I work for the US Census Bureau. Since I began two months ago, I have been focused on the purpose of the Census and what we can do to get people to self-respond. We've been hiring enumerators, those who go door-to-door to follow up with those who haven't responded, but we've wanted people to do it themselves, before the need for enumerators. Invitations began to be mailed out on March 12th, and I've been waiting for ours to come. Every day I've asked Kent if it came yet, and it finally did, two days ago. Not wanting to be one of those households that left their invitation unanswered, today I filled it out. I was Person Number 1 which I figured was my right as a Census employee, but I got all four of us counted. That's right! Four! We are four! We have done our part.
The whole Covid-19 coronavirus thing is going to skew numbers. College students should be counted where they are on April 1, at college, but because so many of them have been sent home, they will be counted at home. Missionaries who are usually elsewhere will be counted at home, but it will affect funding for the next ten years. Nothing for it, really. I have been fortunate to have been granted a two-week paid furlough that began on Wednesday. I was fairly certain that the office would be closed, but I was also fairly certain that we wouldn't be paid. We are all temporary employees, with no benefits and no permanence to our positions. I worked about ten hours of overtime the past two weeks in order to bank extra money thinking I would not be paid for a long time. But I was happily surprised when they told us to go home for two weeks and they would pay us. Hooray! I feel tremendously blessed.
Four peole!
And a Sunday selfie!
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