I GET that this is new territory for everyone. I GET that it's been 10 years since the last census. It's all good! I don't expect it to go totally smoothly, but for crying out loud... SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE CONTROL OF THE LOCAL OFFICE!!! It's a complete shit show over there, and I've had that impression from the get-go. How this effected all of us is this: every single day, we were given different instructions for how to fill out our timesheets. Every person gave a different set of instructions, and when we said that someone told us to do something else, they would usually reply, "Forget that... do it this way." Okay, we're flexible. We'll do it your way. The problem was that it kept happening! Even today a whole bunch of us (including me) received rejected timesheets back because we had followed the instructions given to us on that particular day, but someone in the mean time decided they wanted timesheets a different way! We were understandably frustrated by this process by today- especially when these people started to tell us that we could be written up for incorrectly filling out timesheets!! THEN they said that every FOS (Field Operation Supervisor) wanted the people under them to fill out timesheets their own way, and we should ask our crew leaders how we should do it within our own district! Are you kidding me? It seems to me that one simple thing could have solved this whole issue: whoever is the fancy pants operations supervisor for our local office, Boston South, should have given out a specific set of instructions to the people under them, and so on and so on until it we down on the bottom got the same message. It seems ludicrous to me that different enumerators within the same local area would fill out timesheets differently, because the same folks over at the LCO are entering in our pay.
AGAIN... if only I ruled the world.
I haven't even mentioned that these timesheets are not complex in any way shape or form. While not every person in that training class was the sharpest crayon in the box, if we had only been given one set of instructions on day one that didn't change, there would be no problems by now!!
Okay. Back to this afternoon. Now, I have to be careful about what I say on this particular topic because the person that this concerns literally threatened us. Yes. She threatened that if we reported her for what she told us, she would find out who we are and "find us". She would find us in the database and "hunt us down". Yes, these were her words. She said this after giving us some legally-questionable advice regarding how to log time on our timesheets... the details aren't too important. She basically stood up in front of all us, told us how to fraudulently fill out our timesheets and then threatened us if we tell on her. This was AFTER she spent 20 minutes of our time (on the clock) yelling at us like we were children, "instructing" us how to appropriately fill out our timesheets. I. Was. Livid. You should have been there to get the full effect. It was incredibly offensive- the way she spoke to us. She was trying to address a particular question, and instead of answering it in an effective way, she spent 20 minutes telling to make sure we include our middle initial in the middle initial box... make sure you spell out your whole name, crap like that! It was the LEAST PROFESSIONAL behavior I witnessed all week. I did the math: Assuming there were 60 people in the room, that we each earn $22.75/hour, and that this particular lecture took 20 minutes: this jerk face wasted $450.50 of YOUR tax money. All of this, again, was before she threatened us.
The other crappy part of this story is that the other guy leading this particular session today originally said that we would spend the time she hijacked going over some admin policy issues and the certification test we took. We didn't get to do any of that. Tempers really started to flare today while all of this was going on. One of the highlights was when crazy sweatpants lady raised her hand, and in front of everyone went on a HUGE tirade about this whole process. "I AM APPALLED AT OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT" she started. She went off- it was great. "WHAT ABOUT ALL THE VIRGIN FORESTS??? IS THIS RECYCLED PAPER???" Totally the best part of the day.
Sigh. Arlene (one of the great training presenters) said it best, "The unofficial motto at the Census is It Is What It Is!" So true, Arlene. So true.
The rest of the day went much more smoothly. After the debacle that was our last day of training, our district crew went out to work the field in a group. We went to several houses on Tower Street, Weld Hill and Hyde Park Ave. I was the only one out of the four of us who did not have a chance to conduct an interview. I'm sure I will tomorrow, though. I have 33 assignments to work on so I plan to jump right in tomorrow. Again, I'm pretty psyched about our district. Our crew leader and crew leader assistant are cool, and I adore the three other enumerators I've met. I really couldn't be happier with the people I will interface with daily. In that, I really lucked out.
Okay... more to talk about later. I really don't mean to be so down on our local area office. I understand the challenges here. I am flexible, and I'm happy to go with the flow. I suppose it all makes for a good story, so that's what I'm trying to tell here. At the end of the day, it's just the census. No one is going to die (well... maybe... if they redraw congressional districts and then the congressmen then pass legislation... haha jk).
But seriously... whatever. It is what it is.
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