Anyone ever work for the US Census?

[GOOFY4DONALD]

How long did it take between your 1st phone call and the 2nd one where they actually gave you the training info and such? I got my 1st phone call on Monday and am still waiting to hear back with more information. Thanks!!

I don't know how it is in all areas but I only received 1 call. It was and interview, of sorts, and at the end I was asked if I was still interested. I was told about the 1 day administration day that handled all the paperwork and fingerprinting and then I was told about the training schedule. If you were offered a job and not given any info, you should call your local census office. You should be able to find that on the census website.

 

[disney1990]

I don't know how it is in all areas but I only received 1 call. It was and interview, of sorts, and at the end I was asked if I was still interested. I was told about the 1 day administration day that handled all the paperwork and fingerprinting and then I was told about the training schedule. If you were offered a job and not given any info, you should call your local census office. You should be able to find that on the census website.

Does this mean that you are doing your fingerprinting & paperwork and that is it. Then you are going back at another time to do your training? We did all of ours in the very same week -- fingerprinting & paperwork on Monday and then training started on Tuesday.


Yes, 80 hours was an error. So sorry, I meant to say 40 hours a week -- there is definitely NO OT allowed. My previous job everything we in 2 week intervals and I am still "in that thinking".

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Does this mean that you are doing your fingerprinting & paperwork and that is it. Then you are going back at another time to do your training? We did all of ours in the very same week -- fingerprinting & paperwork on Monday and then training started on Tuesday.


Yes, 80 hours was an error. So sorry, I meant to say 40 hours a week -- there is definitely NO OT allowed. My previous job everything we in 2 week intervals and I am still "in that thinking".

I went in Monday and filled out all the paperwork. It lasted from
9-1. I start the training Monday April 13. I have a question for those that have already gone through the training and started working.

I was told at the administration day that we cannot work over 40 hours. I was also told that we may be scheduled 8 hours a day and those days may include weekends, nights and holidays. When I was interviewed (and when I took the test) I was told we had to work min 20 hours a week 40 max. I was also told that I MAY have to work evenings and weekend if I could not finish my assignments during the day. My plan was to do all the work that I could during the time my kids were in school. I was then planning on finishing what was left during SOME nights and SOME weekends, definately getting my work done. But the tone of the administration day was that they will set the schedule and you will work it. It seemed like they could set 12pm-9pm and every weekend if they wanted.
My understanding was you set most of your own schedule as long as you get everything done.

Can someone clarify?

 

[disney1990]

I went in Monday and filled out all the paperwork. It lasted from
9-1. I start the training Monday April 13. I have a question for those that have already gone through the training and started working.

I was told at the administration day that we cannot work over 40 hours. I was also told that we may be scheduled 8 hours a day and those days may include weekends, nights and holidays. When I was interviewed (and when I took the test) I was told we had to work min 20 hours a week 40 max. I was also told that I MAY have to work evenings and weekend if I could not finish my assignments during the day. My plan was to do all the work that I could during the time my kids were in school. I was then planning on finishing what was left during SOME nights and SOME weekends, definately getting my work done. But the tone of the administration day was that they will set the schedule and you will work it. It seemed like they could set 12pm-9pm and every weekend if they wanted.
My understanding was you set most of your own schedule as long as you get everything done.

Can someone clarify?

I have absolutely no set schedule. This week I worked:

Mon --8:30-3:15 (with 45 minutes off for lunch)
Tue -- 8:30-3:15 (with 30 minutes off for lunch)
Wed -- 11:00-4:30 (with 30 minutes off for lunch)
Thu -- 9:00-3:30 (with 30 minutes off for lunch)

If you work over 5 hours, you must take a 30 minute lunch break. I take it because there is no place close to where I am working to "pee".

They assign you a job and you have 3 days to complete it. They expect you to average 20 HU (Housing Units) per hour.

I have about 80 HU's left on my current assignment and expect to work 3-4 hours tomorrow. Then I am not going to ask for another assignment because I don't want to HAVE to work this weekend.

One thing to remember, your "paid" time starts when you leave your home and stops when you return to your home.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I have absolutely no set schedule. This week I worked:

Mon --8:30-3:15 (with 45 minutes off for lunch)
Tue -- 8:30-3:15 (with 30 minutes off for lunch)
Wed -- 11:00-4:30 (with 30 minutes off for lunch)
Thu -- 9:00-3:30 (with 30 minutes off for lunch)

If you work over 5 hours, you must take a 30 minute lunch break. I take it because there is no place close to where I am working to "pee".

They assign you a job and you have 3 days to complete it. They expect you to average 20 HU (Housing Units) per hour.

I have about 80 HU's left on my current assignment and expect to work 3-4 hours tomorrow. Then I am not going to ask for another assignment because I don't want to HAVE to work this weekend.

One thing to remember, you "paid" time starts when you leave your home and stops when you return to your home.

