We had an internal survey and a lot of us were honest about everything, including management. A few weeks later, several of us were laid off. Funny how that worked out.
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No. Just quote Tech Bro drivel straight from Fast Company magazine, or whatever pop-psychology-business-strategy books the Televangelist fancies.
@1aa Such an ignorant comment.
Just smile and pretend to agree with whatever baloney the actual rewarded SAS employees -- whose glory days were carrying punch cards between buildings — confidently babbles when they talk about implementing technology that was obsolete a decade ago or drawling nonsensically just as an excuse to use some buzzword they somehow heard in a life of not caring one wh-t about technology at all.
I disagreed often with my managers; I thought that SAS was badly managed. It's no surprise to me that the company's headcount is down ~20%.
But I knew people who never complained; or, if they did complain, had managers who were strong enough to tolerate it.
Whether you can thrive and yet be honest depends on two factors:
1) Whether you disagree with your manager.
2) Whether your manager tolerates disagreement.
As I said I’ve been very honest on surveys in the past with not even a hint of repurcussions. I’ve thrived.
I promise next time around I’m going to intentionally be incredibly negative and on the nasty side.
I’m betting there is zero impact. But I’m old and been around long enough I don’t mind putting it to the test.
If they wanted honest answers, they’d hire an outside research agency to conduct these surveys — it’s not clear that they do.
A credible research agency would sever the linkages to the source data to maintain anonymity.
When they tell you it’s confidential, but every link is unique and tied to email it’s not confidential. They’re capturing that PII for a reason. Since my first tussle with a manager early in my career, I only give glowing remarks about everything. Managers? Utopian. Trainings? Nothing could be improved. Company? Never been better. It’s safer that way.
My data point: I spent 35+ years at SAS (VRBP 2021), filled out virtually every survey I got, was critical sometimes, and never to my knowledge suffered any repercussions.
I never filled out a survey while I worked there, despite KC assuring us that everything was confidential. I just assumed that everything was confidential until someone with enough clout got pi---d about an answer and demanded that the survey respondent be identified.
@bp Yes, at SAS it's easy for different people to have different experiences. Maybe you had good managers and I had bad luck.
SAS's HR department has no power to enforce any standards of professional behavior. So some managers act like professionals, while others don't.
@bk Different experiences. I’ve never been anything but honest which includes some negative and controversial sentiments.
Never a single repercussion in any of the many R&D groups I’ve been in over the past 32 years.
What is hidden becomes obvious. What is unspoken becomes truth.
@b9 Oh you were right I don’t know for sure. Just highly skeptical.
@b3 Same to ya, buddy.
@az You don’t actually know what I know and don’t know :)
@at I think it unlikely, but you and I don't know. There are some snakes in management at SAS.
@ap Survey has nothing to do with why someone got laid off
This has happened before. But I doubt one survey would do it.
Management is more likely to target people who have been consistently honest and given constructive feedback for years. Weak managers view such people as troublemakers.
Strong managers take the feedback, and use it to improve. But strong managers have been a minority at SAS.
You are grasping at tenuous and unlikely connections there. In the same vein many thousands of people took a survey and remain employed.