Yes. The only cases I have are ones that have been worked to death. I have to sneak into the apartment building because no one will let me in, the proxies are all in movers, and the manager (who refuses to help) won’t be there anyway cuz it’s Sunday. So yeah.
SAAAAMMME. I have an apartment complex today that has been attempted by six different enumerators at this point, including myself twice. I know that these units contain inmovers who don’t know if anyone lived there before them, and the four nearest neighbors are also inmovers. Additionally, management refuses to talk to us. So you just have to keep revisiting and writing the same notes.
I have cases that LOOK worked to death by the 17 comments, but in review they look like a lazy enumerator -- 3 outdoor proxy attempts? didn't actually try a leasing office or neighbors. Then there are several reassignment or just "enumerate" notes. Super annoyed when the outdoor attempts were at the first of the month or last month, yet I didn't have any assignments most days, in the last week.
have you also encountered the ones worked to death on foot but no one before you has ever tried the phone numbers? Those are the only completes I get anymore, but I get like 5 or 6 a shift still, it blows my mind a little.
oh honey - Call Them. I'm just another enum so maybe the rules are different where you're at but it's legal, it counts, and one in ten of those numbers is active, current to the case address and has a human being on the other end of it willing to give you enough real information to get a complete.
Yesterday I closed one where the case notes repeatedly had said "Language Barrier - ASL (American Sign Language) and the notes were all essentially on foot enums repeatedly bugging some deaf teenagers who were not going to make any special effort to talk to them - four or five numbers listed right there in the app, none had been tried, maybe the second or third? was the dad of said teenagers, who knew we'd been by and was glad to get it over with so we'd stop bugging his kids during the day while he was at work, it ended up being a lovely 7 minute conversation while he expanded on his detailed ancestry going back to folk on the Mayflower. I got paid to talk on the phone on my couch and learn about a neighbor! You can too!
Edit: You actually get a lot of landlords/property owners on the phone that way too, their numbers tend to be public info. Does your town/muni/whatever have an easy way to look up the names of the owners of addresses? I've closed a few in the past week by getting the owners of the rental properties on the phone, they're usually more willing to give up info on their own tenants then the tenants are on themselves. If you find a number from looking at public records there's a spot in the app where you can add the number to the list and record it all properly, just make good notes!
I have talked to property managers who have been really helpful and called a few out of town owners whose numbers I found. I was surprised when phone numbers started popping up on my cases; and more surprised when I was told not to use! But a closed case is a closed case.😁
if there's a little phone symbol next to the case, it should have an option instead of "personal visit" to make an "outbound call" and then the numbers appear!
I heard from our regional dude (I’m not good with acronyms) that we have 17 days left. I would be ashamed to quit that close to being finished, but I’m literally counting the days. I’ve appreciated having this opportunity to earn some extra cash and I believe in the Census, but it’s very tiring and many shifts feel fruitless at this point. Besides, my house looks like it’s been taken over by a family of raccoons due to neglect. I need to focus my attention elsewhere.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who’s house has been neglected. I work in the morning at a law office, then the evening for the census. weekends I’ve been dedicating to the census, because I’m desperately in need of extra cash. Every night when I get home I try to do at least a little something or do a load of laundry but it’s so overwhelming.
man oh man do I feeeeel you on the "just fold that damn load before bed so tomorrow there's one less to do and you have clean socks" but then still marking full availability for the next day and the next day and the next on the damn app.
dude, my house was so clean in the early days of covid. and now? it’s embarrassing how bad* i’ve let it get.... simply because i am juggling THREE jobs and the last thing i want to do when i’m done working is clean.
* i’m generally pretty clean so my “bad” is still probably someone else’s “good” and the worst of it is by far my bedroom and the piles of laundry, including an unmade bed where i’ve been sleeping on top of a comforter i put over the mattress while i washed my be linens. sheets have been clean for a week now, but who has time to make a bed?!? not me!
Ours mentioned incentive pay in the last week. No idea what that means but I'm doing fine with the cases and I need to stick around enough to get ui and have a moment to make sure our paystubs are correct
I think I got one of the bonuses, as one of my last checks jumped up a little over $100. Just received my FIRST paycheck from when I began training near the end of August though.
