The Brooklyn Dodger |
Vol. 27, No. 1 At the IRS - Quality is Job None Feb. 2009 |
The Wal-Marting of the IRS |
The Brooklyn Dodger |
Published by NTEU Chapter 53 George Greenberg President Bob Schillaci Editor 107 Charles Lindbergh Blvd. 1180 Veterans Highway Garden City, NY 11530 Hauppauge, NY 11788 516 683-5679 631-851-4965 |
EMPLOYEE WISECRACKS |
BARACKIN' AND ROLLIN' |
We didn't publish during the election to prevent any Hatch Act problems but other than a court case in Minnesota the election is over. Hallelujah! We are delighted to be able to retire the BUSHWHACKED emblem that has adorned this page for far too long or so it seems. Had McCain won we might have gone with something like "MORE OF THE McSAME" but by October that potentiality had waned. A number of ideas were kicked around but since the president is big on 'hope' we figured we'd go with this. While we certainly have "Barack" we are definitely not on a "Roll" in this country and that's where the hope part comes in. Time will tell. We won't run through the problems facing the country. We hit the majority of them in the editorial on page 2. Compared to that laundry list the problems confronting the IRS seem trivial. However, we're stuck with the IRS. While we wait to see what shakes out from the new administration we thought we'd comment on a federal workplace item which was recently published. This is a column written by Brian Friel which appeared in the www.Govexec.com website. GovExec is, obviously, directed at Government Executives and it's a lead pipe cinch that Mr. Friel hasn't met many IRS-types or he wouldn't have used so many big words. Nonetheless, many of his ideas are on target which makes us think that the poor management we see every day is merely endemic to the federal bureaucracy and not particular to the class clowns running the IRS. That is a scary thought. See how many of these complaints you can identify in your managers. Friel begins with an observation which we have heard many times: "Federal employees often complain about how much of their time is wasted - by their bosses." The very people who want you to get your job done are the same ones who keep coming up with ways to waste your time and prevent you from doing so. We imagine that most front line managers would agree with this and be the first to point out that far too much of the associated nonsense which the IRS dreams up does not start with them. It is imposed on them by too many levels of upper management which need to find ways to justify their own existence by annoying the hell out of people below them on the org chart. Second, (think of MITS here!) "Support personnel whose job is to provide employees with the means to get their work done frequently can be more of an impediment than a help." Friel cites the tendency of support functions to become so excessively bureaucratic that they forget the "supporting" nature of their existence and start to think that they are VERY IMPORTANT. The IRS' newfound tendency to centralize everything is proof of the truth of the statement. Next, Friel moves on to that bane of everyone's existence, E-Mail. "Keep your E-mails short and sweet." We find this to be less of a problem than the fact that there are simply so many of them. Senior executive types, when they bother to write to the peons at all, do have a tendency to wax poetical about their philosophies and visions and dreams and we're sure that most of you delete them without reading because anything which truly impacts your work life will come from your boss. The problem of "Attachments" can't be resolved so easily. The IRS wants you to read them but they don't want to give you the administrative time to do so. This will remain a problem because the IRS is an outfit which prefers to measure the time spent on casework rather than the results of that casework. This leads to the fourth point which is about meetings but specifically "When you hand out material during the meeting, employees will need to spend time processing it instead of using the face-to-face time to discuss it." The IRS tries to get around this by using the aforementioned tactic of sending you the material before the meeting and expecting you to magically find time to read it which does not take away from your time on cases. We don't know any manager who is not guilty of this crime. Fifth is "If you expect precise results, don't give employees a vague mandate." This is an impossibility because the IRS has nothing but vague mandates and worse their evaluative standards are totally subjective. It has a revolting tendency to think that 'everything is a priority' which leads to the inevitable fact that "nothing is then a priority." Many times we have asked managers or executives to just tell employees what they want done. Their answer never varies. "We want it all." Screw them....it's not possible. Mr. Friel attaches to his discussion of this part the admonition to "Cut needless reviews." This proves that he is out of touch with IRS management which does not think that any review is "needless" no matter how needless it actually is. Lastly he