You’ve heard that robots will replace all of us eventually, but at least one high-profile droid, SoftBank Robotics’ “Pepper” bot, bounces from funeral home, to bank lobby, to ballpark, to hotel, to private home services, and gets fired everywhere. With such a trail of failed careers in his/her wake, should the federal government offer unemployment insurance for robots?
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42 replies on “Robot Can’t Keep a Job: Bounces Among Failed Careers, Gets Fired Everywhere”
I’m so depressed…..
I don’t get all the Pepper hate. I’m no roboticist, but as a GenX–the Star Wars generation–I fully expected to have my own R2 unit by now. (To pilot the flying car I still don’t have, of course.) ~~~ The question about Pepper is ‘how human should she look?’ I think she strikes a good balance. Yes, she ticks all the Japan home-market love for all things chibi, but I don’t think she’s creepy or stabby. And yes, it’s a she: look at the slim waist, the skirt-like base, the shape of the chin…and the definite bustline, demurely covered by her screen. And I like her eyes. Although her eyes could be more expressive, it’s amazing how much you can anthropomorphize her body language. But for all Pepper’s advancement, it’s still basically a corporate gimmick/mascot with limited autonomy and mobility. ~~~ I followed the evolution of home experimental robotics fairly closely starting in the ’80s. The RB5X came out in ’82. (Amazingly, it’s still being made.) Androbot came out soon after. The Heathkit HERO-1, of course. And dozens more companies made attempts at robotics, mostly using paleolithic Z80 processors and tape drives. Today, with Internet connectivity, WiFi, LiFePO4 batteries, and truly portable high-end processing power, the potential of personal personal robotics is lightyears ahead of what was imaginable just 10 years ago. Boston Robotics has proven that in spades. It’s only a matter of time before BR’s level of environmental awareness and materials manipulation trickle down to the masses. ~~~ Replika is a deep learning AI with an autoregressive language algorithm that makes ‘her’ very convincing. Not Turing convincing, but getting there. Siri, Alexa, and Sam show that real time two-way language based communication is feasible. Something as simple as a mobile Siri that can wander autonomously, come to you, and perform rudimentary fetch-and-carry should be possible today. Combine that with BR’s mobility and an attractive package, and we’d be closer to Rosie–or even B9.
Keep Pepper Robot, I’ll take Pepper Potts. The character Pepper Potts, not the actor Gwyneth Paltrow who plays her. I couldn’t stand to be in the same room as Paltrow but Pepper Potts is someone I could admire. Of course I’d have to be Tony Stark, then. Just to make things balance out.
Except for her love of the “liberal agenda” which I can’t believe they let slip into the movie. At least Tony said he was bored by it.
There was a question that came up, recently though I forget where.. “Should we be more afraid of the robot that can pass a Turing test, or the one that could but intentionally fails?”
I just spent almost two weeks enduring the Walmart mail order from Hell. Wanted to give Amazon some competition. Amazon has nothing to worry about. Ordered 24 cans of food, some toothpaste, and other such sundries. The pioneers receiving dry goods carried on pack mules over the Rockies in in hail storms received their merchandise in better condition. 22 out of the 23 cans were dented (I ordered 24 but they forgot one), and the boxes of toothpaste and stuff were totally smashed by the cans. For such a massive screw up, it seemed reasonable to get a refund at least on the perishable stuff. Oh, silly me. After an hour and half of chat (I want it in writing, so I avoid the phone), turns out my only options for fixing THEIR mistake was spend MY time to send the cans back for replacement (no guarantee they wouldn’t be just as damaged), or invest the same amount of my time as well as gasoline to take the return to FedEx or the Post Office to get a refund, leaving me worse off than I’d been before I was foolish enough to try to give Walmart my business. Decided to take my chances with replacement. Could I simply place the damaged items back in the one box they all came in? Oh, no. SIXTEEN emails poured in, containing FIVE different shipping labels that sent two cans one place and six somewhere else, etc., but the amounts didn’t add up the totals of the various items I wanted to exchange. Then out of nowhere, on two separate days, a white van pulls up at the house and drops off one random can one day and two cans the next. Now communicating by email, I finally got one customer service guy to agree to take all the damaged cans back in the one original box that the post office would pick up from me, but he couldn’t generate a shipping label. He told me all I needed to do was paste this one number on the box, leave it on my front porch, and the post office would know what to do. FOUR days later the box shows back up on my porch. No surprise, the post office had no idea what to do with a box without a label