Last month FITS exclusively reported on “another round of staffing cuts” coming to the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW). The reason? An anticipated $7 million deficit at the agency – which is responsible for doling out benefits to the unemployed.
Guess what … we were right (again).
According to the Associated Press the agency announced its intention to cut loose 153 workers – its fourth major reduction in force in the last seven months.
An inter-agency memo obtained by FITS reveals that 100 of these positions are being cut as a result of SCDEW restructuring efforts, while the remainder of the positions are being cut due to the expiration of extended federal unemployment benefits.
“We regret to inform you that in June 2013 a Reduction in Force and layoffs will be necessary,” the memo states. “All affected employees will be notified this week.”
Ahhh … notifications.
Part of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s cabinet, SCDEW has been among the most chronically mismanaged agencies in all of state government. Just last year it doled out $54.5 million in “improper claims” according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL). In fact over the last three years the agency has an improper payment rate of 14.7 percent – one of the highest in the nation.
Who’s picking up the tab for this incompetence? South Carolina businesses and taxpayers.
Abraham Turner – Haley’s first choice to lead SCDEW – resigned his post last month in disgrace, and a search is currently underway for his replacement.
As we’ve noted in numerous previous posts, SCDEW can cut as many jobs as it wants – the real problem in this state is the elevated number of unemployed citizens in the private sector.
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68 comments
Gotta make room for more managers, fire the schmoes! And make sure their kids are in the office when you tell them to pack their shit and get the fuck out, right?
Actually, the plan eliminates two layers of managers and adds workers. Most of the reductions will be in manager & supervisor positions.
Gotta make room for more managers, fire the schmoes! And make sure their kids are in the office when you tell them to pack their shit and get the fuck out, right?
Actually, the plan eliminates two layers of managers and adds workers. Most of the reductions will be in manager & supervisor positions.
word is that the feds are going to take over that agency — right after they release a damning audit
That would be glorious at this point.
word is that the feds are going to take over that agency — right after they release a damning audit
That would be glorious at this point.
No wonder the Legislative Audit Council is auditing them…again.
The Act that created the agency required 3 LAC Audits. Because of how crappy ESC was mismanaged. The LAC Audits are a joke. Go through a real audit in private industry by a firm of CPA’s & CIA’s and you will know the difference.
No wonder the Legislative Audit Council is auditing them…again.
The Act that created the agency required 3 LAC Audits. Because of how crappy ESC was mismanaged. The LAC Audits are a joke. Go through a real audit in private industry by a firm of CPA’s & CIA’s and you will know the difference.
In an Agency that has few financial resources, management is spending money to read employee’s emails to find out who is “leaking” information to State Legislators and media. My boss said that she was on a conference call last week that a Big Boss in Columbia threatened to use whatever resources needed to find out who is leaking info and to “get them.” Everyone will be laid off and have to reapply for a job, leaving 153 unemployed.
…And we still have to answer the phone “It’s a great day in South Carolina!”
You know they have IT security software that does that?? After DOR cyber attack, I would hope SCDEW has a sophicated enough system to do something as simple as scan emails.
In an Agency that has few financial resources, management is spending money to read employee’s emails to find out who is “leaking” information to State Legislators and media. My boss said that she was on a conference call last week that a Big Boss in Columbia threatened to use whatever resources needed to find out who is leaking info and to “get them.” Everyone will be laid off and have to reapply for a job, leaving 153 unemployed.
…And we still have to answer the phone “It’s a great day in South Carolina!”
You know they have IT security software that does that?? After DOR cyber attack, I would hope SCDEW has a sophicated enough system to do something as simple as scan emails.
What sucks is most those being cut are the ones that do employment services. They are the ones who help the unemployed learn how to do a resume, conduct a job search, etc… UI is another animal. They may try an explain these cuts away because of a decline in unemployment, but they are the result of gross mismanagement. Before the collapse of the housing market, unemployment #s were half or less of what they are now. Now with the unemployed #s doubled from that period, the staffing will less than half. As a ex-military man, just because they held some high rank in the military doesn’t mean they can run anything. Turner came in and brought all his cronies and gave them all HIGH salaries. NOw wonder the agency is failing.
