38. What does the company where he/she work produce or what is the principal activity of the company?

38. What does the company or establishment where [the respondent] works or worked produce or what activity is done?

Read the question word for word and write in the lines a and b, the key or most important words and phrases that describe the activity of the company where the person works. Because of this take into account the following considerations:

[Below the text is a form.]

This question makes reference to the activity which a company (factory, office, workshop or farm) does where a person works or worked and not the occupation they have in it.

This activity is determined by the goods produced or the service rendered collectively; for example: commerce, transportation, fabrication of leather wallets, tourist services.

This question requires an inquiry, since the responses of persons can be diverse and not refer to the activity of the company where they work, but rather to the occupation that they carry out.

If a person is a worker for their own account, or has a business in their house or manages a profession or trade independently, you should write down the activity that the person does as if it belonged to a company.

In order to give a clear and exact description of the activity, you should indicate a general and a specific function. For example: repair of electric domestic appliances, production of sweaters, production of homemade candy, sale of clothes, business of real estate.

[p. 172]

Let us look at two examples:

If a lawyer works in his profession independently, the activity is "provision of lawyer services" or "independent lawyer"; but if he is employed by a company like Ecopetrol, the activity that you should put is "refining of petroleum".

Let us suppose that in your route you find yourself with the following case: one person who responds to you "I am a zoo technician in Colanta"' another who says, "I am a boss of sales in Colanta"; another person, "I drive a truck in Colanta" and finally one who responds "I clean and serve drinks in Colanta".

You should ask these persons what they do in Colanta. That is like, for all the activities of the companies where they work "process of milk" or "producer of lactose products".