Government Peon
Metropolis, US
Female, 45
Sorry about that hiatus - I got sidetracked in life, but I'm back!
I work in the largest Social Security office in my area, working primarily with disabled individuals, but I have my hands in all aspects of what our agency does. Retirement, disability, survivors, SSN cards, the whole shebang.
I love what I do, and do my best to juggle the work which is far too much for one person to complete. I work with other hard workers, and some who are just taking up space.
You made me think pretty seriously about this one - I don't want to be unfair to the people I work with who seem, like myself, to really care about what they do. I would say about 20% off the people in my office do the bare minimum to get by, with another 15% just waiting for the next promotion, with no concern about anything or anyone except getting there. On a positive note, while considering all of this, I concluded that about 25% of us are really knocking ourselves out trying to keep our heads above the enormous piles of backlog because we truly give a damn. We work weekends desperately trying to catch up and we are constantly frustrated about the poor level of service we’re forced to give. That leaves about 40% who are average workers, who aren't slacking off, but they aren't particularly trying to excel at their jobs, either. Why? Why not? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get fired from a federal job? Neither do I, because I've never seen it happen.
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I honestly cannot answer that. It all depends on the choices our elected officials make between now and then. Err on the side of caution and assume not. Start saving for retirement NOW. Even if it's alive and kicking, it is only meant to supplement retirement, few can actually live comfortably on it. I'll get to the other pending questions when I can spend a few minutes at my home computer - typing the answers is really tedious on this little phone Thanks for the questions!
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I thought and thought and thought about this, then forgot about Jobstr and just now spent 15 minutes trying to remember my login, which email address I used, etc.
I still don't have an answer. I find all of it fairly appalling - people stealing from their fellow man is reprehensible!
One I recently heard about a woman who receives disability, her kids receive SSI (kid's welfare disability), she was working part time, getting paid by the State for being her mother's PCA - it turns out that she wasn't even living in the same state as her mother. They were both charged with multiple counts of fraud against not only SSA but the individual states as well as Medicaid fraud.
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I don't think I've ever worked with anyone who was outright committing fraud - usually they just try to underestimate their earnings, or 'fib' about receiving a non-covered pension (pension based on work that paid into a private pension plan INSTEAD of paying SS taxes - their benefits are computed differently). Bummer is, yes, we'll pay them, but then later when they aren't working anymore, guess what? Whoops, we found out, and now they owe us money back, and our first line of recoup is to withhold payments.
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Employment Lawyer
Can I be sued for asking a co-worker on a date?
Football Official
Were the replacement refs actually worse than the regular refs?
Veterinarian
Who are the bigger hypochondriacs: dog owners or cat owners?
In a word, yes. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how the whole process works. If we become aware of a potentially fraudulent situation, it is not something that is dealt with in the local Field Office. We make a referral to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) whenever we suspect fraud. They have detectives who investigate the allegations and pursue criminal charges when appropriate!
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I hear you - I'm pretty heavily conservative myself... if you think about it, most of todays Republicans are more liberal than the Dems of old!!
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I hadn't seen it, but I'm not surprised! This is why we're going to be bankrupt eventually! Some days it seems like I PERSONALLY have taken a disability claim from every adult in the area at least 3 times!
The one that bugs me the most is the young adults filing for depression other (usually) very manageable mental illnesses.
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