and some random number pasted on. As you say, throughout the worst part has been the script. “Yes, I completely understand your concern here [‘I’m not seeing it that way exactly. If you completely understood my problem, you would have resolved each of my three simple requests I detailed in my three previous emails – 1) one return box, 2) one return label, and 3) the post office pick-up you offered to schedule.’].” “The best option in this case would be for you to print the labels in your email and ship the items in different boxes. I am really sorry do the inconvenience caused [‘That’s not the best option for me, and you can’t be all that sorry for causing me inconvenience because now you’re causing me more of it. But I guess frustration, disappointment, and a LOT of my time wasted is the best I can expect from Walmart. I give up. I can’t take any more. Please, don’t bother responding. Cheerful unhelpfulness is just making things worse’].” “I believe that no amount of apology can justify the inconvenience caused, but I hope to make a slight [emphasis on slight] impact by trying to provide the best resolutions for my customers. I feel really embarrassed when I come across incidents like these and I can feel what you are going through. I can understand your frustration and your anger [Anger?!? I’ve never voiced any anger. Trust me dude, the script writers might want to consider nixing slander from the rote empathy routine] I would have felt the same if this happened to me. Your feedback is truly valued and highly appreciated. Please be assured that Walmart strives hard to provide the best service to our customers. Sometimes errors do occur, We apologize on behalf of the errors and appreciate your understanding and patience. You may also be able to access the information you need at Walmart.com or on the Walmart app in the ‘Your Account’ section. If you have additional questions, please reply to this email and we’ll help further [‘My patience has been stretched to the limit with this transaction. You are correct in recognizing my frustration but incorrect in categorizing that frustration as anger. You offered to provide the best resolution and you did not. Instead, you suggested Walmart.com which means we would have to start this entire process all over again. This is not an option. Please connect me to your supervisor and hopefully we can resolve this return issue. This does not have to be so difficult. It’s a simple exchange!’].” “Thank you so much for reaching out to us with your concern. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that you may have faced in regards to your order. Missing items are no fun! You should have received your order on time. I have gone ahead and issued you a refund of $95.7 for your items. You should see your refund processed within 5-7 business days. Note: Due to the inconvenience that you have faced. We have provided you a free refund for your order. (As you rightly deserve in my personal opinion). You do NOT need to return the items. You may keep, discard or donate the items. Thank you!” Missing items?!? Dude, one missing can was the least of my problems. Received your order on time?!? Huh? I never said anything about that – in fact, the order actually showed up earlier than promised. Now here we are, nine days later. Have I seen a refund for $95.70 – the figure they determined I so “rightly deserve”? Oh heavens no. I did get a credit for $44.94. Hope springs eternal, I’m trying for the rest. Mr. Bezos, sleep soundly.
I understand your situation quite well. I order most of my groceries from the local Walmart. Mine is one of those “Walmart Superstores” that has a full grocery section. It’s not the same thing as ordering them from Walmart online, the order goes straight to my local Walmart store and there are no boxes delivered, everything comes in grocery bags same as if I walked through the store and bought it.
The only reason I buy groceries from Walmart is they’re the only one that delivers. I save quite a bit of money by not having to drive to the store and back, my Jeep doesn’t get real great gas mileage so it’s actually cheaper this way. I also save an hour or two (or three) wandering around the store trying to find what I need, and that’s what actually makes it worthwhile to me.
I have been doing this since delivery became available and that was well before all the Wuhan flu weirdness.
More often than not, by a significant percentage, the order has problems. Walmart doesn’t actually deliver the stuff, they hire Uber or Door Dash or some such to make the actual deliveries.
One time the driver had her 6-7 year old daughter along “helping” her. The kid was short and dragged the plastic grocery bags across the gravel driveway. When I picked them up everything fell out of the bottoms of those bags the kid handled, breaking, crushing or denting whatever the bag contained.
One time it was a young couple and she wandered around with a cell phone in her hand while he delivered the groceries. I told her to either help deliver or get her ass back in that car and that she sure as hell had better not be taking any pictures to post on social media.
