I tried working for the Census and quit
I am a federal retiree who spent 26.5 years with the USAF as a civilian worker at Travis AFB. I retired in September of 2015. Last year I noticed that the US Census would be going on this year so I went through all of the steps to getting hired with my first day of training on May 20. I was called about 10 days before my start date saying I would get an e-mail 5 days before this training saying what time and where it would take place. This is where there trouble started and being a Fed retiree, I should have known that things were not going well with this process.
I was called on May 20 at 8:45 a.m. asking if I could come down and start this training so I said “Yes, why not?” Well the dysfunction begins on this day and I quit on May 22 because I got four phone calls within the two days — from asking me if I wanted to start in a training class to one call asking why I was taking so long on my training? After the fourth call on May 22, I tossed in the towel and said I can’t take this kind of insanity anymore.
Through my Fed career, I saw enough dysfunction to last a lifetime, and here I was right in the middle of a dysfunction storm again. Yesterday I got a text message from a field supervisor for the Census telling me to make sure my time was put in to get paid and that hours of work have been staggered for yesterday. So I explained my position that I had QUIT and why I had quit. I knew there would be more of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing and I was right. Taxpayers of this country should have better service from a Fed agency as the census is a very important event that happens every 10 years. And from what I saw on the first two days with the census was a TOTAL nightmare.
Bruce Borregaard
Concerned taxpayer and Fed retiree in Quincy