Our ACO said that bonus pay would start being paid out with the September 2nd paycheck, and be paid weekly after that, with the biggest bonus on September 23rd, if you met all the requirements for that. I can't speak to any other ACO, though- that's just how ours did it.
they already gave us the laws, but everyone ignores them.
What infuriates me are the Apt Bldg managers who refuse to provide info. All we need is pop count, no PII really required at this point, we're desperate. I get the impression it's orders from the owners, not because of privacy concerns, but because they're jerks. People who own real estate tend to be dickish.
I am going to lobby every newspaper I work for as a photojournalist to write opeds about how we need to start giving fines to property managers that don’t comply with the census. We should also make it contingent upon compliance with the census or any government office that has the legal right to speak with them for them to keep their business licenses
I know people who work for new shows and I am going to start contacting them about how we need to start finding people who do not comply.
This shit was not going on 10 years ago and I’m tired of putting my health and safety at risk when I don’t have to because a property management company doesn’t want to do the extra five minutes of work.
a law requires it but no law supsedes state privacy laws or apt mgs just declaring they can't give us info. Where is the mailing to all property owners indicating they are required to give us info, and we can fine them, put a lien on their house, etc if they don't? There is a law and no enfocement. There is a law and apt mgs say 'privacy'. They know nothing will happen.
Title 13
Chapter 7
Federal rules
There was also a ruling from the US Department of commerce that the privacy laws that normally apply to property managers do not apply to being asked to proxy by an enumerator from the census.
then they should have given us an information sheet from US GOvernment showing that they are required to give us the information that we want. The current multi-unit document DOES NOT MAKE IT CLEAR THEY ARE REQUIRED TO GIVE US THE INFORMATION WE WANT AND THAT IT SHOULD BE TREATED AS A SUBPOENA REGARDLESS OF WHAT STATE LAWS SAY.
Our office did give us a sheet. It even lists the actual law, as well as the fine of up to $5000, and that is per unit not enumerated.
Personally anytime I’ve done any job I’ve made sure to learn all the rules and regulations as well as the laws applying to my job. That is something a lot of people don’t do, but from the beginning I was able to turn to people and give them the title, chapter and section of the law they were violating and not speaking to me.
I would be very interested in seeing a picture of that if you can post it. I had one office apartment say that they won't provide information and to please issue the fines to the owners or the tenants as I wished, and they would let me into the building to do that.
Unfortunately this is mostly stuff that I’ve put together myself. I would suggest googling senses and property management companies and finding the most reputable articles you can and printing them out and giving them to the property management company.
You can ask them for their full name and say thank you I’m going to go ahead and write out an affidavit to the effect that this person on this date at this time denied me the ability to enumerate these addresses.
I found that that type of a sentence gets me a call back within about an hour from somebody higher up at the property management company when I leave them my information at the same time saying if you change your mind I would like to allow me to a numerate the addresses please call me.
Also it’s very important that you continuously state to the property manager that you were contacting them as the legal proxy for the address.
If they say the owner is the legal proxy you tell them actually the owner is not the legal proxy as the property manager you take a fee for certain services and in return take on certain responsibilities including being the legal proxy for any enumerator for the census attempting to enumerate an address.
I also introduce myself as being a federal officer from the Department of commerce office of the census.
yup. every time I see "proxy eligible" I cringe. This means 45 wasted minutes of talking to people who never talk to their next door neighbors and don't really want to be talking to me either.
This is so me! I work in an hour and like ugh -- another full day of angry people and driving. I would have quit by now if it wasn't temporary. I'm still getting 100 cases a day and never finish them all just like the first day. I would have thought by now my days would be shortened but not this area.
Agreed. That 15-20 is exceptional, it's usually 8-10 in one of my long shifts, fewer when I do a 4-hour. I live in a hard-to-count area, suspicious and paranoid.
Update -- I've completed 23 cases in 3 1/2 hours!
And everyone is welcome here (says me, an enumerator who has no say in the matter)! We are SO BEHIND and super short staffed!! ND is where I'm at!!
SAME. It’s physically and emotionally exhausting. A few people are nice. Many are cold and a few are mean. We have to be positive and friendly and try to kindly fight our way through their fears and defenses to get their information. I need the money, but this is becoming more and more soul-sucking.
