Due Dates

I very much a deadline oriented person. I think that's a fancy way of saying I'm a procrastinator. But is being a procrastinator a bad thing? Let's look at the benefits.

When a deadline is fast approaching I have more drive to accomplish the goal. However if the deadline is still a ways off I can find other tasks to complete in the meantime.  For example, I have a deadline of completing 80 fair housing tests by July. Theoretically, I could finish those all by April. But instead I've been learning how to work smarter, not harder.

Previously, I used Microsoft Excel to organize and store all information about our volunteers. Just glancing at the Excel spreadsheet I use tells me that there I have over 100 volunteer to utilize.  At that point, the spreadsheet becomes unwieldy.  As of this writing I have fully trained myself on how to effectively utilize Microsoft Access. I've learned how to create queries, and edit tables effectively and more all because of the free training Microsoft provides for its products, all for free.

God that last paragraph makes me sound like a douchebag (and an SEO optimizer).  But it's true!

In addition, I've updated our application form to reflect the data we need from testers as well as made it more user friendly.  I wish I could estimate how much time my updates to our program have saved.  That would be a good number to put on a resume.

In the future I'll talk about finding freeware alternatives to programs that my organization needs.

McDonaldization of Ethnographies

I want to expand upon my earlier post where I detail my job as consisting of coordinating many different ethnographies of housing providers.

While I believe this still to be the case I should also mention that these tests we do are heavily regulated.  The testers must fill out the form exactly the way we tell them too and then after that they write up their narrative.  But no tester is perfect.  Some testers fill out the form with perfection, but then will only write up a few sentences for their narrative.  The rule of thumb I tell testers is that if you are there for about a half-hour, your narrative should be single space one page.  A lot happens in 30 minutes!  Other testers will do the reverse (type out a lengthy narrative, but not fill out the appropriate parts of the form).

However, since I can have 5 tests going on in one week, it's difficult to stay on all of these testers.  In addition, the testers don't see it as research, or volunteering for a great cause, or advancing the civil rights of Americans.  Instead, these testers see it as a paycheck.  These testers get paid for their services.  It's almost as if they see it as giving blood.

How do I know? Because I did testing before. And this is similar to the way I saw it.  It was a quick way to get a buck.

So how do we keep them in check? By instituting the McDonaldization process that Ritzer has outlined.

For more information on "McDonaldization" read the wikipedia entry.

There are four components of McDonaldization

1. Efficiency- What's the most efficient, optimal way to do it?
2. Calculability- How can it be measured?
3. Predictability- How can it be made so that it is always similar to other products?
4. Control- How can it be made (specifically made using non-human entities)?

Here is how the work I complete every day matches up to these concepts.

1. Efficient-  I never meet my testers.  I e-mail them their assignments, I follow up with a phone call, and I mail them out a package so that they can mail be back any materials I need.  I never have to leave my office and I can conduct multiple tests in a day.
2. Calculability- We assign each test a number after reading it to judge if discrimination occurred.  After assigning each test a number, it is then entered into a database of all the tests we have done and the number that they have been assigned.
3. Predictability- This concept doesn't translate as well.  The closest parallel I can come up with is the fact that if we find discrimination in our tests, we can litigate against the property managers.  If we win these cases, our organization can be awarded punitive damages.  This money helps balance our budget.  However, a trend I've noticed is that it can become easy to rely on these punitive damages.  This results in it being factored into the upcoming budget, and it is expected that the organization bring the same amount of lawsuits (or greater) to court every year.
4. Control- It seems that as we go further down these concepts, the less sense they make.  However, I will say that I attempt to incorporate computers and technology into my test assignments whenever I can.  When potential testers contact me I would have them fill out an application and after they attended the training I would gain a sense of how good of a tester they would be.  Now I have made a google form that asks them a series of questions.  I use their answer now to judge whether they would be a good tester or not.

The connections I made to my work and the research of George Ritzer seem a little flaky.  But I just wrote more than 638 words and that's all the proof I need.

Specialization is for insects

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Though it may be cliche to begin a post with a quote, it seemed applicable today.  As I have said my position is entitled "Fair Housing Specialist", however that is far from the truth.  I cover much more bases than assigned to me.  I am the IT support and specialist, the gofer and go-to guy, a fill in at management meetings when my supervisor is gone, and many more.


Sometimes I even go out of my way to pick up more tasks.  I like to think of it as me continuing my learning.  All of my assistance has also made me "indispensable" as I've been told.  That's a good feeling to have- being told you're indispensable.

