Census Question — Help Me Out

Almost no one comes to my pretty red front door. The UPS and FedEx guys, as well as friends and neighbors, have all fallen into the habit of using the porch entrance, at the side of my house, where the driveway is. When a visitor does knock on the door facing Main Street, it's often some kind of official, or at least someone with whom I'm not overly acquainted.

And so it was today. Actually, the visitor announced himself with a rap on my sidelight, not on the door. Kind of annoying. I looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of a hairy knuckle on the other side of the pane.

He was a local man wielding a portable, white, PDA-like gizmo that carried a sticker identifying it as property of the U.S. Government. I know him vaguely as a freelance videographer, not as a government worker. Turns out he's a temp for the Census who's been hired to go door to door in my town.

My mind — not my mouth — started to phrase the most polite way to say that I would not be volunteering any (extra) information, thanks anyway, but I never needed to actually utter those words. He explained that the device in his hand was a GPS-enabled tablet, and showed me the screen. I saw him select a virtual radio button in front of my address, and — well, that was that. Apparently, all he needed was to log the exact location of my front door. He thanked me and walked off.

Out of curiosity — not paranoia: Um, what the hell's that about? Why would the Census need only location data, and nothing else? Why knock if the homeowner's presence or absence is completely immaterial to the task at hand? Anybody care to shed some light?

P.S. Andrew Sullivan has a dispiriting first-hand reader account about the motivation and efficiency of U.S. Census takers.

Comments

[Lee]

My dad actually worked for the Census in 90 and 00 and then a couple of times inbetween for some random reasons (I'll have to ask him again).

I do remember one of the things that he did was verify addresses. They would give him a list of addresses and say "Make sure they exist" and he would drive around and check.

As for Andrew's account. In 00 my dad was in charge of a group. IIRC, he had only a couple that he had a hard time getting to do their job, but he was never pushed to put in overtime.

[JeffB]

We shouldn't judge all census workers (much less temps) from just a smattering of anecdotal experience. This is doubly true since more of us are likely to be temps or contract workers in coming months and years.

In any event, I like your blog. It's important to call out affronts to personal liberty, whatever the source!

[Anon]

When I worked for the census in '00 it was kind of a horror show. It was regular practice for people to work until they met eight hours worth of quota (which could often be accomplished in less than half that time) and then bill for the full eight. The team I was on regularly underproduced, so there were people who would work for two hours, bill for eight, and then get complimented on coming in above average. Managers put constant pressure on people to produce, but the only person I ever saw get fired was someone who billed 25 or so hours a week for over a month and managed to complete one address every two days.

But hey, it was summer work at 15 an hour the year after high school. That kind of money buys a ton coke.

[John A]

Probably, as suggested above, just verifying that the address exists.

- - -
RANT On a different front:: "The UPS and FedEx guys, as well as friends and neighbors, have all fallen into the habit of using the porch entrance, at the side of my house, where the driveway is."

I think it is FedEx policy to drop stuff at the back door, if visible, without bothering to knock - must save time.

UPS, well, seems to be up to the driver - in my case, about three of four will knock at the front door before dumping stuff at the back.

USPS parcel delivery always knocks. Period.

It gets complicated because what looks like the back door and porch of my apartment is actually the front door for a seperate building, with its own address - no internal connection to the building where I live, it even has its own cellar. So I sometimes do not realize for days that there is a package there - not all places I buy from use the on-line tracking available from all three of these outfits, which might alert me before my bi-weekly take-out-the-trash trip.

[John A]

Oops, I seem to have missed your actual question - why did he knock at all?

Uh... maybe at some point he was a U_S_PS delivery person and got into the habit?

[heather.leah]

I asked my cousin about this today - she worked as a census taker this year. She told me they were told to knock one peoples' doors and let them know what was going on as a courtesy. This was so that people would not look out the window and get freaked out by somebody walking up to their front door and walking away again for no apparent reason.

She didn't have an answer for the question, "Why don't they have you wear a t-shirt that says 'CENSUS TAKER' in big letters so people don't have to get up and answer their doors if they didn't notice you in the first place?" :)

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1121933758]

There are other ways of verifying an address!!! There is no need to disrupt families to ask a dumb question that can be answered by mailbox, phone book, tax assessor, etc etc.
I think some of the questions on the census questionaire are too personal. It is none of their damn business how much each house member makes, how high their education is, the value of their home, how much are their property taxes. They can get that from tax assessor and save the feeling of invasion of privacy. I really feel they are just being plain nosy. I do not answer the questions I feel are not their concern. And when they call, I tell them they are getting no more personal information. Stay away from me!