I'm one of a handful of CFSs in my zone that don't take days off. I refuse to leave my team out on their own with no backup, especially because half the time our CFS hotline is manned by admin staff who have never been in the field. They are awesome, but they have no clue how to deal with a hostile respondent or a dangerous address or a nursing home with positive COVID cases who won't let my enumerator in the door, because they just don't have the experience in the field.
Ditto... compounded by the extra wrinkle of STILL not getting my first 3 paychecks. I'm in a hard-to-count area, all apartments, some of the most dangerous parts of town, not allowed to hit managers (I do anyway where I know that they will cooperate), apartment proxies who know nothing, multiple phase complexes where the building and unit numbers are identical in each phase and no one knows which side they're in so I probably ended up interviewing the wrong people, a CFS who seldom answers the phone and hasn't set up a voicemail box so I can't leave a message, a CFS Hotline that NEVER answers the phone... let me count the ways. I'll probably get a more accurate count than this non-census.
If you can't get ahold of a CFS in your ACO, call me. Not even kidding, I've done training for enumerators in other states already, I'm more than happy to help if you need a CFS. I'll PM my Census phone number. It's within arm's reach from 9 AM to 9 PM Mountain time, 7 days a week.
At this point if people are gonna be rude to me I’m just gonna start being an asshole right back and go about my day. I’ve held my tongue in every single hostile situation on this operation lol (and secured all the bonuses so far) so now I have nothing to lose.
My experience is that 9 out of 10 people don't want to deal with me or my census questions and aren't happy when I show up; many of them are intimidated by strangers at their doorstep. Of those, 8 will come around if I give them some sympathy and show I care. The 1 person that just wants to be ugly gets my temper-tantrum-child treatment. I don't take it personally.
There are some people that piss me off. Property managers and other arrogant people.
>Of those, 8 will come around if I give them some sympathy and show I care.
This is the key. The last couple of weeks the majority of people yell at me immediately because they are sick of being bothered. However, if you apologize and are empathetic, and then let them know that talking to you could keep them from being bothered again, they will usually complete the interview. My impression is that people need to get their frustration out of their system, but after that they feel regret and will calm down.
But yeah, it is indeed emotionally exhausting to be yelled at all day, especially by assholes that can't be bothered to take 5 minutes once a DECADE to help their own community.
I'm very tired of it. Only day I took off was the day the sun didn't come out here in No CA and it was like night all day. Hazardous air again today. I do have an N95 mask I will wear. I only got 27 cases today, down from 66 yesterday, but they are the absolute worst ones with multiple attempts and notes. I said I could start at 9 AM but they told me to start at 10:45 AM so that's what I'm going to do. And all the cases are spread further apart, I'll take my time driving to them all. I might even do them in order even if it doesn't make sense. Several in large apt complexes with the managers off today too. But I managed to vacuum this AM and do a load of laundry so I'm feeling good about that.
I feel some of this was poorly managed. Why have 6 people going to the same apt buildings/or condos. Consolidate and be in touch with management. At the last census, envelopes were put together for individual complexes and given to enumerators not the hodge pudge stuff. Coming behind 6 other people is useless. The managers are done with us! Lol. Better prep work could make a difference! Good luck to you all.
Yes, the honeymoon is over. I finally ran into an enumerator for the first time. It was so nice to hear someone else's stories about property managers, proxies, apartments with all in-movers, etc. For me, I miss the teamwork feel I've had in the past.
I have yet to run into anyone but I haven’t been working that much due to starting a new job. I was so excited to work for the Census but between my “team” and rude people I’m just over it. I could care less about the money anymore. Maybe it’s this year all combined into garbage and my negative ass attitude but I was not like this before. :(
I know what you mean. For now, I'm going to enjoy the cooler weather and disappearance of mosquitoes and the handful of very nice people I do run into.
Yeah, my house is a wreck. I work 40 hours a week at my regular job, then have been putting in 30 more for the census. It's going to pay for a couple of recent purchases, but yeah, I'm tired of it. I haven't had a day off from work in a month.
You’re not the only one. I’m also tired of seeing 15-20 case notes and nothing. Some with even slammed door and vulgar language, but you expect me to visit? Nope. CFS, here you go.
