Greetings all,

I had my enumerator training yesterday and today. I did the Census job 5 years ago but I guess I have to go through the training again. I get paid, so I guess it's not so bad. It was pretty boring for me as I already know how to do the job. There was probably a few minor changes but essentially it's the same process.

I tried to be a crew leader for the Census but I guess I didn't get the job. So technically my boss was my competition and I found out on Facebook that she is 2 years younger then me so that just adds salt to the wound.

She seems overly enthusiastic about the Census, to the point of madness. She really believes being a part of Census will help my neighborhood since it's a ghetto neighborhood and probably underfunded for some things. Census can be used to help planners determine what areas need funding for things like age old homes or schools.

I'm not sure if I should be nice to her. I mean, I am bitter a little that she has a job that really should be mine. She has no experience as an enumerator. I guess because she was a talker and probably so 'passionate' about this job, she won them over, whereas I wasn't so gong ho.

This time around, we're getting paid by the hour instead of by piece work. I think this is probably good since sometimes when you visit people, if they are not there you drop off a Notice card and sometimes people end up calling in their information because of this Notice. Unfortunately I don't get credit for that, even though eventually it will get crossed off my list.

As well, our crew leader said that we can probably do blitzes and work as a team and do this for various apartment buildings. We didn't do this before so this would be a good thing. Our area has a low response rate so they want us to get started on doing the follow ups.

I had planned to take this job, whether I had found a job by now or not. I am only going to be able to put in 20 hours a week since I am on EI still and if I work 40 hours, I might lose my benefits. I will still have to keep searching for a job.