The delivery instructions are precise and understandable once you actually get to my property but one driver managed to misinterpret them anyway and left my groceries on a table in the back yard where if I hadn’t gone hunting for them they would have spoiled because it’s not someplace we go very often.
One time I only got part of the order. When I told customer service about this they wanted to refund my money for the missing groceries. I told them I didn’t want their refund, I want my groceries. That’s why I ordered them, I can’t eat a refund and the whole idea of refunding my payment was ludicrous thereby. After a whole lot of online chat with their customer service people they finally got frustrated, gave me the number and told me to call the local store I had ordered from. Which I did. Turned out that there were multiple bins they had collected my groceries in and one didn’t get delivered. I spoke with the manager and he personally delivered my missing groceries in a pouring rainstorm after dark.
The manager gave me his number and told me that if I had any more problems on the store end to call him and he would get it straightened out for me ASAP. He said they were having problems getting this delivery service ironed out and that he wanted to know about any problems I was having. He said I’d get better results by talking to him because Corporate was pretty much useless.
Since then I haven’t had to call him but there are still issues with the delivery drivers. So if there’s the slightest problem — Broken egg(s), more than one dented can, crushed bread, etc. — I do not tip the driver and I explain in the customer survey Walmart sends out after the delivery. If those drivers wouldn’t handle their own groceries that badly they don’t need to be handling mine that way either.
Since talking to the local manager, Walmart is no longer a problem. The people they hire to do the deliveries make every order a “wait and see” situation because I never know what those ding-dongs are going to pull.
I do have sympathy with the many (mostly government-inflicted) difficulties companies face with staffing, but sympathy only goes so far against the frustration of shabby service. That’s a great story about your local Walmart manager. Kudos to him – gives me faith. The topic of customer service and the script reminded me of an old, probably apocryphal, story that used to make the rounds. A customer wrote a letter of complaint to a railroad’s president, stating that he was appalled to find a cockroach in his car during a ride on one of the company’s lines. He wanted the president to know that his dismay at the decline in quality was not only as a regular customer but as a shareholder of the railroad. The president quickly wrote back, stating that he took this complaint very seriously, assuring him that upon receipt of the man’s letter, the car was immediately taken out of service and thoroughly fumigated, etc., etc., etc. All that would have been well and good, but the president’s secretary inadvertently left attached to the railroad’s reply the president’s handwritten note directing her to “Send this joker the bug letter.”
Pepper will never make Sergeant at this rate.
I’m also a big fan of Redlettermedia. Every time Bill mentions them, my worlds collide, LOL.
I have a functional use for all those abandoned, useless Peppers.
Use them as moving, self-guided long range rifle targets. It’s really, really hard to learn to hit a moving target at long range, there are so many trigonometric variables that it takes a good deal of practice*. Practice you can’t get realistically with something stationary or being pulled along a wire. The robot will be safe from all but the most unlikely accident until the shooter starts getting in the groove. Then you’ll need a new Pepper.
(*We used to practice at sea with rubber balloons. Just plain ol’ roughly head sized party balloons. Blow ’em up and drop ’em over the leeward side. You get erratic motion on all axis; boat’s moving, waves are moving, wind is blowing the balloon around, etc. It’s a lot harder to score a hit than you might think but when you do it’s obvious. You can see your backdrop for further than the bullet will travel so no danger of hitting someone with a water skip. I wonder how many turtles choked on a deflated balloon fragment? Probably more than got plastic straws embedded in their noses.)
Nice – real world 6 axis degree of freedom with the addition of chaotic movement due to wind and ocean effects. Excellent training aid.
That was a long time ago and I guess I’m pretty rusty by now but … I don’t know them personally though I can imagine the guys who rescued Richard Phillips from Somali pirates during the Maersk Alabama incident trained that way, or something very similar to that way. Three simultaneous head shots on an open ocean is nothing to scoff at. Though …
Those guys made those shots at relatively close range (40 yds) and on a lifeboat being closely towed in the wake of a large ship. So relatively calm conditions. In my day I could have made that shot on a balloon with a decent pellet gun and they had high powered rifles, probably modified M4 5.56mm weapons but again, I don’t know for sure.
