When a company is forced to make layoffs, how do the remaining employees pick up the duties performed by departed workers? An office in Colorado came up with an idea, but we wouldn’t recommend it.
El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink’s staff stopped answering their phones after a layoff of 19 employees.
Voice messages on the clerk’s phones now refer people to the assessor’s and treasurer’s phone lines, according to The Gazette.
It would have been nice if Balink informed the other two offices of what he was doing, but he didn’t.
Treasurer Sandra Damron says her employees have been slammed with calls.
The Gazette tracked what one person seeking help from the clerk’s office had to go through.
An elderly man who couldn’t get the information he needed called the Area Agency on Aging. They e-mailed the assessor’s office, asking him to get a message to Balink to call the man.
What does Balink have to say about all this? Take a guess.
The Gazette says he couldn’t be reached for comment.
A wire service was able to contact Balink, and he denies telling any of his employees to stop answering the phone.
