Dumpster Diving

A few years, I picked up a job doing some pharmaceutical audits. A certain drugstore got into trouble for HIPAA violations when it was discovered some of their confidential patient information had been chucked into the dumpsters rather than correctly processed in a manner that kept the patient’s name and prescriptions completely confidential. They had to pay enormous fines and submit to random store visits for auditing. They were required to do it for 3 years, and they voluntarily extended that an additional 2. There are teams of auditors from the audit company who fly/drive to areas to meet with a local person contracted to be the dumpster diver. Basically, they don’t mind doing employee interviews and looking around at things, but they don’t want to be the ones getting dirty, so they hire us to do it. They do it for 2-3 months, but since divers are local, we only have a few days. This year, I had 4 days/11 stores.

I feel like a CSI/detective/someone who actually did something with that Criminology degree she went to school for. Due to confidentiality agreements, I cannot say which drugstore pharmacy we audit, nor which stores or even cities I’ve been in, and I definitely cannot mention any results of the trash examinations. Completely separate from any patient data, I was pleased to find someone’s wallet one year, so police were called to return it to them. I’ve found a number of people are not pregnant; I’m guessing the use of the test right at the store probably means that was good news for them. I’ve found it is amazing how many people bring their own bags of trash from home to dump into store dumpsters. I don’t know why that is better than just putting it in a can by the street, unless they live in an area not served by waste pickup. But mostly, I’ve learned that I find it perversely fun. It would not be exciting to do on a regular basis but for a couple of days a year, I really enjoy it. Except, of course, for being in a big metal heat radiator in the middle of summer in the South. That part is definitely not so fun.

Recent Activities

I keep thinking of things that would be fun to post, but have been so busy that by the time I get to it, I've forgotten what I wanted to share. I'm sure I'll regret that later, since it is fun to look back over some of the previous posts to see what we were up to.

I've been really busy with my contract work. It's not great gobs of money, but it is enough to keep the bills paid. Thank you, Lord! It also means a lot of driving to get from job to job. That means a lot of time away from computer, email, etc, so my communication habits have deteriorated. Sorry. It's not that I don't think of my friends, just that I don't think typing and driving are a good mix.

The "road warrior" lifestyle is not conducive to good exercise habits, so my weight loss hit a plateau six weeks ago and had firmly stayed there. I really need to find more time to work on it. The first 25 pounds were wonderful to lose, but I really want to lose at least 30 more.

With school being out, I've dragged Alex along with me on a few of these trips. Thankfully, I've been able to find hotel evaluations to accompany some of my jobs, so we've done overnight trips that allowed us to do some sightseeing along the way.

• We went to Panama City Beach, FL. We mostly just enjoyed the beach and some fantastic waves, although we found a few touristy things we would like to do if I can swing another trip over there.
  
  
• I dragged him to Albany, GA to visit the Flint Riverquarium. Alex didn't think he wanted to go to this, but then I think he ended up enjoying it more than I did. I did get a few great photos from it that I'll try to post later. We also learned a bit of history of the area. It turns out Mr. Tift started the city, and he was the uncle of the Tift that founded the city of Tifton, which is in Tift county. They were shippers from Connecticut, moved to the Florida Keys, then went back up into Georgia to pursue agricultural interests.
  
  
• Tifton, GA provided some historical education at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture, also known as Agrirama. They have recovered all sorts of old buildings and stores from places throughout Georgia and have moved them all to create a little village. There's the home of the Tifts, the subsistence farmer, the progressive farmer, the drugstore, the general store, the doctor's office, the schoolhouse, the Mason's lodge, a sawmill, a printing press, a turpentine still, a miller's workhouse, a blacksmith, etc. That would have been a lot more fun if it hadn't been upper 90's and really high humidity. I did buy some grits that I watched being milled. They don't get much fresher than that!

Anyway, that's what we've been up to. Hope you are all enjoying your summers, and I certainly hope your temperatures are a lot lower than what we are enduring. I truly do not know how people existed in this weather prior to air conditioning.

Hello, everyone

I knew it had been a while since I’d posted anything, I just hadn’t realized it was quite so long as it has been. I was extremely busy with the census for those months in between, and just did not have time for sleep, never mind blog posts.

However, my employment with them ended a couple weeks ago, so I’m trying to get life back into some semblance of routine and normalcy. Not to mention looking for a job!

Here’s a recent funny moment: We were driving past a company with GTO in big letters on their sign, with smaller letters underneath. I was driving, so that’s all I saw. Alex read the whole sign, which said Gates That Open. His comment? “Gates that do NOT open are called fences.”

I think he has a point.

Census, part 2

The Census office called me today for the next round of work. Yippee! I start training next Tuesday.

