MawBe
Let’s face it ElderlyPerson this is not about the fairness or otherwise of Census questions but some long buried grudge you have about a previous employment which has been reawakened by the Census questions.
This is another matter altogether and one which you might benefit rom talking over with a suitably qualified person.
Your views on slavery, on dubious practices by a previous employer or about the job you ended up doing after being made redundant or suffering constructive dismissal - all of these have nothing to do with the Census.
And no, it is not “disgusting” for questions of this type to feature and Yes you are being totally unreasonable if not obsessive.
It is about both.
Certainly if I had not been made redundant and had retired normally with pension straightaway then I might have just filled in the answer to the question.
But the question is still unfair.
I don't feel so bad about the original redundancy now. I have the pension now - not as much as it might have been but for redundancy, but more than if I had never had that job, and it was very enjoyable and satisfying until all the restructuring exercise started. It was a long commute that I had started when much younger and it was a bit of a trek in some of the winters and so I avoided over ten years of commuting. Maybe I would have survived, maybe I might have been in a bad accident. Maybe as I got older I would have become worn out. Maybe not. I have attended courses that I could not have attended otherwise.
Maybe there are other census questions that upset other people due to their circumstances that just passed me by.
Did they ask if people were divorced for example?
Someone who is divorced is legally single, and some employers record them as that unless in the appropriate situation someone specifically requests being recorded as divorced, perhaps to show that their children were born whilst the person was married. Similarly with widows.
I think it wrong that some government forms insist on married or single. They should allow people to put widow or widower, treating them the same as single, but why should a widow or widower be required to answer single.
A nasty thing they do too is treat partner as including spouse, when partner and spouse are two different statuses.
So they ask Do you have a partner? Then define partner as including spouse. So why should a married person be required to answer yes to having a partner when they are married.
I consider that it is disgusting to ask about name and address of former employer decades later. How does that help plan for the future?
But I asked AIBU and you have replied, so thank you.