Comment on Long Centrelink wait times as 11 million calls go unanswered
Ilandar@aussie.zone 3 months ago
Also, when you do get through, please try to remember that they’re just minimum wage people doing a shitty job. They don’t make the phones hang up on you, and they aren’t the reason your claims take months to process, or you were underpaid, or whatever’s gone wrong. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. You can express your annoyance to them, but abusing or yelling at them doesn’t fix the problem, and won’t make them answer quicker.
You can also ask for a supervisor if you’re having a communication problem with the first person you speak to. Centrelink staff don’t know anything about your personal circumstances beyond what it says on their screen, which can be incorrect or just using department terminology that means something different to what it sounds like at face value. For example, depending on how long you’ve been submitting medical certificates due to a temporary mental illness, they may start rejecting them and referring to your mental illness as “permanent”. They will try to tell you that medical records you’ve submitted indicate that you have a permanent disability, even if you’ve never submitted any medical records or testimony that suggest this. In this kind of situation it can be helpful to get a supervisor to clearly explain how their internal system works and why you have been moved to what they call the “permanent” stream, instead of just getting these out of context brick wall responses of “well on this date you told us you had a permanent disability” that make absolutely zero sense.
Baku@aussie.zone 3 months ago
Perhaps there was a better way to phrase it, but I meant that their job is shitty, not that they themselves do shitty (quality) work
Ilandar@aussie.zone 3 months ago
I wasn’t disagreeing with anything you said, though I have witnessed Centrelink staff putting a minimum amount of effort in when dealing with clients over the phone. Just sharing information that may help others get something out of a phone call that seems like it’s going nowhere.
Taleya@aussie.zone 3 months ago
The system is designed to drive people over the edge, so the workers cop the simmer frustration in the face every time someone does get through, which completely disengages them, causes them to put in minimal effort and thus drives more people over the edge as they’re mishandled.
Fucking machiavelli is creaming his goddamn jeans rn
Ilandar@aussie.zone 3 months ago
Particularly when it comes to JobSeeker. The entire system is just filled with these arbitrary hoops and roadblocks designed to make people give up instead of actually helping them find work they are capable of keeping long-term. All the while you have the rest of the population, from major party politicians to the general public, who are fortunate enough to have never been in a position to deal with this system, dictating a completely fictitious narrative to the people who have lived experience with it. To be honest, I try not to dwell on it too much because the whole thing is sickeningly evil.
Baku@aussie.zone 3 months ago
Fair enough, my apologies. It seemed like you interpreted my line referring to them as people making minimum wage doing shitty work as accusing the staff of always doing shitty work.
Ilandar@aussie.zone 3 months ago
Nah not at all, the majority of the conversations I’ve had or witnessed with Centrelink staff have been positive ones.