Social Security Administration Careers

  • Website www.ssa.gov/careers/
  • Industry Government Administration
  • Locations Baltimore, MD
  • Founded 1935
  • Size 10,000+ employees
  • Salary -

Social Security Administration Reviews

Rating Score1.5 20 reviews

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  • 1.6 Career Growth
  • 1.5 Work - Life Balance
  • 2.6 Compensation / Benefits
  • 1.4 Company Culture
  • 1.3 Management
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Rating Score1.0
1Career Growth
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1Compensation / Benefits
1Company Culture
1Management

“It’s so bad that I don’t even know where to begin?! ”

Verified User Current Employee · r***** · Senior Claims Specialist - May 5, 2022

ProsNo dress code is probably one of the few pros. However, you are looked down upon if you aren’t dressed up and “strongly encouraged by management” to dress in business attire. Anyone that isn’t is is looked at like they don’t care about their job.

ConsSo so many cons.
The workloads are impossible. There are not enough employees to handle the level of work that is expected or the type of customer service that you are expected to provide. People are retiring and quitting in record numbers and do not get replaced. Their work gets redistributed to other employees with zero allowances made for the fact that you are now even more overburdened than you were before. You constantly feel like a failure because you can’t keep up with the piles of papers, the phone calls to return, the public waiting to be helped.

There are not enough hours in the day to be able to do your job properly. You’re pretty much thrown to the wolves and told to answer the phones when you can’t even help the people calling because you aren’t trained to help them with what they need. The training is substandard and forget having a real mentor to help you, the mentors are not given adequate time to help. You sink or you swim. There is no in between.

It takes at least a decade to learn and feel comfortable with the ridiculous amount of rules and regulations that these programs have. Then add in antiquated computer programs they expect you to learn and use that they are trying desperately to modernize (and failing miserably at it I should add) and it’s just a recipe for failure. There are several very complex workloads and no amount of begging and pleading will get you any time to work these workloads, so eventually you just resign yourself to the fact that it will never ever get done.
The performance rating system is a joke. Someone that’s barely scraping by gets the same rating as someone that is doing their job effectively. Poor performers are not dealt with, their work just gets redistributed to someone else to put out the perpetual fires. The only way to get a better rating is to go above and beyond which is damn near impossible considering the fact that you can’t even do the work assigned to you without working tons of overtime or “credit time” when they run out of OT.
The constant looming threats of furloughs (where you won’t get paid on time for the work you do). The angry public that doesn’t understand how seriously understaffed we are daily.
The toxic positivity is truly unreal as well. No amount of “we appreciate all that you do” will ever make up for the demoralizing, demanding, demeaning micromanaging that you will face daily.
All that matters is meeting the “goal” no matter how you do it. If you have any amount of integrity you have to check that at the door too because it’s impossible to do a good job under the impossible standards you’re asked to have.

Work life balance? What’s that? If you have a family, forget it, you will never be the type of employee that will succeed at this job.

The managers are given no training in terms of how to actually manage people. People are promoted that have very little experience. They want to tell you that you should be able to do your job better, faster, more efficiently and what’s wrong with you that you can’t??
I’ve been here for over two decades and the stress has never been this bad. Don’t try to quit either because then you will lose money from your pension. This leaves you feeling trapped, alone and just downright sad.

You may be like me and want to make a difference in people’s lives but this will not be the place to make that happen, I can promise you that.

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