I had to get a copy of my Social Security Card this week and I (foolishly) thought it would be faster to just make a trip to the Social Security Office to pick it up. I was there 20 minutes after they opened and I was 56th in line. I took a number. I looked around and I began to wonder a few things.
First of all, why do we pay an armed guard to sit there for the whole day? It used to be a real police officer, and I guess enough people asked why we were paying someone over 30k a year to just sit there at a desk and read. Now we pay a renta-cop who knows what to just sit there.
Are they expecting trouble from the flood of retirees and disabled folk? I suppose that they guy with crutches, and the couple that are 150 years old combined might start some trouble, but it would be short in duration, I'll bet.
Is there any trouble that the renta cop is better trained to stop then the fifty or so of us who are short tempered from sitting there for over an hour? I'll bet not.
Second, three of the people who were there worked alone at a computer for the entire time that I was there, never once helping anyone. What are they doing that is so important that they couldn't help the one person who was sitting at a desk helping and the one person who was behind the counter helping?
Third, what are we paying those people, clearly it is too much. The average wait that I saw was forty two minutes. If it takes almost an hour for a person to be helped, why aren't there more people helping? Even Walmart is fluid with there scheduling. How about if you have more people there on busy days- say Monday and Friday- and less people there on Tuesday? That's just crazy enough to work.
Also, why does it take over 15 people to run an office? Couldn't we streamline that into- say seven? I'm thinking about all of the ridiculous benefits that we were paying those people to sit at a computer and eat a bagel. That's crazy.
I guess the sequester didn't cover that. It only stopped school children from touring the White House.
We must find a way to make our government more responsive to us, the people who are paying for it. We pay them too much, and don't get a fair value for our money. Why do they work banker's hours? No one else does, anymore.
How about if they start rearranging their workers so that they can be open longer than just eight to three? They certainly have enough people on the payroll if they staggered them out. I would think that they have enough people in that office to be open 24 hours a day. I have seen convenience stores manage it with only five people on the payroll. You would think the United States Government could figure it out if a Jiffy Store can,
Consider if you are getting your money's worth from the Social Security Office near you. You'll thank me later.
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