Every company deals with employee layoffs a little differently, but this is one response that wasn’t completely thought out.
After El Paso County clerk Bob Balink was forced to lay off 19 staffers, he came up with a way to pick up the slack: He stopped answering the phones.
Balink (of course) hasn’t answered phone calls about the situation, but two other offices in the Colorado town are seeing red. Balink changed the voice message for all incoming calls to refer people to the county assessor’s and treasurer’s phone lines.
Aside from complaining about the additional phone calls these two offices have to handle, they’re also quick to point out the clerk’s office needs a reliable phone line: Some residents don’t have steady Internet access and can’t drive to the clerk’s office to see someone in person.