Survey

This week, on my day out, I was down on the quayside on the Newcastle side of the river. I’d agreed to meet someone there with the vague instructions that she would be down at the court’s end of the river bank. So, there I was opposite the law courts, keeping an eye out for my appointment.

It was a beautiful crisp sunny day and I was regretting having worn my wool coat, yet there had been ice on the windscreen when I left home and it was still cool out of the sun. Over the road there was a gaggle of young people and I gave them very little thought until I was approached by one or two, clipboards in hand. They were obviously carrying out some sort of survey and, sensing they had finally cornered a victim, I was soon surrounded by about a dozen.

The first one asked if he could ask me a question, to which I replied, trying to be witty, if that was the question. Undaunted they went on to ask me some questions about my visit to Newcastle. 

Do you live here? No. Do you work here? No. So you are a tourist? No, I have come here for work but I don’t work here. Clearly the questions hadn’t been that well thought out or was it just me. A problem I have is that when I am asked a question, I start to worry what the question means rather than what the answer should be. I would have had no problem had they asked ‘are you in Newcastle to work? 

Their last question threw me. ‘Are there opportunities for transport and entertainment in Newcastle? 

What did they mean? Are there opportunities to use them? Do they exist? Are there opportunities to improve them? Are there opportunities for new ones to be created? In the end it was simpler just to say yes. Seemingly satisfied with my response they headed off in search of fresh meat.

No doubt they will have returned to college to complete their assignment only to find that the answers collected either gave them the very answers they were looking for or meant nothing at all.

Please, if you are going to send someone out into the world to ask questions, please can you make them either unequivocal (yes or no) or give some context as to why you are asking them, The information you received will be a lot better and people like me won’t be left wondering what was meant.