Appointment Day

Today I have my unemployment appeal and doctor's appointment.  I have all my info on the appeal together, I've charged up my phone (the appeal will be done over the phone), I'm making a list for the doctor's visit (I've got assorted aches and pains), and I've got a book to read.  I think I'm ready. 

The office was abuzz yesterday about the YouTube undercover videos taken by people hired as enumerators for the 2010 Census in New Jersey and Louisiana.  Enumerators are the people who go to households that haven't sent in their census forms to collect information.  I haven't attended the training for enumerators, which were simultaneously held in many different locations through-out the area, so there had to be a lot of different people doing the training.  But when I had my training, there were some recruiting assistants in my class.  These employees, like enumerators, are field employees.  Field employees get paid for travel time, and the recruiting assistants in our training class were told to add their travel time to their time sheets.  And clerks, like me, reported only the hours we were at the local census office.  We started at 9 and ended at 4 so that recruiting assistants could add their travel time without going into overtime.  I remember that well, because I was disappointed to get only 6 hours a day.  I was happy when we were able to leave the training room, go into the office, and stay until 5.  Now, you will notice in the Louisiana video that the actual instruction for filling out the time sheet is not given.  And the person who gave the instruction is never questioned.  Instead, he is questioning people who were not there at the training.  The enumerators would have been paid for their travel time, so they should have more hours than the actual class.  This looks like a case of fishing for information and editing to achieve an effect.  It will be interesting to see of anything transpires as a result of their videos.  Any recording devices are forbidden, and revealing and PII (personally identifible information) is also forbidden.  I would also expect that he was put into non-working status soon after this video, because it looks like he reported a conviction on his federal declaration.

Well, it's 9:30, and I'm still in my PJs.  Time to get dressed.