Part of me doesn’t want to do it but part of me wants to be totally honest. The bad part is the way the survey is written. The questions intentionally don’t get to the actual issues. So much of it is around you and your direct manager. I have a great direct manager who is also getting sc--wed over. I don’t want them blamed for the problems.
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To the people on this board - don’t chicken out on the survey. If you are anything less than 100% honest you are the problem.
Don’t take the survey!!!
The company can spin the numbers and rationalize how they want it. They can’t argue if the employees are apathetic and don’t complete…leaders don’t do $-hit about the numbers so don’t fill it out!
The survey is a joke. Written in a strategic way to get Better responses. They aren’t anonymous and they do nothing. The best way to get their attention would be if nobody did them. All they care about is completion rates
Ultimately bad scores can be held against your manager, even if the rating is not their fault at all, could also have negative budgetary implications for your team or department. In addition to forcing unnecessary work on everyone to install a “fix” which certainly will not resolve any of the underlying issues.
I happen to like my direct manager, and for these reasons I will begrudgingly leave a positive rating and move on. I have been brutally honest in past surveys and it doesn’t do anything good, as many others have reported here.
It became apparent that the survey was pointless when any gripe, criticism, or complaint you shared became a goal for your team to fix. The survey is designed for management to brag about how well they're doing and punish teams that complain about management's ridiculous requirements. Nothing more, nothing less.
For many years I was tempered and measured in my response. Thoughtful and constructive. For a number of years I was bolder and more direct. Honest, but still pulled punches. And for two years I was unfiltered - not crass, but unabashed. And then I stopped and am happier to not have wasted my time, energy or emotion in what has always been performative nonsense.
Our dept manager shared survey comments with the team last year. So much for anonymous.
The one year I was honest I got laid off.
How will we get to enjoy all of the shiny new newsletters, AMAs, vacation destination roundtables, and favorite desert competitions if we don't complete it the stupid survey?? OMG and the stupid "Engagment" channels in MSTeams......those are the only things that spawn from our survey results - more b*lls**t about things we don't care about, from people that hate the employees. ""If you were a type of breakfast cereal, what kind would you be?" OMG these are so fun :s
I just saw a post stating that managers will be punished with IM ratings if survey scores are bad. So now they're going to use the employees disdain for WF to fire more managers. Surprised there's no mutiny yet, considering that the survey scores are in the toilet because of our CEO and his cronies, not my manager or my 2 up boss. sigh
Be totally honest if you are seeking a fast pass to the top of the layoff pile.
The key mistake here is thinking that anyone at the top cares about your survey responses, or your comments. I laugh at the people who complain in the comments section with my peer managers every single year. its become the biggest joke going.
And managers all say, yes our department scores were bad but that's because everybody hates Charlie and his underlings so that's not on me as a manager.
It's not going to change for the better, but it's definitely going to get worse!!!
@OP
So quit whining and don't take it for god's sake.
I am doing exactly what they do in their AMAs. “Ask me anything. Tell you nothing”.
You are way overthinking or overestimating how much your opinion even matters. Regardless of how you answer nothing will change.
The questions are intentionally misleading. “Do you have better access to the technology you need to do your job remotely or in the office?”
See everyone wants to be back in the office!
Do NOT take the survey. Management pats themselves on the back for high participation. This is the one way you can actually send a clear message: you have not earned my voice or my perspective because you’ve proven over and over you don’t take it seriously.
The results can be tied back to you. Commentary paints a line back to you, hyperbole gets flagged for human review. Non-compliance also gets back to management so it's either all or none as a team. Take a breath, proceed with caution. Better still, use co-pilot to write your answers.
I did it for more than two decades, until last year. I want them to get the message that their "leadership" is causing long-time engaged employees to disengage.
Best way to send a message is to not submit one. I’ve been filling these out for years and have come to believe that it’s a temperature gague to see how pi---d off employees are and how much more they are willing to take before they either snap or leave. Keep them guessing by not filling it out. Perfect example, for years they keep dangling the carrot and gaslighting us on the whole work from home thing. Employees wanted nothing more than a work life balance by allowing us to work remote and COVID fell in our lap, a perfect opportunity for employees to show we can in fact be productive from home. Then when we did prove we are just as effective or even more so, then they pull the rug out from under our feet and most employees are either hybrid or A/B schedule or 4-days a week, so F—k them and the high horse they rode in on! Shove your employee survey up your @$$
Everything you say can and will be used against you.
for those who are saying - just write in the comments....
keep in mind that although the survey is confidential, those comments are provided to any manager with enough staff (5 or more this year I think) and the way people write, it's not really difficult to figure out who said it - even in a group of 20 or 30 people.
The best way to send a message to c-suite is ignore the survey. Survey means nothing - questions are fake, they are not genuinely interested in employee well-being, they just want us to quit. They all know what the real issues are - survey is an attempt to hide them and show fake positive statistics. If participation in survey will be below 50% - it will be more significant than few bad comments. Also keep in mind these surveys are not anonymous.
The c-suite has shown itself to be impervious to employee feedback so I'm not sure what the point would be.
Use comments to unleash your fury
In comments you need to make that clear.