Anyone ever work for the US Census?

[RichNKatHolly]

Hi Disney 1990 . All's going well here. My back is tired though - I finally took my darn manual out of my bag!

I was assigned 356 units yesterday in a very spread out neighborhood. It's going quickly, but I had to call in sick to my regular job today to finish. I don't work on Thursdays and go out of town on Friday. My CL knew this but I still got this area - plus she goofed and I'm nearly 20 minutes from home each direction (I know it doesn't sound like much, but I was supposed to be assigned to my neighborhood).

Anyway, I like it enough, this is just a stressful week because of my early deadline and the fact that I have a "real" job on top of the census. Ooh, and I'm getting married on Saturday.

Sounds like you are getting a lot of hours in - that's great!! I hope there is work left when I come back home on Wednesday (this is our 1st "real" week).

 

[Soccer Princess]

Okay, so I had my training last week, but I still haven't been assigned an AA or heard from my Crew Leader yet?!?! What should I do?

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Okay, so I had my training last week, but I still haven't been assigned an AA or heard from my Crew Leader yet?!?! What should I do?

I would make sure I kept in contact with my crew leader.
My CL just transferred me to another CL on a temporary basis because he knows I need the work. A few days ago that was no a possibility but today it is. Because I am a hard worker AND the fact that I am in contact with him almost daily, even just to check in when there is really nothing to report, my name is usually the first that comes to mind. Just keep at it. My CL does not know much about the future months but he does know that there are a lot of 'waves' going through. I am sure that you will get some work soon.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Can you get unemployment for a temporary position? Our supervisor said nothing about unemployment. Let us know what your supervisor says. I can't imagine we could get unemployment - but I would apply if I qualified.

They told my CL that we qualified but I checked out my state EDD website and since what I earn on unemployment is based on what I made on my highest earning quarter in the last 1-1/2 years and I am self employed and don't have regular earnings the only wages that qualify are the ones from the Census. Based on what I actually earned during my shortened work time I believe I only qualify for $50/week! That and the fact that I don't even have my complete earnings record since my last payroll will be deposited next Wed. and I won't receive my statement of earnings until the following Mon. I don't know if it's really worth it. Plus I have to register for job seeking and visit the office weekly (I think). Sounds like a lot of work for $50/week.

The piece of paper I was given about unemployment is very vague.

Sorry, I wish I had better news, maybe your state is better but that's the way it is here in sunny California.

Hi disney1990

 

[Soccer Princess]

Yeah, I don't even know who my Crew Leader is!?!? Everything seems really unorganized here from day 1 of training! It is very frustrating! How much contact do you have with your CLs if you are just doing this part time? Do you meet with them once a week or something? I don't even know who to call to find out who my CL is! Grrrr!

 

[C.Ann]

This is funny - because not even an hour ago, the census people came to my door here at the lake.. They wanted to know if I had an apartment in here where others might live..

Ummm..this place is sooooo small (3 rooms) - no upstairs - no basement - where the heck would I be hiding an "apartment"??? From the outside, most people assume it's even smaller than it is - like maybe one big room.. LOL

 

[RichNKatHolly]

This is funny - because not even an hour ago, the census people came to my door here at the lake.. They wanted to know if I had an apartment in here where others might live..

Ummm..this place is sooooo small (3 rooms) - no upstairs - no basement - where the heck would I be hiding an "apartment"??? From the outside, most people assume it's even smaller than it is - like maybe one big room.. LOL

Yup, they did a good job. that is exactly what we are supposed to ask anybody who answers the door. so far, out of the 400+ houses I've gone to, only about 15 were home.

 

[disney1990]

Hi back Dizneydaz

I actually went off of unemployment to take the Census job. The unemployment office told me to give them a call when my assignment was finished and they would just get me back on.