—– well said and on target
What sucks is most those being cut are the ones that do employment services. They are the ones who help the unemployed learn how to do a resume, conduct a job search, etc… UI is another animal. They may try an explain these cuts away because of a decline in unemployment, but they are the result of gross mismanagement. Before the collapse of the housing market, unemployment #s were half or less of what they are now. Now with the unemployed #s doubled from that period, the staffing will less than half. As a ex-military man, just because they held some high rank in the military doesn’t mean they can run anything. Turner came in and brought all his cronies and gave them all HIGH salaries. NOw wonder the agency is failing.
—– well said and on target
This so called restructuring is a result of the 10 million dollar budget deficit (not 7 as stated above) that this agency has which is not a result of loss of funding. It is a result of creating a bunch of fake positions in the big ivory tower in Columbia. To this day none of these new positions have been affected by layoffs. I mean can you possibly tell me why this agency needs a chief of staff or any of these other made up jobs? Also if it is due to funding and this agency is slashing staff then why haven’t any of the upper management positions been cut, or why is there still a need to employ the army of human resource and finance department employees. This entire restructuring is a total sham and cover for the mismanagement of agency funds. I just can not figure out how this is not being investigated. The sad thing about this is that the people who are affected the most are the customers that come into these offices and the staff that are working in these local offices. So it is a little hard to understand why are the people who do most of the work and are the frontline staff the ones who are being affected the most. Never mind I know why…its because this agency doesn’t give a crap about the people on the local level and think that they are above them.
Also too bad someone didn’t record that conversation last week between the two individuals in Columbia and the staff at the local level.
The agency’s incompetence is due to the big boss, Haley. She’s an incompetent operations manager – well, she isn’t doing the job, period. She doesn’t know squat about the nuts and bolts of delivering product or service (to wit: gov services to citizens) and she has no experience in operations positions (commonly referred to as line jobs). Line jobs are directly responsible for designing producing delivering, some product, to budget and schedule. She is an accountant, commonly referred to as staff, whose only mission is to support the folks who do the real work – line. So each agency director sets his/her own operational goals. None of which include instituting competent business processes to reduce corruption and improve transparency. Since Haley doesn’t know diddly, directors prioritize nepotistic self interest.The accountability reports of the agencies self evidence Haley’s incompetence and agency failure to use adequate operational process. As does her disregard of the documented lie, or incompetence, or both., of an agency (PRT) lawyer, in trying to hide Parrish mismanagement.
Haley admitted the Commission for Ethics Reform won’t do anything to reduce agency corruption. But she is too busy courting the Republican party to care.
documentation posted, http://www.laurenscountycitizenswatch.com. See investigations, PRT, for emails from lawyer Willoughby hiding Parrish mismanagement. Haley told me she would look into it. She’s a far better liar than she is operations manager.
—- well said and on target
—– well said and on target
The conversation refered to was between The #2 guy in the agency, the agency HR person, and the regional staff directors. The #2 guy bullied, threatened, and used a number of explatives. It was so bad, the HR chick had to tell her “boss” to stop the harrasment. If anyone had taped the conversation, it would constitute grounds for immediate dismissal of this clown hired by Turner a short time after his arrival. If Interim Finan has the furtitude, he will talk with his HR leader, get a sense of the convwersation, and do the right thing. It was awful, embarassing, and most certainly illegal. I wish I had made a tape. If anyone has one, Fits would love to hear it.
Maybe instead of waiting for your letter, you should just quit? You clearly hate working there.
why wait? Maybe you should resign?
This so called restructuring is a result of the 10 million dollar budget deficit (not 7 as stated above) that this agency has which is not a result of loss of funding. It is a result of creating a bunch of fake positions in the big ivory tower in Columbia. To this day none of these new positions have been affected by layoffs. I mean can you possibly tell me why this agency needs a chief of staff or any of these other made up jobs? Also if it is due to funding and this agency is slashing staff then why haven’t any of the upper management positions been cut, or why is there still a need to employ the army of human resource and finance department employees. This entire restructuring is a total sham and cover for the mismanagement of agency funds. I just can not figure out how this is not being investigated. The sad thing about this is that the people who are affected the most are the customers that come into these offices and the staff that are working in these local offices. So it is a little hard to understand why are the people who do most of the work and are the frontline staff the ones who are being affected the most. Never mind I know why…its because this agency doesn’t give a crap about the people on the local level and think that they are above them.
