Bully
Hey everyone,
I’m being bullied in my own home, and it’s from someone that I trusted for years. Why does the government hate me?
My dog Carol barks whenever any delivery driver gets out of their vehicle. Usually, the mail truck driver drops off new packages in the mailbox and keeps going, so I was shocked to notice that the mail truck driver got out of her vehicle last Wednesday and was approaching my house. I met her at the front door - the delivery driver, not Carol - and she had me sign for a certified mail package. I watch too much true crime, so my mind started racing about what this package could be. Was I involved in a crime and needed to testify? Did I need to make a statement at the police station? It wasn’t a subpoena or an affidavit, it was a survey!
The United States Census Bureau has been sending me surveys all year long from the 2023 National Survey of College Graduates. I honestly thought it was a scam, so I chose not to fill out the numerous surveys that I received. The U.S. government has had enough of my attempts to dodge them and decided to send my sixth reminder via certified mail. Every notice that I receive says that this survey is not mandatory. Why do they keep pestering me to fill this out?
I graduated from college in 2008 and have never seen or heard of this survey before. This is a survey sent to college graduates to gauge job satisfaction, how much you use your college degree, and several other seemingly random questions. Has anyone else been getting these surveys? Do I need to expect to get this same type of harassment next year if I don’t fill it out after the first five requests? I feel like this must be targeted somehow.
I felt compelled to complete the survey after this sixth attempt because I signed for the certified mail delivery. I accepted because it’s rude when you don’t accept it and I don’t know if the government on the other end can see if I don’t accept it. I finally filled it out yesterday and it was a complete waste of my time, but I think that most surveys are except for Net Promoter Score surveys. I go out of my way to fill those out, but I digress.
Bullying is never the answer, and it bothers me that the U.S. Census Bureau would stoop to such levels to get me to respond to this survey. We have to start drawing the line somewhere when it comes to non-mandatory information that the government wants and is pretending that it doesn’t already have from me. I know about DARPA LifeLog. It’s time that we start pushing back on these invasions of privacy and start standing our ground against our out-of-touch government.
One survey refusal at a time.