My company put out an "Anonymous" survey asking questions which supposedly go towards the "best places to work" contest.

22 Comments

1. AnonymousMay 6,2023 at 1:54AM UTC

   Anonymous surveys are never anonymous.
   Even Workhap on IG who used to do HR said that they weren't as IPs can be tracked, special links, etc

2. AnonymousMay 6,2023 at 2:33AM UTC

   No these are never anonymous. One place I worked sent these out, and you'd get an email if you didn't complete it, so they definitely know who's filling them out. I always lied and put down whatever I knew they wanted to hear.

3. AnonymousMay 6,2023 at 10:17AM UTC

   This brings me to my next question. What is the reason? To target people to fire? It feels threatening, honestly. I have a terrible manager so my honest answers will not be what they want to hear. It would be best not to answer I think.

4. AnonymousMay 6,2023 at 6:51PM UTC

   Our group has them and although they say it's anonymous.....??!

   We get an email that illustrates "surveys not 100% done so of this is you...."

   I had already completed mine before the email.

   I pretty much said what they want to hear: "it's all good."

   Basically, my feelings: keep me, pay me and I'll quietly and professionally do as I am told. Didn't say this, but it's certainly my mindset

5. AnonymousMay 6,2023 at 12:49PM UTC

   My company does this and uses a 3rd party to conduct the survey to ensure that managers only receive aggregated data without individual identifiers. They transparently use the results to take actions towards improving employee retention and morale. I wouldn’t necessarily trust that there would impartiality if the company is conducting the survey themselves or just launched the activity for the first time without much information.

6. AnonymousMay 6,2023 at 1:16PM UTC

   My workplace does too and I agree, although they say it’s anonymous, it isn’t. There are specific links for just for “you” and they still ask what department , location or level you’re in, in the survey. May also depend on your manager’s level. While mine doesn’t see the name, i am sure HR sees it and members of the executive team.

   Depending on how big or small your company is, something I learned and did recently was responded extremely on a 1-5 scale by marking it as an either really bad or really good, with few in between. The reason was because you know majority of people will put and lean towards the middle and the results will come out a little “above average” and they’ll tell you during the meeting that survey says, “we’re doing a good job and everyone here loves their job and team!” (Eye roll)… so by calling out where we were not doing good, I’m sure caught their attention and skewed the data to again, catch their attention.

7. Rosa E HearnMay 6,2023 at 6:18PM UTC

   I do the survey's at work. I use survey monkey. This is completely anonymous unless the question ask for your department, location, etc.. so you just skip those or don't answer them if you want to be anonymous.

   However, we use to do internal surveys via our IT staff and yes, I saw everyone who responded and it was noticeable on the response People were holding back.

   It's why we went to survey monkey. We received much more honest response and that is great.

8. AnonymousMay 7,2023 at 6:05PM UTC

   I would suggest to you that it is not anonymous. They will dice up the data by department and age and gender and if you are an outlier in any of those then they will know who you are. You can decline to fill it out if you so choose but think first about the value of either option. If you think about how the company in past has dealt with change or not then you will use that information to decide how to advance in this specific situation. Often companies want to make changes but if the company is failing in some way it is also used for RIF's and other things.

9. AnonymousMay 8,2023 at 1:55AM UTC

   Wouldn't it be great if these "best places to work" work not orchestrated surveys and instead purely organic and individually submitted to a non-company owned and viewed survey?

10. AnonymousMay 8,2023 at 1:57AM UTC

    Oh and it's not fully anonymous like this post. ;)

11. AnonymousMay 8,2023 at 12:49PM UTC

    They are as anonymous as they can be but usually looked at by department level on up . So if you have a small department, it might be obvious. I've filled them out before and my thought process is, if they are going to ask, I'm going to be honest and I am.

12. Joan Marie VerbaMay 8,2023 at 1:36PM UTC

    Presume that someone is going to see it. There was a similar survey taken at a past job that I had, and management was extremely unhappy with the results. I had the task of putting together the answers, and even though I didn't participate in the survey, just doing that resulted in management being annoyed with me because they weren't happy with the answers they were seeing. My advice is, don't respond to the survey. If responding is required, give generic answers, and presume management is going to see it (and become annoyed if they aren't happy with what they see).

13. AnonymousMay 8,2023 at 1:49PM UTC

    My company did that. I work from home. I put down that even though my couch loves her grand daughter and her dog. They would continue to interfere with our couching . Lord the dog barked so loud one time . The sudden noise made me jump out of chair. To remind you we are suppose to have a quite background. The next time we spoke she apologized for the dog.

14. AnonymousMay 9,2023 at 10:31AM UTC

    What is couching? Your couch loves her grand daughter and her dog? Genuine question.

15. AnonymousMay 8,2023 at 2:04PM UTC

    They are not anonymous. Early in my career I was honest in a survey. I got a call a few days later to discuss my "anonymous" comments. ?

16. KarenMay 8,2023 at 2:07PM UTC

    As someone who has worked in Consumer Insights/Market Research my whole career (30+ years), I can tell you, it depends on several factors. The survey platform they used, the types of questions they ask, etc. Ethically, if they tell you it's anonymous, it should be. However if they tell you your answers will be "kept anonymous," that may mean that your name/email address is tied to your answers and they just aren't supposed to look. I'd recommend answering as honestly as you can but don't provide any information you wouldn't answer if your boss asked you directly.

17. AnonymousMay 8,2023 at 7:30PM UTC

    If there is a third party administering the survey, it's a safe bet is anonymous - but be aware any long answers you type in should not include identifying information, so be careful what you enter. On the other hand, if they are collecting results in house, I wouldn't trust it entirely.

18. AnonymousMay 8,2023 at 7:54PM UTC

    I never think those are anonymous. Only share what you would be comfortable with your boss knowing/ reading. I have seen many instances where they say it's anonymous and then later the manager targets specific feedback they could only have learned about in their survey. Proceed with major caution.

19. AnonymousMay 9,2023 at 5:27AM UTC

    If it's Best Places to Work and the company gathering is Great Place to Work institute, then it is TOTALLY anonymous. it's one of the reasons that survey is considered in the most reputable of the others that copy them.

20. AnonymousMay 9,2023 at 12:35PM UTC

    If you have to sign in, it is not anonymous. If it is not through a third party where you can do it on a non-work computer, I would be suspicious.

21. Valerie RiegerMay 9,2023 at 1:41PM UTC

    It is a BPTW survey, the data is collected by that organization and is anonymous. The data provided to the organization is deidentified and/or aggregated.

22. AnonymousMay 14,2023 at 11:35PM UTC

    My credit union does this every year. It says it is anon, but we get reminders if we don’t do it. So everyone just lies and says what we know they want to hear. They don’t care about the truth anyway.