I am pretty pissed right now. My company, prior to my coming there, was bought out by another company. Basically, this new company screwed over the employees. They were very vague about benefit cuts, etc. So needless to say a lot of people at this new company are pissed off and are leaving. In an effort to retain employees they sent out a completely anonymous survey for all employees to fill out. In the email it explicitly said that no attempt would be made to find out who wrote what was written so we could feel free to really put how we feel.
I was actually pretty restrained and essentially told them the only reason I am staying right now is because they are paying for my graduate education. When asked how important location was to me being with the company I told them something to the effect of “I really wanted to live in XXX because if things don’t work out here, there are plenty of other companies to go work at.” I held back some, but for the most part I was truthful and forthcoming. There were questions in there that made me suspicious such as asking how long you have been there (very narrow ranges), what projects you have and are working on, and if this was your first job out of college, etc. I should have known better.
This was about a month ago. Today my boss pops into my office and pronounces “So I hear you are wanting to leave and are unhappy?” I have told no one about situation except for the information I stupidly divulged in this survey. I basically told him that I didn’t want to leave (heh), but I was unhappy with the nature of the work I was receiving (complete bullshit). The rest really isn’t pertinent to this, but I am pissed that this “anonymous” survey in which they are looking for real feedback from their employees gets turned back around on us. My boss didn’t fire me over anything I said, but he certainly let other people know about it (speaking in what is essentially a cube farm and directly told one of my coworkers whose now supposed to “keep me happy”). Now am I likely to get any kind of important work when he knows how I really feel about the company? I feel betrayed.
Never tell anybody anything at work that you don’t want everyone to know. That includes “anonymous” surveys. It’s the way the game must be played these days.
Oh, you were betrayed, but us old fogeys are used to that and have come to expect it. Welcome to working in the Brave New World.
I saw that coming. Never trust the company to not lie and screw you over. Don’t ever fall for that again. Fill out a report that makes you the loyal golden child.
I love what my employers do:
Most of the people who work there who aren’t management are fairly transient. They work a few projects and leave. Some come back a few times a year.
So HR gives out “anonymous” surveys to see how people like the job. Attached to the bottom of the survey is a query about which of the upcoming projects they’re interested in working. So folks can either be 100% honest and not show interest in work, or they can sign their names so HR knows that they’re interested in work, and censor their comments. Nice.
HR can’t figure out why we keep suggesting that they put the question about working other projects on another sheet. :rolleyes:
It sucks being the guy that has to compile these surveys. We call them Unit Needs Assessments, but basically it is a survey that tells a unit commander what his troops think about the leadership in the unit. It is supposed to be a completely anonymous tool that the commander can use to help him boost morale, identify problems, and fix issues resulting from leadership.
What happens is this: The commander briefs the senior NCO on the problems and tells him to fix them. The Senior NCO calls all the other NCO’s together and bitches about the junior enlisted having problems and we need to fix them now. (We lower level NCO’s know how the game is played and never identify problems with leadership.) The lower level NCO’s are charged with keeping happy all the junior enlisted, when it is not often the lower level NCO’s that the senior leaders have a problem with.
This often produces more problems than it solves, and then our teams are supposed to follow up on the units we did an assessment of. How well do you think we are received?
Holy shit, you should NEVER trust that a survey at work is “anonymous”. I made that mistake once, and only once, and while it didn’t threaten my job, it made life unpleasant for a short while. My company is great at setting up “anonymous” websites for feedback, “anonymous” ways you can e-mail them, etc. One time they placed a “suggestion box” directly in front of a security camera. Oh yeah, that was subtle. :rolleyes:
The only time you should respond to an “anonymous” work survey is if you purposefully want to fuck with them, such as writing:
“I believe in the strength, wisdom, and dinosauric penis of our CEO. He is a God to me, and every day I try to better myself by asking ‘What would Skeeter do?’ My only source of job dissatisfaction is listening to the treasonous mutterings of my supervisor, who does not support the Company Vision, does not embrace our Core Values, and who mocks - yes, mocks! - the Workforce Synergy Plan endorsed by the Board. Although I have done my best with heart and soul to proactively to use Seven Habits to improve our company, I must write with pounding heart and trembling hand that the constant negativity of my supervisor is hurting shareholder value. And I’m sorry, but I cannot support their destructive and even, dare I be so bold, ‘evil’ ways. So give me a poor review if you must, cut my salary, even fire me, but I for one will continue to start each day of my remaining life with the Corporate Song in my heart, and pray that someone out there will stop my supervisor - History’s greatest monster.”
