... getting cold feet about census job

[woollyideas]

Have gone through all the palaver of online tests, etc., and now been offered some work on the census.

The pay is £8/hour which isn't fabulous, but I'm very, very strapped for cash, so it would come in very handy. (I do already have a PT job, but it barely covers mortgage etc.)

My dilemma is this:

1. No-one has really told me what the job involves. I know it's door-to-door and involves 'interviewing' but when I phoned the number for further information (call centre) they really couldn't give me many details. As the work is for April/May I'm guessing it involves going round to the houses where people haven't sent the forms back and trying to get them to fill them in and return them. I'm worried this could mean some people might be confrontational, in which case £8/hour starts to sound like peanuts...

1. I'm not sure I even agree with the way the census is being done this time (too many questions that could be deemed intrusive... the involvement of Capita and Lockheed...) so I have a bit of a moral dilemma around it, too.

My heart says 'don't do it!' My bank balance says 'just get on with it.'

AIBU in changing my mind? The next stage of the work is 3 hours of 'online training', followed by a one day 'school' (venue undisclosed - could be far away/involve travel costs). You get paid for these, but only once you start the work so if I'm going to drop out I'd rather do it before investing more time and possibly money...

Help me decide please!

Hi sometimes these things look a lot worse than they actually are once you start doing them.

Put aside the moral dilema - you need the cash. I'm sure they will offer training on how to deal with akward situations - these happen in everyday life dealing with the public - often for a lot less pay.

On line training will be a doddle as will one day school.

Also, this could give you good experience for the future and maybe some work contacts. You may find you enjoy it.

You could also think of it as your doing your bit for the country and for future generations. GO ON GO FOR IT

I know what you mean - But I'm going for it. The online was a doddle and I'm doing the 'in class' this week.

Oh woolyideas I'm so with you although I haven't even been offered the job yet . The threads on here don't help either with so many people being very negative about everything. I'm trying to focus on the fact that I should come out of the work with around £600/700 at the end of the work and we have a holiday booked (camping on municipal camp sites in Franca, the glamour!) and it will be so much nicer if we don't have to worry so much about snacks and ice creams.

Hopefully I can get through it thinking about the money and it's only for a few weeks not full term. I have to go out now but it would be great to keep in touch, sounds like it could be a job that leaves us with a few interesting stories to tell

Which role have you got?

Ask them some more questions, if you are offered the job and you aren't sure.

I think it would be quite interesting once you get into it.

trouble is, the people you speak to (Capita I'm assuming?) don't actually know what the job involves - I did one of the earlier phases of the census (checking addresses) and the neither the online training nor the classroom training was particularly helpful once we actually started.

The classroom stuff will cover dealing with confrontation (lots and lots of roleplay), but you'll have a line manager once you start who will work with you till you get the hang of what you're doing.

However, I didn't apply for any of the roles this time round because I didn't fancy dealing with the more difficult people, also it seemed to be more evening work (last year I managed to fit most of it into school hours, plus Saturdays).

That's right Midnight. Capita seem to have no idea about the actual role, apart from saying generic stuff like 'it will be dealing with the public', 'it will involve working evenings and weekends...'

Thanks for all your replies. I should just close my eyes and think of the money in view of my finances

Soups: I've been offered 'interviewer' (vague!) which starts 9th May, so quite a long time after the census forms are meant to be in. That's what makes me wonder if we'll be dealing with refusniks!

Cate - is your 'class' local? Someone on another forum said theirs was 3 hours drive away!

Waves at Lostinwales. My job offer came at least 2 weeks after the interview, so there's still time to get yours. Good luck! PM me if you get it - we can swap notes! You are right - £600-700 is not to be sneezed at, though I'm guessing it's about £400-500 after tax. I could get my gutters fixed at last!

I'm working as a manager and would be the equivalent of your manager ( I'm assuming you've applied to be a collector?), if you pm me will happily try and answer questions? As iswm said the people in the contact centre probably don't know! It's only a short term job for me and I'm looking at it as a chance to update my cv and earn some money :)

The job is called 'interviewer' not 'collector', catfunt. I'll PM you.

i did this yooooonks ago, at the height of the pool tax suspicions and in one of the roughest areas of town... honestly, people are dead nice when you are at their front door. they just want to know that the info won't be going to 'the social' and some are reluctant to do the form because of illiteracy stuff but would rather die than say, obv. so you just say 'hello there i'm here to fill in forms for people etc' and they'll invite you in and sit you on their sofa while they give you a range of fake names. i remember a Ryan O Neill and Alistar McGraw when i did it.

I think the Interviewers go around and ask post census questions, not collect :)

I've been working for a couple of weeks now as a S.E (hotels / shelters / care homes) and it's been very enjoyable!

Soups - Could you more or less 'choose' the hours you work?

I'm sure 90% of it will be people who refused or weren't organised enough to fill in the forms, and 10% refuseniks.
I would love to do the work, as someone who has used a lot of Census data over the years. I could totally dig explaining what all the questions are about!

One of these sounds like the work of an Interviewer :)
2011.census.gov.uk/Quality-and-coverage-surveys

Woollyideas. Yes, I'm contracted for 25 hours a week but it's up to me to organize myself and choose the hours. Of course I've had to work it around getting hold of people! I've had lots of large hotels and luckily for me the manager is available in normal office hours.

ragged, yes I think that's what most collectors are going to be faced with. I've had a couple of people, who work in places I've delivered to, say their home one was put in the bin, dog ate it, and ask what they should do etc I'm sure in shared houses, no one takes responsibility for it. Then there's those who have physical probs filling it in.

Ah, Soups - that could be it! Thanks for the link. (Why couldn't Capita tell me that!?)

I'm glad you get to choose your own hours - more chance of me being able to fit it around everything else. Relieved.

I must say, I've never been offered a job before knowing so little about it!