Well, DH and I finished up our assignment today. 1150 Housing units between the 2 of us in 2 days. Our CL said that he would give us another assignment sometime this evening. We asked for something that we could get done on Thursday & Friday only because we will have both worked too many hours to work on Saturday too. Besides, I don’t want to work on Saturday this week.

Hi Disney 1990 . All's going well here. My back is tired though - I finally took my darn manual out of my bag!

I was assigned 356 units yesterday in a very spread out neighborhood. It's going quickly, but I had to call in sick to my regular job today to finish. I don't work on Thursdays and go out of town on Friday. My CL knew this but I still got this area - plus she goofed and I'm nearly 20 minutes from home each direction (I know it doesn't sound like much, but I was supposed to be assigned to my neighborhood).

Anyway, I like it enough, this is just a stressful week because of my early deadline and the fact that I have a "real" job on top of the census. Ooh, and I'm getting married on Saturday.

Sounds like you are getting a lot of hours in - that's great!! I hope there is work left when I come back home on Wednesday (this is our 1st "real" week).

Oh yes, the manual. I learned to take it out of the bag but it took me longer than a week to figure that out. Duh. I took out everything that I didn’t absolutely need. I kept a supply of confidentiality forms, a small pad of paper, a pen, highlighters and depending on my assignment, a mapquest map of the area. Some of the areas are a bit confusing

Yeah, I don't even know who my Crew Leader is!?!? Everything seems really unorganized here from day 1 of training! It is very frustrating! How much contact do you have with your CLs if you are just doing this part time? Do you meet with them once a week or something? I don't even know who to call to find out who my CL is! Grrrr!

Hum, I was trained by my CL & CLA, so I know exactly who he is. He provided us with both his home telephone number and his cell number. I haven't gone a single day without an assignment, if I wanted one. I just started my 6 week with the Census and the only days I have taken off were ones that I didn't want to work.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Yup, they did a good job. that is exactly what we are supposed to ask anybody who answers the door. so far, out of the 400+ houses I've gone to, only about 15 were home.

Me too. I think I have talked to mabey 30 people. Then I get a message from elco that they are going to check each house and make sure we talked to someone. Yeah right. I talked to 5%...90% weren't home and 5% would not come to the door.

 

[Uncle Sam]

So I think I just got fired as an enumerator. My AAs just disappeared from my HHC after my CLA sent me an email asking why I have not communicated with him. I sent him one back saying it is because he didnt answer my last 9 calls.

Do you other enumerators think I have just been fired?

 

[windycitymom]

So I think I just got fired as an enumerator. My AAs just disappeared from my HHC after my CLA sent me an email asking why I have not communicated with him. I sent him one back saying it is because he didnt answer my last 9 calls.

Do you other enumerators think I have just been fired?

Unfortunately, it sounds like it - however, call him back (again) to be sure. You can always contact his supervisor (you should have been given the main office number) to discuss the situation with the person above him. He has a supervisor too and if he's being a jerk, let them know that.

Was your group having daily or weekly meetings? Our group met about 3x a week in person to discuss any questions or concerns. We had a great CL and CLA!! Did you ever try to send him emails via your HHC? That would be proof that you tried to contact him. When I had questions, I just called my CL - but she always answered her cell phone, so I didn't need to email her.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Ouch. Ive never been fired before. I liked doing this job and I did it well.

I did not receive one single completed thought of guidance from my bosses. Literally, they gave me no advice. All of my conversations with them lasted less than two minutes. They did not know where my AA was. Five conversations in a row ended with them telling me to contact someone else because they were busy. Neither one could read a map.


This experience has been interesting. I have never worked for the government before, and after this I do not wonder that it is considered to be so terribly inefficient.

Instead of mailing us the forms to fill out like private industry would, we were paid to fill them out, and six (yes six) staff members assisted our group of 20.

The training was absurd. I learned how to use the incredibly poorly conceived device in 30 minutes and tuned out for the other 34.5 hours.

