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You should let them know to contact their state legislator. From what I read on various state subreddits that's the only way to get a response from your overwhe

You should let them know to contact their state legislator. From what I read on various state subreddits that's the only way to get a response from your overwhelmed state unemployment office. This is the equivalent to escalating your issue to a manager.

dragonwriter 5y ago
> You should let them know to contact their state legislator. [...] This is the equivalent to escalating your issue to a manager. No, it's the equivalent of escalating it to a member of the Board of Directors.
- giantg2 5y ago
  AKA don't expect any response because "the board" is too high up to deal with a nobody like you or me.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > AKA don't expect any response because "the board" is too high up to deal with a nobody like you or me. Well, maybe. Legislators are really variable on constitutent service, but many will (or rather, will allow their office staff to; direct, even by something going out under their name rather than a staff contact, is less common) at least gently probe on behalf of constituents on state service issues, and if a high enough volume is involved are more likely to get personally involved. But any response that does happen is likely to involve butt covering and blame redirection from virtually every step of the management chain, just like when an issue hits the news media, so on issues where you haven't exhausted other avenues short of lawsuits, it's probably not the step to reach for the way escalating to a manager would be. I’ve definitely been involved in issues where premature escalation to a legislator delayed and/or made the resolution less favorable than it probably otherwise would have been because of the degree of attention from management, legal, public and legislative affairs, etc., that the escalation triggered. It makes sense in the particular circumstances described, though, it's just the analogy that was flawed in a way which might be misleading as to how that generalizes to other situations.
    - giantg2 5y ago
      I got no response at all from multiple letters to multiple reps/senators on an issue I had.
lotsofpulp 5y ago
They have, the legislator also has a canned response. And the pandemic started Mar 2020, it is now 22 months later. That is far sufficient time to get a response, even if they were initially overwhelmed. Families and businesses get overwhelmed too, but they are expected to file NJ tax returns on time. Try not responding to NJ for 14 months after NJ is owed money and see what happens. Rules for thee but not for me is the motto of many governments.
- rhizome 5y ago
  Each person in the US is a constituent of multiple regional legislators, from city council (or local versions) to Representatives and Senators (and President, sure). I've found luck in starting with emailing the office of my lowest (closest) representative at the smallest unit of government, telling them my problem, and asking them who I can talk to about it. "Who's responsible for pothole repairs on (street that might be state or county controlled instead of the city)?" This puts the ambitions of the office to work. Oftentimes they will rather get credit for solving your problem and do work for you than just give you a phone number or email address, and in the event of a roadblock you can go back to them for more help. "Hey, I tried X but Y happened, got any other ideas?" Your state rep's communications intern doesn't just sit back alphabetizing checks from Walmart executives and police unions.
giantg2 5y ago
Ha. I'm my case my representatives completely ignored my letters about rights violations and misconduct by the state police. On other issues, I only receive unhelpful form letters, some of which don't even address the correct issue. Don't expect any real help from your representatives unless it somehow benefits them.
- rhizome 5y ago
  Law enforcement is different.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    How so? I should be able to ask my representative's stance on justice reform and get a response. I did not ask them to get involved with a specific case.
    - jrochkind1 5y ago
      OK, now you're talking about asking for a policy position, rather than what they call "constituent services". "Constituent services" is "I am personally having a problem with some aspect of government in my personal life and I am contacting you as my elected representative to help me." In every place I've lived, elected officials are good at constituent services, and that's how they get re-elected. I'm surprised to hear of elected reps just ignoring constituent services requests. I also sometimes contact my reps with lobbying/policy stuff -- what is your position on X? I urge you to vote No on Bill Whatever and would like to know if you will. Can you commit to supporting legislation to reform Y? Etc. And it can indeed often take months to get a form letter response that may not really respond to my query at all, or not get a response at all. It's true. If you want to go on to say that they shouldn't be different, or that the policy issues really do effect you personally so should be considered or treated the same... that's fine, you may be right, but it's not how the offices of elected officials usually operate. Also, while I'm surprised to hear of reps totally ignoring constituent services requests with no response... if your constituent services request was about police misconduct, and they aren't known as a far-left politician, I'm less surprised, because that's such a hot button "political" issue. (I'm not saying it's "ok" or I like it, just based on my understanding of how politicians operate i'm less surprised).
ryanianian 5y ago
100% this. I had an issue with the NJ DMV, and the senator's office was able to get my issue resolved like same-day and told the DMV to eat glass. I even got a formal apology letter from the DMV. Not all congresscritters will have the same effectiveness, but that is the first place to start if the trail to getting results turns to a dead-end.
philistine 5y ago
The correct term would be a government ombudsman. And legislators totally fulfill that job for a significant part of their day.
Loughla 5y ago
Due to COVID, my representatives no longer take visitors, and no longer take phone calls to their office, nor do they provide a contact e-mail. They have a form you can fill out on their websites. That way you get a response (thank you for completing the form) and then zero way to track the communication. In my case, I have never received anything after that from any of my representatives. You can't call to check on it, because, again, they're no longer taking phone calls. And even if they did, you have no reference number. They took advantage of the pandemic to just completely cut ties with their constituents outside of THEIR approved avenues. Super cool. Very representative.
- vkou 5y ago
  It sounds like their opponents should easily be able to trounce them in an election. If you don't like your current reps, you may want to tip the other campaign (or internal challengers in the primaries) on this. If you otherwise like your current reps, I'm sorry.
  - smsm42 5y ago
    You assume it's a place where there are competitive elections which compete on satisfying the voters. In many places, it's not the case - it's either uni-party location where whoever the party appoints wins, or a location where the competition is between different groups of special-interest players that couldn't care less about the voters that do not align with them. If you find yourself in that environment - nobody is trouncing anything, however incompetent the actual management of affairs becomes. People stay in their positions until they either die or decide to move on by their own volition.
- hn_version_0023 5y ago
  Without representation, we simply shouldn’t pay taxes. Right?

