A couple of days ago we got a message asking for people to go out to Reno for a few days. The trip would be fun but I think you would be expected to work 8 hours a day…I could only ever manage 4 to 5 hours a day…
I wonder how they handle disaster areas. I’m thinking of that Derecho and now Laura…
Got my first pay stub today. I’m grateful, because some people are having difficulty getting paid.
We shall see. Our local supervisor has said that the last work available in St. Louis will probably be in the “bad” neighborhoods. The original response rates in the suburbs (where I’m currently laboring) was around 70%, whereas poorer urban areas were closer to 25%. So possibly the travel work will be in cities.
I put in my bid to go to Minnesota from St. Louis. Looking at this map shows that MN has three census areas; they all pay more than St. Louis, but Minneapolis is highest.
If memory serves (hah!) the available states included Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
One of my FBFs lives in a rural area about an hour from me, and she knew several women from her town who did enumerations. Now that their areas are complete, they too have been offered opportunities to go “to big cities” but she didn’t say which ones.
Interesting interaction today: I went to an apt. unit for a second visit and the guy began doing the questionnaire online (on his phone) while also answering the questions from me.
On the previous visit he had been too busy to go through the routine, so I gave him an NOV. On the return visit (an excited child answered the door) he seemed apologetic about not handling the filing, and asked which method was quicker, online or in-person.)
It turned out the online was much quicker, since I had some difficulty with his accent, there were at least four children, and every name needed to be spelled out letter by letter. It was also quicker because he was an IT professional and could thumb-type very fast.
I hadn’t seen anyone use the online service before, so I watched with interest. When he hit submit, and received some kind of confirmation, I selected “Exit interview” on my iPhone and added a case note.
I asked what he thought of the online interface, and he said it was very good. I was happy about that since the enumerator software is far from ideal. (I try not to dwell on the glitches. It’s generally usable, and I work around the parts that are not.)
I just got word today from my supervisor that apparently Wednesday will not be her last day, and Today will not be mine. I wish them luck trying to get back all the people they have already transitioned out, though. 
So, they’ll keep you on until further notice?
Yeah…but now we are doing the multi-refusal, semi-belligerent, manager totally not accessible cases.
Oh joy.
(I may have already said this here; sorry if I’m repeating myself.)
I heard a podcast on You Tube where an official said that the bulk of their budget is used on that last, stubborn 2 or 3% who think they can refuse to be counted.
Let me tell you something-some of them are damn successful at avoiding the Census, especially the more affluent ones that live in restricted access buildings. The managers of those places earn their reputations by keeping any and all client info private, and will not even pass along the informational notes that tell people they have two days to respond. If you attempt to call property managers up you get a recording telling you to leave a message…oft followed by a full mailbox message.
So I got censused today. Aside from dob and “race”, they only asked me if I was living here on April 1st, whether I own the place and how many people live here. I was expecting a whole bunch of questions, what’s up with that? Is it literally just a count of how many people live where?
Pretty much.
I finally saw another enumerator out today, umbrella in hand of course (we’re in the Midwest). I also got a package from FedEx with my separation paperwork; I’m guessing they invested in that because too many people discarded it, thinking it was junk mail.
We were told to stay home today because of the air quality. It is damn smoky out here.
You must be in the Rockies or on or near the West Coast. Conditions are terrible even for people who aren’t directly affected by the fires.
I saw a story in my local paper today about the Census, and it had a picture of a logo on a garbage truck and said that some enumerators are going to places like grocery stores and Dollar General, and one of those locations netted 10 responses in one day. Don’t know if it was 10 people or 10 households, but they got what they needed.
BTW, yesterday I got my separation paperwork, and it was sent to me via FedEx. That seems a bit wasteful, but then again, chances are a lot of people would just have thrown it away, unopened, because they assumed it was junk mail.
I live in Portland, Oregon.
I don’t know how they are doing it in your story, but here in Portland we are assigned specific addresses to get data on the people living there.
Most of it is being done this way, but some places are getting creative when it comes to roping people in. A Facebook group I belong to has had local groups serving sack lunches, giving away t-shirts, etc. to people who came in and filled out their census.
Wouldn’t a Census worker keep and open any envelope addressed to them personally and sent in a Census envelope?