So, I've worked retail / customer service for 35+ years (mostly as manager or owner of stores). I have a well-honed skill of spotting inefficiencies. This week, I worked in the polls during the recent elections in Toronto. It was my first time doing it. To describe the workplace as a shitshow of incompetence would be complimentary. I am certain I could streamline the system and make things better for workers and voters. Is such a thing a job and if so, what is that job and how do I get it? I was hired to be one of the people who confirms your identity, ensures you're eligible to vote and are in the right place to do so, and provides you with a ballot.
Polls open at 10am. We arrived at 8am to "set up". From the moment I arrived on site it was clear that this was going be a disaster. Within minutes I had to take control of things and start delegating, while the person whose job that was ran around like a headless chicken. Of the 12 people hired to work the station, only one other was not only competent but capable of understanding even basic instruction — and many did not improve at their mostly single-task jobs over the course of 10 hours.
In addition, in the first 20 minutes after polls opened, I'd figured out a more efficient way of doing my job than the method provided by government training. So much so that my table never had more than one person lined up at it for the remaining nine and a half hours whereas the others performing the same job regularly had slow lines 5 or more deep even though my table was responsible for 3/5ths of the voter list due to a staff no-show (I volunteered to take their portion of the overall list).
I know that multiple voters left the poll without having their votes counted and that multiple people had the potential to double-vote due to things I would call systems/supply misfunction. We were also forced to break the law regarding disability access due to no fault of our own and there were numerous other infractions and inconveniences that could have been avoided had someone smarter been in charge of preparing staff and location prior to election day.
None of the above should be the case.
I've fixed many an inefficient workplace, but they've always been single-location stores / offices that, had they failed before I arrived, would have just meant a small business tanked. This situation seems much more dire. I was frankly dumbfounded at the sheer stupidity of it. I assume someone was paid to set it up the way it now functions. How can I go about getting hired to fix such a thing?
Polls open at 10am. We arrived at 8am to "set up". From the moment I arrived on site it was clear that this was going be a disaster. Within minutes I had to take control of things and start delegating, while the person whose job that was ran around like a headless chicken. Of the 12 people hired to work the station, only one other was not only competent but capable of understanding even basic instruction — and many did not improve at their mostly single-task jobs over the course of 10 hours.
In addition, in the first 20 minutes after polls opened, I'd figured out a more efficient way of doing my job than the method provided by government training. So much so that my table never had more than one person lined up at it for the remaining nine and a half hours whereas the others performing the same job regularly had slow lines 5 or more deep even though my table was responsible for 3/5ths of the voter list due to a staff no-show (I volunteered to take their portion of the overall list).
I know that multiple voters left the poll without having their votes counted and that multiple people had the potential to double-vote due to things I would call systems/supply misfunction. We were also forced to break the law regarding disability access due to no fault of our own and there were numerous other infractions and inconveniences that could have been avoided had someone smarter been in charge of preparing staff and location prior to election day.
None of the above should be the case.
I've fixed many an inefficient workplace, but they've always been single-location stores / offices that, had they failed before I arrived, would have just meant a small business tanked. This situation seems much more dire. I was frankly dumbfounded at the sheer stupidity of it. I assume someone was paid to set it up the way it now functions. How can I go about getting hired to fix such a thing?