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Social Security Administration

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Social Security Administration reviews

3.0

38% would recommend to a friend

(2,773 total reviews)

Carolyn W. Colvin

32% approve of CEO

23% positive business outlook

Social Security Administration has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 2,773 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Social Security Administration employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Government & Public Administration industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
1.0
Jul 12, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits, Hours, Work Life Balance

Cons

You will have a 6 month training program that you must pass in order to continue on with the job. The hiring staff will not tell you this at the time of the interview, nor will they tell you this once hired. The training process isn’t thorough and you it’s 3+ years of training crammed into a 6 month period. Once training is completed you will not be able to move onto a higher GS-pay scale until you’re off of review, even if you completed your 1 year probationary period. Upper management speaks to you as if you’re their children and they are absent 90% of the time so there’s no way for them to know how your work ethic and quality has increased or decreased. Some instructors will ignore your questions and want to see you fail so they suck up to upper management and get their “promotion”. There’s a reason that this agency is constantly getting sued and has such a high turnover rate. The pay is atrocious and should at least start at a 9 and continue to a 12. Run far away from SSA

1.0
Jan 29, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible scheduling ( you can start anywhere between 6am-9:30) health medical and dental benefits are good You accrue time off every pay check (4 hours total) You have all the federal holidays off You can start as early as 6am during case break . Wasn’t affected by the shutdown Once tour in the agency (and if you can actually get past the 7-8 month training consisting of tests) there are other opportunities within the agency to apply to

Cons

You are in a school setting for 7-8 months You have a boatload of tests to take and if the whole class fail, but you manage to pass, you still have to retake it. The only time you can get tutored is during case break. ( If you are having issues with a subject why would they further allow you to continue without grasping the first subject and then waiting to weeks or months later to get tutoring ? ) You listen to someone talk to you from 8am-4:30pm . You don’t get to sit with actual BA (benefit Authorizers) who has been well versed in the role, instead you have different trainers every week... some who know their job really well, some who just do their job and cannot explain, and some that you just wonder how the heck are they training a class. You must learn on your own. They do not want you and your peers to help one another. It’s actually frowned upon! You have monthly meetings with management who threaten you about the job being temporary and how the agency can let you go at any time. Lunch is only 30 minutes. There are various microwaves on different floors, but everybody takes lunch around the same time, so you may have to wait to heat up your food (this counts as your lunch) you cannot be late coming back from lunches and breaks even if it took 15-20 minutes for you to actually get a microwave. There are fridgerator clubs that consist of a list of names being on a piece of paper and if your name is not listed on the paper your lunch will be removed . There is no free coffeee like a regular place of employment. The agency tell you that must have a 80 but they also will tell you that you must have a 70. If you are not used to a job where you have to code, number crunch, and do things the long way this is not the job for you. This is not a call center role . It’s manual coding type of work . The job description and the actual job that you do does not match!

2.0
Nov 10, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Job security. Benefits overall, but especially time off. Opportunity to contribute to social service. The Agency is truly committed to a diverse workforce. Opportunities to work OT for some extra income.

Cons

Very poor, even unstable, systems .....1970's DOS based technology for primary systems.......very user unfriendly and conducive to making errors. Policies and procedures are redundant and unduly complex. There is a huge opportunity to improve efficiency and accuracy by improving systems and streamlining policies.. "Up through the ranks" managers and mentors with poor inter-personal and management skills seem to bear resentment towards new hires who come to the agency well credentialed from the outside. I was shocked by the demeaning treatment I received after "graduating" from a lenghty training program.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 2,773 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,917 Social Security Administration reviews submitted anonymously by Social Security Administration employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Social Security Administration is right for you.