Pros
Very Flexible: You basically get to work whenever you felt like it. Call in a few days if you feel like it. Independence: You get to choose how you will meet and work with your enumerators. You can do your paperwork, handle phonecalls, etc. wherever you want. Easy: The work was simple. It was beyond easy to get hired. Low Stress: Outside of the often changing commands, there wasn't much to stress about. Tangible: It was nice knowing that you were ensuring that everyone in your town got counted. Great pay: For what you do as a Crew Leader, the pay absolutely beats everything else you could as a "last minute" or "quick" summer job. Length: Perfect for students who need a summer job. Power: You basically got to decide the fate of those working for you. You assigned the areas in which they worked and basically determined who was worthy to work longer than the rest (of whom you let go earlier). Though I didn't particularly enjoy having to let go essentially everyone I worked with by the end of the thing.
Cons
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.