Also too bad someone didn’t record that conversation last week between the two individuals in Columbia and the staff at the local level.
The agency’s incompetence is due to the big boss, Haley. She’s an incompetent operations manager – well, she isn’t doing the job, period. She doesn’t know squat about the nuts and bolts of delivering product or service (to wit: gov services to citizens) and she has no experience in operations positions (commonly referred to as line jobs). Line jobs are directly responsible for designing producing delivering, some product, to budget and schedule. She is an accountant, commonly referred to as staff, whose only mission is to support the folks who do the real work – line. So each agency director sets his/her own operational goals. None of which include instituting competent business processes to reduce corruption and improve transparency. Since Haley doesn’t know diddly, directors prioritize nepotistic self interest.The accountability reports of the agencies self evidence Haley’s incompetence and agency failure to use adequate operational process. As does her disregard of the documented lie, or incompetence, or both., of an agency (PRT) lawyer, in trying to hide Parrish mismanagement.
Haley admitted the Commission for Ethics Reform won’t do anything to reduce agency corruption. But she is too busy courting the Republican party to care.
documentation posted, http://www.laurenscountycitizenswatch.com. See investigations, PRT, for emails from lawyer Willoughby hiding Parrish mismanagement. Haley told me she would look into it. She’s a far better liar than she is operations manager.
—- well said and on target
—– well said and on target
The conversation refered to was between The #2 guy in the agency, the agency HR person, and the regional staff directors. The #2 guy bullied, threatened, and used a number of explatives. It was so bad, the HR chick had to tell her “boss” to stop the harrasment. If anyone had taped the conversation, it would constitute grounds for immediate dismissal of this clown hired by Turner a short time after his arrival. If Interim Finan has the furtitude, he will talk with his HR leader, get a sense of the convwersation, and do the right thing. It was awful, embarassing, and most certainly illegal. I wish I had made a tape. If anyone has one, Fits would love to hear it.
Maybe instead of waiting for your letter, you should just quit? You clearly hate working there.
why wait? Maybe you should resign?
The audits I have worked on at state agencies, counties, cities, universities and colleges, quasi-governmental agencies, and not-for-profit agencies receiving tax
funding allowed me to see a lot of the good, the bad, and the ugly of government employment.
There are many thousands of employees who try to do the best can every day. There are also hundreds of employees at top management who are useless and overpaid.
At one state agency, just for an example —-
1) A top level manager who had retired from the military (nothing wrong here) had a payroll deduction of $ 4,0000 per month put into savings, leaving him with $ 460 net per month for “walking around money”. He told me that was all the funds he needed from his state paycheck. That’s fine, because he had his military retirement, his wife was employed, and his children were out of school. He had his personal planning well done, but regarding his state job responsibilities he was totally useless and a drain on funds.
2) The payroll manager was totally efficient, kept on top of her responsibilities, and I never found a single error exception. An excellent employee who was deservedly proud of her job and her work.
3) There were about ten clerical employees who did totally boring drudge work on reports. They did their work without complaining or wasting time with gossip or goofing off. What was their job? It was transferring numbers from written summaries to a computer spreadsheet and printing them out each day. One day I measured the stack of printouts from one employee, and it was about 24″ high. This was her daily job – her drone work that she would do until she retired.
After rambling on here this morning, you can see that I agree with those of you who are working in various state agencies where the fat is at the top. Let me put it another way = FAT. The lower level employees are getting the squeeze and the bum rap while some of the FAT CATS sit back and I presume just “laugh all the way to the bank.”
I agree that reorganization must be examined from time to time, but ridding an agency of the employees who should be providing services to the citizens is self=defeating. The FAT CATS (like the General) end up being ridiculed. Anybody who has ever tried to build a house of cards knows what keeps the kings and queens at the top.
Well so much for my blathering and wandering…….. time for my caffeine.
Agreed many times over. Same to you, shifty! (the well said part).
“There are also hundreds of employees at top management who are useless and overpaid.
At one state agency, just for an example . . .”
This is certainly true at the one agency I know about, but with the caveat that it is more true of upper management than the very top.