Thanks for the reply. I can do this kind of schedule with no problem. I just wanted to do most of the work when the kids are in school or when DH is off work. Thanks, again.

 

[disney1990]

Thanks for the reply. I can do this kind of schedule with no problem. I just wanted to do most of the work when the kids are in school or when DH is off work. Thanks, again.

No problem. You should be able to get everything done while your kids are in school during the day. I like to start early 8:30-9:00 so that I can get home early. The one day this week that I started at 11:00, was because I was waiting for a new assignment and it took a while for my CL (Crew Leader) to get it assigned to me.

 

[mermaidwannabe]

Thanks for the info especially about having 3 days to get job done!! I can only work 3 weekdays 9-2 and then using the weekend to get the rest of my hours in. I was hoping to get a few hours in the late afternoon/early evening, but it doesn't sound like it will be easy to do that if the locations are far away. I have training all next week so I guess I'll see what they say then.

 

[Dizneydaz]

We were told 20-40 hours. We make our own schedule. We were told we had to complete our first AA by Wed. (I did 2 on Monday). Our production is 9 units per hour. I have far exceeded that. We haven't been told how quickly we have to complete our other AAs, but from what I've heard everyone is getting several done a day, unless they have to re-canvas.

I just got off the phone with our CLA and then are now being told by Tech that they can only assign us 3 AAs at a time. Tech thinks this may be causing problems with HHC. Problem is sometimes it only takes an hour or so to complete one (if you don't have to re-canvas). If your CL isn't able to get you new AAs quickly, of if the HHCs won't transmit, you'll end up with another short. day.

Once again today I had a problem with my HHC (Handheld Computer) locking up. I started about 9. Had lunch went back to work about 1. Locked up around 2. They are having so many problems with the HHCs right now that it's nearly impossible to get 40 hours. I was told to wait 15 min. and then go home (they don't want to pay you while you sit.). Wouldn't you know it that as I got home, my HHC unfroze, and I had passed my block and all I needed to do was verify my DVs to complete my AA. We aren't being paid (mileage, etc.) to leave our AA and return later in the day (only 1 trip per day to AA, RT). My AA's are about 20 miles away RT. So today I got less than 4 hours in. I've only had one full day, to date, due to HHC problems. Very frustrating and I hope as time goes by they resolve things.

Tomorrow I (should) be able to finish up 2 AAs very quickly and then I'll have to drive about 10-12 miles to my next one. Hopefully I don't get any grief about so many miles tomorrow. Also I hope they'll be able to assign me new AAs quickly. I don't really want to work on weekends, as it is my DD isn't happy that I'm not the one picking her up from school each day. With training last week, and starting this week, today was the first day I've picked her up. If my AA were closer to my home (as they are supposed to be) then it wouldn't be such an issue. But if it takes me 20 miles RT, and an hour lost to get her, I can't do it. Luckily I have family who have been able to pick her up, when needed, but she still doens't like it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have the work, I just wish the Tech side worked better and that the rules regarding mileage were more flexible.

 

[disney1990]

We were told 20-40 hours. We make our own schedule. We were told we had to complete our first AA by Wed. (I did 2 on Monday). Our production is 9 units per hour. I have far exceeded that. We haven't been told how quickly we have to complete our other AAs, but from what I've heard everyone is getting several done a day, unless they have to re-canvas.

I just got off the phone with our CLA and then are now being told by Tech that they can only assign us 3 AAs at a time. Tech thinks this may be causing problems with HHC. Problem is sometimes it only takes an hour or so to complete one (if you don't have to re-canvas). If your CL isn't able to get you new AAs quickly, of if the HHCs won't transmit, you'll end up with another short. day.

Once again today I had a problem with my HHC (Handheld Computer) locking up. I started about 9. Had lunch went back to work about 1. Locked up around 2. They are having so many problems with the HHCs right now that it's nearly impossible to get 40 hours. I was told to wait 15 min. and then go home (they don't want to pay you while you sit.). Wouldn't you know it that as I got home, my HHC unfroze, and I had passed my block and all I needed to do was verify my DVs to complete my AA. We aren't being paid (mileage, etc.) to leave our AA and return later in the day (only 1 trip per day to AA, RT). My AA's are about 20 miles away RT. So today I got less than 4 hours in. I've only had one full day, to date, due to HHC problems. Very frustrating and I hope as time goes by they resolve things.

Tomorrow I (should) be able to finish up 2 AAs very quickly and then I'll have to drive about 10-12 miles to my next one. Hopefully I don't get any grief about so many miles tomorrow. Also I hope they'll be able to assign me new AAs quickly. I don't really want to work on weekends, as it is my DD isn't happy that I'm not the one picking her up from school each day. With training last week, and starting this week, today was the first day I've picked her up. If my AA were closer to my home (as they are supposed to be) then it wouldn't be such an issue. But if it takes me 20 miles RT, and an hour lost to get her, I can't do it. Luckily I have family who have been able to pick her up, when needed, but she still doens't like it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have the work, I just wish the Tech side worked better and that the rules regarding mileage were more flexible.