The marksmanship wasn’t all that spectacular and getting those rounds downrange at the same instant is more impressive. That’s not easy to do either. Even when you’re anticipating it, there’s a lag between when your brain says “go” and the bullet leaves the muzzle. Normal canonical dogma is that you squeeze the trigger slowly and the shot sort of surprises you. A real shooter breaks his shot intentionally at the exact instant he means to. (This is how I wow my neighbors in offhand shooting with a .22, btw. It’s not that I’m any steadier than they are, it’s that I can sort of “feel” exactly when to turn that bullet loose.)
As I understand it with the Maersk thing, the primary shooter, the guy everyone else had to time to, was the guy who shot through the lifeboat portal to hit “Pirate A” in the head. There would have been a very brief window once he fired to get the other two rounds off, on target, to “Pirate B” and “Pirate C”.
I’d say the SEALS were about 95% confident they could pull it off, if I had to put a number on it. That percentage is about as good as it gets because anything can happen. A target can move as the round is fired or in flight, wind between the target and the muzzle may have several different values, the cartridge might have an unanticipated defect in powder load, primer energy or bullet homogeneity, the lock time on one rifle might be slightly slower than the rest, there could be a bit of fuzz undetected on the muzzle, the ‘scope might have gotten bumped since last zero, etc.
Those three rounds were “cold shots”. A rifle barrel performs differently when warm or hot from successive rounds than it does cold on the first shot. It’s not much differently but it’s enough when you’re dealing with sub-MOA precision shooting. Rifles like that have to be “cold zeroed”, they have to be dialed in for sight alignment one shot at a time, letting the barrel cool completely between firing.
So it’s no small feat what those SEALs did, but the marksmanship is only a single component in making it work out for the good guys.
Balloons are a good, cheap way to practice that sort of thing.
When I was on the USS Boat, every evening the ship’s mess decks would dump the trashcans full of waste food over the fantail and our Marine Detachment would use the sharks as target practice. At the time, we were running random patrols in the Florida Straights keeping watch for submarines, aircraft, and the occasional refugees from Cuba, generally at a pretty high speed for a carrier so as to not be an easy target. Funny thing, there seemed to be no lack of sharks!
Yeah, I was on CVN-65 in transit to a new assignment once, so they put me in with MarDet while aboard. The crew would dump garbage and we’d practice on the seagulls that flocked to the garbage. Seagulls, in my opinion, are nothing but flying rats and there were always plenty of them too. They’re even harder to hit than balloons but disassemble from a round impact in a more satisfactory and spectacular way than a hunk of inflated rubber.
So many variables concerning human behavior, that it is no surprise that developing a robot that can emulate it, especially in one on one interactions has thus far come far short of acceptable.
Anyone remember Honda’s ASIMO? Do you realize most of his actions were by remote control by a human? The most complex thing he could do was run, but he had to be told to run! His battery was only good for 1 hour and his programming had to be done well in advance, requiring many hours to cover all possibilities he might encounter. More of a proof of concept than actual functionality.
Wall-E was not a toaster. He was a robot who neatened-up the piles of garbage on abandoned Earth. You are thinking of the The Brave Little Toaster, 1987, who went in search for his original owner along with the other anthropomorphic appliances and lamps from the same home. Static normal by day, animated at night. Pre-robotic.
“Toaster” is science fiction slang for a robot. The Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, a race of robots, were “toasters”. Data on Star Trek TNG was a “toaster”. This crops up in science fiction fairly regularly. It’s just a generic name applied to robots, semi-denigratingly. It implies that despite their programmed personality they’re basically nothing more than a fancy appliance.
Brave Little Toaster, the book, before Battlestar Galactica and ST: TNG. I know because I read it to my children. And then had to watch the video countless times. One wonders if the moniker “toaster” actually came from that little book. Wouldn’t surprise me at all.
It might, but I doubt there’s a lot of overlap between hard science fiction and children’s books. There’s such a thing as coincidence too and this may or may not be that. I don’t really know for sure so I won’t really say for sure. I do know for sure that calling a robot a toaster is a very common thing in sci-fi and that’s what Bill was referring to. If that retro’s back to a children’s book, I have no way of knowing.
