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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Charade of jobless claims must be stopped

Jan Quintrall

I have what I think is a brilliant idea to save the state of Washington a whole lot of money. Plus this idea has an added bonus of reducing the amount of paperwork Washington employers need to review and respond to. My idea? Close the state unemployment office. Yes, close the whole thing down.

Don’t panic! People would still receive unemployment checks just like they do now. But the savings to our stretched budget would come when they eliminated all those positions which review the applications for unemployment. It seems rather odd to have all these humans reviewing applications, asking employers for their side of the story, but then awarding benefits to the former employees almost every time. So why bother with the review at all?

Of course I realize there are hard-working, caring, sincere people in these jobs, just like in any other. But policy is no respecter of persons, and some examples of egregious benefits I‘ve heard lately include:

• An employee who quit to take a better job received unemployment from the former company nearly a year down the road when the new job did not work out as planned. So the employer they left of their own accord got their account drawn on, through no fault of their own.

• The person quit because they did not realize just how hard they would have to work. They did not understand that they would be expected to come to work every day, stay all day and be on time. It was just too hard to live up to that level of expectation. They got unemployment, even though they quit.

• You hired someone to a position that has very clear performance measures. The hiring and interviewing process made all of that clear. They made it through the 90-day probation and performed just above the minimum for a while, but then began to consistently fall short. They were terminated and received unemployment because the job was too hard.

• The employee was fired because he was absent more often than present. The company has a clear standard in the employee manual about attendance, but when the worker was given a written warning, he seemed a bit shocked and promised to make it to work more often. He didn’t, and the employer received notice the worker had applied for unemployment. The employer sent copies of the manual, written notices and the former employee’s acknowledgement of these materials, but the person still received full unemployment benefits.

• Every staff person signed a code of conduct when hired and received a copy for their use. Down the road one employee clearly violated the code and was fired with cause. That person filed for unemployment. The employer stated their case with all the necessary documentation. The former employee received full unemployment because the state decided the person was not fired for cause.

I spend a lot of time with people who deal with this frustration on a weekly basis, and it is a popular topic of conversation these days. As employers we have just about given up because the system is so stacked against us. We see little reason to fight at all, because we never seem to win. Why bother to set clear expectations and perform reviews when there is so little accountability in how benefits are awarded?

That is why I think closing the office would be a great way to save some taxpayer money. They don’t check to see if people who receive benefits are turning down jobs, and just about everyone gets benefits, so why not come to grips with just how little accountability there is? And stop the charade.

I know my tone is sarcastic, but many of us feel a growing frustration with bureaucracy in all levels of government. Common sense and logic seem the first fatalities in some departments. Just don’t get me started on the permitting/review process of our state agencies.

A solution? Leadership needs to listen to business. Government needs to know just how frustrating it is to do business with them, and then make changes. Listening is great, but listening with no action just adds to the frustration.

Jan Quintrall is president and CEO of the local Better Business Bureau. She can be reached at jquintrall@spokane.bbb.org.