dragonwriter 5y ago

> You should let them know to contact their state legislator. [...] This is the equivalent to escalating your issue to a manager. No, it's the equivalent of escalating it to a member of the Board of Directors.

giantg2 5y ago
AKA don't expect any response because "the board" is too high up to deal with a nobody like you or me.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > AKA don't expect any response because "the board" is too high up to deal with a nobody like you or me. Well, maybe. Legislators are really variable on constitutent service, but many will (or rather, will allow their office staff to; direct, even by something going out under their name rather than a staff contact, is less common) at least gently probe on behalf of constituents on state service issues, and if a high enough volume is involved are more likely to get personally involved. But any response that does happen is likely to involve butt covering and blame redirection from virtually every step of the management chain, just like when an issue hits the news media, so on issues where you haven't exhausted other avenues short of lawsuits, it's probably not the step to reach for the way escalating to a manager would be. I’ve definitely been involved in issues where premature escalation to a legislator delayed and/or made the resolution less favorable than it probably otherwise would have been because of the degree of attention from management, legal, public and legislative affairs, etc., that the escalation triggered. It makes sense in the particular circumstances described, though, it's just the analogy that was flawed in a way which might be misleading as to how that generalizes to other situations.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    I got no response at all from multiple letters to multiple reps/senators on an issue I had.

lotsofpulp 5y ago

They have, the legislator also has a canned response. And the pandemic started Mar 2020, it is now 22 months later. That is far sufficient time to get a response, even if they were initially overwhelmed. Families and businesses get overwhelmed too, but they are expected to file NJ tax returns on time. Try not responding to NJ for 14 months after NJ is owed money and see what happens. Rules for thee but not for me is the motto of many governments.