opines, "Part of your role as a manager is to make sure your workers have the tools they need to do their jobs." We know lots of managers who would point out, with justification, that the biggest obstacle they face is having responsibility without authority. A manager who whines to MITS that the computers need repair will get no respite from the Territory Manager who wants to know why the closed cases have slowed down. Nonetheless, MITS will treat him like a leper. While Friel has correctly identified any number of valid complaints about government bureaucracies (and really, it is no different in the private sector) we won't be holding our breath waiting for management to reform itself to make the system more efficient. Far too many managers can't make a distinction between their own needs and the smooth and efficient running of the agency. It would be nice if Barack Obama could bring some of that "change" he talks about to the government but we suspect that it is fairly far down the list of his priorities. |
EDITORIALS |
Given the tragic events of Black Friday at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart when a crowd of shoppers surged through the doors and trampled a worker to death one would think that the concepts of crowd control and safety would be on everyone's mind. Nassau County does not need another such incident. W & I management, safely locked away in their ivory towers, does not seem to have gotten the message. There is a disaster in waiting in the Garden City walk-in unit. Several factors including increased taxpayer traffic, lack of on-site W & I management and their stubborn refusal to address the staffing situation have combined to create this situation. In the past few weeks, NTEU Chapter 53 officials have been present when irate taxpayers have erupted after waiting hours for assistance. Perhaps this is what the IRS strives for in "Customer Satisfaction?" There were several occasions when the security guard had to escort an irate taxpayer out of the building. In December there was a particularly troubling situation that caused the ENTIRE Garden City office to be locked down for about an hour. SB/SE TM, Steve Levy, was present when this incident occurred and he acted to stop it. The waiting-room was once again filled to capacity with anxious, impatient taxpayers. As is the case all too often there was no W & I management official on-site. Mr. Levy told Chapter 53 that in his opinion he believed one of the taxpayers was ready to assault the W&I employee assisting him. Preferring to "err on the side of caution" (and correctly so, in our opinion) Steve took the responsibility of ordering the guard to clear W&I of taxpayers and lock down the building. Unfortunately, this is not the first time W & I employees have been subject to an act of aggression by a frustrated taxpayer. During the summer of 2008 the tax stimulus rebate checks were sent out. As with most other government initiatives and programs, the explanations were as clear as mud to the average person. Taxpayers came to the walk-in unit in waves seeking clarification. Almost daily the W& I waiting area was filled to capacity. There were only three W & I customer service representatives available in the Taxpayer Assistance Center to handle the crowds. Wait times of three hours were common which often resulted in employees dealing with people with a hostile attitude, to say the least. There was an instance in which several members of the public, no doubt enraged after an extraordinarily long wait, attempted to physically block one of the employees from going to lunch! The Union immediately made calls up the W & I management tree and Acting Area Manager, Dennis Edmondson, told Chapter 53 president George Greenberg that maybe this office should adopt the approach that he used down south of "letting the taxpayers wait outside in the hot sun for a few hours". W & I Territory Manager, Maritza Collazo, remarked that she would give her employees a course on how to dial 911. It's that kind of condescending idiocy which characterizes W & I management. Where do they find such losers? Maritza apparently is not opposed to locking down the building frequently. We do wonder how the other operating divisions will react when their appointments with the public are cancelled due to these lock downs. Chapter 53 has contacted Area Manager Anita Hill with requests for additional staffing in an effort to alleviate the problems in walk-in. These requests have been ignored. Chapter 53 will do whatever they can to assist the embattled W & I employees. We can only hope that W & I management takes its collective heads out of the sand before there is Wal-Mart type tragedy in the TAC. We will caution W & I workers to be aware of the mood in the room. Do not get so wrapped up in what you are doing that you fail to notice when people are getting upset. Your management staff is obviously disinterested in your safety and could care less about the public. They will not have Steve Levy to save their reputations for them next time. He has retired. Will the next TM have the same sense of duty to act? Who knows? The odds are against it. |
