I had worked in the department as a part-timer in the temporary “send as needed” pool. What this meant is that I worked almost full-time, with no vacation time and only 24 hours of sick leave per year. [Think about that, for a minute.] The one huge benefit, which was something fairly new, was getting on the healthcare plan, after 6 months.
I worked through the entire pandemic in an office. [Think about that, for a minute.]
The people I worked with were fun, funny, quirky, and we mostly all got along. The supervisors were fun and engaged. I loved it there.
As a temp, though, I was limited to a maximum of 18 months at that position. They throw you back in the pool and deploy you somewhere else. The oddity of a change in position classification meant that, by a technicality, I worked for a full 2 years in the position. As my 18 months (stretched to 24) was coming to an end, a permanent job offering for this classification was posted. I applied.
At first, my application was rejected. Why? The prerequisite was 2 full years of experience in the specific job, but HR said the experience from the temporary pool did not count. The job posting did not say that.
I told my supervisor, who told his supervisor, who got in touch with HR and made a fuss. I was later told that another applicant sued over that very issue, which put the entire hiring process on hold until the disputed details were sorted.
Eventually, I was informed that my 2 years of experience as a temp was sufficient for my application to move forward.
Over the next 9 months, I had 3 or maybe 4 interviews. Only the first interview was in person; the rest were via the Teams platform.
The last interview was a few weeks ago. The interview was supposed to take 20 minutes. I could not go home to do the interview (where I knew there would be no technical difficulty), as the office where I was currently working had a “4 person deep” policy for the end of the day. There had to be 4 people available to answer the phone – which seldom rang. [Think about that, for a minute.]
I had to use my own personal equipment from home, and try to get it to work within a basement office with poor outside internet service.
I prepared my phone and my laptop, and checked in with one of the supervisors. “Can you help me, if something goes wrong?” He said, “I’d be happy to!”
The time to log-on for the 3:50pm scheduled interview came. As luck would have it, neither my phone nor laptop would connect. The supervisor I’d gone to "in case of emergency" had, meanwhile, evaporated into thin air and was not to be found for the rest of the day.
In desperation, I ran to a work colleague. He came to my rescue and we were able to activate teams in the big conference room. The only problem was the camera was not set up; they could hear me but not see me. I ran to the nearest in-house IT guy, and he was able to help me with that part, while I profusely apologized to the interviewers and the HR moderator for the technical difficulties. My colleague whispered to me, “Don’t worry, this kind of thing happens all the time. It won’t be held against you.”
Finally, I could be seen and heard. I could see and hear the interviewers, both of whom I had worked with before. Lovely people, who looked tired and bored. I’m not sure, but this may have been the last interview scheduled for the day.
So, finally, the interview was under way, with all the usual questions: Why do you think you are ideal for the job?; How do you organize your work?; Give a specific example of a time when you dealt with a tough customer, and what was the outcome? Tell us about a time when you had a problem with a co-worker, and how was it resolved?
Those questions answered, possibly in the usual way, the moderator said, “Thank you, that is all the questions we have for today. Is there anything you would like to add that was not touched on in your responses to the other questions?”
It is my answer to this (non)question, I believe, that got me the job. To the best of my memory, this is what I said:
“Yes, I do have a few remarks to add…
"In all my interactions with members of the public, I try to help people have confidence in the agency.”
The interviewers looked up from their notes.
“People have to wait in line; they have to wait on the phone; they get cut off and have to start all over again. It is so easy to feel as though the agency, whatever agency it is, is unresponsive…
“One time, I answered the phone, and the lady on the other end said, ‘I’m sorry to interrupt your work.’ I paused for a moment before I responded, ‘You are my work… I mean, that’s why they hired me: To be here, for you. Sure, I have paperwork to do—this paperwork is for other people, such as you. All of the work done in this office is for you, so that your need(s) can be met, your problem(s) solved.’”
While I was talking, I was simultaneously thinking about my own encounters with phone trees and service representatives. I was also thinking about the word economy, which is from the Greek. The original meaning of the word encompasses the meeting of need and also hospitality. We think about this term so differently, today. I was also remembering that our county agencies are the true, in situ safety net for people in need. This does not mean that they always work well, but the intent is service for the people.
I went on, “People are tired of the inefficiencies of our systems, not always calibrated to interact well. When they call on the phone, after sending emails that seem to go into a black hole, they are understandably frustrated. The county worker is where the rubber meets the road, the nexus of those programs that are funded by state and sometimes federal tax dollars. We are intended to bridge the gap between our core technical inefficiencies, so that people can receive the aid for which they’ve applied. This work is about access; it’s about equity; it’s about inclusion; it’s about needs being met from within the community. Drill that down, my friends, and that is democracy in action.”
The interviewers, throughout these comments, seemed to perk up. Eyebrows twitched; there were small smiles; there was the added scribbling of notes.
In a moment, it was over. I thanked everyone for their patience with the technical glitches, for having heard me, and wished them well for the rest of their day.
There is so much rhetoric about bootstrapping and self-sufficiency, out and about in our world. The truth of the matter is that we are not lone rangers; rather we are members of communities. Citizenship, from the earliest meanings of the term, assumes the offer of communal assistance to those whose needs cannot otherwise be met. Citizenship more than implies responsibility to one’s neighbor, as well as to any person identified as “other.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean such interactions are easy, and that they don’t come with a price. But they are sorely needed, in a world full of need and expectation. As is true for poets, civil servants don’t get into this work to become millionaires… and they put up with a lot of abuse while they don’t become millionaires… So, there must be another reason why people choose this work…
This may merely prove that I am still an idealistic dreamer, after all these years. I’ll own it.
I start work on Monday morning.