You did 2 AA's on Monday? How many HUs are in your AAs? My AA's have been running in the 400 unit range -- not something you can do in a day. Most of my AA's have been taking 3 days of 5-6 hours a day to complete.

My DH had an AA that he worked on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday this week. It had almost 700 HUs in it. He ended up working 7-1/2 hour days. Ouch!!

 

[Dizneydaz]

You did 2 AA's on Monday? How many HUs are in your AAs? My AA's have been running in the 400 unit range -- not something you can do in a day. Most of my AA's have been taking 3 days of 5-6 hours a day to complete.

My DH had an AA that he worked on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday this week. It had almost 700 HUs in it. He ended up working 7-1/2 hour days. Ouch!!

Okay, I think you must be in Production, right? I'm in Quality Control (QC). I'm one of the ones who follow behind you and we spot check (decided by computer) a preset (by computer) # of structures to see if previous enumerators (Production) work is good. If 1 block fails QC then we have to re-canvass entire AA, all blocks. I had this happen to me on Tues. Prouction had mispelled a street name and after I corrected it 6 times (6HC) I failed DQC. I had to re-canvas almost 400 HU, took me 2 days, about 13 hours.

When we get our AA's they can have only 1 block or I have had as many as 19 (luckily that one passed DQC). We won't know how many successful HUs we have to check, only the HHC knows for sure. Some of our QC were having to re-canvass because the rejected MS. We were taught they should be taken at the front door, some of them are showing up on the sidewalk. We are now told to accept them if they are close enough. They don't say "close enough for government work" for nothing!

So you must be in Production, that's why our numbers are so different.

We have 4 maps we have to do QC on, you probably only have one.

But are you really approved for 80 hours/week? Our area is getting put through the wringer for hours and mileage. Very curious....

 

[heartbeeps]

I don't understand here. Was she expecting 40 hour weeks before she even trained?

Ooops - sorry I wasn't clear enough. Our assumption was that she'd get 8 weeks of work but not that one week of work would be a max of less than 6 hours for the entire week! I guess we thought that the finger printing process would coincide with the training class - NOT BE A WEEK EARLIER and be counted as the first of 8 weeks.

understand now?

 

[disney1990]

Ooops - sorry I wasn't clear enough. Our assumption was that she'd get 8 weeks of work but not that one week of work would be a max of less than 6 hours for the entire week! I guess we thought that the finger printing process would coincide with the training class - NOT BE A WEEK EARLIER and be counted as the first of 8 weeks.

understand now?

We were told at least 8 weeks of work AFTER our week of training. So maybe she will still get her 8 weeks -- time will tell.

 

[heartbeeps]

Does this mean that you are doing your fingerprinting & paperwork and that is it. Then you are going back at another time to do your training? We did all of ours in the very same week -- fingerprinting & paperwork on Monday and then training started on Tuesday.

that's how it was for my sis - one day fingerprinting, a week later - training!

 

[heartbeeps]

We were told at least 8 weeks of work AFTER our week of training. So maybe she will still get her 8 weeks -- time will tell.

sure hope so! (She's giving up a convention in Las Vegas to do this training; it would be a shame if it's only a few hours here and there. After all, DH & I decided to tag along on vacation to keep HER DH company. Now, she's not going but her support group is! )

The interviewer told her that if she declined this training session that her name would be put back in the pool with no guarantee of getting ANY work! Those are the breaks some time I guess.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Thanks donna1990 for the info.

 

[shadowcx1]

During the phone interview I was told this job would last 12 weeks, after our training I was told it's going to last 8 weeks. Today after 2 weeks of work, I was told they ran out of assignment areas for our district since they kept hiring people. So tomorrow is going to be my last day of work unless other districts need help

 

[ZeroToHero]

Soooo.. they cancelled my DBF's training (due to the high dropout rate apparently), and said if they don't reschedule it, he's not going to get the job.

 

[RichNKatHolly]

I've gotten at least 6 calls over the last week from 6 different people - all asking ME where and when I was told to go for training.

And I just found out yesterday that I have the administration day on Monday. so I will have to call in sick to work - which I just did yesterday. Oh well! guess I'll have to have been REALLY sick.

I'm so hoping things are straightened out by the 27th when I start training!

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Soooo.. they cancelled my DBF's training (due to the high dropout rate apparently), and said if they don't reschedule it, he's not going to get the job.

Wow, that's so odd. and really stinks for your DBF. Sorry!

 

[ZeroToHero]

Wow, that's so odd. and really stinks for your DBF. Sorry!

Thanks. It just doesn't make sense that if some people dropped out they would punish everyone.

He's looking into a second job - one with Boston Harbor Cruises. Hopefully this one works out better.