Local offices are reaching a dangerous breaking point...how long is USDA/FNS going to sit by and watch Federal Law continue to get broken before doing something?
Offices are going under- and fast. The workers leaving have caused a snowball effect- it was manageable initially- and now, the work coming in is coming in faster than the trainees are trained.
Offices are running at lead times over 30 days. Clients are not getting the benefits. Expedites are not being seen in 24 hours or within 7 days.
I'm curious as to what the QC error rates are right now across the state- we used to get updates about QC weekly. I couldn't tell you the last time I heard what the percentages were.
Anyone know anything about the error rates?
Timeliness on all case actions are taking huge hits- why aren't workers being 'held harmless' during all this? Why are workers still having to take delinquencies- or take the time to dispute? What shall we say? It was delinquent when I got it? I didn't have enough work time to get it done? The client had to be pended past the 30th day to allow for information to be returned? Isn't all this completely obvious? If TAA can take MONTHS to complete a case, why can't the local offices?
Now local office staff are having to take a CBT (computer based training) on Food Stamp Timeliness. I don't think the issues here are whether or not workers know when a Food Stamp case has to be done. But I guess "management" thinks if they make us take the CBT, then we continue to be delinquent they can 'do something' to the workers.
What are they going to do though? Fire all your remaining tenured workers? As if THAT would solve anything.
The amount of time given for appointments are getting shorter and shorter. Used to be an hour. Then every 45 minutes. Now it's every 30 minutes. This will get the clients interviewed, but it won't necessarily get the cases FINISHED. This only increases client complaints. Let's say an office schedules each worker 15 cases per day 4 days per week which leaves one day a week to do the cases. That's 60 cases per week. Anyone in "management" ever worked 60 cases in one day? I didn't think so.
I don't know what it's going to take...I suppose the offices will have to completely fall apart before anyone steps in.
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I wonder myself how long is this charade going to go on?
It is getting to where I don't want to come here anymore.
My husband last night was figuring the bills to see if I could quit yet. Unfortunately for HHSC, it could be in about 2 months.
I am seriouse. I can't keep doing this.
Above I feel your pain. ..
I can't believe some of you are working until 10 at night and every weekend? I couldn't last. I can barely do my M-F 8-5.
It is getting unbearable.
I don't know what to do...
I feel for the clients. Feel guilty for thinking about leaving. I can't leave the people in my unit in an even bigger mess!
I stay because of them and respect for my supervisor. She is in there interviewing just like the rest of us. She comes in way early and leave way late.
She doesn't get OT. Isn't that sad?
i dont' get qc updates either anymore, but i did have one pulled. i haven't heard the results of it yet. i have heard also, that our timeliness is down to 80% as far as usda goes. can anyone confirm this?
Checking in from another state. Same situation here in Kansas. They're referring to it some "leadership" circles as a "high performance environment". The people purportedly running the show have no clue what it takes to process a case.
We've been put in "IST's" or Integrated Service Teams where we are now co-located with the Child Support worker and a social worker. The social workers were recently "upgraded" some 3 pay levels and are making, easily, $5,000.00 more per year than those of us who process TANF, Child Care, Medical, etc. benefits and case manage. I have no clue why. The great thing about the IST is the fact we get to see how little the social workers actually do, aside from plugging in headphones and using the CD-rom on their computers to listen to music: they're seldom on the phone; no longer are responsible for foster care case mgmt., and maybe have a handful of investigations. I grant you it may be different in larger offices; but then so is the cash and foodstamp environment in those larger offices: They're like war zones with "customers" who scream the loudest getting the most "services". Rather than focusing on those TANF clients who want to get a job, this state spends most of it's time with those who do not and do whatever they can to avoid "mandatory" job search matters. Everyone is so afraid of being reported to the "customer service" unit (who don't do diddly from what can be seen from the battle ground) that the proverbial squeaky wheel gets all the attention while others simply wait.
Top the above with the fact that one entire section of the state was caught manipulating application dates in the computer system to force timeliness on FS applications (when they were processed and were to be untimely, the application date was changed in the computer data base to make it appear as timely). 100% of the randomly pulled cases had had their app dates falsified.
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