From the Desk of the President

The only constant thing in life is change itself. We all are going thru a change right now, be it here at work, or at home. Change is hard to accept for many people and they struggle with it. The Cincinnati Service Center is changing in many ways. Submission Processing is being consolidated, so there are 1,800 employees whose life is changing in ways they did not choose. So how do we look at this, is it gloom and doom, or is there an opportunity here for many employees? Many employees will choose to retire. They have earned that retirement and they are ready to move on to the next chapter in their life. A chapter where there will be no alarm clock every morning, a day without fighting traffic, a day that they plan for their selves. For some of these members, it will be the first time since grade school they taste the freedom. One of my friends told me “I highly recommend retirement! I haven’t looked back and I’m enjoying my life!”

He made that transition easily. Imagine change like this, we’ve all seen that trapeze act at the circus. The performer leaves a safe place to get on a swinging trapeze, then they have to let go and leap for the other trapeze. For that one brief second they are in midair, with nothing to hang onto, but reaching for their future. Then, they grab that trapeze and swing to the other platform. For many of us, that is what we are facing.
Every year, about 10% of our workforce retires. For some units, there is no replacement coming, so the work is distributed among the remaining employees. This gets to be depressing for those employees. The work never gets any easier, just more of it.

Our country has a new President, and like Tommie Braswell told me this morning, “We are going to be alright. Every time there is a new leader, they come in with their ideas on how to change things and improve things. It takes a while for them to learn that some of those ideas don’t work how things really work and what needs to be done to get the job done.”

We currently face a temporary hiring freeze that keeps the agency from bringing new employees on board. Is this an opportunity for us working here to move onto a new position, a better position with better pay?
The IRS has a total attrition rate of 15.7%. That figures to about 12,000 employees a year. The number of employees nationally affected by the closing of the three submission centers are 7,500. The math is on our side here. When people leave, the work remains to be done. We have people, they got work, send it to us! The new Secretary of the Treasury has already said he wants more employees for the IRS. We have an opportunity here, to fill these vacant positions in the rest of the service center. They may be higher graded jobs, and we will have to compete for these positions, but, if I’m successful, you will see some positions open that haven’t been filled for years. I will give you one piece of advice, no matter where you are, Prepare, Prepare and Prepare now and every day for your future.