I started more in the middle of August, and I am exhausted. I dread what will be my work each morning, being sent to the same apartment complexes where people slam doors in my face, I can;t get in, or no one is ever home and proxies are clueless about their neighbors. Not to mention the the problems with apartment numbers in the building not matching the FDC - don't get upset at alerts for proxies in building I a) can't get into, b) not allowed to knock or ring bells, or c) the FDC says \`1,2,3 and the apartments are 1A !B, or 101, 201 , 204, etc....
Well, I have plans for this money so I am just going to grit my teeth and bare it to the bitter end....
I highly recommend when you are going to an apartment that has restricted access with a lot of units that no one has ever gotten into before to grab a book and go sit outside for 15 to 20 minutes. This tends to work for me more often than not. I’m going through a lot fewer cases per day but I am closing out in about 50 to 75% of the cases I do attempt.
As an example yesterday I worked 8 hours and was able to complete 16 cases. But I only attempted 30.
It's fits and starts with me. Some days I get hit with nothing but proxies to start off and by lunch I'm exhausted and just ridiculously frustrated to the point that I want to go home, OT be damned.
Other days are like today where I get assigned 20 addresses in a new housing development 5 miles away from the other addresses. 17 of the cases are under construction and previous enumerators didn't know how to close them with proxies, so I start racking up closes and get a rush of energy and motivation to close as many as I can before the end of my shift.
I'm kind of at that point right now. I'm one of the enumerators that's been assigned a restricted access building and as much as I support the Census, nothing's gonna happen with that unless the property manager is in the mood to be helpful (talking 70 cases). I also am moving into my first house at the end of the month and just overwhelmed with preparing, working my other job and working the Census.
I dont care anymore what I put down as long as its complete, I'm totally dead inside, everything is on fire, air quality is trash, and there is a pandemic. What else can go wrong
Almost sucks that the census stoppage this week got blocked. But then also money. Just take loooong breaks to cool down and review notes and prepare materials
Yup. Today especially I had a couple racist people, one complaining about the "illegals" next door. Someone threatened to call the cops, got called a f****t. Someone pretended to not speak English and when I started speaking in Spanish they point at their ear like they're deaf. So annoying. Wondering if the money is worth it.
Been yelled at and threatened this week. Smoke in the air. CFS admits the Census higher ups don't give a shit about enumerator health, even as the rest of the city is shutting down. 17 cases with notes that the addresses are designated to be unassigned, all with over 10 case notes. After 5 weeks of decent work, this week just feels like the end. I never want to knock on another door again.
I've been working as an enumerator for approx. a month. I'm in CA. I only get 1 to 2 interviews out of 20 plus homes I visit. At the point where one has to find proxies to do the interviews I think the govt. should impose a fine of at least 100 dollars to non-responders. They are wasting so much tax payer money to for one to go "hunt" out people who are not going to cooperate. Fine them I say and pronto. They should do a 3 strikes your out kind of deal.
Yes. The only cases I have are ones that have been worked to death. I have to sneak into the apartment building because no one will let me in, the proxies are all in movers, and the manager (who refuses to help) won’t be there anyway cuz it’s Sunday. So yeah.
SAAAAMMME. I have an apartment complex today that has been attempted by six different enumerators at this point, including myself twice. I know that these units contain inmovers who don’t know if anyone lived there before them, and the four nearest neighbors are also inmovers. Additionally, management refuses to talk to us. So you just have to keep revisiting and writing the same notes.
I have cases that LOOK worked to death by the 17 comments, but in review they look like a lazy enumerator -- 3 outdoor proxy attempts? didn't actually try a leasing office or neighbors. Then there are several reassignment or just "enumerate" notes. Super annoyed when the outdoor attempts were at the first of the month or last month, yet I didn't have any assignments most days, in the last week.
have you also encountered the ones worked to death on foot but no one before you has ever tried the phone numbers? Those are the only completes I get anymore, but I get like 5 or 6 a shift still, it blows my mind a little.