In response to an e-mail last November which indicated that LMSB was studying its travel budget a member wrote back: So...a message may be expected to the effect that "agents should go out into the field....but not leave the office." HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS In the aftermath of the 1992 presidential election which brought in President Clinton after 12 years of Reagan/Bush the First, we ran a headline which said "We Won." We are going to resist the temptation to repeat that. A better headline might have been "At Least It Won't Be As Bad As It Would Have Been Had McCain Won" but that is really far too long for a headline. President, Barack Obama is, to say the least, a very smart man, an eloquent speaker, and a charismatic leader...but he is not a magician and right now, the United States needs a magic act. Forget the last eight years if you like and just concentrate on the last eight months. The banks, construction industry, auto industry, insurance companies, and retail sectors are in a tailspin. The stock market has taken more hits than a boxer on the wrong end of a technical knockout. The federal budget deficit is approaching numbers which are normally reserved for the use of the science of astronomy. Unemployment is at crisis levels and threatens to get worse before it gets better. The Titanic sank in two hours and it only had one hole in its hull. The President is going to find his options severely limited because of the abject fiasco he is inheriting. We can look forward to having a Federal Labor Relations Authority and a Federal Services Impasse Panel which are no longer wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Republican party's most extreme wing. That will be a pleasant change of pace but its impact on the membership will be minimal. Unfortunately federal pay and benefits, not to mention hiring, are one of the few things that a president can impact almost from the beginning. As we said above, Barack Obama is a smart man. He is going to figure this out quite quickly. We are not going to sit here and tell you "all will be well." It is not our job to lie to our members. The Federal Pay Comparability Act of 1990 has a clause which allows the president to substitute a plan for whatever pay raise number that the committee comes up with in case of a national emergency. For 18 years, in good times and bad, every president has found such an "emergency" as a pretext to submit his own ( i.e., read "lower") plan. The next time the matter comes up, later this year as a matter of fact, President Obama will be the first president who is telling the truth about the emergency. The honesty may be refreshing ... but it is not going to do federal employees any good. Executive Board Action When last summer's chapter elections were concluded we reported that two positions had not been filled due to the lack of a nomination for the position. Waiting for the start of their terms on October 1, 2008, the board, at its first meeting on October 22, 2008, filled those two positions subject to the terms of Article VI, Section 2 of the bylaws. Elected at that time were Larry Engel, as Collection Trustee for Garden City and Vincent Marcantonio as the Trustee-at-Large for Garden City. Congratulations to both of the new board members. IMPORTANT ARBITRATION CASE Chapter #271 has won an important case involving the IRS' favorite terror tactic, Section 1203(b). In this case, the IRS decided to terminate an employee on the basis of an Audit which was assigned nine days prior to statute expiration. The auditor issued a F. 4549 disallowing all of the items under audit without so much as a cursory investigation. The underlying audit is now in Appeals and the IRS' case looks exceedingly weak. Nonetheless, that did not stop Area Manager, Bill Marshall from determining that this was a 'willful' violation under 1203(b) and ordering termination. The arbitrator, noting the reliance on this flawed audit as the basis of the charge noted "when the Deciding Official chooses to place that sort of reliance on the underlying audit, she/he does so at her/his own peril." The arbitrator also ruled against the IRS mechanical use of boilerplate language to avoid actually considering the merits of the defense made by the employee and the union. This is something they do all the time and it is good to see them called for it. Most important is the arbitrator's ruling that the mere fact that a later audit makes a change to a return is not sufficient to establish wilfulness within the meaning of the statute. He noted "It is possible for an individual to be innocent of a 1203(b) violation and yet pursuant to a valid audit be found to have understated their Federal tax liability." The removal was reversed with back pay. The arbitrator did allow, if the IRS prevails in Appeals, that a letter of "admonishment" could be issued. We like an arbitrator with a sense of humor. We wonder if Bill Marshall does? |
TIME MARCHES ON II |
