Uh, Huh, You Guessed it- More Posts from the Old Site that Does Not Work

One ringydingy, two ringydingy…oh hell, never mind!
October 20, 2008 · Leave a Comment

I thought the daughter was fibbing when she said she tried to call the California Employment Development Department—otherwise known as the ‘Unemployment Office’ and they hung up on her. More than 20 times.

“Yeah right,” I told my Gen Y baby. “They don’t hang up on you. They’re there to help you.” So, frustrated mom dialed, listened, pushed the correct buttons and…was hung up on. Over and over again.

Back in January, before everything really went to shit, and with the unemployment rate only hovering around 6%, nearly 12.6 million calls were placed to the state’s toll-free phone number to apply for unemployment insurance benefits. The Los Angeles Times reported that more than three-fifths of the calls never got through.

“The state’s six call centers are “overworked and understaffed,” said Adrienne Suffin, an eligibility representative in San Francisco. “EDD has not kept up in terms of hiring.”

The subpar call-center performance hurts both working people and their employers, who pay the unemployment insurance payroll taxes, said Employment Development Director Patrick Henning. Weekly unemployment benefits in California can be as high as $450 and last for up to six months.

“It is poor service to the people who are on unemployment at a time that’s tragic for them after they’ve lost their jobs,” Henning said. Henning said he was paying overtime to cut the backlog in approving claims, which are being backdated to compensate people for delays in reaching operators.

In the meantime, he urged applicants to file their claims on the Internet at www.edd.ca.gov to avoid clogging up the state’s already overburdened telephone system.”



In all actuality, the daughter was trying to cancel her checks having found not one, but two jobs to replace the ungrateful place that had laid her off by reinventing and creating new opportunities for herself before her first check was mailed. A chip off the old often-fired block–couldn’t be prouder!

Finally, after three months, someone from the EDD called the still employed child. Being brought up correctly, she did not hang up.