I already did a post on this, but had to come back to it -
On the Ezra Klein show, discussing the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner and the culture of that agency, Natasha Sarin said:
Particularly with respect to the B.L.S., a sort of statement that they make which tells you a little bit about the temperament of the people who work there — they won’t tell you whether a glass is half empty or half full. What they’ll say is that an eight-ounce glass has four ounces of liquid in it. So that is the degree to which they do not spin in any direction.
And they take that responsibility so immensely seriously. It’s one of the things that makes government a remarkable place to spend some time — to be around these civil servants who take so much pride in the work that they do and the contributions that they make to our ecosystem.
That kind of integrity is remarkable, and by all (reasonable) accounts, the BLS had it. The temptation to shape the truth to serve a purpose is incredibly difficult to resist. Flagrant lying and manipulation are favorite tools of autocrats, but even those with good intentions can rationalize a bit of spin or fudging, and they may not even be aware they’re doing it.
Getting this right takes active, ongoing effort and a culture that prioritizes integrity. Early in my career at Microsoft, one of my jobs was to pull together cross-company performance reports for the CEO and his leadership team. In one review of those reports, one of the executives objected to his metric showing up as on-track. He said that was misleading because he was actually behind in important ways that didn’t yet affect the numbers. In front of his boss and his peers, he called out where he was failing, even when he could have slid by. Of all the things ever said in those meetings, that’s what I remember most vividly.
It’s even more remarkable that the BLS achieved its objectivity in the heart of the federal government, and with data that is so consequential that a president’s fortunes can turn on it. It took generations of work to build that culture within the agency and to ensure its independence. Along the way, powerful people - members of Congress, senators, presidents - had to believe that the accuracy of the data mattered more than short-term political ends.
What was built over decades can be torn down in an afternoon. It’s again time to think about how we can build back better, but this time, the disaster is not a virus or a hurricane; it’s the sitting administration.