Charlie Baker has been on the road, listening to business leaders complain about the the cost of state government.
In response, he’s been saying that state government has to become as efficient and fiscally responsible as the private sector. “State government obviously hasn’t played by the same rules as the private sector,” Baker said. “And we need to change that.”
So imagine how much Charlie would disapprove of the bill that has been filed for the past six legislative sessions providing that:
Any electronic answering service in use by a department, board, commission, authority or agency of the commonwealth for the purpose of receiving telephone calls shall present all callers with the option of speaking with a live operator.
Whoa – talk about not playing by the same rules as the private sector! When was the last time VISA or BestBuy or NSTAR actually advertised that option on its automated phone menu? Callers entering into one of those mazes need to know enough to press 0 at least a few score times in the hope that a route to a live operator even exists.
A CEO might accuse the bill of failing to optimize consumer-feedback-receipt-technology, thereby increasing HR costs as well. At any rate, it’s not a good way to advance Charlie’s goal of consolidating and shrinking state government (Baker’s Dozen Number 5, estimated by Charlie to be worth $400 million, for those of you keeping a scorecard).
What bleeding heart or lackey tool of the public employee unions has been proposing this inane idea over and over again?
Oops – Richard Tisei.