Five years ago we ran a story noting the aging of Chapter 53's leadership. Of the ten board members listed at that time, four have since retired which for the mathematically challenged is a 40% turnover rate. The chart below gives an idea of where things stand right now. As you can see, a fair number will attain membership in the aptly named KMA Club (Kiss My Ass - for the uninitiated) of people who have reached retirement age and can leave any time the mood strikes them before our next election. |
Name Office Status 12-31-10 |
George Greenberg President KMA Mike O'Grady Exec Vice-President - Bob Wolfson Treasurer - Cassie Manzella Secretary KMA Allan Cohen Exam Trustee - Garden City KMA Larry Engel Coll. Trustee - Garden City KMA Vinnie Marcantonio Trustee-At-Large - Garden City - Pat Jary Exam Trustee - Hauppauge KMA Rich Enterlin Coll. Trustee - Hauppauge KMA Steve Colaianni Trustee-At-Large - Hauppauge KMA |
While attaining KMA status does not, of course, automatically mean that a person will retire, it certainly gives them options which they did not have before. We are now at the point where 70% of the Executive Board could simply say "enough is enough" and trot out the door by next January. A union is made up of people and people age. That is an unfortunate fact of life. What it means to the membership is that if you expect to have a union guarding your rights from a frequently bizarre management team and an eternally hostile personnel department some of YOU will have to step forward and get involved. It takes time to learn the ropes. For that you need to be trained by someone who is experienced. At the moment Chapter 53 has a very experienced steward pool and we need to pass that knowledge along to the next generation. The IRS watches experienced people walk out the door and makes no effort to re-capture the skills that are leaving. The union does not have that luxury. The Union is not something separate from the membership. It is not a private club. The union is you and you are us. It is really that simple. IRS management is not going to get better in the future. They may well get worse as some of the old hands retire to be replaced by more of these "service center" types whose sole qualification for the job seems to be a personality disorder. Once we retire you will be left with them and the union is your only tool for stopping them. We need volunteers. Or, more properly, YOU need volunteers. |
THE THUGS STRIKE AGAIN |
TIGTA is up to its old tricks. We have come upon a 1/6/09 E-mail issued by LMSB Territory Manager Richard Stanton to his managers. It describes a weekend "raid" jointly conducted in the Phoenix IRS office by TIGTA and the increasingly annoying IRS Security staff. We suspect the purpose of this raid, after hours in a supposedly locked secure building was for these clowns to justify their budgets and their existence. We suspect TIGTA saw an added benefit to this raid in the form of an opportunity to nail BU employees. No matter what TIGTA tries to sell you in their annual presentations, Chapter 53 STILL believes TIGTA's primary function is to persecute BU employees. Upon hearing about this raid one BU employee commented "I still would like to know what the point is of doing all of this in a secure area. I lock the front door of my house, but I don't lock my wallet up at night." Per the E-mail, one stunt they pulled was trying to pick the cable locks on lap top computers even if the cable lock was on the lap top. They were successful in some instances. Remember that locks and cables were issued by a management staff that ignored the very real possibility that the locks issued were the cheapest and of the lowest quality. Instead they blamed the employees, claiming that most of the locks they were able to pick were because the employee did not spin the numbers sufficiently enough to make it difficult to figure out the combination! IRS Security took those lap tops and gave them back to the employees on Monday morning in a colossal waste of administrative time! Production oriented managers had to be less than pleased. They also took keys from unlocked desk drawers and filing cabinets and tried them in locks all over the building to see what they would open. IRS security looked for documents that were slipped under office doors. They used master keys to open locked office doors to gain access to see what TP information was not properly locked up. The message ends with the statement that these 'raids'will be conducted in other PODs though out the country in the up coming months. So a locked (and allegedly secure) government facility is broken into and property is taken and the workers are blamed and not the IRS Security honchos. This concept fits perfectly into the IRS philosophy that BLAME floats downward while KUDOS and MERIT PAY flow upwards! Placing our sense of inequity aside, we suggest you protect yourself as you can't rely on management to back you. TIGTA and IRS Security are NOT your friends. Lock up any IRS issued equipment and/or TP information. |
IN MEMORIAM Edie Nock |
The cartoon which we couldn't fit into the print version, once again, from the brilliant Scott Adams' "Dilbert." |