Another thing that makes it likely just a coincidence is that calling a robot a “toaster” is a negative connotation and obviously the Brave Little Toaster was a positive frame of reference for the protagonist Toaster.
Calling a robot, even a robot that can pass the Turing Test, a “toaster” is pointing out that it’s a soul-less, will-less, programmed machine with no real character or volition of its own. It might seem human or exhibit human traits but it’s nothing more than an appliance like a washer or a dryer or a microwave or a toaster … I don’t think that was the intent with the Brave Little Toaster in the book you refer to.
It’s getting so you have to go thru the “phone bot” to get simple answers to everything today. I called my pharmacy to ask if my prescriptions were ready for pickup yet and had to answer enough questions to determine that I was who I said I was before getting sent to a human on the counter anyway! This person had to bring up my information on his computer to verify my identity AGAIN and check on my “script’s” status. When I picked them up at the drive-thru window, they couldn’t find my insulin so I said “Check in the refrigerator.” How useless was their phone system? Ignorance is curable, but you can’t fix stupid!
There are only two good reasons to deploy a business technology. The first is to get more work done with less effort (productivity), the second is impressiveness (the “cool” factor).
An accountant who with computers and software does the work of 5 pen and paper accountants and still has time for a one hour lunch is an example of the first. The laser light show at an amusement park or the large monitor playing advertising and information in a waiting room is the second.
What you describe from your own experience takes more work to use than it gets done. If a person had just answered the phone it would only have taken a minute for them to verify who you are and look to see if your prescription was ready. They had to do that anyway as it turned out.
I was pitching an IT system to an insurance company many years ago. They had an IT system but hardly anyone used it. I told the boss “Bring up your account on the system.” While he did that I strolled to his filing cabinet, found his file, returned and dropped his file on his desk before he even got half way to it on his machine.
I said “That’s why hardly anyone is using your computer system. It’s easier and faster to just go pull the paper file. Whatever you spent on that system was wasted money. I can get you a system that will work 5 times faster than walking to the filing cabinet. You’ll get more work done and your people will be less frustrated and fatigued at the end of the day.”
He bought it and was very happy.
In later years I learned not to work for insurance companies or lawyers. Neither one wants to pay their bills and it is like pulling teeth to get those accounts settled.
I imagine in some places the politics would dictate the filing cabinet be moved and the files mixed up so that the software is faster than manual.
You know, when I lived in Australia I think they had a law like that, there.
I’ve run into similar situations, speaking or typing info into a phone system only to re-give the same info when speaking to a person. The online chats I’ve used tend not to do that and along with the lack of annoying hold music are generally preferable. Plus the written record I can either save or have e-mailed to me helps.
Human members? Scott, please do assume what species I am.
People have tried to figure that out for decades.
You’re a wolf. It’s right there in your picture plain as day. Problem solved.
😉
Call centers like Scott described have been a problem for a long time.
U.S. technical businesses (like computer manufacturers) “outsourced” their support to foreign companies. Like in India.
They lie a lot. I got so tired of talking to “Hi, I’m John from Microsoft” with an Indian accent so thick I could barely understand him. “John” is not his name (which is probably “Anandswarup” or something equally exotic) and he only indirectly works for Microsoft.
Those foreign companies have zero understanding of what an American expects. The people working for them have zero technical knowledge, their only qualification is that someone thinks they speak a semi-intelligible version of American English. They can’t help you, at least not Tier 1 support. You’re better off researching your problem on the internet. It’s quicker, more painless and is more likely to resolve whatever issue you’re having.
The foreign company Tier 1 tech support people read from a flow chart, which I guess you can say is a “script” of sorts. It starts with a canned and insincere opening, usually containing an insincere apology about how sorry they are that you’re having a problem with your ____.
