If they’d called back much faster, it would have been before I’d called them.
After years of paying into the unemployment insurance system – I’m now temporarily on the receiving end. Or so I think. The state websites and automated telephone trees give conflicting instructions and advice – leaving one entirely unclear on: what you’re supposed to do; whether or not you’ve done it; if you’ve done it, what the state is going to do next and when.
Regular readers may be surprised to know that, in fact, I am a native English speaker, and also hold degrees from a top-notch liberal arts institution to which I am still loyal, ((Confused readers will understand that admissions requirements then weren’t what they are now)) and what some of my fellow alumni think of as The Best Law School in Tribeca.
Entirely flummoxed by the Unemployment Insurance system – which was experiencing phone system overloads on Thursday afternoons – which the system advises are the low-call periods in the week – I called one of the local offices of our Assembly Member, Rhoda Jacobs. ((Official Assembly site here; Wikipedia entry here. A careful reading of her terms in office suggests that the residents of the 42nd A.D. may have been violating child-labor laws early in her career, but that she’s been too gracious to complain))
And I got a call back the next morning – and the name and number of the person in the office who knows most about these issues. Reassuring, to say the least.
The way New York’s legislative structure is effectively organized – it’s hard to judge legislators on the basis of legislation introduced, or the quality of debates that aren’t held. But – especially at the Assembly level -constituent service is measurable, if not quantifiable.
High marks for Assembly Member Jacobs. Unemployment Insurance system? We’ll defer comment.
