Here is a little bit of trivia you may not know about me. At one point (about 2 or so years ago) I thought about a career change. So I joined the State of Oregon as a means to transfer through to CPS/DHS before we knew how bad Child Protective Services was in Oregon.
I worked at The Oregon Unemployment office. Yep the very same one that adjudicates and processes your unemployment claims every week. We worked in an uber secure badge-in building. While we were there, a super flu raged it's way through the staff, affecting and infecting everyone. It was merciless. That was the most violent flu I'd had since the 2007 flu that we thought might be H1N1 (I worked in addiction and homeless prevention back then)
I simply cannot fathom what it is like for them right now. Millions of claims. There is no way their current staff can handle it, so I'm sure they are on this super intense training curve. This is not something you can just 'train' for lightly. This is beyond complex. This requires knowledge of handling vital records, you have to know insane amounts of Oregon statutes and BOLI law. You are subjected to the worst kind of emotional trauma out there. There is nothing worse than hearing a father of four begin to cry on the phone after hearing that he ran through all of his benefits for the year, while flailing though pages and pages and resources to give to him to try to keep their family afloat. There is nothing worse than seeing some savy mo-fo defraud the system, you know damn well he's working under the table in construction but continues to claim for max benefits. You think about that poor father of four. The only thing that kept me sane was a sassy, quiet, intellect named Heather. She became my best friend there and is still my tribe now. We survived by quietly trolling the waves of ridiculousness that surrounded us each day and imagining that the truly poor families that left us heartbroken would one day become the titans of their fields. She nicknamed me 'trouble'.
As COVID-19 begins to break down and carve out a new reality for us, I hear the dire news segments and I read the articles about the massive unemployment that has befallen our nation. I hear hundreds of worried petitions from friends online about their fear, their inability to get through to the OED offices. I attempt to wrap my head around the other side of it. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like for the OED now. I try to envision and make sense of the chaos I know that ensuing there now. I wonder about the recovery time it will take to stabilize this bureau as well. I’ve been thinking quite a lot about recovery time. I just can’t imagine.