When we finished the last round, all the crew leaders I talked to figured training would only be about a day, maybe two, since we couldn't imagine there would be that much extra to learn. Well, it turns out training is actually a whole 5 days. Since they told me to bring my I-9 information again, I'm guessing the majority of the first day will be completing all the paperwork stuff again that I did before.

When I talked to someone at the office last week, they estimated this round would last about 4 weeks. The recruiting guy that called me today said 10 weeks. Guess we'll see which one is more accurate. Either way, some employment is better than none!

You Just Never Know

You just never know what to expect around here these days. When I was first hired by the Census, I was told it was a 4-month position.

They miscalculated.

We were done in 6 weeks.

That time frame was based on previous years of doing the same type of work. Except this year, they had hand-held computers for us to use instead of just paper and pencil. And this year, the economy is so poor that people who normally would have quit and dropped out decided to stick it out because they really needed the paycheck.

Fortunately for me, I had favor with the office. They kept finding things for me to do to extend my time a little longer. I got to help the groups in Georgia who were behind the groups in Florida. I helped with paperwork in the office, since the 160 or so people that were hired had to then be terminated when the work was done, and that included the other FL crew leaders who didn't get those extra days. I picked up people's computers when they finished their last assignments. And generally did any little bit-or-piece needed. Thankfully, that extended my employment a full 12 days. Sadly, Saturday was the last day.

They will have another round of work coming up in July, although we know going into it that it will be only a couple of weeks. I've begun looking for a new job again, but chances are good that I'll still be available when the July stuff starts. As much as they liked me, I'm pretty sure they would find a way to rehire me. They said they hoped to see me again in July, anyway...

These last two weeks have been a really big lesson in just taking life one day at a time. Each day, I had no idea if it was my last day to work. At the end of the day, I'd ask if I should come back the next day. Oh yes, come in. Ok... and I ended up with a couple of hours of overtime both of those weeks! What a blessing.

I filed for unemployment this morning, and am now off to look for a job. And do some laundry. And be thankful that the rain pouring down is a) finally here and b) I'm not driving in it. Cheers!

My training experience

45 hours of work in 4 days... my brain is very, very tired. And thanks to some technical difficulties with some of our training equipment, we didn't even completely finish the course. We will be finishing our workbooks ourselves over the weekend. Theoretically, we will be teaching our crews this material starting next Friday, so we don't have a whole lot of time to make sure we truly understand everything.

Thankfully, I didn't find most of it to be too difficult, it was just a lot of information. Some of my classmates were struggling, which makes me a little hesitant about how quickly our team members will catch on. As I mentioned before, I took a [required] test in December to basically see if my intelligence level was high enough to do this job. There were 28 questions on the test, they had practice tests available for you to take prior to the exam itself, and most of them were fairly common sense questions in the first place. There was no reason someone couldn't pass this test. Some of the fellow test takers at the time made my eyes expand a little, when they couldn't even figure out how to fill in the answer on the answer key. (Clue: color in the bubble in front of the answer you think is correct) Two of the crew leaders in my training class had been recruiters and said you only had to answer 9 of the 28 to be considered passing. 9?!?! Oh.... dear.... I would have thought 20 to be a more reasonable number. Hopefully, their first selections are from the pool of higher-scoring people!

So anyway, I'm sorry I didn't give better updates along the way. I was not expecting to have quite so much work time this week, with the occasional homework assignment as well. My poor supervisor is from Georgia and so has an extra hour of driving at the beginning and ending of his day, plus additional paperwork to do to make sure we get our work assignments and get paid. I do not envy him in the slightest. I was literally dreaming of streets and houses by Wednesday night, but he was so tired that he was nodding off while doing some followup work and actually asked his wife what her address was to make sure it was properly recorded. I might be too tired to proof this post properly, but at least I still know where I live!

The first day

We started in the morning, and it took 4 hours to fill out all the paperwork and be fingerprinted. We were all starving by the time we got a lunch break at 1:15. When we came back from lunch – only a 30 minute break so I was really glad I'd brought a lunch instead of having to go find one – we starting the training part. Turns out that was just more bureaucratic CYA, since we were told how to wear our seat belts, drive safely, call the cops if we get into an accident, etc. Not a bit of it covered stuff that any common sense person who drives wouldn’t already know. We covered extensive amounts of EEO, non-discrimination, and avoidance of harassment of various types. It was again nothing that people wouldn’t already know if they’ve worked any length of time, especially if they have ever been a supervisor. And all of us there had been, so we were fairly bored as the teacher went through it all.

There are 6 of us in this training class. We come from various parts of the panhandle, so the training class is in a central location for all of us. That means a 45-60 minute drive for all of us, converging on this one place in the middle. I feel a little sorry for the people coming from Central time, as they have leave really early to get to the class by 9am Eastern. (The training area is about 10 minutes into the Eastern time zone.) Thankfully, the timing worked out well for me; I dropped Alex off for school, drove, and got there a few minutes before the start time.