Yes, and they love to have meetings. Afriend of mine was hired by DSS to reconcile all of its checking accounts, which had not been reconciled for close to four years. He quit after five months because he was required to attend meetings which had nothing to do with his assignment. He told me he spent 3-4 hours per day in those meetings. He kept getting further behind, and he became convinced that management didn’t truly want the accounts reconciled because he might fdiscover some things they didn’t want found.
——————————————————
Reminds me of this .similar story ………
“Senator Bluster, what’s the election today for?”
“Well, it is to determine whether we shall have a convention to nominate delegates who will be voted on as to whether they will attend a caucus which will decide whether we shall have a primary to determine whether the people want to vote on this same question again next year.”
The audits I have worked on at state agencies, counties, cities, universities and colleges, quasi-governmental agencies, and not-for-profit agencies receiving tax
funding allowed me to see a lot of the good, the bad, and the ugly of government employment.
There are many thousands of employees who try to do the best can every day. There are also hundreds of employees at top management who are useless and overpaid.
At one state agency, just for an example —-
1) A top level manager who had retired from the military (nothing wrong here) had a payroll deduction of $ 4,0000 per month put into savings, leaving him with $ 460 net per month for “walking around money”. He told me that was all the funds he needed from his state paycheck. That’s fine, because he had his military retirement, his wife was employed, and his children were out of school. He had his personal planning well done, but regarding his state job responsibilities he was totally useless and a drain on funds.
2) The payroll manager was totally efficient, kept on top of her responsibilities, and I never found a single error exception. An excellent employee who was deservedly proud of her job and her work.
3) There were about ten clerical employees who did totally boring drudge work on reports. They did their work without complaining or wasting time with gossip or goofing off. What was their job? It was transferring numbers from written summaries to a computer spreadsheet and printing them out each day. One day I measured the stack of printouts from one employee, and it was about 24″ high. This was her daily job – her drone work that she would do until she retired.
After rambling on here this morning, you can see that I agree with those of you who are working in various state agencies where the fat is at the top. Let me put it another way = FAT. The lower level employees are getting the squeeze and the bum rap while some of the FAT CATS sit back and I presume just “laugh all the way to the bank.”
I agree that reorganization must be examined from time to time, but ridding an agency of the employees who should be providing services to the citizens is self=defeating. The FAT CATS (like the General) end up being ridiculed. Anybody who has ever tried to build a house of cards knows what keeps the kings and queens at the top.
Well so much for my blathering and wandering…….. time for my caffeine.
Agreed many times over. Same to you, shifty! (the well said part).
“There are also hundreds of employees at top management who are useless and overpaid.
At one state agency, just for an example . . .”
This is certainly true at the one agency I know about, but with the caveat that it is more true of upper management than the very top.
Yes, and they love to have meetings. Afriend of mine was hired by DSS to reconcile all of its checking accounts, which had not been reconciled for close to four years. He quit after five months because he was required to attend meetings which had nothing to do with his assignment. He told me he spent 3-4 hours per day in those meetings. He kept getting further behind, and he became convinced that management didn’t truly want the accounts reconciled because he might fdiscover some things they didn’t want found.
——————————————————
Reminds me of this .similar story ………
“Senator Bluster, what’s the election today for?”
“Well, it is to determine whether we shall have a convention to nominate delegates who will be voted on as to whether they will attend a caucus which will decide whether we shall have a primary to determine whether the people want to vote on this same question again next year.”
Message to Nikki: “Transparency? Yeah, right!”
Nikki to Shifty: But But, looky all the time I’m spending on the Commission for Ethics Reform!! You just never mind I know it won’t touch executive agencies. I did all those press releases!! And I’m spending your money on a bunch of lawyer consultants, including former Henry McMasters! Oh don’t pay any attention to how he and my fellow Republican marketeer (or is that mouseketeer….) Wilson won’t release the agreement McMasters made to take over the Brown estate, (just don’t look at all the money the state gets from this arrangement…)Never mind the court ruling that McMasters agreement exceeding his authority. My marketing of the Commission is what the Republican party will use to promote me as a transparency advocate. See what I’m doing for you?? Uh…I mean..for me???
Shifty to Nikki: My tears just won’t stop falling!
