This is not a blog about unemployment. But many laid-off individuals have told me they found my posts helpful, and I hope that has made things slightly better for them. I want to illustrate another problem and solution here that I hope gets the attention of someone who can do something about it...

This morning, I recorded one of the half-dozen calls I made to the Department of Unemployment Assistance to re-open my claim. The problem is, when you call the DUA, you get a message that says they are too busy to take your call. That wouldn't be so annoying if it did not come 3 minutes into each call, after you have punched your way through a phone tree of questions and typed in AND CONFIRMED your social security number and year of birth. Listen to the call to see what I mean.

Legal note: It is a crime to record any conversation, whether oral or wire, without the consent of all parties in Massachusetts. The phone call above was never answered;I would have terminated the recording had a person answered. An unanswered phone call is not a conversation; there is no person's privacy to violate, and no intent to record a conversation, since the entire purpose was to document the automated system.

For a person who is trying to file a claim over the phone, this is what they must deal with. I'm not exaggerating when I say I called them 4 times today, 3 times yesterday, and several times the day before.

Apparently, the 4th try was the charm this morning...I was then greeted by "the average wait time now 42 minutes." About 42 minutes later (at least the system is accurate!) I got through to a person. The conversation when something like this:

Me: Hi, I need to reopen an existing claim.

DUA: I see you had income last week. Did you work for someone or are you self-employed?

Me: Self-employed.

DUA: Ok, your claim is now re-opened. You can file tomorrow online.

Me: Thank you.

I've got a novel idea. How about adding this to the phone tree of questions. "Press 1 to re-open your claim." Or, even more radical, how about modifying the online process to allow submitting the information online?

An even better idea would be for the Commonwealth to hire me as a CIO for resolving some of these issues. I KNOW the problem is not technical; it would not take an MIT engineer to figure out how to optimize the process. But someone needs to want it badly enough to push through the bureaucracy and make small improvements here and there--to look at this from the perspective of the people using the system, and realize that it's not just about making my filing easier, it's about getting me off hold so other people with more urgent claims can get through.

Here's my updated resume.