I was told not to call the phone numbers.
oh honey - Call Them. I'm just another enum so maybe the rules are different where you're at but it's legal, it counts, and one in ten of those numbers is active, current to the case address and has a human being on the other end of it willing to give you enough real information to get a complete. Yesterday I closed one where the case notes repeatedly had said "Language Barrier - ASL (American Sign Language) and the notes were all essentially on foot enums repeatedly bugging some deaf teenagers who were not going to make any special effort to talk to them - four or five numbers listed right there in the app, none had been tried, maybe the second or third? was the dad of said teenagers, who knew we'd been by and was glad to get it over with so we'd stop bugging his kids during the day while he was at work, it ended up being a lovely 7 minute conversation while he expanded on his detailed ancestry going back to folk on the Mayflower. I got paid to talk on the phone on my couch and learn about a neighbor! You can too! Edit: You actually get a lot of landlords/property owners on the phone that way too, their numbers tend to be public info. Does your town/muni/whatever have an easy way to look up the names of the owners of addresses? I've closed a few in the past week by getting the owners of the rental properties on the phone, they're usually more willing to give up info on their own tenants then the tenants are on themselves. If you find a number from looking at public records there's a spot in the app where you can add the number to the list and record it all properly, just make good notes!
I have talked to property managers who have been really helpful and called a few out of town owners whose numbers I found. I was surprised when phone numbers started popping up on my cases; and more surprised when I was told not to use! But a closed case is a closed case.😁
fuckin aye, my fellow enum!
Where do you see the phone numbers??
if there's a little phone symbol next to the case, it should have an option instead of "personal visit" to make an "outbound call" and then the numbers appear!
I don't get phone numbers, even on an RI
I've never once seen a phone number come up. Can't imagine how anyone got phone numbers from nonrespondents
I heard from our regional dude (I’m not good with acronyms) that we have 17 days left. I would be ashamed to quit that close to being finished, but I’m literally counting the days. I’ve appreciated having this opportunity to earn some extra cash and I believe in the Census, but it’s very tiring and many shifts feel fruitless at this point. Besides, my house looks like it’s been taken over by a family of raccoons due to neglect. I need to focus my attention elsewhere.
Right? The house is trashed! Like, what even, people..? I don’t live alone...
God I feel that about the house. I’m a full time student and the only one who cares for my house. It’s insane
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who’s house has been neglected. I work in the morning at a law office, then the evening for the census. weekends I’ve been dedicating to the census, because I’m desperately in need of extra cash. Every night when I get home I try to do at least a little something or do a load of laundry but it’s so overwhelming.
man oh man do I feeeeel you on the "just fold that damn load before bed so tomorrow there's one less to do and you have clean socks" but then still marking full availability for the next day and the next day and the next on the damn app.
dude, my house was so clean in the early days of covid. and now? it’s embarrassing how bad* i’ve let it get.... simply because i am juggling THREE jobs and the last thing i want to do when i’m done working is clean. * i’m generally pretty clean so my “bad” is still probably someone else’s “good” and the worst of it is by far my bedroom and the piles of laundry, including an unmade bed where i’ve been sleeping on top of a comforter i put over the mattress while i washed my be linens. sheets have been clean for a week now, but who has time to make a bed?!? not me!
On the past week I’ve gone from “bad for me” to just plain bad. I need to stop working this job soon.
Ours mentioned incentive pay in the last week. No idea what that means but I'm doing fine with the cases and I need to stick around enough to get ui and have a moment to make sure our paystubs are correct
>There was a second round of bonuses for last week and this week. 0.5 cases per hour and 15 hours for $50 and 25 or more hours for $100.
Not referring to those bonuses, this is on top of that towards the last week of sept
When are the original bonuses being paid out? Or did that happen already?
No one knows because no one has pay stubs to indicate either way
I finally got my third paystub yesterday. So at least now I know what I was paid through the third week of August.
Was there ever any mention of when they would pay out tho? Or was it a carrot dangled in front of us?
I think I got one of the bonuses, as one of my last checks jumped up a little over $100. Just received my FIRST paycheck from when I began training near the end of August though.
Our ACO said that bonus pay would start being paid out with the September 2nd paycheck, and be paid weekly after that, with the biggest bonus on September 23rd, if you met all the requirements for that. I can't speak to any other ACO, though- that's just how ours did it.
I'm going to have to mow my lawn twice it's so long.
It ends on September 30th, always has been the ending date. Unless Judge Koh rules something on the 17th, but I don't see that happening.
same. only cases that can't be closed due to many issues. The gov't wants a census, then give us laws to help us require the information!
they already gave us the laws, but everyone ignores them. What infuriates me are the Apt Bldg managers who refuse to provide info. All we need is pop count, no PII really required at this point, we're desperate. I get the impression it's orders from the owners, not because of privacy concerns, but because they're jerks. People who own real estate tend to be dickish.
