PH Audio Blog

For the managers at Carlisle’s Department of Work and Pensions, the best way to cope with the additional workload caused by yesterday’s Civil Servants’ strike was to instruct the remaining staff to impersonate answering machines. It must have seemed like such a good idea at the time.

During the lunch time rush of phone calls, the DWP managers told the overworked Civil Servants to read a script in the style of an automated phone message before swiftly hanging up, in an attempt to dupe their callers into believing they were talking to a machine. The script read:

“Due to the high volume of enquiries we are currently experiencing we are unable to take your call. Please call back later.”

Workers reportedly had trouble stifling their laughter and many gave up and revealed their true identity as a human being and not a recorded message. The scam was leaked through Facebook chat between colleagues on either side of the picket line, causing red faces all round.

The final word has to go to a DWP staff member who pointed out that it would have been much easier to simply have an answering machine message recorded in light of the current situation, rather than attempting to do it themselves.

The DWP is welcome to get in touch with PH Audio for a range of automated telephone messages – which won’t laugh or stutter – covering any situation when calls cannot be answered.