Once upon a time, I was in a staff meeting. {1} At the time, I was in an industry that is practically required to gather customer satisfaction results. Every month, we’d hear what our customers had to say.
Or at least, a few of them. Despite having hundreds of customers every month, we rarely got more than ten surveys back, and often fewer than five. If you forced the equations to calculate the margin of error with that low of a sample size — which I had — you ended up with a margin of error greater than 20%.
So when, that month, we got two surveys back, I did not take the 5% drop in our satisfaction scores seriously. My manager at the time, however, did. When others complained, that manager said, "Well, it’s not like we have anyone here who knows statistics."
Everyone looked at me. They all knew I was teaching a research methods class at the time.
That manager’s behavior — wanting to have some number, any number, to track — is too common. Back in my economic development days, I learned about the "Shoot anything that flies, claim anything that falls" methodology that gets implemented when it’s difficult (or impossible) to get real data. That motivation — on top of people trying to make statistics lie for them — leads to some really wrongheaded news out there.
For example, GoBankingRates decided that it was going to write an article about "The Most Loved Company In Every State."
It would have absolutely received a failing grade in my research methods class.
The article claimed that "high profits and sales revenue" — measured by Fortune 500’s lists — and "happy employees" — measured by Glassdoor ratings — "typically are good indicators that a company holds a positive relationship with its consumers."
Which makes no damn sense.
- Larger companies, thanks to economic pressures, often dominate choices for their industry. This is particularly true in all portions of the healthcare industry. For example, I effectively have only two hospital networks that I could go to (fewer if one is out of network with my insurance), and if I’ve broken a leg, it doesn’t really matter how much I may loathe one or the other.
- How a company treats its employees has no relationship to how it treats its customers. Just look at Amazon.
- Glassdoor ratings are subject to a high degree of selection bias. (What percentage of janitors or cafeteria workers do you think have put in a Glassdoor rating versus white collar workers?)
However, that’s just sloppy research. Then you’ve got the people who are actively misusing statistics. Take Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) who recently "demanded accountability" from the Secretary for Health and Human Services… because he thinks that too much of the CDC workforce works remotely.
As of September 2022, 78% of workers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under the purview of HHS, worked remotely. Comparatively, estimates suggest that between 27% and 50% of the total United States workforce are remote at least part-time. "The public health conditions that led to widespread, full-time remote work, therefore, are no longer present," said Cassidy, citing the official end of the COVID-19 emergency declaration in May. … Cassidy also asked Becerra to provide information on whether HHS monitors the productivity of remote employees compared to in-person workers.
Measuring productivity is not a factor of physical presence, but rather "have you completed your assigned work in the alloted time?" Using physical location as a productivity metric is not about productivity, but instead about control and dehumanization.
It shows, because Cassidy’s comparison gets more idiotic the harder you look at it.
When I worked in direct patient care, of course I did in-person work. There is nothing about my current position that requires me to be in an office, and quite a few benefits from me not being in one. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and chairs.
Cassidy is yet another example of someone trying — and failing — to sound "reasonable" while pursuing an ideological agenda to hurt the CDC for … apparently working to save lives during the pandemic.
Sadly, we cannot expect journalists to do this kind of analysis — unless, of course, they’re comedians.
Stay safe out there.
{1} Check my artistic license policy.
Featured Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay