Be Creative

"Know anybody that needs a good job?"

I say that phrase quite a few times a day. I work for the U.S. Census. The year is 2010, which means its time for everyone to head to Bethlehem, or wherever their ancestors were born, to be counted. Ha ha. Blog humor. Not quite. It is apparently a massive undertaking to get everybody in these United States counted. So we need workers, LOTS of workers. And we don't have enough yet. That is where I come in. I am a recruiter. A DRA to be specific. Unfortunately, I can't remember what exactly DRA stands for, but the R is defenitely Recruiting. Everything witht the census is an acronym. Someday I will grace this blog with the complete list of ACL (Acronym Census Language) that we have to be fluent in if we want to decipher basic conversations and avoid being laughed at by other census workers when we gather for martinis after work. Ha ha. Blog sarcasm.

Obligatory Patriotic Photo Caption: "I Want YOU for the U.S. Census Exclamation Point!

So. What do I do as a recruiter? Well, that, my interwebs friend (not really) is an interesting question (debatable). Basically, I get the word out that we still need more workers and encourage people to take the test. (What test? you might wonder. But if I explained that, I would ruin the suspense and waste good future post material on an entry that is already too long. No in this blog's narrative, I intend to build suspense about the test.) At my training they said that what they had tried wasn't working and they needed us new recruiters to, yes, awkwardly working in the entry title, Be Creative.

How creative? One worker raised her hand and asked this question: "Could we bake brownies and have them at our table so people would want to stop by and talk to us?" This idea was approved. And so was this picture:

So, since I'm being reimbursed here, why not a blog? I'm not the first census worker to take this route, I've heard. I like writing. I like movies and art and books and music and current events, and certainly those things can be loosely connected to the census. When I spend most of my day sitting outside Alco at my little census table and repeatedly having people answer that despite the current economy, they know no one who might need a good job, I need a creative outlet. So behold: my blog. If you're reading this, you really should think about a job with the census. Why? Well, because it's totally rhombus! Working for the census can be a real adventure. Don't believe me? Just check out what happened to me yesterday-I videotaped it and then animated the shenanigans:

Well, it wouldn't be a blog without comments. So let's "talk about our feelings."
OFFICIAL COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What U.S. city would you return to if we still did the census Ceasar-style?
2. What sugary baked good would lure you to talk to your local census worker?
3. Do you know anyone who needs a good job?