Social Security Administration Reviews

Pros

collegial environment; job security; room for advancement; meaningful work

Cons

incompetent and unprofessional staff cannot get fired and are a burden

Advice to Senior Management

reinstitute exams for higher level positions instead of letting one person making the hiring decision

Pros

12 paid Holidays
12 sick days

Cons

Very high stress
No respect or concern from upper management
Poor review methods
Extremely high attrition rate

Advice to Senior Management

Make the environment better for examiners. Stage cases.

Pros

Generous benefits and pay. Plenty of opportunity to advance due to aging and retiring workforce. Chance to do work that directly benefits the American Public.

Cons

Frustrations of working within a large and often inefficient bureaucracy. Often have to work with outdated and obsolete technology. Very "old- timey" agency- lacking fresh and progressive ideas and solutions at times.

Pros

Flexible work schedule, good benefits, encouraged to be proactive and find efficient solutions with minimal resources.

Cons

A lot of work, backlogs, a lot of competition for promotion.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to provide developmental opportunies and encourage innovative thought to improve processes. Reward excellent work and remove poor performers from the workplace.

Pros

Stability, great benefits, potential for advancement (due to retirees..not necessarily intelligence)

Cons

No autonomy, top down organization with regards to decision making, breed puppets not action takers

Advice to Senior Management

Understand implications of decisions made and make decisions based on facts.

Pros

Great training to learn job

Cons

Call center here is not a great place to work

Advice to Senior Management

treat the Reps with some respect

Pros

decent pay scale and advancement, balanced work and home life, lots of room for advancement of you want it, personal satisfaction gained because of the mission of the agency. Very few employees ever leave the agency. Most remain there until they retire, i.e. they must be happy there.

Cons

There is some pressure to meet deadlines and to keep up with changes, however most employees are not overwhelmed by it.

Advice to Senior Management

Too much of their time is spent looking at computer derived job performance measures instead of viewing the actual work. Sometimes that can drive conflicting goals.

Pros

Job security, great pay and benefits, challenging work, overall great people to work with, extremely rewarding job, possible job location movement.

Cons

Mediocre managers, typical government job (do more with less mentality), mediocre reputation of SSA with the general public, very poor computer programming.

Advice to Senior Management

Local management/supervisors is a "political" promotion versus best capable person. Many supervisors and local managers/ADMs overpromoted (i.e., couldn't hack it as CR so promoted to OS because he's got an MBA)

Pros

Flexible work schedule, great location, great pay, nice Thrift Savings Plan (retirement) with matching up to 5%, right now (2011 and forward) is a great time to join - many opportunities for moving up quickly.

Cons

If you are at all comfortable with a computer or MS Office, you will be considered the resident expert and may be asked to help others and work on special projects -- on the plus side, this is noticed and will help you move up as well.

Advice to Senior Management

None. I have been very pleased with the 'can-do' and 'let's take care of our people' attitude by upper management - not only to meet challenges and help employes, but also in relation to the people who depend on our agency. Customer service is an important element - and is what makes me proud to work here.

Pros

Fexibility
Good Support from Coworkers
Supervisors care about their staff

Cons

Desk Job so it can get boring