Damn Government

My guide and I worked our little tails off today, man. We got the entire binder done!

We started at 10:00 – about half an hour later than planned on due to the battery in her truck not wanting to start up. And don’t tell my employer, but we worked right through lunch and on into 3:30 before I finally called it quits and let her go. According to government rules, you’re not supposed to work longer than 5 hours without taking a break – but we were on a roll and didn’t want to break it.

Let me just say right now that I could not have done it without her help. She was invaluable: keeping me on track and organized, introducing me to everybody, convincing the recalcitrant ones to let me do my interviews, and telling me all about every dog we came across along the way. I will certainly write a glowing report on her back at the main office so that if they ever need help out here in Perryville again, she will be top of the list.

I must admit, however, that I am not impressed with the government. Not that that comes as a big surprise to anybody – but this has to be one of the most poorly run businesses I’ve ever worked for. The training was laughable, the organization within the office is nonexistent, and the support for field officers is a mere rumor. About the only thing they have going for them is that they do pay – even if the check is almost always two weeks late and full of mistakes.

Case in point: I called the main office today and spoke to the person in charge of Interior Alaska, letting him know that I had just found out that planes wouldn’t fly over the weekend. He told me that he’d look in to trying to get me out of here on Friday, and that I should call back later on in the day to see what progress he’d made.

That’s why my guide and I worked so hard – I wanted to make sure I was finished with everything so I could leave. No offence to the good people of Perryville, but I’d really like to spend Easter with my own family!

So at 3:30, I call back to the main office only to find out that he had forgotten completely about me and my paperwork never even got started. Then I got chewed out by the lady in charge of travel arrangements for even thinking that I could leave tomorrow without having gone thru her first, and she rather snidely pointed out that other people are stuck out here as well and I shouldn’t think that I’d be getting any special favors. I told her that I had called as early as I possibly could in hopes that the man in charge of things might actually be able to do something, so she rather quickly backed off and said that she had some strings she could pull.

Now I am again to call back later and see what progress has been made. Between you and me – I’m not holding my breath. Most likely I will be hanging out here, with nothing to do and no food to eat.

I’ve actually got several hours of paperwork left to do. If I knew for sure what my schedule for tomorrow was, I’d know if I should stay up tonight and get it done or save it for the long weekend ahead of me.