During orientation I was warned I might have a few weeks of down time. Thankfully (or perhaps not so thankfully for this lazy sack), that down time did not materialize. Early last week a stakeholder in the survey I was hired to help create and manage decided to call a meeting of stakeholders to review the questionnaire. Never mind the deadline, given the survey timeline and tight budget, for offering comments on the questionnaire in time for pilot testing had passed two months prior. The experts in the meeting room, many of whom had never actually conducted a survey, were full of ideas about what we should be asking on the questionnaire. They asked for all sorts of questions, as they tend to do, ivory tower types who think that Americans are just waiting at home, twiddling their thumbs, eager to complete complex government surveys about their personal lives and finances. As someone who's had a foot in both worlds, both as a statistician at the Census Bureau and a researcher at a trade association, I feel like I understand both sides better than most. As a data user, I know how frustrating it is to be looking for data and finding it doesn't exist, or if it does exist, that it's packaged in such a hard-to-use format it might not exist at all.
So I spent my first full week at work trying to bridge the gap between the stakeholders who wanted all these questions and the worker bees at Census who were going to have to review and change the questionnaires. I relied primarily on my looks and charm yet by some miracle actually found that they sufficed. Still I hope such fire drills are not part of my routine.
In the process of managing this unexpected wrench, I became reacquainted with the Census Bureau. It had been more than seven years since I'd worked there last. The building is completely new -- the old, carcinogenic and otherwise toxic buildings have since been demolished. The promise of a new building was all that gave employees hope. The new building had some kinks and I know it disappointed many, although I find myself pleasantly surprised by the features and how conducive it is to working. I also had the chance to see how the bureau has made some progress on some key issues that challenged the agency -- stovepiping in survey development, lack of documentation, haphazard and unequal security measures, lack of quality control. The Demographic Surveys Division has created a checklist for those creating new surveys, to make sure that all new surveys have standard documentation and procedures.
The bureau is creating a new area that will be focusing on quality control. In several of the demographic surveys the bureau needed to re-release some of its data sets because errors were found after they were released. Unfortunately when budgets were tight, the Census Bureau didn't have the resources to have the statisticians themselves develop research topics wherein they could test drive the data. The truth is sometimes it is difficult to spot errors in data, whatever quality checks you perform, unless you actually embark on a research project and have to use the data to answer a research question.
As a lowly functionary, I used to complain occasionally to senior management about some of the issues I saw in the trenches. I didn't think they were paying attention. I'm glad to see that they were.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
anti forma
I am long overdue for a blog entry. Alas the adjustment to a new job -- not to mention a bout with bronchitis -- has subdued this modern literary giant. I emerge, hacking, yet writing.
My re-entry into federal service was ushered in via bureaucracy. I received an official letter offering me employment and directing me to a Census website where I was directed to complete upwards of fourteen forms. I think my favorite form was the employee address verification form, as if I would have, say, lied about my address on my direct deposit form for payroll. (Yes, I just report to work for fun; paychecks are optional!) At a minimum, the forms were redundant in that they required me to complete my name, and several forms asked me to complete my date of birth, address, and social security number. On top of that, I needed to complete an online form that started the wheels turning on a background check, requiring the same information. I completed a form for fingerprinting that the fingerprinting office ended up not using.
The offer letter was vague about what forms specifically I needed to submit prior to my employment, and which I should bring my first day of work, so I just sent them all in, and made a copy. At orientation I was given most of the forms back; the orientation staff said I hadn't needed to submit all of them prior. This made me wonder: Why I had been given a huge fed ex envelope big enough to send all of them?
Then at orientation we dedicated forty five minutes to reviewing the forms, which were also in the orientation package I received that morning. Trees are optional, I guess.
On the one hand I appreciate that the orientation staff (who were very pleasant and earnest) had prepared for all contingencies. At the same time the process seemed redundant and wasteful. When I completed my mortgage application (rivaling these forms in their bureaucracy and complexity), the law office had already completed the administrative information; all I needed to do is sign. Now, granted, in this situation I am an employee, not a client. Still, I can't help but wonder why the web wizards at Census, who prepared this site (and at least there is this site with all the forms in one place), could not have prepared a portal wherein I could have entered all the information once, answered some questions about where I was living, and generated all the proper forms with the information all completed, saving me time, and reducing the possibility of errors. Or, given I had worked for the federal government, not to mention the SAME EMPLOYER before, why could I have not been prompted simply to update my contact information the way I might in LinkedIn or facebook? Not to mention the bigger issue as to why the federal government does not prepare a consolidated employee profile, rather than these separate forms. I know the government has to deal with a variety of hiring programs and backgrounds, but surely, from what I could tell, the backgrounds are not so diverse that a consolidated form covering most cases would not have streamlined the process.
Last, but not least, some of the forms were needlessly vague. A form I received after orientation, a health insurance enrollment form, asked about previous health insurance. I assume the form was referring to previous health insurance while employed with the federal government; but whither new hires? Simply adding the phrase "if applicable" in (parentheses) would have made the form applicable to all.
For my current carping, I guess this process represents an improvement over the process when I first went to work at Census twelve years ago, and I was sent the forms in the mail, and there was no centralized repository of forms. I remember calling the human resource officer half a dozen times with questions. I guess back then my expectations were lower. I was grateful to be having my first job where I actually made more than $30K a year.
