The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has decided to privatize operations of a national customer service center. And not without controversy. Critics are concerned “that this is just a front to downsize the EEOC’s staff” and that contractors “tend to lack appropriate training to field EEO questions. . . and typically have high turnover rates.” Never mind that every day private company’s customer service centers probably answer more calls than all the fed’s do in a month. A real concern, however, is that the EEOC may not have done enough work to establish its baseline date–an assessment of existing workload and performance–that will help it decide what to ask the contractor to do and how to get the most out of the privatization. A common and often very painful error. Let’s hope EEOC gets its ducks in a row before they launch.