The computer software was clearly designed by a lower order primate. Instead of a page containing, say, five drop down boxes, the series of menus takes 15 seconds minimum to navigate and asks you to confirm what you just clicked four or five times per address.

Whatever, I'm playing golf tomorrow if im fired.

 

[disney1990]

So I think I just got fired as an enumerator. My AAs just disappeared from my HHC after my CLA sent me an email asking why I have not communicated with him. I sent him one back saying it is because he didnt answer my last 9 calls.

Do you other enumerators think I have just been fired?

How many days did you have your AA that was taken back? I can't imagine my CL not responding back to me when I call him. He is always back to me the same day. We have had great support although we very seldom see our CL -- only when we have a problem or have an InfoCom to give to him.

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Me too. I think I have talked to mabey 30 people. Then I get a message from elco that they are going to check each house and make sure we talked to someone. Yeah right. I talked to 5%...90% weren't home and 5% would not come to the door.

Oh goodness, what a load of bull! What a total waste of gov funds to have someone go back over everything. haha I do know that QC does go over our map spots - I don't know if they do every single one or just pick and choose.

When I met with my CLA yesterday I had 2 houses left. Clearly nobody was home at either one, he didn't even have me knock - he said just get through as quickly as possible as several members of our crew are taking way too long. I should add that my AA was a clearly one-family residential neighborhood, but I guess you never know.

I'm loving working during the day, I can knock out 40+ houses per hour and yesterday I walked the entire area (about 10 miles total) and got in my daily workout.

 

[disney1990]

Oh goodness, what a load of bull! What a total waste of gov funds to have someone go back over everything. haha I do know that QC does go over our map spots - I don't know if they do every single one or just pick and choose.

When I met with my CLA yesterday I had 2 houses left. Clearly nobody was home at either one, he didn't even have me knock - he said just get through as quickly as possible as several members of our crew are taking way too long. I should add that my AA was a clearly one-family residential neighborhood, but I guess you never know.

I'm loving working during the day, I can knock out 40+ houses per hour and yesterday I walked the entire area (about 10 miles total) and got in my daily workout.

We were told to not even bother to knock on every door -- just do a site check. If somebody came outside to see what we were doing, then we should talk to them. Our CL even pointed out that the book says to knock on every door, but in a dense populated area with so many HUs to cover in a short period of time, knocking on every door was not really an option. Besides, in the Maryland/DC area, most people work during the day. Out of the doors that I have knocked on over the last 6 weeks, less than 10 people have actually answered the door.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Me too. I think I have talked to mabey 30 people. Then I get a message from elco that they are going to check each house and make sure we talked to someone. Yeah right. I talked to 5%...90% weren't home and 5% would not come to the door.

Maybe they're talking about QC (Quality Control) which was my position (until last Thursday-we're basically finished so 1/2 laid off last week, the remaining this week inc. CL and CLA)

My job in QC was to verify the work you listers did. Our HHC would tell us which block and which house to start QC in. We would knock on the door, wait to see if someone answered (not too long) verifiy if info was correct (or not) verify map spot (close enough was good) and then move on. It usually took 7 or 15 verifications before the HHC told us the AA had passed Quality Control and to know move on to do our DV (delete verifications). In no way were we told to verify if someone had already been out. I probably only had aobut 10% occupants home and answering the door. Some did mention that someone was just there last week. I told them "you know the government, have to double check everything" Most people who answered the doors were very nice, only a few were like "what do you want!"

I only had one AA fail QC and it was one of my very first ones. The street the started me on was mis-spelled. Missing a few letters. I verified with my CL that I was to correct it, I did, and I failed QC. Ended up verifiying ober 300 HU. Many team members failed QC by not accepting the MS. Our leaders told us if they were close enough to accept them.

I only had the one fail QC. Guess that's why we all got through so quickly and got laid off.

Glad to see you still have plenty of work disney1990 Too bad I don't live in MD.

