I apologize for having two non-The Hawk Bawk government-related posts back to back, but I contacted the Nevada Unemployment call center this morning. After the 4th or so call, I felt the need to put on the internet what I was experiencing.
How It All Started
In mid-March, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak shut down all of the resorts in Nevada. This was in response to the coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak.
The resort I worked at was gracious enough to pay me for a couple weeks after the near-immediate shut down. I was an on-call employee, meaning I would get work when they needed me to work. Before the shutdown was enforced, my hours were getting cut because conferences were canceling and due to the virus.
I was paid until the end of March. It was suppose to be an average of what I made, but it didn’t seem to be enough. However, I wasn’t going to complain about some free money. My resort also had no accountability to give charity since the government forced them to shut down. The Wynn paid its employees to mid-May at least.
Then, in mid-March, within a couple days, the announcement was made by Governor Sisolak and complete the shutdown of the resorts and many other businesses occurred.
Side Note: Governor Sisolak’s press conferences regarding the State of Nevada have been pretty bad, so on my podcast, Oh! It’s on! With Juan and Sean, we decided to do a live commentary during the Governor’s press conference on May 26th, 2020. First, he canceled the conference just hours before it was to air, claiming he just learned he may have been exposed to coronavirus. He said he’d have a video later that night. Second, he canceled the video due to “technical difficulties.” Terrible, terrible leadership.
Wrestling with Unemployment
I applied for unemployment at the beginning of April. It told me I was ineligible because I didn’t have enough work history (I was self-employed most of 2019).
I wrote them a letter and received a response telling me I was ineligible.
Then the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the new website, EmployNV.gov came out a couple weeks ago. I also received emails from the Governor himself (ha!) telling me about the new PUA. From what I read, I should’ve been eligible for it.
I spent a good amount of time filling out, uploading, and checking out the EmployNV.gov website. This website is a huge upgrade from the old webiste, which looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1996.
After filling out everything, I thought I was finished, but I messed something up. I never received any “incomplete” messages, so I was none-the-wiser. When I didn’t hear or see any updates, I went in and realized I didn’t do something right. I fixed it.
Now, here is what I see:
One problem I’ve had with this system is that there was no selection of “furlough” and I wasn’t sure how to put down that I earned some money one week. “Unemployment not result of disaster” is listed because I found videography work for a week (of which I had to go out of state). It was a contract job, and I was very fortunate that event didn’t cancel.
My profile says “Unresolved Issues – Yes” and there is no way to resolve whatever issues they have.
Calling the Nevada’s Unemployment Call Center
Part of the reason I never called the Nevada unemployment call center was because all over the press conferences and social media, people were saying they couldn’t get through to the call center.
This morning, with funds becoming extremely thin and bills starting to pile up, I figured it was time to call.
This is the worst experience I’ve had calling any customer support / call center. When you call, you have to listen to a minute and a half recording. At the end of the recording, you are told that you are being connected to a live representative. Every time I’ve called (I’m at 12 times currently), I’m told I need to call back “in a few minutes” because all agents are busy.
One thing I don’t like about calling is that there is no record of the call. Unless I film myself making the call, or put the other end on speaker and record the call, I don’t have any proof of anything I was told. This is why I prefer email.
Why can’t I wait on hold until I can be helped? I know the hold time would be probably hours, but it’s better than this monstrosity of a call center.
I would hope more call centers would move to a system like Amazon has. You can go online, let Amazon know you want to talk to someone, put yourself in a queue, and be called when they have an available agent. I have no idea how expensive a system like that is, but if you want to keep your customers happy, that is probably the best way to do it.
Final Thoughts
The government literally forced all these businesses and resorts to shut down. They weren’t given a choice. At that point, the government has to accept responsibility, which Nevada has not done. I also worry that if I don’t get the money set aside from the federal government for assistance and even Nevada’s unemployment, the money will go elsewhere where it’ll do more damage. Government baseline budgeting is terrible.
A few times, I almost went to apply for work at a big box store, like Walmart or Smiths, but seeing people run around there like nothing was going on and with no face protection, I was a little hesitant. I let the media and the government control me with their fear-mongering. If the government really wants to control me, putting fear in me and then not taking care of me does the exact opposite.
Then the governor couldn’t make a press conference or even make a simple video because he MAY have been exposed to coronavirus? If he thinks that because he was in a building that had a person in it at one point recently (the person wasn’t in the building when Sisolak was there) who tested positive, I’m pretty sure I’m in contact with the virus every single time I go to a store, especially those big box stores like Walmart.
But oh well. Let’s hope other states aren’t having the same issues as the Nevada Unemployment Call Center is having.
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