Week 2: Court Search

11 February, 2008 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m Today: 8 hrs. Total: 16 hrs.

This week, the work got a little more interesting. In the morning, I assisted Sandy with some filing of case files and related work, but in the afternoon, Kurt took me out into the field. We first visited a company in San Rafael whose CEO we had been hired to track down and get him to pay some very late unpaid invoices. Long story short, I had my first experience tailing someone, which was exciting. Afterward, Kurt and I went over to the Civic Center to do a court search on someone for a pre-hire background check. There is certainly a lot of information in the public domain that can be accessed by your average Joe.

Sandy and I have been talking about a possible project to combine several client forms into one standard form. Hardly part of a plot on Law and Order, but undoubtedly useful to the company.

The atmosphere at the office at Ginter Investigations is quite relaxed and casual. Being a husband-wife organization, things are mostly informal, and the office staff mostly wear Standard American Casual (Jeans/khakis and short-sleeved collared shirts). The working community is tight-knit, and workers are casual with each other. The office itself is a long narrow space with one large office at each end, each occupied by Kurt and Sandy. The middle space is subdivided into open cubicles, where the rest of the office staff works. Since this is the first time I have worked in a small business, I don’t really have anything in the same category to compare it to, but I can say that it is slightly more casual and informal than the corporate world of High Tech that I have worked in.