The Social Security Administration is cutting its staff by about 12%, as part of the Trump administration’s overall reduction of the federal workforce. Some of those staffers worked at local field offices — the public face of Social Security at in-person appointments and walk-in visits.

The Social Security office in Schenectady, New York, lost about a third of its staff last month, according to the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees. Its vice president, Rennie Glasgow, is a claims technical expert at the office. He said walk-in clients, in particular, are feeling the effects of the cuts. 

“Our wait times have gone from about 30 minutes, 35 minutes to about an hour. Last couple of days I’ve seen people wait here for two hours,” Glasgow said.

Glasgow estimates foot traffic has doubled over the past few months. He said the waiting room is clogged at the beginning of every month with people who’ve had problems with their check or direct deposit. People come in all the time just to be sure they’ll get that month’s payment. Immigrants who’ve become citizens are also coming in to be sure their status is correct in Social Security’s database.  

Abraham Tchako is an engineering professor who immigrated from Cameroon. He waited close to two hours.

“But it’s OK. I’m on vacation,” he said.

Tchako used a vacation day because he knew it might take a while. Kristin Hoffman was also ready to camp out. She came into the office clutching a copy of Pride and Prejudice. Her visit was routine. A monthly check-in required for her Social Security disability benefit. Still, she waited one hour and 40 minutes.

Wait times did improve in the afternoon. But union rep Rennie Glasgow said that’s because the office manager moved workers from answering phones to helping walk-ins, which meant a longer wait for callers.

Glasgow is seeing more people coming in because they can’t get through on the phone. He said they tell him, ”’I was waiting on the phone for three hours and then I got dropped. I just decided to come in and I have to wait here for two hours. This is ridiculous!’”

Something like that happened to seventy-three-year-old Tony Cannistraci. He came in to submit paperwork for his wife. And he was here last month, too.

“The last time I was here was because I could not get through to anybody on the phone,” he said. “That’s when I waited 45 minutes and I said the hell with this, I’ve gotta go. I have things to do.”

Customers are stressing out, said Chris Delaney, another union official and a claims representative in the Hudson, New York, field office. And they’re angry.

“Before they might feel like slapping you, but now they want to throw your ass off a bridge,” Delaney said.

I reached out to Social Security for comment on the situation in Schenectady, but didn’t hear back by deadline.