216 BULLETIN

JUST ANOTHER EEOC BOONDOGGLE?

It is now day four of the call center debacle. By now, almost everyone who deals with intake has had the displeasure of dealing with a call center system that does not work. For example, you receive calls or documents transferred from the call center where adequate screening by the call center staff has not occurred. For example, you could get a call where screening would have sent the caller to another federal agency or you get an EAS or e-questionnaire from the call center that contains insufficient data. You may even get a questionnaire filled out on-line by a PCP. In any event, the problem is that EEOC employees end up calling the individual to obtain sufficient data to determine whether, for any number of reasons, the caller should be at EEOC.

To make the agency accountable, the Council developed a survey. It is important that you provide feedback, so that we can hold the agency accountable. You can find the survey at www.council216.org. Then click on the survey button. Or, just click on the following link: Staffing%20survey.htm. If the link does not take you to the survey, you can cut and paste it into the browser.

The call center comes at a great cost to you -$4.9M or the cost of no new permanent staff, the cost of getting rid of long term employees whose retirement benefits cost a lot of money, and the cost of dumping cases, to name a few important ones. If you remember the situation with the IMS, this is similar. Despite numerous identified problems, the EEOC waited almost one year - until the system was so bogged down and so inoperable - before it responded to the problems with IMS. That probably will happen with the call center. Remember that EEOC said the system was to help EEOC, not you, its employees. I encourage you to give out of area callers your direct phone number and have them call you directly. You can then call them back.

The $4.9 million is quickly being swallowed up in the EEOC’s septic system - The National Contact Center. What we get on the back end is neither helpful, nor time saving. In fact, the “Do Overs” require that we waste a tremendous amount of time. Beyond the “Do Overs,” the agency intends to use the system to contract out more aspects of your jobs. So, I urge you to do two things. First, copy and send to me, all documents assigned to you that came through or from the call center, identifying what is wrong with the documents. Also let me know if you regularly have problems getting into the system. Second, fill out a survey each time you have to deal with call center data of any type.