Dealing With The Government

Yesterday was fun and exciting.

I was supposed to show up at my current job at noon. I called to let them know I was going to be a little late, as I had to go to the airport to get the ball rolling on my county job. My current job is a part time deal, and was just for the summer anyway. Monday school starts again, so summer is over. The timing on this was perfect. I guess this means I will not go back to education.

Anyway, my appointmet with the HR people was at 10:30, so I figure that I would be an hour or two late at the most. No big deal right? Heck, they would probably not even notice I was late.

So I went off to find the phantom building. The address given to me suggested that I could access the building from NW 36 ST. Well, this was not the case. I actually had to access the building from NW 74 AVE. And the cross street was this unmarked side access road to the back area of the airport. So after three or four illegal U turns, I found the place.

Then I filled out the paperwork to begin the background check. No big deal, I went through one of these for the School Board (I did serve time as a teacher in Miami-Dade County Public School System). There will be two checks, one on the County level and one on the Federal level. Again, not a big deal as I used to work for the Feds before I tried teaching. I have never done anything so my background is squeeky clean. Not even any unpaid parking tickets.

Then I had to go to the airport parking garage, because that is where the fingerprint office is. They have these SUPER COOL laser finger print machines now. No more ink! The scanner makes high resolution digital images of your prints. It takes almost no time at all and you do not walk out with the tell-tale "I got black ink on all my fingertips, I am either a new job applicant or I just escaped from jail" thing.

But, I needed a fingerprint appointment - which I did not have. But because my paperwork said I was in process to be hired by the County aviation department, they squeezed me in.

Then I had to pay for my parking, which cost me $12. Nobody could validate my parking slip, even if I was there on County business. No big deal, but I did find some amusement in the whole thing. Every government job I have had cost me something. The school board made me pay for my fingerprinting and my pee test. The federal job required me to pay parking at the training facility, and to use the airport employee lot. Private sector jobs never cost me a dime to accept.

Anyway, at this point it was a little after 2 PM, so I called in to say I would be later than I expected. Then I had to run home to get the information I needed to fill out the paperwork for the federal level BG check. Then I had to drive back to the phantom building and turn in everything. My paperwork is now in process. All the running around means I can start sooner.

Anyway, I got to work at 5 PM, and worked the rest of my shift which ended at 7:30 PM.

Today, I get to go back to the phantom building to collect some of my paperwork. At 1 PM I have to sit through this pre-ID badge speech I already sat through once. After that I have to go back to the phantom building and return the paperwork. Then go to my current part time job. I will be late again today. But the boss knows so it is all good. I will help them out by staying late.

Hopefully, by Friday the County background check will be finished. Then I can get my ID issued (I think) and go for the physical. The physical will be an all day ordeal.

I hope to start training sometime next week!

Leaving the education profession behind is the best thing for me to do, but I kind of hate to do it. I liked teaching, but it is not an easy thing to do. You have to have excellent game. You have to be a world class manager, the best customer service agent in the world, a super cop, a drill sargent, and have the patience of Ghandi - all at the same time. People who can do all this will forever have my highest level of respect. I could not pull it off.

And as for celebrity executives, they are just clowns. Yo Donald Trump - do you think you are a REAL leader? Do you think you can truly manage people? Do you think you have what it takes to hack it in the REAL WORLD? Try teaching. And not at the college level, to a bunch of grad students who will try to brown nose you for a job later. Go teach at an urban public middle school. I will bet you that muskrat you call hair that you can not make it.