 95% of the people, is either morbidly obese, a woman, a minority, or handicapped. I have nothing against these groups of people, as a general rule, but after spending a few months down there, I could start to harbor some resentment.

We were standing outside where you smoke, and there are a bunch of women who work there sitting there smoking. One asked us if we work for the building management company, and we explained that we don't work for them, but we work for them.

So one of them says, "Yeah, well we hate (building management company). They didn't build this place to suit handicap needs, it's hard for them to get into the bathroom. I guess Linda is going to have to sue SSA, who will then sue building management company, to get the bathrooms taken care of."

After this, I started paying attention to the bathrooms. The fucking doors open for you when you walk up to them, and there is plenty of room to get in and do you business. I guess that is unless you weigh 500 pounds and ride a wheelchair with both of your feet sticking straight out in front of you. The construction company also poured the concrete wheel chair ramp into the employee parking at too steep of a grade (which isn't steep at all, these people are just fucking lazy), and instead of going to the trouble to jackhammer up all the concrete and re-pour it, they have instead opted to hire someone to push people in wheelchairs up the ramp and into the parking deck. Fucking ridiculous.

We can't go to work until the afternoon, because the building is half occupied, fully occupied now, so we show up around 2pm. Everyday I walk into the place and there are literally people walking around in circles. My guess is that SSA mandates that all employees walk a certain amount of time every day. It's great to know that I'm paying someone to walk around in a fucking circle, instead of work.

They are always standing around eating ice cream cones. I swear, I'm not making this up. In front of the building, at just about any given time, there are hoards of people standing around eating ice cream. I don't know why this pisses me off so much, but it does.

Another conversation I overheard from the same ladies bitching about the handicapped access: Nah, they told me I could only take one cigarette break an hour, I don't know how the expect me to go through the day and not kill someone. I mean, I need my good government job, but they're just taking it too far, trying to tell me what to do."

I am not making this up. This lady wants to keep her "good government job," I swear she said it, but she is unwilling to do the work to keep it. I'm sure she couldn't get fired anyway, I heard it's damn near impossible to fire a govt employee, and if you can do it, it takes years, and the whole time they just sit at their desk and don't work, because they know they're getting fired anyway.


I'm sorry for the rant, but I'm am totally fed up with this bullshit. I've been looking at it for 2 months straight, and it is sooooo disturbing. No wonder social security is going bankrupt. Good riddance.

I am sorry you got this impression from the Birmingham staff. Do you know if they are District Office personnel or ODAR employees? I am responsible for all of the employees in my office and while we do have a few well fed employees, they do their work. We have a high producing office. I have good managers who care about how our office runs and about being accountable to the tax payers. Unfortunately, not all federal employees take that responsibility as seriously.

It is not true that it is next to impossible to get rid of a federal employee. Recent changes in our personnel policies and practices (our PACs program) make it possible to actually remove someone. It does take months, but no longer years. If the staff in that office thinks they are "safe" from removal, they need to get the straight scope from their union representatives. It sounds like the Birmingham office has lazy supervisors.

WJ

I note that as this is a gun forum, I inadvertently wrote "scoop" as "scope" but you know what I mean.

Thanks for setting me straight on the issue as far as terminating employment, I've heard horror stories about the process, and have seen it to a certain degree in the county government here.

There is a district office in the building, and an ODAR office in the building. I don't know what the differences in the the two are, I just saw a sign on a door that said "District Office employees only," and another one that says "ODAR employees only." We also built and installed a system for a classroom that was labeled ODAR.

I may be looking at it in the wrong light, but if you could see the way these people shuffle around, sit for extended periods of time, and generally fuck off at work, you would see what I'm talking about. I swear, they are always eating ice cream. Some of them obviously feel entitled. I'm sure the Birmingham office has lazy supervisors, hell, they even have a bunch of lazy ass security guards that contracted from an independent security company.

As far as the AFGE, I was reading the bulletin board on one of the floors near the elevators, and those guys seem to be running the show. Also, the "affairs" committees they have set up pissed me off. We've got women's affairs, African American affairs, Asian/Pacific Islander affairs, handicap affairs, and a myriad of other "affairs committees." What does this mean anyway?

I guess I'm just an angry white man. I didn't used to feel this way, but the older I get, the more resentful I become.

ODAR is "Office of Adjudication and Review." We hold the hearings for those who have their initial applications denied. ODAR remote location offices are now being co-located in District Offices to save money.

I am lucky, my office has some really outstanding people; their work offsets the few sub-optimal employees we do have. Those employees who do not, over a substantial period of time, produce, are at risk in most ODAR offices. I cannot speak for the operations of a District Office.

I have worked for several federal agencies. All have their share of poor employees. Most also have some really outstanding people who could make more money in the private sector. They choose to work for Uncle Sam for the benefits and the Family Leave policies we have.

Social Security is, in reality, a social welfare program at all levels. To some extent, that filters down to the type of employees hired in the past. I do believe those days are changing. The quality of individuals now applying for our open positions is surprisingly high.

Try not to judge all Social Security offices by the Birmingham office.

WJ

I guess I shouldn't make blanket assumptions. But it's extremely difficult not to when you see this number of people doing nothing on a regular basis, and the same one's bitching about things that shouldn't really be bitched about. The attitude i get from some of them is that they are happy to have their jobs with the govt, but really resent having to do any actual work, as it may apply to their job. If you see what I'm saying.

EC
I know what you mean. I have worked in and around the government operations for a number of years. It seems you could take 65 to 70 percent of the employees out of the offices and still get the same amount of work done. While it really pisses me off when I see the conditions, I don't know why the hard working employees are not screaming even louder. I have met some of the employees that I would love to have working for me. We do a lot of the ADA compliance work in the government type buildings so the complainers are the ones that actually keep us working, kind of a double edge sword. As far as the ADA issues go it is difficult to understand how hard it is to get around in our society in a wheelchair until you have done it. When we were getting certified for ADA work one of the administrators had us use a wheelchair so we could see just how difficult getting around is. I was surprised at what it really takes and I am in pretty good shape.
I know is steps on some peoples toes when you bring up the whole smoking issue but if you look at the time wasted it is ridiculous. An average cigarette takes between 7 and 10 minutes to smoke. Now factor in time to get where the smoking areas are and of course the water stop or candy stop to and from the desk and you are looking at a 15 to 20 minute break each hour. These are the same people who complain about having too much work to do. If they would just sit down and do it, I bet they would find they don't really have all that much work.

Elvis, Does Curtis or Willy still work there in maint. dept., and how about Tommy Bender over in GSA

Yeah, the guy I work with who smokes (I don't smoke at work) spends about and hour and a half each day smoking. The lady bitching about not being able to take more than one break an hour can go to hell.



Is Willy a white haired dude? If so, he is working for the building management company. I don't know a Curtis or Tommy.