We’ve completed surveys at NASA before. We were informed that they were between us and management only and completely anonymous. They were posted out in the open, anonymously, but still right out in the open. Once bitten, twice shy. So many either don’t fill them out or are not entirely honest with their responses for fear of possible repercussions.
In other words, if someone quoted an anonymous University of Colorado scientist who has worked on both large missions like Cassini and small ones like Deep Space 1, it wouldn’t take people in the field five minutes to realize that was me.
At one point, a sociologist was involved with the Cassini project, studying how scientists and engineers interacted. When she told me anything she published would keep people anonymous, we had a conversation what “anonymous” actually means.
Management wants positive results. But to some extent this is the case across agencies. NASA has just under 17,000 civil service employees, most of whom supervise contractors (not included in the poll), and has lost quite a few civil service positions in the past few years, so employees who did not like their jobs probably transferred or took buyouts. The second place agency, Health and Human Services, has 65,000 employees, many of whom do lower level work. DOT employes all the TSA agents, many of whom are entry-level employees making a little over the minimum wage. So there are a lot of factors at play here.
We’ve completed surveys at NASA before. We were informed that they were between us and management only and completely anonymous. They were posted out in the open, anonymously, but still right out in the open. Once bitten, twice shy. So many either don’t fill them out or are not entirely honest with their responses for fear of possible repercussions.
What’s the objection to anonymous public posting?
Personal examples we’re used in the write-ups. From them we could tell who wrote the comments.
In other words, if someone quoted an anonymous University of Colorado scientist who has worked on both large missions like Cassini and small ones like Deep Space 1, it wouldn’t take people in the field five minutes to realize that was me.
At one point, a sociologist was involved with the Cassini project, studying how scientists and engineers interacted. When she told me anything she published would keep people anonymous, we had a conversation what “anonymous” actually means.
But the part I don’t get is how duplicity serves anyone.
Is it a failure to anonymize the data?
Management wants positive results. But to some extent this is the case across agencies. NASA has just under 17,000 civil service employees, most of whom supervise contractors (not included in the poll), and has lost quite a few civil service positions in the past few years, so employees who did not like their jobs probably transferred or took buyouts. The second place agency, Health and Human Services, has 65,000 employees, many of whom do lower level work. DOT employes all the TSA agents, many of whom are entry-level employees making a little over the minimum wage. So there are a lot of factors at play here.
Ah. Yes I get your objection.