This agency is deeply sick, it’s not in a “steady as she goes” mode as some other agencies. Therefore its next leader should NOT be a female attorney from a major firm that has donated much to the governor’s campaign. It badly needs a professional from a DEW or DOL with a siginicant, professional resume and the stomach to do some heavy lifting, pruneing, and leading. This job cannot afford another political hack who needs training wheels. If a political hack takes monster on, they will end their political carreer with a monstrous failure. It’s too broken for a rookie to tackle. This one needs a pro.
what agencies do you think are steady as she goes? I know of one – Sec of State. Returns 8 times appropriations. I’m interested in others you know of that are performers.
Got ya!
But that is exactly who will be the next Executive Director. We know since this female is a younger version of Catherine Templeton. Haley loves Templeton.
Message to Nikki: “Transparency? Yeah, right!”
Nikki to Shifty: But But, looky all the time I’m spending on the Commission for Ethics Reform!! You just never mind I know it won’t touch executive agencies. I did all those press releases!! And I’m spending your money on a bunch of lawyer consultants, including former Henry McMasters! Oh don’t pay any attention to how he and my fellow Republican marketeer (or is that mouseketeer….) Wilson won’t release the agreement McMasters made to take over the Brown estate, (just don’t look at all the money the state gets from this arrangement…)Never mind the court ruling that McMasters agreement exceeding his authority. My marketing of the Commission is what the Republican party will use to promote me as a transparency advocate. See what I’m doing for you?? Uh…I mean..for me???
Shifty to Nikki: My tears just won’t stop falling!
This agency is deeply sick, it’s not in a “steady as she goes” mode as some other agencies. Therefore its next leader should NOT be a female attorney from a major firm that has donated much to the governor’s campaign. It badly needs a professional from a DEW or DOL with a siginicant, professional resume and the stomach to do some heavy lifting, pruneing, and leading. This job cannot afford another political hack who needs training wheels. If a political hack takes monster on, they will end their political carreer with a monstrous failure. It’s too broken for a rookie to tackle. This one needs a pro.
what agencies do you think are steady as she goes? I know of one – Sec of State. Returns 8 times appropriations. I’m interested in others you know of that are performers.
Got ya!
But that is exactly who will be the next Executive Director. We know since this female is a younger version of Catherine Templeton. Haley loves Templeton.
“In fact over the last three years the agency has an improper payment rate of 14.7 percent – one of the highest in the nation.”
Though it might seem like 26 years, Trikki has only been governor for 26 months. This agency was a mess under Sanford, too. He took a mess of an agency, had it put in the cabinet by a bunch of idiot Red legislators and did nothing to fix it.
One of Trikki’s biggest errors has apparently been to believe that Mark knew what he was doing as an “executive” and was appointing decent agency heads. Wonder if she’s figured that one out yet? Of course, if she had been appointing decent agency heads herself, they would/should have been able to go in, identify the problems and fix them before we had SCDOT running out of money to pay contractors and SCDOR doing nothing about improving cyber security in a decade of cyber attacks.
Reliance on ‘beliefs’ is one mark of incompetency in managerial and leadership skills. Effective leaders/managers gets the facts and makes decisions accordingly. She can read simple English. Even a blathering idiot can understand, if the idiot bothered to seek basic leadership/managerial skills, people don’t deliver what isn’t measured. All she had to do was institute quantifiable measurements of process improvement (the accountability reports show the agencies only measure open loop process workload. Open loop fail to meet minimum criteria as sound business process. Only incompetent leaders allow them) Haley is a marketing politician, not a competent manager, and certainly not a credible leader. “Beliefs” are irrelevant. Performance is all that counts. Like every politician, Haley can’t, or won’t, do the real job because she’s chasing her own personal aspirations with the National Republican party. Her failure to set credible operational goals for agencies self evidences her leadership incompetence for all but empty political marketing.
DEW has horrible managers. Middle managers who do not know how to create a performance standard or metric. In any industry, middle management is what makes or breaks a company.
“In fact over the last three years the agency has an improper payment rate of 14.7 percent – one of the highest in the nation.”
Though it might seem like 26 years, Trikki has only been governor for 26 months. This agency was a mess under Sanford, too. He took a mess of an agency, had it put in the cabinet by a bunch of idiot Red legislators and did nothing to fix it.
