In truth, the honeymoon with my not-so-new employer has been over for quite some time. Initially I was pleased to see how, it seemed to me, the Census Bureau had made some progress in areas in which it had been weak since I worked there last. After nearly ten months back at the bureau, I've seen how some of the efforts to correct previous problems have created new ones.
The bureau may have overreacted most strongly in the realms of security and data stewardship, an area which combines principles of privacy and confidentiality. Since data stewardship is such a complex and important issue, I'll just want to touch on the subject here and write a more detailed blog on the issue at some point. Briefly, over the past few years the bureau experienced a few high profile breaches of Title 13. Culturally it appears to have reacted in such a way that such data are treated more like a disease to be contained than a product to be used. In my main area of responsibility, creating a new rental housing survey, I've had to fight for procedures where we're allowed to share info, in the process of collecting data, among entities that already share such info routinely. Adherence to Title 13 appears, at least for now, to have trumped the purpose of collecting and distributing data, at least in the development of this new survey. It might be unwise to generalize to the whole bureau, but informal conversations with other Census veterans have confirmed my observations.
I've also seen how people with certain mindsets tend to replicate themselves as far as their hires, and that relative youth is no guarantee of an open mind. With this turn of the survey, alas, we don't have the same benefit of legacy experience that we enjoyed in previous similar efforts.
I visited my former employer today. I worked for a small trade association, the National Multi Housing Council, as the director of research for seven years. I got along famously with my boss (and still do), and knew while I worked there that the work environment was rarefied and exceptionally comfortable. I dealt with a personal crisis while I worked there (the subject of another blog, perhaps) but even at my nadir I recognized my situation was cushy. And I had become soft.
Working in a less civil, more combative environment as I do now, with employees with so many different viewpoints and agenda, I knew I was going to have to re-sharpen my claws. And so I am. And here I hope to educate, let off steam, and perhaps receive some feedback on my challenges.