When they ask you to describe your issue they read down a list. They choose the thing on that list that they think most nearly describes your issue. What they choose may or may not have anything to do with the problem you’re having. They don’t really understand the problem you’re having. They click on that thing they think is your problem and it takes them to a page with a flow chart. If customer says “A” then blah, blah blah, if “B” then different blah, blah blah. They proceed along that flow chart until they think they’ve solved your complaint and they have no problem talking over you because …
Those call centers get paid by the number of problems resolved per minute. The person on the phone is in a huge hurry, and likely under a lot of pressure from their employer, to mark your call as resolved then move on to the next call. Sometimes the person you’re talking to gets paid by the number of issues resolved during the shift, sometimes they’re on salary or an hourly wage. No matter how they get paid, they know there are hundreds of people outside the door clamoring for their job. Their incentive is not to solve your problem, if they don’t solve it they want to move on to one they can solve and get their ratio back up again. That’s why at a certain point you might get the feeling they’re trying to get rid of you — Because they are.
The solution to your problem, if you can’t find it on the internet, is to immediately, the moment it becomes clear that this person isn’t listening to you or is not going to solve your issue, ask for either “their manager” or for Tier 2 support. Then they mark your problem as beyond the scope of their responsibilities and handed off to the next tier up. They like that, it gets you off the phone so they can tell the next person “Turn it off, turn it back on again. Problem solved? OK, thankyouhaveanicedaygoodbye.”
Just say something like “This isn’t working, may I speak to Tier 2 support please?”
I’m an IT guy, I have 40 years experience in the IT field, I almost NEVER call tech support and if I do I’ve already done everything that Tier 1 would have told me to do anyway. If I call tech support I have a serious problem that needs to be addressed by something other than a flow chart reader. I wasted many hours of my life talking to people who could not help me anyway before I got this all straightened out. In my professional capacity most of the companies that we bought or set up hardware or software for would automatically bump me to Tier 2 without even going to Tier 1 at all.
Oh, and you know those little “How did we do?” surveys they send you after a call sometimes? Be sure to fill those out, those go to the company paying for the support, not the company providing it. Bitch about their support, a lot.
$2000 as the initial cost of the robot doesn’t sound like enough to have paid for the real “value” of this complex object, so presumably the real business model was the $500 monthly fee, sort of like buying ink for your printer, which ends up costing 3 to 12 times what you paid for the printer.
Also, how is this really any different than an Alexa/Echo Dot, or maybe a laptop or kiosk, on legs or wheels? The picture does not suggest this robot has really good digital dexterity, as might be useful to assist a bed ridden or wheelchair bound person, for example.
The comments about its appearance could go both ways. The designers probably did not want to make it too human like either, as that could also be “threatening”. I forget the word for it, and I vaguely recall the guys may have already mentioned this (or at least Steve) in a prior segment, but there is a point at which a machine emulating a human gets “too good” but makes people feel uncomfortable. It either has to stop at some point before “real humanity” is achieved or else be so good it fools us completely.
But the point about adding human value to your work tasks is still really valid. The idea that you can be a union factory worker and make $36/hour for continuously pulling the trigger on a pneumatic air gun or whatever, is ludicrous, at least in today’s world.
Conversely to Scott’s ending comments, I am getting less and less happy with having to go through extended phone tree steps before I get to a human to answer my questions. I generally already know what the automated response portion of the system might tell me and need the flexibility of a non-standard answer from a person. I wonder if businesses do any polling about this, or even listen to and try out their own systems, to ensure they are working as smoothly as envisioned initially.
I had a problem with the IRS recently, where the tree never allowed me to get person. I tried 0, 9, saying agent, help, support, person, etc, and it either asked to try again or hung up on me. I knew in that case to call Taxpayers Advocate. Eventually got a person that sent me down the right path. I just wonder what anyone who did know about Taxpayers Advocates would do. Note: Taxpayers Advocate is not part of the IRS. They report directly to Congress. So if they did not help, theoretically you could contact your congress person and have them apply pressure.
I think “uncanny valley” is what you were describing, that point between looking close enough to human, but not quite there, that makes people uncomfortable. It also applies to animated movies, tv shows, computer games, etc. IIRC this is why a number of animated movies have intentionally not gone photorealistic and either did “big head” versions of people or just went with monsters, toys and such. I think a robot would also do better with some kind of facial expressions but on a monster or “robot” face (and not like what I, Robot used).
Scott, in that phone call you described, I’d venture to guess that you were probably talking to a robot instead of a human.