Sometimes it’s just a simple questionaire for the people on my shift, to be filled out in one’s own handwriting. I ignore those. My handwriting would be easily traceable, especially since we have to submit a sample once a year.
The other surveys came in the mail. The form had a barcode on it. It could have been on the up-and-up, or it could have been for tracking.
Notice I said “former company”. I did quit about a year later when I found a new job. Since I was prepared to quit anyway, I was all set to let them have it with the survey–but the survey was so vague that you did not need to worry about any managers discovering who you were. It was all for show…I don’t even remember getting the BBQ lunch I talked about in that thread.
At least their anonymous survey was anonymous–if useless. I wouldn’t trust an “anonymous” survey at my current company as far as I could throw it while it was tied to an elephant. My current company is not nearly as professional as my former company…they’d do some homebrewed do-it-yourself survey rather than hiring Gallup to do it. Oh, and we’ve got the “anonymous” e-mail address and voice mailbox and the suggestion box that just got put up in front of the camera. :rolleyes:
Sad thing is, there are a couple dozen ways to mark those surveys that will not be easily detectable to the naked eye. If mailed out they could have the employees information on the letter in ink that only shows under black lights for example.
My last big company sent out these “anonymous” surveys. I didn’t fill mine out and since I was one of three remote employees, my boss noticed. I mainly didn’t fill it out because I knew it would come postmarked from my area and I have distinctive, terrible handwriting and if he read it, he would absolutely know it was mine.
About a month after the surveys were sent out, he mentioned that he hadn’t received mine yet. I found that pretty telling. What jackholes.
I’ve been in teams looking over the results of anonymous surveys. The multiple choice parts are anonymous. The essay questions are also - but not if you complain about the noise in the office next to the elevator!
If you’re the only person getting tuition assistance for grad school, and note it on the survey, you might as well have signed your name.
If you’re doing the essay question, and have something nice to say, go ahead and include information that can identify you. If you don’t, don’t. I assure you, it is assumed that there are a few unhappy people, and people bitching on the survey will be considered as this set. If the multiple choice questions show there is a problem, there is a lot more chance that something will be done about it.
We had one anonymous survey at my job and it was multiple choice and voluntary. I did not take it. I was to busy working.
They have changed our Employee Personal Health Manager(EPHM) so that it not anonymous any more.
When they first set it up you could use any username, password and email. I set mine up with personal email and a generic username.
The EPHM let you select your benefits, had links to health issues and it let you enter all your health information and your families. All previous illness’ or conditions. A calendar for doctor appointments and reminders for health checks. It also has condition concern areas where you can get more information about a condition you have or think you have, etc, etc.
Well they just updated it to even be more useful. They transferred all of our benefit information but none of the personal information. So if you did have any medical information entered in all the “neat” little areas it had to be entered all over again but that’s not the best part. The best part is that to access the new EPHM you must enter your employee number which in turn sends you an email to your company email address. It not only welcomed me with my previous ‘generic’ user name but took away my ability to use my personal email. How nice of them to let me know that they knew who I was all along.
I am glad I never entered any personal health information. They knew who I was from my benefit elections. It was never really anonymous.
Now we are a health company and protecting Personal Health Information (PHI) is supposed to be one of our companies highest levels of security.
Do I think they are accessing employee PHI? Probably not but I don’t like the idea of my personal health information being out there for my employers to see.
And I wonder for all the people that did enter personal info, where is it now? They did not transfer it to the new EPHM system. It must be entered all over again. Did the database with the information just drift off into space? Where did it go? and who is glancing at it?
Una, I just pasted (with some minor corrections) your comments into yet another “anonymous” survey. If I weren’t married and deathly afraid of my wife’s extended family, I’d declare my undying love for you.
