Did some data entry for a census project and found out 14% of people list their job as 'none of your business'

I was transcribing handwritten census forms from 1990 for a temp gig last month, and that stat came up in a footnote. It made me wonder how many folks in offbeat jobs just write something vague to avoid explaining themselves. Has anyone else seen weird job descriptions on official forms?

3 comments

3 Comments

blake79220d ago

Used to think people who wrote that were just being difficult or trying to be funny. But after reading through a few hundred of these forms, I get it now. There was this one guy who listed "freelance goose wrangler" and another woman who wrote "professional napper." Those are WAY harder to explain to a census taker than just writing something vague. This stat actually changed my mind completely - sometimes people just want to keep their weird job to themselves without getting twenty follow up questions.

irisowens19d ago

Right, the "goose wrangler" thing is basically a flag, not a cover up. But I think the real point is about looking legit while still being kinda honest. Like, if you put "consultant" or "self-employed" nobody asks, but "professional napper" gets a laugh and then they move on cause they can't really question it. It's almost like people pick titles that are so obviously fake that they become a kind of shield. Less explaining, more of a joke that everyone gets.

shane_clark20d ago

Freelance goose wrangler" is hilarious but I have to call out one thing - it's not really about avoiding follow up questions. If anything that job title is gonna get you MORE questions from the census taker. Most people who write vague stuff just don't want to deal with the forms at all, not because their job is weird.