One of Trikki’s biggest errors has apparently been to believe that Mark knew what he was doing as an “executive” and was appointing decent agency heads. Wonder if she’s figured that one out yet? Of course, if she had been appointing decent agency heads herself, they would/should have been able to go in, identify the problems and fix them before we had SCDOT running out of money to pay contractors and SCDOR doing nothing about improving cyber security in a decade of cyber attacks.
Reliance on ‘beliefs’ is one mark of incompetency in managerial and leadership skills. Effective leaders/managers gets the facts and makes decisions accordingly. She can read simple English. Even a blathering idiot can understand, if the idiot bothered to seek basic leadership/managerial skills, people don’t deliver what isn’t measured. All she had to do was institute quantifiable measurements of process improvement (the accountability reports show the agencies only measure open loop process workload. Open loop fail to meet minimum criteria as sound business process. Only incompetent leaders allow them) Haley is a marketing politician, not a competent manager, and certainly not a credible leader. “Beliefs” are irrelevant. Performance is all that counts. Like every politician, Haley can’t, or won’t, do the real job because she’s chasing her own personal aspirations with the National Republican party. Her failure to set credible operational goals for agencies self evidences her leadership incompetence for all but empty political marketing.
DEW has horrible managers. Middle managers who do not know how to create a performance standard or metric. In any industry, middle management is what makes or breaks a company.
Yet again management stays and the little workers go. One of the ones getting a letter I hear is someone who is a stellar employee but one who has missed work two times in one month for cancer treatment which is too many times per dew. Nice.
Yet again management stays and the little workers go. One of the ones getting a letter I hear is someone who is a stellar employee but one who has missed work two times in one month for cancer treatment which is too many times per dew. Nice.
The SCDEW Chief of Staff stated that she doesn’t care what the legislators think because she works for the governor, during a recent conference call with field managers. She is also in the running for the SCDEW Executive Director position and is due to be interviewed next week. Could she possibly be the next SCDEW Executive Director!!?? On the same conference call, the field managers were threatened with their jobs for speaking with legislators about the upcoming layoffs by #2 in command. SCDEW is in shambles and it is a shame to see it completely destroyed by incompetence and gross mismanagement. What’s really worse injustice will be seeing the people that need support in securing gainful employment and won’t get the level of help they need. SCDEW upper management is putting lipstick on a pig and the governor knows it and apparently supports it. I have heard there is 8450 funding that could be used to divert some of the layoffs, but they are not using it. I wonder why? I guess upper management at SCDEW Headquarters is saving it for more mismanagement like travel, pay raises, new furniture for their offices, and bimbo Chiefs of Staff.
Sounds like an awful place to work. No need to worry, Haley is hiring a Labor Lawyer from NYC to be the Executive Director. The lawyer is a friend & colleague of Catherine Templeton. I am sure that will be better than the bimbo. And if managers like yourself have to call the legislature to get your problems, good luck. They can’t help you. Maybe you should resign?
The SCDEW Chief of Staff stated that she doesn’t care what the legislators think because she works for the governor, during a recent conference call with field managers. She is also in the running for the SCDEW Executive Director position and is due to be interviewed next week. Could she possibly be the next SCDEW Executive Director!!?? On the same conference call, the field managers were threatened with their jobs for speaking with legislators about the upcoming layoffs by #2 in command. SCDEW is in shambles and it is a shame to see it completely destroyed by incompetence and gross mismanagement. What’s really worse injustice will be seeing the people that need support in securing gainful employment and won’t get the level of help they need. SCDEW upper management is putting lipstick on a pig and the governor knows it and apparently supports it. I have heard there is 8450 funding that could be used to divert some of the layoffs, but they are not using it. I wonder why? I guess upper management at SCDEW Headquarters is saving it for more mismanagement like travel, pay raises, new furniture for their offices, and bimbo Chiefs of Staff.
Sounds like an awful place to work. No need to worry, Haley is hiring a Labor Lawyer from NYC to be the Executive Director. The lawyer is a friend & colleague of Catherine Templeton. I am sure that will be better than the bimbo. And if managers like yourself have to call the legislature to get your problems, good luck. They can’t help you. Maybe you should resign?