Training Day

Wednesday, August 5, 2020, I showed up at the Sacramento Army Depot and got sworn in as a Census Enumerator.

The first task upon entering the facility was to sign away most of my rights that day, since the Sacramento Army Depot is an active military installation. If you happen to be there, your civil-right options are kind-of limited, but since Covid rules these days, it's OK. They don't expect to see you again anyway. Further training is virtual. Social-distancing to the nth degree.

The military theme continued inside the facility. Hundreds of people were separated into classrooms (mine was a 5x4 array of socially-distanced desks) and sworn in. Training was more-or-less clear, but very rapid. They throw a scary new iPhone at you, and a bunch of scary acronyms and passwords, and quickly expect you to figure it all out. Sort of learning how to swim by throwing you into the deep end of the pool. Very military.

There was a conference call later in the day. Most of the participants had trouble with conference call etiquette. I thought I was hopelessly far behind, but some in the conference call had never even used an iPhone before, so maybe I'm not so bad off. Further training is virtual, via a website and a podcast.

I'm supposed to be assigned virtual training by my supervisor, but I face two problems:

1.) I have no idea who my supervisor is; and,
2.) According to the help line, no one can help me, due to their being overwhelmed by all the new hires.

So, we'll see what happens.

I'm kind of hoping to blog about my census experiences, but there may be problems doing so. I'll have to be discreet. According to fine print:

As representatives of the Census Bureau, all personnel — Federal employees, contractors, associates, and interns — will be held accountable for their actions and may be subject to criminal or administrative penalties, fines, termination, and/or imprisonment for any infringement of the agency's policy for IT systems use. By acknowledging receipt or using any Census Bureau IT resource, you are accepting responsibility for ensuring proper use and security of these resources. This policy covers all IT resources including workstations, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, SecureID tokens, or other portable devices furnished by the government, as well as Internet services, including but not limited to, use of the World Wide Web, email, file transfer, remote computer access, news services, social networking or social media, instant messaging, blogs, wikis, file sharing sites, as well as streaming audio and video content.

So, don't use any Census IT resources. And be very careful.

According to the Trump Administration these days, they want to finish by September 30th. I hope I receive virtual training by that time.