12:36 a.m. - 2004-06-07
Sunday
I spent about four hours last night working on a spreadsheet that my supervisor in my downtown job had requested be in his inbox by Sunday morning. I had intended on working on it since the beginning of the election call, but there have been too many fires to put out. I was glad for the deadline, because it forced me to find the time before I forgot all the details that were critical to making it accurate. It also showed me how much I had achieved in a tangible sense in a one month period and that helped my morale a great deal. He will be talking with our liaison tomorrow so I hope it helps with smoothing the ruffled feathers a bit too.
The heavens opened up at about 10 this morning. A really good downpour complete with lightening and thunder. One flash and report within a second of each other. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck start to rise just before it happened. Way cool. The summer storm seems to express pent up feelings for us all. Our cats have been - well - really catty the past two sultry days. Temperatures and tempers in the 80's pushing into the 90's. That's hot for this part of the world. Ditto for the humans in every day life.
First task of the day was to respond to an irate voter. Our door to door registration officers had visited him at home and he resented having to show identification for himself and his wife when he was in his own home. I explained that the change in legislation that made it a requirement came for two reasons. The first was that to register in our office or at the polls, appropriate identification must be presented, so it was deemed only fair that the same rules apply in any registration situation. I also noted that though he was obviously an honorable person, that wasn't the case at every door we visit. There have been many incidents where non-existant names were given, so that those who have created the extra identities can vote more than once. That statement alone settled him down considerably. It was apparent that he was aware of that practice and saw the sense in finding ways to stop the abuse.
I was logging into my computer as we spoke, so I could check if he was already on the register. The reason staff were going door to door in his community was because of the high mobility and the new construction going on there, but that didn't mean he couldn't already be on the list. Turned out he and his wife were both there and he was happy with the discussion. He said he was still going to write his Member of Parliament and I encouraged him to follow through on that. Too few people ever bother, so that one letter from a constituent is held to represent the views of a thousand electors. That's a pretty powerful opportunity to make a statement.
We had training for the polling site supervisors just after lunch. I sat in on the training because these people are the lynchpin for the whole of the election visible to the public. For the most part I was really impressed with what I saw and heard, as we progressed through the modules. Good thoughtful questions and an enthusiasm and pleasure in doing their work well. We were in the back of the office which is basically warehouse space. It is removed from the front office activity giving no distractions or interruptions. My staff slipped in and out discretely with questions, messages and concerns, but I don't think most of the trainees even noticed. The rain was hitting the roof in such a way that it sounded as though we were sitting outside near a waterfall. That made it a little difficult to hear sometimes, but it was very calming. Since the rain is forecast to last most of the week I think I know where I'll be retreating to when the pressure is torquing up too much.
After the training my trainer and I went through what we needed for the next session scheduled. That is for the specialized tasks of conducting mobile polls in institutions and in the hospital. We need very special people for those tasks, ones who have a lot of patience and compassion as well as strong organizational skills. I started printing off what she would need then worked with my recruitment officer on some sticky issues. Moved one of my data entry people up to learn the registration position. She's too good to underutilize even though her own lack of self confidence holds her back. Sometimes you have to push just a bit for people to realize how much better they are than they think.
Last up was approving and generating our fisrt payroll report so everyone gets their wages on Friday. The software wasn't working properly, so after several attempts I called the financial help desk in Ottawa. Now bear in mind that we have to pay people for their hours up to midnight Saturday. My financial officer has to enter all that information for nearly 100 people into the database before she can have me do my job in that respect. She had been working all afternoon to get everything properly coded. As it was she was coming in after her regular job to do as much as she could before today, but there was a lot of extra data entry because of the large work crews we had for the two days we labeled the Voter Information cards. It was 4:30 pm by the time we were able to proceed.
We had received a notice on Friday stating that we had until midnight tonight to submit everything. Plenty of time, right? Well when I got through all the layers of phoning to the finance department I was apprised, both in French and English, that their help desk had closed for the day - two hours earlier. Peachy. We were supposed to be given a password when we were ready to transmit after we got the software working properly of course, so how was that going to be addressed. I called back to the main desk and explained my problems. The operator I reached acknowledged that all the Returning Officers form Western Canada had encountered the same problem. Someone in Elections Canada had chosen to ignore the fact that our time zones are different and thus so are the hours we close out for the day. I asked for home phone numbers at that point because I was told that even the tier three staff on duty - emergency support - hadn't been advised how to solve the difficulty with the software or been given access to our passwords. Fine.
My finaical officer sat and watched as I tinkered with the software trying to make it work. She isn't authorized to do so, but I can. Something one of us had done before the phone call caused part of the program to open. We then used intuitive rather than deductive reasoning to figure out what all the arcane screens and messages meant. Finally got to the step that was one away from the ability to transmit. Up popped the message box demanding the password we didn't have. Since there was nothing to lose, I just started trying different passwords that would be logical for them to code. Got the right one on the third try. My financial officer got up and went to the door. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was looking for the password security police to come rushing up to arrest us. I laughed. They were probably on Ottawa time too, because we didn't see any. Got everything printed off and faxed after the transmission then packed up for home.
On the drive home with my financial officer and my son in tow, my assistant noted he was a little perturbed I hadn't had time to chat with him during the day. I just pointed out I also hadn't had time to take any washroom breaks or to have anything to eat either. That is the norm for me and that is why everyone is always carping on my eating habits or lack thereof I guess. Made my point I hope. I try to give time and a hearing to everyone who needs it, but the only time there is is for essential work tasks; social time comes after this is all done.
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