Enum is thought to be a float?

I keep running into this issue with Mono that my Enum is the wrong type and is expected to be a float?

I'm getting error CS1061- Type 'float' does not contain a definition for 'smooth'.... blah blah...

I get this statement if I try to use my enum in a switch statement and I haven't a clue why. My other switch statement works fine but this one does not...

I've set up my enum like so outside my class.

public enum hoverSpeed {smooth, eightBit, appear}

I get a public reference in my class.

public hoverSpeed floatSpeed;

I then call this function that contains the switch statement -> speedType();

Here is the function.

 public void speedType()
         {
             switch(floatSpeed)
             {
                 case hoverSpeed.smooth:
 
                     CompareTime.Value = 0.1f;
 
                     break;
                 case hoverSpeed.eightBit:
 
                     CompareTime.Value = 0.5f;
 
                     break;
                 case hoverSpeed.appear:
 
                     CompareTime.Value = 5f;
 
                     break;
                 default:
 
                     CompareTime.Value = 0.1f;
 
                     break;
             }
         }

and then I get the type error...

The error is gone if I use the global settings:

case global::hoverSpeed.smooth

but I want to know what I did wrong. And why I can't use this enum like my other enum in my script? I've used multiple enums in a script before, the enums don't share any similar names or variables. Why am I getting a type issue?