From: Couture, Richard <Richard.Couture@ssa.gov>
Sent: Monday, March 3, 2025 10:41 AM
Subject: FW: SSA Guidance on What Did You Do Last Week? Part II Email
Importance: High
Good morning,
Please see below. Unless and until the Agency reconsiders, employees should prepare replies to the OPM email and cc their supervisors, per the Agency’s order, though hold on sending until later today, just in case there is a change in position. Should it become necessary to send before the end of their shift, employees should do so. AFGE provided guidance on preparing emails under order from agencies to private email over the weekend.
Employees should also prepare impact statements and other evidence to share up the Union ladder to locals and up to councils, covering both last week’s email as well as today’s email, and any subsequent weekly emails. We will be collecting this information to further support bargaining and litigation.
We will be preparing additional guidance and information to share soon.
Rich
From: Couture, Richard
Sent: Monday, March 3, 2025 9:48 AM
To: Dudek, Leland C. <Leland.C.Dudek@ssa.gov>
Cc: Felix-Lawson, Florence <Florence.Felix-Lawson@ssa.gov>; Taylor, Eddie <Eddie.Taylor@ssa.gov>
Subject: FW: SSA Guidance on What Did You Do Last Week? Part II Email
Importance: High
Good morning, Acting Commissioner Dudek,
I am writing to request that the Agency reconsider its decision that mandates the entire SSA workforce respond to the OPM “What Did You Do Last Week” email today and on an ongoing weekly basis. First, this effort is largely duplicative, given that SSA maintains robust management information systems that track and monitor virtually all workloads performed by SSA employees, especially those components and positions represented by AFGE. Through the use of those systems, SSA management is able to see, in real time or near-real time, employee productivity and engage in performance discussions and performance management as they deem necessary. Information from those systems can be translated into reports by the Agency to the Administration explaining how SSA is meeting mission-critical service needs as well as advancing the Administration’s priorities. Indeed, several Cabinet departments are taking such an approach.
Second, this reporting requirement will impact and impede productivity individually and in the aggregate. While it may be asserted that replying to the emails should only take 15 minutes or so, each reply constitutes approximately 14,250 work hours spent on preparing and submitting the reply, or around 741,000 work hours per year, based on a 15-minute assumption for all 57,000 employees. That figure does not consider managers spending time reading those replies. This will be a drag on productivity, and disrupt employee concentration on getting their work done, which would also impact performance.
Third, the timing of the emails poses other practical problems that could cost the Agency and significantly impact employees. For example, OPM has sent the emails to employees after most employees (at least in Eastern time zone) have signed off for the weekend, giving them a short turnaround window to respond on Mondays. Many employees are on leave or not scheduled to work on Mondays due to alternate work schedules, which could put the Agency on the hook for additional compensation it likely does not have the budget for, such as overtime. This would obviously be disruptive for employees not scheduled to work on Mondays and their personal lives.
Further, the Agency’s requirement that employees be required to respond weekly carves out no exceptions for employees who are on leave or otherwise not on duty, especially for periods of a week or more, or are otherwise unable to respond for other reasons. Again, this could lead to compensation issues, but there are other matters such as whether the employee would be required to bring their agency laptops with them if traveling, whether they are even allowed to do so if out of the country, and the general disruption to their personal lives (especially situations such as illness, medical care, bereavement, etc.).
Finally, the mandate poses the risk of discipline and other actions that would impact employees and their employment if employees do not comply, or if replies are determined to be lacking (e.g., specificity, number of bullet points, etc.).
For these reasons and more, please reconsider the Agency’s decision to mandate these replies and instead have the Agency prepare weekly reports based upon agency MI data, similar to the steps being taken by other agencies. If the Agency insists upon maintaining this decision, AFGE wants to bargain over the impact and implementation of this decision, and that the Agency would need to cease and desist from taking further action until such time as it has met its duty to bargain under 5 USC 71 and Article 4 of the SSA-AFGE National Agreement. If the latter, please have your designee contact me to make necessary arrangements.
Thank you.
Rich Couture
Spokesperson
AFGE SSA General Committee
From: ^Human Resources Internal Communications <Human.Resources.Internal.Communications@ssa.gov>
Sent: Sunday, March 2, 2025 4:06 PM
Subject: SSA Guidance on What Did You Do Last Week? Part II EmailA Message to All SSA Employees
