People who score tests, we are a weird lot. Sometimes they're weirder than I am; take, for example, the guy who pushed me aside to use the same faucet I was using. This was at the old test scoring place, the one I left where, by the way, some asshole stole my energy drink. This doesn't happen at the new test scoring place, by the way.
As much as we are a strange lot, there are some good people too. A lot, actually. Many of them surround me in the test scoring project we have now. The guy next to me, for example, has a job as a cashier at a grocery store. Might talk a little too much from time to time, but he knows that, and besides, he's a really nice guy. The guy to the right of me keeps to himself, but every day he drinks a jar of ... organic stuff that he swears by. Oh, and he has changed his name at least three times in his life. If this guy was someone I met at a concert, or even another test scorer from across the room, I would think he's a freak. But actually he's a pretty solid dude.
There are others. There are four of us in our row of tables, and for some reason, all four of us are some of the earliest to arrive in our new extended, overtime-approved hours and some of the latest to leave when we absolutely have to. The fourth among us has a career in chemistry and, she says, a long battle with sexism in the field that, hopefully, she'll be able to tell me before the project's over. One guy behind us plays tennis a lot. Another guy up front, according to the guy to my left, can, after getting the number of total papers that need to be graded and crunching our read rates, tell what time a project ends to within 15 minutes. (When I asked the guy to my left what Rain Man thought about the drop-dead date for this project, he said early Monday morning. But that was before more essays came in than expected and hours were extended to the point where I pulled an 11-hour day yesterday [Tuesday]. My boss for the room estimated that we'll be done between Monday and Tuesday, the latter of which might mess up my plans for going to a couple studies I've lined up.)
Assuming that they're not weirdos or anything, nearly everyone I met at these test scoring projects are really good, really interesting people. And there is one obvious reason for that: To be a test scorer, you have to have a college degree. That means that anyone who gets it has to have some intellectual ability and some critical thinking skills. That's a good thing.
And that leads to another point. We all know that we're working in a room full of college graduates. (And more; I forgot that in my previous test scoring project I sat with a Ph.D.) And yet all we can do to find work (at least most of us) is a seasonal position where we score kids' tests. Not only are we united in our matriculation, we are united in the dumbstruck realization that we have achieved a certain level of matriculation and that this is the best job we can find. Now, that's not to say that I think this job is beneath me. And I know there are some others who are retired teachers, for example, and they just want to work part-time just to make some money. However, I think the vast majority of those that work these projects are somewhat disappointed that they have not found full-time work with their degrees. Therefore, we find ourselves in a sort of employment limbo where, underneath the chitchat and small talk about work experience and dreams of what they're hoping to do next, there is an undercurrent of, "I can't believe I'm doing this ... can you?"
That fosters camaraderie, I think. There aren't any people at this type of work who are different when it comes to the divisive category of education level, and that allows all of us to relax and intrinsically know that whoever we speak to, that person at least comes from the same intelligent ballpark. That intelligence hasn't garnered us a job with benefits, but hey, misery loves company.
I should go to bed now. I've got along with enough of these guys that I think I'm going to join them in eating Burger King for lunch instead of taking a nap.
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