My re-entry into federal service was ushered in via bureaucracy. I received an official letter offering me employment and directing me to a Census website where I was directed to complete upwards of fourteen forms. I think my favorite form was the employee address verification form, as if I would have, say, lied about my address on my direct deposit form for payroll. (Yes, I just report to work for fun; paychecks are optional!) At a minimum, the forms were redundant in that they required me to complete my name, and several forms asked me to complete my date of birth, address, and social security number. On top of that, I needed to complete an online form that started the wheels turning on a background check, requiring the same information. I completed a form for fingerprinting that the fingerprinting office ended up not using.
The offer letter was vague about what forms specifically I needed to submit prior to my employment, and which I should bring my first day of work, so I just sent them all in, and made a copy. At orientation I was given most of the forms back; the orientation staff said I hadn't needed to submit all of them prior. This made me wonder: Why I had been given a huge fed ex envelope big enough to send all of them?
Then at orientation we dedicated forty five minutes to reviewing the forms, which were also in the orientation package I received that morning. Trees are optional, I guess.
On the one hand I appreciate that the orientation staff (who were very pleasant and earnest) had prepared for all contingencies. At the same time the process seemed redundant and wasteful. When I completed my mortgage application (rivaling these forms in their bureaucracy and complexity), the law office had already completed the administrative information; all I needed to do is sign. Now, granted, in this situation I am an employee, not a client. Still, I can't help but wonder why the web wizards at Census, who prepared this site (and at least there is this site with all the forms in one place), could not have prepared a portal wherein I could have entered all the information once, answered some questions about where I was living, and generated all the proper forms with the information all completed, saving me time, and reducing the possibility of errors. Or, given I had worked for the federal government, not to mention the SAME EMPLOYER before, why could I have not been prompted simply to update my contact information the way I might in LinkedIn or facebook? Not to mention the bigger issue as to why the federal government does not prepare a consolidated employee profile, rather than these separate forms. I know the government has to deal with a variety of hiring programs and backgrounds, but surely, from what I could tell, the backgrounds are not so diverse that a consolidated form covering most cases would not have streamlined the process.
Last, but not least, some of the forms were needlessly vague. A form I received after orientation, a health insurance enrollment form, asked about previous health insurance. I assume the form was referring to previous health insurance while employed with the federal government; but whither new hires? Simply adding the phrase "if applicable" in (parentheses) would have made the form applicable to all.
For my current carping, I guess this process represents an improvement over the process when I first went to work at Census twelve years ago, and I was sent the forms in the mail, and there was no centralized repository of forms. I remember calling the human resource officer half a dozen times with questions. I guess back then my expectations were lower. I was grateful to be having my first job where I actually made more than $30K a year.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
first blog for everything
Well, the word is out to all: I quit my current job yesterday and I'm returning to the federal service at the Census Bureau in early November. My boss sent an email to staff and I sent one to my colleagues and friends outside my current organization, a trade association focused on promoting rental housing.
I didn't think I was ever going to work for Census again. I remember that late August 2003 day, leaving Census several hours before my work day was supposed to end, a huge grin on my face. I had brought beers to work to celebrate the occasion -- and my future boss, then acting branch chief (my regular boss was on vacation) -- refused to imbibe with me to celebrate my departure. "It's against federal regulation to have alcohol on campus." So I won't say definitively whether I went to the office next door to share my beers with another colleague. I did go to the office of my boss's boss to say goodbye to him, and ended up giving him an earful, not that alcohol had anything to do with it. When my boss returned, he seemed quite surprised that his boss was on his case about the survey that had been falling to pieces for about a year before I left.
But that incident was history until now...surely not on the mind of my future employer when he called me this past May to ask me if I'd like to return. One thing led to another, and I'm starting at Census in a few weeks.
I have two loves: piano and data. Whatever I write here, I do love the Census Bureau and I have a fondness for the many great people who work there, even as I'm starting this blog knowing I will need an outlet for the shenanigans I am sure to see there.
While it's on my mind, let me compile a wishlist for what I'd like to see happen while I'm at census:
I didn't think I was ever going to work for Census again. I remember that late August 2003 day, leaving Census several hours before my work day was supposed to end, a huge grin on my face. I had brought beers to work to celebrate the occasion -- and my future boss, then acting branch chief (my regular boss was on vacation) -- refused to imbibe with me to celebrate my departure. "It's against federal regulation to have alcohol on campus." So I won't say definitively whether I went to the office next door to share my beers with another colleague. I did go to the office of my boss's boss to say goodbye to him, and ended up giving him an earful, not that alcohol had anything to do with it. When my boss returned, he seemed quite surprised that his boss was on his case about the survey that had been falling to pieces for about a year before I left.
But that incident was history until now...surely not on the mind of my future employer when he called me this past May to ask me if I'd like to return. One thing led to another, and I'm starting at Census in a few weeks.
I have two loves: piano and data. Whatever I write here, I do love the Census Bureau and I have a fondness for the many great people who work there, even as I'm starting this blog knowing I will need an outlet for the shenanigans I am sure to see there.
While it's on my mind, let me compile a wishlist for what I'd like to see happen while I'm at census:
- The survey I will work on will have comprehensible, effective questionnaires and will provide quality data to the various stakeholders
- Census will better organize the way it distributes population data.
- Census will investigate and make progress on its use of administrative records in helping to collect and verify data for various censuses and surveys.
- Census will make efforts to streamline and integrate the various surveys so as to improve data quality and to reduce respondent burden.
- Census will develop an effective, documented, transparent, comprehensible model for creating and updating its master address file.
- Census will integrate its processing of demographic data.
- Every overweight census employee (including this one) will lose at least ten pounds and will wear reasonable and appropriate business casual attire.
- The Middle East will experience peace.
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