On Monday, we will start learning how to use handheld computers, more information about what our job actually entails, and I’m not sure what else. I know they gave us enough manuals to use 3 trees per person! It’s literally a whole box of stuff. Part of it includes the manual that we will use to train our crews. They have the entire thing written out so we just have to stand there and read it verbatim while trying to make it sound a little interesting. Which is exactly what our teacher was doing for us. While on the one hand, that makes training rather boring, on the other hand it does speed up the training process since you don’t have to actually learn what you are teaching. Considering how many nationwide training groups will be done, I can see how that could be beneficial, even if it will feel silly to just read aloud.

It appears that this “first phase” is actually going out to all the streets in an area and making sure there is a record of every residence. “If someone is living in a tent but has a mailbox up, that counts as a residence.” Some of the newly built homes and streets might not be on existing maps, for instance. A “production” group will be doing the majority of that work, it seems, with my team doing a quality control spot check of various areas. How the areas are chosen, I have no idea, but I’ll get a list of areas to check and I’ll assign people to do it. As that part is only supposed to take the 4 months, I’m not sure what will be done after that.

The census count itself doesn’t start until 2010. Since it was starting so early, I had first thought that possibly we took the census in 2009 to publish in 2010, but it appears that is not the case. There are apparently numerous positions involved, and people sometimes get shuffled to different jobs even mid-contract, so I might or might not actually be doing this position the whole 4 months I was originally quoted. Then again, they might have additional positions once this one is done, so I might be working with them longer than I’d thought. There’s still a lot of unknowns there, and our teacher can’t really tell us much because there’s the possibility of someone assuming something that isn’t true and it causing a problem. Better to just not say anything at all. See my previous comment about bureaucracy…

Right on time

I accepted a job today. I applied for it back in December, and it just took them this long to call. It's a full-time but temporary job, only lasting about 4 months. I'll be working with the US Census Bureau, doing crew training and quality assurance. I liked doing training at PATLive, but I'll admit that our hiring standards were probably slightly higher than the level of the average census worker. I could be wrong... I rather hope I'm wrong. We'll have to see. Hopefully when this is over, the economy will be picking up again and people will start hiring for decent permanent jobs and wages.

I'll know a little more after I start training. When is that, you ask? March 13. Which just so happens to be the same day that I receive my last payment from PATLive. How's that for timing?

Not Smarter Than A 5th Grader

As you know, I lost my job in November. I'm still looking for a replacement position. When job hunting this week, I saw the following listing:

FL - Job located in Fresno, California
(Nearby)

I realize my geography knowledge is weak. Very weak. Embarrassingly weak. But even I know that California is not nearby Florida. If that is considered close enough for a commute, how far away does the job have to be to be considered notably distant?

Perhaps CareerBuilder should invest in Google Maps or MapQuest services?

I am thankful for...

faith... family... health... a place to call home... and the vacation time I didn't take this summer that will supplement the severance package I received when I got laid off on Friday.

Yep, after 13 years of PATLive, I find myself free of the telephony business. I was really quite tired of telephone services, so there are some advantages of being forced to find a new line of work. Too bad I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

I know this is a terrible time to be trying to find a job, both being so close to the end of the year and in our current economy. I also know that God is bigger than a bad economy and will provide. I'm not looking for work this week, I'm on vacation. I'd really like to spend next week doing some projects around my house that have been put off for much too long. After that, though, I'll need to start looking. Please pray that the right job will come my way.

Meanwhile, I'm off to keep counting my blessings. Food in the fridge... pets everywhere... friendships...

It's Wacky Tacky Day

Intro note: This is spirit week at Alex's school, leading up to homecoming this weekend.

As we were getting ready for school this morning, I asked Alex if he had any preference for what I would serve for breakfast this morning. He asked if we had any eggs left from yesterday. I said we did have some scrambled eggs and some hash browns left from yesterday, but it wasn't enough and I'd think of something to serve with it. He asked if we still had the leftover fish from Sunday that he had really liked. I replied with an affirmative, but said fish for breakfast was a little strange. (it's perfectly normal in some places, though, isn't it? just not what we are used to here in the US)

His response?

"It's Wacky Tacky Day!"

So we had fish, eggs, hash browns, and yogurt for breakfast today. Why not? Maybe we'll try green eggs and ham tomorrow.

VisionWalk success

Thank you to everyone that supported the VisionWalk with us. Thank you cards are almost done and will be mailed out tonight.

We'd had a penny war at work, and Alex spent Friday afternoon sorting, counting, and rolling the change for the VisionWalk. It took almost 3 hours to determine he'd rolled:
$14.88 in pennies
$11.50 in nickels
$9.00 in dimes
$13.75 in quarters

That was really quite tedious. I don't believe we'll be doing another change-collecting fundraiser for a while!

