A deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration has allegedly continued to act erratically in the five months since other employees first lodged complaints about her, but the agency has shown no indication that it plans to remove her from the position, according to The Washington Post. Six witnesses to Theresa Gruber’s alarming behavior described how, for more than a year, she slurred her speech, “appeared intoxicated,” and abruptly departed from meetings without warning. Three members of Gruber’s senior staff corroborated the allegations to the Post. The Office of Hearings Operations, whose 9,000 workers and billion-dollar budget Gruber oversees, has become “rudderless” in the face of the “significant anomalies” in her conduct, sources told the newspaper. The 53-year-old, who has not been observed drinking on the clock, is diabetic and informed several colleagues that she has been struggling with the condition recently. “If you can’t do this job anymore, honestly, you should be raising your hand to say, ‘I can’t do 100 percent anymore,’” a staffer told the Post.