 

[RichNKatHolly]

We were told to not even bother to knock on every door -- just do a site check. If somebody came outside to see what we were doing, then we should talk to them. Our CL even pointed out that the book says to knock on every door, but in a dense populated area with so many HUs to cover in a short period of time, knocking on every door was not really an option. Besides, in the Maryland/DC area, most people work during the day. Out of the doors that I have knocked on over the last 6 weeks, less than 10 people have actually answered the door.

Glad to hear that. I wasn't sure if I should say that that is what my CLA said to do too!

 

[RichNKatHolly]

DisneyDaz - how long after the AA is completed do you go out for QC? About a week? That just makes me nervous - not sure why as I know I'm doing what I was told, but that darn GPS sure likes to float around while I'm trying to capture the map spot. I guess it also depends how anal my QC person is too.

One neighborhood yesterday I was told by a resident not to go to the doors or he was calling the cops (huge homes, multi-million dollar ones on a cul-de-saq). I didn't want the hassle so I spotted that block from the curb and then just adjusted for the 10-20 feet when map spotting. I think I remember from training that taking it from the curb by the front door was OK if we had an issue. I had about 10 houses that way.

 

[Dizneydaz]

DisneyDaz - how long after the AA is completed do you go out for QC? About a week? That just makes me nervous - not sure why as I know I'm doing what I was told, but that darn GPS sure likes to float around while I'm trying to capture the map spot. I guess it also depends how anal my QC person is too.

One neighborhood yesterday I was told by a resident not to go to the doors or he was calling the cops (huge homes, multi-million dollar ones on a cul-de-saq). I didn't want the hassle so I spotted that block from the curb and then just adjusted for the 10-20 feet when map spotting. I think I remember from training that taking it from the curb by the front door was OK if we had an issue. I had about 10 houses that way.

Yes, I think it was about an week. Sounds like you're doing it right. If the MS was anywhere close I accepted it. In fact, I don't think there was one MS I didn't accept during QC. When I did DV and had to reject the delete and then do a new MS I would do the same thing if I couldn't get to the front door. Let's be real here, the MS are really only in case someone has to come out to do an in person canvas-I don't think they are going to use them too often. As long as they are in the general area (within 20' or so) they're good (so we were told). In my case I didn't want to reject them since that was a sure way to fail your AA. That's what happened during our first week. The higher ups told QC to accept the MS if they were reasonably close.

I had more trouble with DVs that were there (and had to be rejected) and streets that weren't. My last week I had an entire area where a QC before me had mistakenly deleted a street and all HUsfrom that street over were labeled wrong. I was able to rename the streets, but I couldn't change the HUs addresses (they had the wrong street name) and had to submit multiple INFOCOMMS for someone else to come in behind me and re-open the AA and correct the addresses. I was hoping I was going to be able to do the correction but was laid off before it happened.

Some of the streets I would drive on would come to a dead end but the GPS would show the street continuing. If that portion of the street was in a block I could access I would split the street and then delete the portion that wasn't there. However, if the block where the street was was one I couldn't access, then there wasn't anything I could do. Same thing for streets mis-named.

If I changed anything from the listers information than another QC will go behind me and do QC on my work.

As to calling the cops, I think that happened to me (my group) during training. We were out doing our DV to finish our AA and as we were leaving a squad car came by-I think someone called on us. The first week of QC we were told to contact the local police and let them know we were in the area in case a resident called. I did this the first 2 weeks but then I didn't. Sometimes I was done with a QC in under an hour. I didn't want to waste the police dept. time calling to tell them where I was working, and then letting them know when I had moved on.

Besides, I always made sure my car had my 2 signs prominently placed, I had my badge on, and I carried my bag with the Census Name on the outside. I never had a problem with it.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I am glad to hear about the map spots. We had 2 weeks of really bad weather. About 4 days before the storm my GPS was WAY out of whack. I had to manually map tons or HU's