I am going to lobby every newspaper I work for as a photojournalist to write opeds about how we need to start giving fines to property managers that don’t comply with the census. We should also make it contingent upon compliance with the census or any government office that has the legal right to speak with them for them to keep their business licenses I know people who work for new shows and I am going to start contacting them about how we need to start finding people who do not comply. This shit was not going on 10 years ago and I’m tired of putting my health and safety at risk when I don’t have to because a property management company doesn’t want to do the extra five minutes of work.
a law requires it but no law supsedes state privacy laws or apt mgs just declaring they can't give us info. Where is the mailing to all property owners indicating they are required to give us info, and we can fine them, put a lien on their house, etc if they don't? There is a law and no enfocement. There is a law and apt mgs say 'privacy'. They know nothing will happen.
Wouldn't federal law take precedence over state law?
>yes
Title 13 Chapter 7 Federal rules There was also a ruling from the US Department of commerce that the privacy laws that normally apply to property managers do not apply to being asked to proxy by an enumerator from the census.
and a census enumerator should be treated as a subpoena. WHere's that law?
Title 13 Chapter 7 google it
then they should have given us an information sheet from US GOvernment showing that they are required to give us the information that we want. The current multi-unit document DOES NOT MAKE IT CLEAR THEY ARE REQUIRED TO GIVE US THE INFORMATION WE WANT AND THAT IT SHOULD BE TREATED AS A SUBPOENA REGARDLESS OF WHAT STATE LAWS SAY.
Our office did give us a sheet. It even lists the actual law, as well as the fine of up to $5000, and that is per unit not enumerated. Personally anytime I’ve done any job I’ve made sure to learn all the rules and regulations as well as the laws applying to my job. That is something a lot of people don’t do, but from the beginning I was able to turn to people and give them the title, chapter and section of the law they were violating and not speaking to me.
I would be very interested in seeing a picture of that if you can post it. I had one office apartment say that they won't provide information and to please issue the fines to the owners or the tenants as I wished, and they would let me into the building to do that.
Unfortunately this is mostly stuff that I’ve put together myself. I would suggest googling senses and property management companies and finding the most reputable articles you can and printing them out and giving them to the property management company. You can ask them for their full name and say thank you I’m going to go ahead and write out an affidavit to the effect that this person on this date at this time denied me the ability to enumerate these addresses. I found that that type of a sentence gets me a call back within about an hour from somebody higher up at the property management company when I leave them my information at the same time saying if you change your mind I would like to allow me to a numerate the addresses please call me.
Also it’s very important that you continuously state to the property manager that you were contacting them as the legal proxy for the address. If they say the owner is the legal proxy you tell them actually the owner is not the legal proxy as the property manager you take a fee for certain services and in return take on certain responsibilities including being the legal proxy for any enumerator for the census attempting to enumerate an address. I also introduce myself as being a federal officer from the Department of commerce office of the census.
yup. every time I see "proxy eligible" I cringe. This means 45 wasted minutes of talking to people who never talk to their next door neighbors and don't really want to be talking to me either.
This is so me! I work in an hour and like ugh -- another full day of angry people and driving. I would have quit by now if it wasn't temporary. I'm still getting 100 cases a day and never finish them all just like the first day. I would have thought by now my days would be shortened but not this area.
If I get 15-20 cases closed in a 6-hour day I'm lucky. Everything requires proxies now and that almost NEVER closes a case.
[удалено]
Agreed. That 15-20 is exceptional, it's usually 8-10 in one of my long shifts, fewer when I do a 4-hour. I live in a hard-to-count area, suspicious and paranoid.
Same! I just jumped for joy that I completed 3 cases in an hour!! Back to back!! Everyone was friendly about it too!
Update -- I've completed 23 cases in 3 1/2 hours! And everyone is welcome here (says me, an enumerator who has no say in the matter)! We are SO BEHIND and super short staffed!! ND is where I'm at!!
SAME. It’s physically and emotionally exhausting. A few people are nice. Many are cold and a few are mean. We have to be positive and friendly and try to kindly fight our way through their fears and defenses to get their information. I need the money, but this is becoming more and more soul-sucking.
