I got a letter in the mail at work today. It was an order from the Department of Commerce requiring me to go online to complete a census of my business. The letter explained the reason for the census was to collect data to help strengthen our economy. The letter stated the census would take 52 minutes to complete. It didn’t explain the ridiculous scope of the registration process to begin the census (that took another 10 minutes, including 5 security questions and a 12 character password with 3 out of 4 specifics required , typed twice, to create my account).

Questions like: Why did you start your business? With answer options of: I wanted to be my own boss (very important to me), (somewhat important to me), (not important to me) were fun to answer. I also find watching “SpongeBob SquarePants” to be fun.

They wanted to know if I was inspired to start my business by a friend and if I was excited to own my own business.  I  guess the health of our national economy rides on analyzing such data. And to be fair, there were also the boring questions about business finances, employees, etc. ( answers already available from the I.R.S.) …but back to the original letter.

Unfortunately, the letter didn’t explain how taking away another 52 minutes of productivity this year would be any more beneficial than it was in previous years. They must know something I don’t…or maybe they know something they don’t.

I have a hunch the origin of this census had something to do with management at the Department of Commerce trying to find a way to keep office staff from congregating around the water cooler, or somebody lost a bet.

In any event, I lost money and we paid tax dollars gathering this critical data (which I was assured would remain strictly confidential..this is not surprising).