rhizome 5y ago
Each person in the US is a constituent of multiple regional legislators, from city council (or local versions) to Representatives and Senators (and President, sure). I've found luck in starting with emailing the office of my lowest (closest) representative at the smallest unit of government, telling them my problem, and asking them who I can talk to about it. "Who's responsible for pothole repairs on (street that might be state or county controlled instead of the city)?" This puts the ambitions of the office to work. Oftentimes they will rather get credit for solving your problem and do work for you than just give you a phone number or email address, and in the event of a roadblock you can go back to them for more help. "Hey, I tried X but Y happened, got any other ideas?" Your state rep's communications intern doesn't just sit back alphabetizing checks from Walmart executives and police unions.

giantg2 5y ago

Ha. I'm my case my representatives completely ignored my letters about rights violations and misconduct by the state police. On other issues, I only receive unhelpful form letters, some of which don't even address the correct issue. Don't expect any real help from your representatives unless it somehow benefits them.

rhizome 5y ago
Law enforcement is different.
- giantg2 5y ago
  How so? I should be able to ask my representative's stance on justice reform and get a response. I did not ask them to get involved with a specific case.
  - jrochkind1 5y ago
    OK, now you're talking about asking for a policy position, rather than what they call "constituent services". "Constituent services" is "I am personally having a problem with some aspect of government in my personal life and I am contacting you as my elected representative to help me." In every place I've lived, elected officials are good at constituent services, and that's how they get re-elected. I'm surprised to hear of elected reps just ignoring constituent services requests. I also sometimes contact my reps with lobbying/policy stuff -- what is your position on X? I urge you to vote No on Bill Whatever and would like to know if you will. Can you commit to supporting legislation to reform Y? Etc. And it can indeed often take months to get a form letter response that may not really respond to my query at all, or not get a response at all. It's true. If you want to go on to say that they shouldn't be different, or that the policy issues really do effect you personally so should be considered or treated the same... that's fine, you may be right, but it's not how the offices of elected officials usually operate. Also, while I'm surprised to hear of reps totally ignoring constituent services requests with no response... if your constituent services request was about police misconduct, and they aren't known as a far-left politician, I'm less surprised, because that's such a hot button "political" issue. (I'm not saying it's "ok" or I like it, just based on my understanding of how politicians operate i'm less surprised).

ryanianian 5y ago

100% this. I had an issue with the NJ DMV, and the senator's office was able to get my issue resolved like same-day and told the DMV to eat glass. I even got a formal apology letter from the DMV. Not all congresscritters will have the same effectiveness, but that is the first place to start if the trail to getting results turns to a dead-end.

philistine 5y ago

The correct term would be a government ombudsman. And legislators totally fulfill that job for a significant part of their day.

Loughla 5y ago

Due to COVID, my representatives no longer take visitors, and no longer take phone calls to their office, nor do they provide a contact e-mail. They have a form you can fill out on their websites. That way you get a response (thank you for completing the form) and then zero way to track the communication. In my case, I have never received anything after that from any of my representatives. You can't call to check on it, because, again, they're no longer taking phone calls. And even if they did, you have no reference number. They took advantage of the pandemic to just completely cut ties with their constituents outside of THEIR approved avenues. Super cool. Very representative.

vkou 5y ago
It sounds like their opponents should easily be able to trounce them in an election. If you don't like your current reps, you may want to tip the other campaign (or internal challengers in the primaries) on this. If you otherwise like your current reps, I'm sorry.
- smsm42 5y ago
  You assume it's a place where there are competitive elections which compete on satisfying the voters. In many places, it's not the case - it's either uni-party location where whoever the party appoints wins, or a location where the competition is between different groups of special-interest players that couldn't care less about the voters that do not align with them. If you find yourself in that environment - nobody is trouncing anything, however incompetent the actual management of affairs becomes. People stay in their positions until they either die or decide to move on by their own volition.
hn_version_0023 5y ago
Without representation, we simply shouldn’t pay taxes. Right?