My contribution to the Census is about over. As always, it was enlightening. Glad to be done with it and I wish all those working hard a high percentage of returned questionnaires. I haven’t ever worked for the government until this last year with the Census. Some things I might note are the different rates paid across he nation for the lowly enumerator. In this part of the world, the pay is $11.25 hr. In my sister’s part of OK, it is less by about a dollar. However, in Detroit, where there is high unemployment they receive $20 per hour. Less people to count, higher unemployment, shouldn’t result in higher wages for an enumerator. Once again, the government has strange ideas about how they do things.
Posts Tagged ‘2010 Census’
Census Work Done
Posted by madjillmom on March 17, 2010
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: 2010 Census | 1 Comment »
Health Care and the Census
Posted by madjillmom on March 3, 2010
I am hard at work in my third stint with the 2010 Census. I am thinking that I can possibly declare my unpaid services as non-profit/charity work on my 2010 Income Tax return. When I was at the bottom of the ladder, I did at least get paid for my time. Now, not so much.
Census 2010 is really messed up. There seems to be too many phases and too much knocking on doors. I am not sure if this is the case everywhere, but I am pretty certain it is going on in TX and OK. The suppositions of the time and effort it takes are way off the mark. There must be better ways to do this and I hope the Census Bureau calls me to get my input to make it better next time.
Seeing how the Census works makes me really wonder if the government should have any more involvement in the heath care area. The Census is the Post Office is the DMV. Only I think the PO and DMV do a better job. What if the government is responsible for vast amounts of our health care and it is run like the Census? The bodies will pile up. Already, the government pays over 50 percent of the health care payments. Let’s don’t give them more. No reconciliation!!! No Obamacare!!!
Posted in Health Care | Tagged: 2010 Census | 1 Comment »
Census Fortune Cookies
Posted by madjillmom on February 25, 2010
The Census Bureau spends a great deal of its energy and resources with silly little gimmicks like an unclear Super Bowl Ad, large 13-wheelers with digital signs on their sides, and now we learn that they are spending money on fortune cookies to encourage participation in the census. While all this is going on, they simply stomp on labor laws that require the paying of overtime to employees all over the country. I do see that the enumerator jobs at the bottom do not need any overtime. These are part-time jobs and should not have overtime. However, the ask Crew Leaders and many others to work many extra hours by requiring them to fit all the work into 8 hour days. If Walmart did what the Census Bureau does to its employees, there would be law suits and fines and back pay. I have been working for them for about a week this time and have not submitted at least 10 hours of time. Does the government have to play for the rules they dictate to all others? Guess not.
Posted in Obama Administration | Tagged: 2010 Census | Leave a Comment »
Working for the Census
Posted by madjillmom on February 22, 2010
I am back working for the Census for the next month or so. Training starts tomorrow and I seem to be in charge. I hope things go well. I truly do not want to waste one government nickle. Already, I have worked more hours than I can claim. As a temporary government worker, I wish to apologize for everything done on behalf of the Census.
Remember, the Census is at least a part of the Constitutional, If you want to save taxpayer money, fill out and send in the questionnaire. Pretty please.
Posted in Make Yourself Heard | Tagged: 2010 Census | 1 Comment »
Census Operation Problems?
Posted by madjillmom on April 8, 2009
I am still working my temporary census job. Mostly things are going OK. On Monday, Fox News featured an Acorn style rally in LA kicking off the same thing I am doing. It was complete with signs saying “Yes We Can 2010 Census”. We here in rural Texas did not have a big rally. We evidently didn’t get the memo. The problem is since then, we have been having a heck of a time transmitting our datausing the nifty little computer that we operate that uploads the work and time sheets for everyone. My speculation is that the bandwidth that carries the data is now overwhelmed by the increase in workers canvassing the large cities/populous counties. There was no problem before, but I think the quadrupling of the temp workforce has caused problems. Hope they get this worked out.
Posted in Obama Administration, Pet Peeves | Tagged: 2010 Census, ACORN | 2 Comments »
Census Work
Posted by madjillmom on March 30, 2009
I worked all day canvassing addresses in the rural area that includes my home. I probably got in and out of my car 70 times. I drove 53 miles total and was never more than about 3 miles from my home as the crow flies. Spring is really pretty now. Everything is green with wildflowers. Saw lots of pretty houses both old and new, lots of dogs, and a modest little spot of a house with a beautiful garden. It wasn’t too bad. It would not be tolerable but for XM Radio. I get in the car, drive to the next address (1/2 mile away), greet the dogs, knock on the door, do the computer thing, get back in the car, drive to the next one. I talked with some people. As a 50+ woman, I don’t seem threatening though a few older ladies weren’t too sure about me knocking on their doors. Mostly mindless. Thank goodness it is so pretty right now. See lots of cows, calves, horses and foals that look so clean and shiny in their green pastures. I am pretty tired, but not achy. Not used to working like this.
Minor Pet Peeve: Electric gates with codes. I have to make out a form. I don’t think I would want to be that cut off from everything.
Posted in Happy Thoughts, Pet Peeves | Tagged: 2010 Census | Leave a Comment »
Census Training
Posted by madjillmom on March 25, 2009
I have had my second full day of training for the Census. I will be doing address canvassing for about 7 weeks after training. This is a process of trying to make sure all buildings, homes, cardboard boxes, etc. are in the address list so the questionaire will get there next year.
The training is ok. The people teaching just learned themselves. It is pretty slow. The books the trainers use have a lot of typos and don’t match up to the pages we have in our three books. The order of teaching seems very backward to me. There is no video, now whiteboards, no flip charts, only reading from the book and going along. It will probably suffice. This same process is going on all over the country in these weeks. My feeling is that 8 hours of online training would do the trick if there was a way to have some interactive Q & A after the fact. Set down a baseline of training, then augment with class or small group followup. It isn’t happening that way. We go from one book, Chapter 5 back to another book, back to original book, Chapter 3, bring up issues, then say we will talk more about this later. It definitely is confusing to most of us and pretty inefficient.
The best thing about the process is a handheld computer where we will input the data. It prompts the processes, charts progress in each area, marks the spots with GPS, transmits the data back to the Census bureau. That part is really neat.
Posted in Strange Things | Tagged: 2010 Census | Leave a Comment »
ACORN and the Census
Posted by madjillmom on March 19, 2009
The orientation meeting I attended today did not suggest any ACORN involvement. More correctly, after looking around the room, it appears that AARP had a lot more to do with the hiring than ACORN.
Posted in Strange Things | Tagged: 2010 Census | Leave a Comment »
Acorn and the Census
Posted by madjillmom on March 18, 2009
Fox News reported that the Obama administration has engaged Acorn to help hire all the temporary workers for next years census. I wonder if they know that they are paid an hourly rate and don’t get to keep counting the same person over and over again. This could make for some more interesting stories come next spring. How many Mickey Mouses are there in the US?
Posted in Corruption, Obama Administration, Politics | Tagged: 2010 Census | Leave a Comment »
Pres. Obama’s Cabinet Vacancies
Posted by madjillmom on February 23, 2009
I heard over the weekend that Pres. Obama plans to give a speech about healthcare this week. Is he implementing a plan without the help of a Health and Human Services Secretary? Who will put such a plan together? Reid and Pelosi? Where is the announcement regarding who is the 2nd best HHS Secretary?
Where is the 3rd best choice for Commerce?
As an aside, I don’t think there has been another adminsitration with so many Czars, advisors, and advisory committees. Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?
Posted in Government Healthcare, Obama Administration | Tagged: 2010 Census | Leave a Comment »
Mama Bin Cranky 