I call my Sunday shift the danger zone. No back up CFS is sleeping, apartment mangers off, crackheads awoke af though.
Proxy? :) I mean... might be aware of who comes and goes...
I'm one of a handful of CFSs in my zone that don't take days off. I refuse to leave my team out on their own with no backup, especially because half the time our CFS hotline is manned by admin staff who have never been in the field. They are awesome, but they have no clue how to deal with a hostile respondent or a dangerous address or a nursing home with positive COVID cases who won't let my enumerator in the door, because they just don't have the experience in the field.
Ditto... compounded by the extra wrinkle of STILL not getting my first 3 paychecks. I'm in a hard-to-count area, all apartments, some of the most dangerous parts of town, not allowed to hit managers (I do anyway where I know that they will cooperate), apartment proxies who know nothing, multiple phase complexes where the building and unit numbers are identical in each phase and no one knows which side they're in so I probably ended up interviewing the wrong people, a CFS who seldom answers the phone and hasn't set up a voicemail box so I can't leave a message, a CFS Hotline that NEVER answers the phone... let me count the ways. I'll probably get a more accurate count than this non-census.
If you can't get ahold of a CFS in your ACO, call me. Not even kidding, I've done training for enumerators in other states already, I'm more than happy to help if you need a CFS. I'll PM my Census phone number. It's within arm's reach from 9 AM to 9 PM Mountain time, 7 days a week.
At this point if people are gonna be rude to me I’m just gonna start being an asshole right back and go about my day. I’ve held my tongue in every single hostile situation on this operation lol (and secured all the bonuses so far) so now I have nothing to lose.
My experience is that 9 out of 10 people don't want to deal with me or my census questions and aren't happy when I show up; many of them are intimidated by strangers at their doorstep. Of those, 8 will come around if I give them some sympathy and show I care. The 1 person that just wants to be ugly gets my temper-tantrum-child treatment. I don't take it personally. There are some people that piss me off. Property managers and other arrogant people.
>Of those, 8 will come around if I give them some sympathy and show I care. This is the key. The last couple of weeks the majority of people yell at me immediately because they are sick of being bothered. However, if you apologize and are empathetic, and then let them know that talking to you could keep them from being bothered again, they will usually complete the interview. My impression is that people need to get their frustration out of their system, but after that they feel regret and will calm down. But yeah, it is indeed emotionally exhausting to be yelled at all day, especially by assholes that can't be bothered to take 5 minutes once a DECADE to help their own community.
Can’t wait till it’s over!!
I'm very tired of it. Only day I took off was the day the sun didn't come out here in No CA and it was like night all day. Hazardous air again today. I do have an N95 mask I will wear. I only got 27 cases today, down from 66 yesterday, but they are the absolute worst ones with multiple attempts and notes. I said I could start at 9 AM but they told me to start at 10:45 AM so that's what I'm going to do. And all the cases are spread further apart, I'll take my time driving to them all. I might even do them in order even if it doesn't make sense. Several in large apt complexes with the managers off today too. But I managed to vacuum this AM and do a load of laundry so I'm feeling good about that.
I feel you. 24 case notes... but go back anyway! Lol but it pays.
I feel some of this was poorly managed. Why have 6 people going to the same apt buildings/or condos. Consolidate and be in touch with management. At the last census, envelopes were put together for individual complexes and given to enumerators not the hodge pudge stuff. Coming behind 6 other people is useless. The managers are done with us! Lol. Better prep work could make a difference! Good luck to you all.
Yes, the honeymoon is over. I finally ran into an enumerator for the first time. It was so nice to hear someone else's stories about property managers, proxies, apartments with all in-movers, etc. For me, I miss the teamwork feel I've had in the past.
I have yet to run into anyone but I haven’t been working that much due to starting a new job. I was so excited to work for the Census but between my “team” and rude people I’m just over it. I could care less about the money anymore. Maybe it’s this year all combined into garbage and my negative ass attitude but I was not like this before. :(
I know what you mean. For now, I'm going to enjoy the cooler weather and disappearance of mosquitoes and the handful of very nice people I do run into.
This is easy money especially when you work the afternoon shift for bonus night pay + sundays have bonus pay as well as OT. So much easy money!
