EEOC's call center is a tarnished goose. Why, you might ask, would EEOC have a tarnished goose? EEOC has a job to do, but does not have enough money to do the job, did not ask for enough money to get sufficient number of employees to do the job, and does not want to spend money to buy the right equipment and technology to get the job done. As long as EEOC continues to sink more money into its tarnished goose, it never will have a chance to get the job done. So, at EEOC, you enter into a contract to spend money you do not have and buy tarnished goose. Maybe the public will be fooled into thinking it got actual service.
What EEOC gets for the money it does not have is shoddy and quickly taken messages. EEOC assigns the shoddy messages to the few staff it has in offices. The few staff cannot return the calls because there is too much other work in the office, which often piles up, awaiting attention. In the meantime, the call center takes yet another message, actually now a complaint, and sends that to the office where the few staff are called on the carpet for not returning the call soon enough. Then, the few staff must drop the other work for which they have been called on the carpet to return a call to a person who now has called the call center twice, but not received any assistance from EEOC.
And it gets worse. EEOC is directing offices to remove the message box from the main phone line into the office. The message on office phones refers callers to the EEOC’s call center via an 800 number and to the EEOC’s website, which is not available to everyone. Some information is available on the office phones via menus. But in order to talk to someone at EEOC, you have to contact the tarnished goose in Kansas and get on the merry-go-round. You might be transferred by the call center to the phone for one of the few staff in an office any maybe you will get to speak with someone. Most likely, they are busy, so you will leave a message. The other option is for the caller to send a letter to the local office, including confidential data such as social security numbers and the date of birth. In any event, your chances of talking to someone are not great Talking to someone is a different story. But now, we have lots of ways people can leave messages.
And the work stacks up, the calls take longer to return and if the public hangs in there through enough bureaucratic grief, eventually members of the public might get to talk to someone at EEOC. But, I guess EEOC’s theory is tarnished service is the best it wants to offer. So, if you want to do business with EEOC, talk to the tarnished goose.
