r/UnemploymentWA • u/dragonagitator • Dec 06 '23
Discussion Unemployment office is DOWNSIZING staff even though they already don't have enough staff to answer most calls or reply to any secure messages?!?!
I finally got through this morning by following /u/SoThenIThought_ 's advice to call right at 7:58am and just stay on hold for however long it took for someone to answer. (It took about an hour.)
While I was speaking with one of the agents, I semi-jokingly asked if they were hiring because I need a job and they clearly need more phone staff.
The agent told me that not only are they not hiring, they're actually downsizing the unemployment office staff!!!!!
It's ridiculous that the unemployment office is downsizing staff when they're already unable to answer most phone calls, don't have time to even look at secure messages until someone calls in, and can't complete identify verifications in a timely manner (it turned out the reason I've been unable to open a new claim was the identity documents I'd submitted OVER A YEAR AGO were still pending).
It's especially ridiculous that they're downsizing NOW, given all the recent mass layoffs and the looming recession.
Once I finally got through, everyone I spoke with there (I was tranferred around a bit because of multiple issues) was helpful, knowledgeable, efficient, and very apologetic about how difficult it is to reach them. So it seems the biggest problem at the unemployment office is understaffing, not incompetence. Also, if they were adequately staffed, they would have time to go through the secure messages as they came in and could resolve many issues much more quickly and efficiently than waiting until someone calls in before they can even read them.
I confirmed with one of the agents I spoke with that the Governor's office is responsible for setting their budget and thus is the best place to complain about understaffing at the unemployment office.
I called Governor Inslee's office at 360-902-4111 and left a voicemail encouraging him to increase the staffing budget for the unemployment office and I also sent a more detailed message via his contact form. (Please note that's the contact info for general input from constituents, not for escalating your claim/case.)
I encourage everyone else who is frustrated with how difficult it is to reach anyone at the unemployment office to also complain to the Governor's office using that phone number and/or link. Elected officials keep track of how many constituents contact them about an issue, and apply a multipler to estimate how many constituents total care about it. Taking a few minutes to call (higher multiplier) or message (lower multiplier) the Governor's office about this will count for more than you might think. Please go do it right now, thanks!
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u/SkiMaskDiplomat Dec 06 '23
I almost got through by selecting a different language (Spanish) just waiting on a call back now.
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u/dragonagitator Dec 06 '23
Hopefully you actually get a call back. I never did. The message claims that they'll hold your place in the queue, but if they get more than a day's worth of calls in the first couple of hours then it's never your turn.
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u/WhitebearStudio Dec 07 '23
My son just called the Gov's office about the Unemployment Office mess. The person he spoke to was very nice and tried to be helpful, but in the end it all boiled down to the fact that the Unemployment Office is not a state office. It's a Federal office and the mess they are in is because of the Federal Government cutting back on staff.
So now he is unable to complete his application for unemployment form. It seems there are no humans there and the darn call tree just goes around and around and makes you sit on hold forever. At his last hour and 48 minute mark, it just all of a sudden broke into the horrible "hold music" and said "good bye" then disconnected. It's now almost 4:30 and I'll bet it will be useless to call back yet again since, if there ARE really any humans left working there, they're leaving for the day. Just great.
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u/Arsene_Lupin_IV Dec 07 '23
I've been right where he is before. It's absolutely terrible. It makes you wonder what they do all day because it doesn't seem like anyone actually makes it through to talk to a human being.
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u/Asus_i7 Dec 07 '23
The person he spoke to was very nice and tried to be helpful, but in the end it all boiled down to the fact that the Unemployment Office is not a state office.
I believe your son may have been told this... but it's not actually true. Unemployment Insurance is a joint Federal-State program, with the Federal government providing some of the money, but it's the State government that administers everything.
In particular, "the Washington State Employment Security Department is a government agency for the U.S. state of Washington that is tasked with management of the unemployment system. It was established by the Washington State Legislature in 1947, replacing an earlier system." [1]
The State Legislature created the department and it sets the budget of the department (which, in turn, determines how many employees the department can have). It might be nice if the Federal government provided more money for administration, but there's nothing technically stopping the State Legislature from providing more money to the department from State taxes.
Source: [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Employment_Security_Department
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u/maddhatterz Dec 07 '23
How are you even getting on hold??? I keep calling and my call gets terminated before I even get to the part where they put me on hold. Am I doing something wrong?
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u/dragonagitator Dec 08 '23
I called between 7:58am and 8:05am per the advice on /r/UnemploymentWA
apparently that 7-minute window is the sweet spot when you can actually get a spot in the queue before it fills up and starts dumping all subsequent callers
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u/wizdomeleven Dec 06 '23
Submitted!