This has motivated me to further expand on my education.  Currently I am brushing up on my Spanish using books on tape and I have just discovered that Khan Academy has a course teaching Python to anyone- for free.  I have a bad habit of starting things and not finishing them.  However, I feel things changing this time.  Of all the books I have recently picked up, I have finished all of them.  I am in the 9th CD of the 18 CDs in the learning Spanish books on tape set.  And learning python has seemed really fun! So I'll be sure to follow up on all of these endeavors.

In the future I also want to learn HTML and continue writing grants.  Mozilla has multiple projects where you can learn HTML, even ones where you can learn with others!

Now that I look back on all of this I wonder, should I attempt to learn HTML or learn Python first? If I learn HTML, I'm sure I could spruce up this website.  Additionally, it's much easier to explain to others that I can code a website then a program.  I also foresee myself using HTML more so than Python.

If anyone is reading feel free to comment: What would you learn first? Python or HTML?

Conducting mini-ethnographies

Now that I've explained testing I can comment on how these tests that I organize are essentially ethnographies operating in the vacuum of 1 or 2 hours.

These testers visit leasing and sales offices and function as a blank slate.  When I assign tests, I try to make nothing stand out about the person.  However, the sales or leasing agents are constantly judging the tester.  They are evaluating to determine if the tester is a serious buyer, someone that might want all the extras, or someone that is looking for a good deal.  They're also constantly evaluating the tester's culture and class capital.

Then after the test, the paperwork that the testers have written up is evaluated by me and I look for a difference in treatment.  This paperwork includes a narrative that the test writes of everything that has happened from the moment they stepped inside the office to when they left the office. I essentially am reading two ethnographies where equal treatment is to be expected.  If there is differing treatment then there is a problem.  Reading these narratives give me an insight into life as a class other than me.  I get to experience a Egyptian Muslim's life, or the life of a middle aged African American woman, or the life person with a disability.

Even if it's just for an hour of their lifetime.

Fair Housing Testing

Part of my duties as a Fair Housing Specialist is to conduct fair housing tests.  What is a test?  It's basically something like "secret shopping".  Except instead of snooping to see how the customer is treated, we're looking to see if housing providers are in accord with the Fair Housing Act (FHA).

The FHA states that it is illegal to discriminate against a person's access to housing based on their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, and family status.  These are known as protected classes under the FHA.  For more information about fair housing, see HUD's website on fair housing laws and the wikipedia entry on fair housing.

When I organize a test, I take two of our volunteers (whom we call testers) and give them similar profiles and send them to the same apartment complex or real estate agency .  Testers are chosen in a way so that there is only one significant difference between them.  The type of test we conduct determines the difference between the testers.  We conduct tests based on the protected classes outlined in the FHA.  Thus, if I'm organizing a sex test, the only difference between the testers is their sex.  These two testers will be of the same race, and their age will be within 10 years of each other.  Then I construct a profile for them so that they are making almost the same amount of money, have the same amount of children, and will both have a spouse.

These testers then visit the same housing provider role-playing as a home-seeker or potential tenant. After their test the volunteers write up a report. I read the report and look for differences in treatment of the testers, differences in prices offered to each tester, and differences in availability or location of housing offered to each tester.

In my next post I'll detail what happens after a test is conducted and how I see testing as conducting many mini-ethnographies.

Might as well keep this going

I couldn't stand to see just one post on my blog so I decided to publish a second!

I've decided to detail how I do my job.

I should first start with my actual job title.  I am a Fair Housing Specialist.  I actually had to check my e-mail signature to make sure I said that right.

'Specialist.'

What make me a specialist?  I have received no formal training for this job, yet I've been told that I've been the one who has approached this position with the most enthusiasm and energy than others who have had my position.

What may qualify me as a specialist is my education and college experience.  In addition to majoring in Sociology, I was also a Resident Assistant in the residence halls for 2 years.  I dealt with many multicultural experiences during my employment.

The course load I had lent itself to my current job.  I was fascinated by the sociology of class and race.  I took classes like Blacks in America; Sociology of Race, Class and Gender; and my Independent study was on how race and class influence how a child is raised.

Tomorrow I'll spell out what exactly I do in my day to day.

Why I started this blog.

I'm an attention fiend.

That's not the reason why I started the blog, but it is true.

Here's some info about me:

• I have a Bachelors degree in Sociology with a minor in Cultural Studies.
• I work at a non-profit that fights housing discrimination.
• I volunteer a lot.  I'm currently volunteering with an NGO located in Honduras and with an organization that teaches English.

I'm sure I'll have more to sure but that's good for now.  Soon I'll update with how exactly my job works.  It's a very interesting process!  I tell most people that the best part is that I get to fight racism and discrimination daily.  Not that many people can say that! Less can say that they get paid to do it.