The US government may just be the most unorganized agency in the world. I was told to report to work at the local air force base today at 7 AM, and to get a day pass to get in from the guard. I was there bright and early at 6:45, drove up, and realized that there was no way the guard was going to be able to give me a day pass (they were just standing there checking passes with no computers or such). My only option was to ford a vehicle-packed 4-lane road to get to the visitor center. Several minutes and curses later, I was able to make it to the visitor center.

As soon as I stepped in the door, I knew there was going to be trouble. Looking to my left, I saw a group of impatient-looking high school students. I approached the airman manning the computer, told him I was a summer hire and needed to get a day pass. I was promptly told that we could not be admitted on the base unless someone in the base sponsored us on (which we were promised would be taken care of by the time we got there). The airman promised he would keep calling processing (the ones who were supposed to sponsor us on in the first place), but everyone was currently out of the office. It took an hour for them to finally answer their phones and let us on.

We were all told to meet at the theatre for our orientation, but none of us had ever navigated the base before. Many aggravating minutes later, we were able to find the theatre. We went up the door, pulled, and discovered it was securely locked. We went around to another set of doors to discover a sticky note on the door which read something like “Summer hires meet at building 1244”. As if we hadn’t had enough trouble locating the theatre, we now had to locate a building which we hadn’t the faintest clue of where it was. About 30 minutes later (and for one unfortunate person, a speeding ticket later), we found the mystical building 1244.

We were all quickly ushered into a conference room, where they realized that they had forgotten to print some forms we needed to fill out. Another agonizing half hour later, we were told what building we would be reporting to for work and sent off.

Having already passed the building I was to report to earlier that day, I had no problem finding it. When I got there and met my supervisor for my final orientation, I was pleasantly surprised at how laid back work was there. I was then taken to get a computer access card, waited in line for 30 minutes, and was curtly told that I did not exist in the computer system and therefore could not get an access card.

Back at our original building, my supervisor talked to the friendly people in processing enquiring why I was not in the system. To no one’s shock, they said that I was supposed to be put in the system a couple weeks ago, but somehow I hadn’t been. They promised to put me in the system ASAP, but I would have to wait a week to get the access card.

In the mean time, I have nothing to do! Gives me warm fuzzies for the government.