We were blessed with a gorgeous day for the walk. Some may have said it was chilly, but I thought it was great. Even my fellow walkers who believe living in Florida means it should be hot all year round agreed that by the end of the 5K walk, they had warmed right up. We didn't end up getting our t-shirts until we arrived, so we just pulled them over the clothes we were wearing. I really wasn't looking like such a slob when I arrived...

Tallahassee VisionWalk 2008

Glen and Sharyn Davidson have employed me for 12 years. They are great people, and do a lot to help others. When approached with the idea of PATCares - our employee organization that holds fundraisers to benefit our community - Glen supported the idea so thoroughly that for several years, he personally matched all the funds that collected. (it now comes from company funds)

Unfortunately, Sharyn and at least 2 of her brothers inherited a macular degeneration disease from her mother and grandmother. Over time, her field of vision has shrunk smaller and smaller, and her ancestors have gone completely blind. The Davidsons have 4 children, one just a year older than Alex. One of them also carries the gene.

Amazing research breakthroughs have been made in the last few years, and there is hope for a cure. For a number of years, the Davidsons have held a big party at their farm to raise money for research. This year, they have decided to hold a VisionWalk. Much like the March of Dimes or Relay for Life or any of those others, each of us try to collect sponsorships for the walk, and then we show up that morning in solidarity and support for the cause. Alex & I are trying to raise $100 each. I realize times are tough and money is scarce. If you can find an extra $10 or $20 (or more), we would appreciate it. A little bit from several people would really help us reach our goal quickly!

To donate online, you can click here or on the VisionWalk logo on the right. If you prefer to send a check, mail it to me but make it payable to the Foundation Fighting Blindness. All donations are tax-deductible.

Thank you for considering it.

Customer Service Week

I love Customer Service Week. It's a national event, held the first week of October, although I know a lot of places don't celebrate it. Thankfully, PATLive does. Each year, a theme is picked for each day. There are decorations, special treats, and a video from the Answering Center supervisors and trainers to go along with the theme of the day. Each day is "sponsored" by a different department, providing recognition to the cs reps of the work they do, and includes an email from that department head usually written to conform to the theme.

Those actually in customer service get the treats, the free foods, the themed games played throughout the day, etc. You know, the things that cost the company money. The rest of us still get to dress up and participate in other "free" things. It's like a week of Halloween, when nobody else outside the company is dressing up. It's absolutely hilarious to be in costume and then go shopping, or get gasoline, or whatever else after work. You get the strangest looks from people who have no idea how to react. Those of us that have done it a few times used to feel self-conscious and would explain ourselves, but now we find it funnier to just let the people wonder what planet we call home. Maybe it gives them something to talk about at dinner that night. "Honey, you'll never guess what I saw at the grocery store today…"

So here are this year's themes. Would you participate?
Monday – Bed and Breakfast. Wear your PJs to work and be ready to be pampered!
Tuesday – Finding Nemo. Bring your luau gear and think tropical!
Wednesday – Dr. Seuss. Wear your wackiest, tackiest outfit ever. We'll also have a crazy sock competition.
Thursday – Viva Las Vegas! Use your imagination, anything goes in Vegas. (Please keep work appropriateness in mind)
Friday – PATLympics. Wear your sportiest and most patriotic outfits today.

What $700 of school supplies looks like

Last week, PATCares held its 6th annual Italian Café lunch to raise money for school supplies. In case you don't remember, we do a school supply drive every year for the Tallahassee Foster Parent Association. The FPA sets up all the supplies in a room and lets the kids "go shopping" to pick out what they like and need for school. We had about $100 worth of supplies donated to us at work (and from some of my friends - thanks!), and we bought the rest. PATLive matches all the money we collect, so Alex and I went shopping last night to purchase $600 of supplies. It took us almost 3 hours!

It's an ordeal, since we have to try to think of what kids from 5K all the way through high school might need, and pick things in colors and designs for both boys and girls. We know they have a real need for backpacks, so we usually start with those. Understandably, a foster parent finds it easier to buy the $0.25 pack of crayons and the $1 pack of pens than the $30 backpack. I've noticed that some backpacks might be cute, but they don't even last until Christmas at our house, and I'm sure these kids have the same problem. The association chairwoman confirmed they would rather have a fewer number of good quality backpacks than a plethora of the cheap junk ones. So, we bought 12 bags that ended up almost $400. That left $200 for everything else. As you can see, we ended up with quite a number of things! We have notebooks, dividers, paper, duotangs, spiral notebooks, pencils, pens, erasable pens, highlighters, protractors, scientific calculators, erasers, crayons, report covers, glue, pencil pouches, and other assorted goodies.

Exhausting? Yes. Worth every moment of it? Absolutely.