Census Jobs

telboyo

Team meeting took 1.5 hrs - refusals and non-contacts to get postback. Properties with big dogs very angry people or very old /frail or no letter box to be classed as vacant and not to be hassled.
Quote from team leader "Obvioulsy if any of you have already used up your 15 hrs this week I can authorise 5 hrs overtime without contact to regional manager, you won't be doing this work next week so you will have to claim it all this week"

I think I understood the man.

I prepared all my post back forms and then got 2 interviews on the last day.

chalkysoil

Got my P45 today, £237 tax paid on it, will claim back soon

telboyo

How do you claim tax back? I have always waited until I have filled in my self assessment - Is it much hassle to claim a rebate mid year? I fnd doing SA online much easier than ringing the tax office.

pineapple

Own up now, which one of you is it?
Householder calls police on census snooper. ONS denies harrassing survey refusers!
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2093514_census_employee_stared_through_window

Thanet62

“If they had been told not to return, they would have followed the set procedure, recorded this house call as a straight refusal and not returned, as the CCS is voluntary. This household is now marked down as a refusal.”

Lies lies lies.

Thanks Pineapple that has made my day!!

telboyo

Thanet you are obviously taking the nstructions too literally- How old are you? From your handle I would guess that you are nearing 50 and should be wise to the ways of the world. Use your common dog and only interview the people that want to be talked to.
The funny thing is that my partner made about 10 appointments to talk to people and I made none yet my final score was 50 and he only achieved 40. If someone talked to me and didn't say "Bu**er Off" I would get all the info I needed- if they were old (over 95) or definite refusals I would just leave them alone.
Ok I must admit several of my interviews were obtained "under Duress". I had a country beat with many small (grass growing in the middle) roads, if I met a tractor head on I would get out of my car and ask the driver where they lived and then interview them.
I don't think they realized that they were within their rights to demand an interview in Welsh- I had Welsh forms and Welsh cue cards but cannot speak Welsh my self. In fact I speak in a Basingstoke accent. This accent is usually a hindrance in South Wales- usually resulting in "F%^k back to England you Ba$^£rd", once you get past the council the other people are ok.

pineapple

telboyo wrote: »

Use your common dog and only interview the people that want to be talked to.

From the discussions on here, it would seem that some surveyors have been subject to pressure from their line management to harrass 'refusers'. And it seems not everyone has that 'common dog' (?). Unfortunately the survey is coming to a close. Because it might have been useful to confront said management with this link. Or even contact the ONS because they might genuinely not know what sharp practice is going on in their name. Now there's a thought...

Thanet62

Correct Telboyo and let me make it straight I took no to mean no from the onset and even the oldies were lovely and I enjoyed the chats and cups of tea! That part of the job was great. In all walks of life you get the awkward squad these were the worst, not rude but just plain non co-operative. I just thanked them for their time and walked away and noted this as a refusal.

Pinapple your right there was an awful lot of pressure to return again (and again) to these refusals even in my case being told I should not have marked these as "definite" refusals until the Team Leader had been round and confirmed them as refusals!! HARASSMENT IN MY BOOK. I guess in the long run I'm glad its all over but wish there had been some more reported about this in the media.

CW86

Thanet62 wrote: »

Correct Telboyo and let me make it straight I took no to mean no from the onset and even the oldies were lovely and I enjoyed the chats and cups of tea! That part of the job was great. In all walks of life you get the awkward squad these were the worst, not rude but just plain non co-operative. I just thanked them for their time and walked away and noted this as a refusal.

Pinapple your right there was an awful lot of pressure to return again (and again) to these refusals even in my case being told I should not have marked these as "definite" refusals until the Team Leader had been round and confirmed them as refusals!! HARASSMENT IN MY BOOK. I guess in the long run I'm glad its all over but wish there had been some more reported about this in the media.

There's so much I could say about this role, I wouldn't know where to start.

But to start at the beginning, how did they work out the postcodes to allocate each workload - I don't remember that ever being explained. My partner and I had more than 270 households and had to fit them in 5 books. We assumed it was a "double workload", but were told it wasn't. Other pairs in the team had more like 150-ish, and one pair was something like not much more than 100.

I'd done more than 140 interviews by the time we got to the Postback stage. My voice was usually sore at the end of each day! I'd done 40 by the time of the first meeting - yet some only managed 40 over four weeks. This was basically not because I'm a super-duper interviewer - but because our workload was so vast, it was easy to get the interviews.

We also weren't told to accept 'no' as 'no'. Unless threatened with violence, we were told to send the other person in the pair to give it another go. Then we could give up and pass it to the "response team" who would follow them up - presumably by visiting again.

Our contract was extended by two weeks, giving us chance to visit each property 20 times. By about the 12th visit I was certain most of my non-responders were actually empty flats/houses, so the last two weeks has been a bit tedious to say the least.

The start of the job was quite enjoyable - people happy to talk; some elderly folk were pleased to see a friendly face; many told their life's histories, and I learned an awful lot I didn't know about the area. I'd say 90% of the people who answered the door happily did an interview. I also had a change of scene by working in other people's areas, so at least I had another outlook as well.

pineapple

CW86
With mention of the 'response team' and all the visits, it looks like you are talking about the initial census collection. The current discussion is about the follow up census survey.
There is so much confusion about the two in the wider world, it's a bit disconcerting to find that same confusion amongst the census staff!