US Census Bureau reviews

-Hours. We were told not to go over, but I don't know how you could even get near going over with out making everyone in the neighborhood you're covering paranoid that someone was casing the houses to break in. -Also, for some reason I thought that enumerators were going to be kept near an area where they live in part to help with familiarity of the area (less likely to get lost) and also to help us be more comfortable with our surroundings. Apparently our area office felt otherwise. I was stuck driving across town, making more money off of mileage than hours on some days. Meanwhile, when a enumerator came to our house to ask about a neighbor's house, we found out she was from an entirely different town (with an even longer commute). -Having to read every question. Yes I know it's probably a legal issue. Does that make it easier when dealing with people door to door? No. -The local office would randomly change things. I remember them telling us that we were not supposed to give the office number as apparently they were getting too many calls. So what am I supposed to do then if they ask specifically for the office number? -The local office was very, VERY slow at sending out notifications of firings, even after we had no more possible work. -Our crew leader, while nice, was not prepared to be crew leader. Small wonder though as she was working in the local office until a week before being shunted to working with us. From what I heard though, the local office shifted people around alot. -The paperwork recquired if you had anything happen to you was enough to make you hope you never got hurt on the job. -Some of the people you deal with enumerating, but that is part of the job.

Length: I was lucky to get about 2.5 months out of it. I heard some people got about 1. Frequency: Only comes every 10 years (though I hear there are some more frequently occurring operations). Hiring Process: Too many incompetent people at all levels. I was an enumerator for a few days until they asked me to become a Crew Leader. I was sort of surprised at the seemingly random promotion. Eventually I learned why: I initially wondered if I was even qualified to lead people, then I realized how incompetent so many of the other Crew Leaders were. So many were flakes, unreliable or dishonest. I eventually ran multiple Crew Leader Districts to fill in the gaps these folks left behind. I sometimes wondered if the higher ups were not similar. But perhaps that is the result of such a makeshift workforce. Of course there were also plenty of "bad egg" enumerators too: people were dishonest about their time and work, and could be generally difficult to work with. "Flexibility" to some enumerators meant disappearing entirely never to be seen again (I kid you not). Not really ranting here though. None of this was really that bothersome. Most of these "interesting" people just made the job more amusing.