PITA
I was helping a neighbor file a government form on-line today and that was two hours I will never get back. This was one of the worse forms I have ever encountered. Not only was it often illogical, they asked multiple choice questions and didn’t supply a correct answer. Others were true/false questions that were worded to have more than two answers.
The worse part was when you got to the end and had to swear under penalty of perjury that all answers were true. When you testify in court you swear to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” … except you have two lawyers making damn sure you can’t tell the whole truth.
Writing questionnaires is a skill that requires training and experience. Not everyone can do it, and many of those who can’t seem to work as government contractors.
4 comments
Two words:
Lowest bidder.
That is all.
Roger that 🙁
A friend who is Colombian-American (born in NYC) was once vexed by a form with a multiple-choice question for ethnicity. The choice they obviously meant for her to check was “Person with Hispanic surname”; never mind that while her heritage was Colombian, the surname she was born with was as Irish as they come…
There are a lot of Irish surnames to be found in America South of the Rio Grande. All of the European immigrants to Central and South American did not come from the Iberian Peninsula, a number came from Hibernia as well.
There is nothing wrong with ‘Other’, ‘None of the Above’, and ‘Not Applicable’ as answers.