The one thing that I’ve encountered lately is my being assigned a “Single Point of Contact” person with name and extension number, only to get their voicemail and no response every time I call. What is the purpose of that? When I call Customer Service about this, I get to explain to a live person the reason for my call and a promise to have my SPC person call me back, which doesn’t happen. Also, why does the New York State Department of Temporary and Disability Assistance have their office in LONDON, KY!
I’d guess their public relations department has schemed this little plan, hoping to appear being service related to obscure that they are not. I suppose they count on their customers giving up their pursuit of gaining a solution to whatever question or problem that may be the reason for their call. Gotta admit I’m pretty cynical, like thinking these businesses are doing this kind of thing out of malicious intent, when in fact it may be nothing more than hiring a call center staffed with people who are often treated abysmally by the callers (not you, David – I imagine you are very courteous, respectful and patient – who don’t intend to make the job their career and therefore don’t care, ergo, calls are sent to the black hole of voicemail to be ignored.
People like you and me view our jobs as a reflection of the kind of people we are – we respect ourselves and others, and our actions are informed by a great sense of responsibility to reflect well on the company we work for and ourselves. I don’t think call center people work from that premise, or not many of them anyway.
Funny thing is I received a call yesterday from this person because the date had expired on my making a response and was about to make a determination on my case! I explained I left 5 messages on her voicemail andc she said she hadn’t received ANY of them! This was in my son’s SSD case, so she asked if he would accept a psychological evaluation by one of their doctors and that was the entire point of the messages I had left with her! So now we are waiting to be notified by this doctor for an appointment date.
The wheels of government get real sticky, don’t they? They are giving money to thousands of people who don’t deserve it, yet getting real picky about those who really need it. My son is unemployable because his instructional retention skills take a long time to get programmed into his brain, but once implanted, he’s like a dog with a bone, he’ll never forget it. Most employers won’t take the time to work with him, which is a shame because he is a very good worker.
I understand your frustration, David. Both my sister(identical twin) and my younger half brother(now deceased) receive(d) SSD and as their only sibling it fell upon me to fend for them for the past 16 years after our mother passed. Mom never prepared for their care in the event of her death. They each received federal benefits for the disabled, i.e. a monthly SSD check, but no other state or federal benefits and they lived all their lives with her. Needless to say, I entered into another world when I shouldered responsibility for them. I’ve had multitudes of experience dealing with state and federal social service agencies, and to be fair, a lot of it was or became and still is a blessing, but boy howdy, negotiating the rabbit trails of agency bureaucracy and personnel has been no fun!
I hope your son will someday be fortunate enough to find a job that will take advantage of his particular skill set. I’m sure that is your fondest wish.
Amazingly, soon after posting this we received letters (both of us) about contacting this woman to set up exactly what we had discussed on the phone! This morning a phone message was left about an appointment for this evaluation has been set up. Also my name is now listed as an advocate in his case. I really don’t want to be there for his evaluation because I don’t want to influence his responses to questions, but it’s going to be hard not to.
The main problem he has a not having the confidence to make his own decisions when it comes to life’s important steps for the future. He won’t commit to anything for fear of failure. I remember the hardest part was for me to leave the nest and cut out on my own so I know what he’s going thru. Problem is I’m not going to be here for backup. I at least had a career path and a good job when my time came. I’ve done the best I can for him, but I fear it wasn’t good enough.
Doing the best you can is good enough. You deserve credit for that. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend setting the stage for when you will no longer be able to serve as his advocate, assuming he is unable to do that for himself.
Best of luck to both of you.
We have already had this discussion since I have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Believe me, I’d rather not have him on government assistance, but at this point it appears to be the only way to go.
As productive people, you and I have paid taxes all our working lives to a profligate government that squanders much of our hard-earned taxes, yet one of the places government assistance is supposed to use them is for the welfare and care of people like yours and my loved ones. They are the truly needy.
In my perfect world, a percentage of my federal tax dollars – say 25% – would fund infrastructure and the military. The other 75% would fund only what I choose from a list of options. Assistance for the disabled would certainly receive a portion. If every taxpayer had that choice, a good many pork barrels would be empty.
My heart goes out to you.
Mercedes-Benz has decided to replace robots with actual people on the S-Class assembly like. “Robots can’t deal with the degree of individualization and the many variants that we have today,” Markus Schaefer – who heads Mercedes’s production – told Bloomberg.