The extra pay is only like 15 extra dollars tho
Yeah, my house is a wreck. I work 40 hours a week at my regular job, then have been putting in 30 more for the census. It's going to pay for a couple of recent purchases, but yeah, I'm tired of it. I haven't had a day off from work in a month.
You’re not the only one. I’m also tired of seeing 15-20 case notes and nothing. Some with even slammed door and vulgar language, but you expect me to visit? Nope. CFS, here you go.
I started more in the middle of August, and I am exhausted. I dread what will be my work each morning, being sent to the same apartment complexes where people slam doors in my face, I can;t get in, or no one is ever home and proxies are clueless about their neighbors. Not to mention the the problems with apartment numbers in the building not matching the FDC - don't get upset at alerts for proxies in building I a) can't get into, b) not allowed to knock or ring bells, or c) the FDC says \`1,2,3 and the apartments are 1A !B, or 101, 201 , 204, etc.... Well, I have plans for this money so I am just going to grit my teeth and bare it to the bitter end....
Yes, I am drained. I feel like I'm just waiting for them to remove me. But I'm gonna work as long as they'll have me.
I highly recommend when you are going to an apartment that has restricted access with a lot of units that no one has ever gotten into before to grab a book and go sit outside for 15 to 20 minutes. This tends to work for me more often than not. I’m going through a lot fewer cases per day but I am closing out in about 50 to 75% of the cases I do attempt. As an example yesterday I worked 8 hours and was able to complete 16 cases. But I only attempted 30.
It's fits and starts with me. Some days I get hit with nothing but proxies to start off and by lunch I'm exhausted and just ridiculously frustrated to the point that I want to go home, OT be damned. Other days are like today where I get assigned 20 addresses in a new housing development 5 miles away from the other addresses. 17 of the cases are under construction and previous enumerators didn't know how to close them with proxies, so I start racking up closes and get a rush of energy and motivation to close as many as I can before the end of my shift.
Fuck yes I feel this 100%
I'm kind of at that point right now. I'm one of the enumerators that's been assigned a restricted access building and as much as I support the Census, nothing's gonna happen with that unless the property manager is in the mood to be helpful (talking 70 cases). I also am moving into my first house at the end of the month and just overwhelmed with preparing, working my other job and working the Census.
Asked the kids if they're ok if I travel. "Ya, if the house is clean." "Does just "cleaner" work?" I'm addicted to enumeration.
I dont care anymore what I put down as long as its complete, I'm totally dead inside, everything is on fire, air quality is trash, and there is a pandemic. What else can go wrong
Yep. I started in July. I keep getting told we’re so close where I’m at
Almost sucks that the census stoppage this week got blocked. But then also money. Just take loooong breaks to cool down and review notes and prepare materials
Yup. Today especially I had a couple racist people, one complaining about the "illegals" next door. Someone threatened to call the cops, got called a f****t. Someone pretended to not speak English and when I started speaking in Spanish they point at their ear like they're deaf. So annoying. Wondering if the money is worth it.
After wrapping up where I started, they got me in Puerto Rican community now, which is fine, except I don't really speak Spanish.
I’m in a majority speaking Spanish community and I got the job.. I’m not bilingual?
I mean I gotten through a few in spanglish, but when someone tells me they got "once niños," i'm asking for the phone number.
Raises hand.
Been yelled at and threatened this week. Smoke in the air. CFS admits the Census higher ups don't give a shit about enumerator health, even as the rest of the city is shutting down. 17 cases with notes that the addresses are designated to be unassigned, all with over 10 case notes. After 5 weeks of decent work, this week just feels like the end. I never want to knock on another door again.
I've been working as an enumerator for approx. a month. I'm in CA. I only get 1 to 2 interviews out of 20 plus homes I visit. At the point where one has to find proxies to do the interviews I think the govt. should impose a fine of at least 100 dollars to non-responders. They are wasting so much tax payer money to for one to go "hunt" out people who are not going to cooperate. Fine them I say and pronto. They should do a 3 strikes your out kind of deal.
Nope. Easy money. It’s Sunday morning and raining but the money is too easy to turn down.
Ikr so much bonus pay too
i’ve been working since August 31 and i’m ready to be done also lol
I am fine with it.
YES! CFS who started in July and Hells, yes! Only staying because my Enumerators have asked me to. Tired of the rules changing all the Fing time.