management question

[lane912]

my partner was recently asked to partake in a anonymous survey at work about there perceptions of the workplace and the management. questions centered around " are you happy here? do you have a friend at work? does your manager give you the resources you need to do your job?". the whole hospital took the survey. yesterday her manager had private meetings with each team member where they went over each question asking for specifics on each. this made my partner very uncomfortable.

now i realize that this is all legal, no laws were broken but it just doesn't seem like good management practices.
how would you advise my partner to deal with the situation?

[VaSteve]

To grill people on the answers sort of takes away from the point of an "anonymous" survey.

I'm sure your partner would rate things a little lower now.

[LakeCleElum]

If it's an: "anonymous survey", how does her Manager know how she responded?????????????

[stomachmonkey]

IMHO any company that needs to do an anonymous survey to find out if they have problems has the biggest one you can have, lack of open, honest communication and trust at best and an atmosphere of fear at worst.

Either that or it's a witch hunt.

How are the hospitals finances?

These things have a tendency to precede layoffs.

[iplagolf]

I'm a little confused and would like to ask a few questions. Anonymous, no name, just fill in the form? Where they yes/no or check the box answers? Or did they have to hand write their answers? Were the survey sheets all lumped in together or kept separated by departments? Was the manager just reading off of a blank survey sheet, or did the manager have your partners answers, hence "anonymous, really?" and asked why your partner answered the way he/she did? Have, has there been any reports of money woes or impending cut backs in the hospital. Could be a head hunt to thin the herd.

[lane912]

Originally Posted by iplagolf

I'm a little confused and would like to ask a few questions. Anonymous, no name, just fill in the form? Where they yes/no or check the box answers? Or did they have to hand write their answers? Were the survey sheets all lumped in together or kept separated by departments? Was the manager just reading off of a blank survey sheet, or did the manager have your partners answers, hence "anonymous, really?" and asked why your partner answered the way he/she did? Have, has there been any reports of money woes or impending cut backs in the hospital. Could be a head hunt to thin the herd.

the manager had a series of graphs representing the answer set for each question and grilled each person about their feelings on each one-
and yes there were hints to using this to "thin the heard for cost savings"

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

WOW!!!

Wonder how legal that was?

Was there an option to opt out or required?

Gutsy of the manager, oh, they have direct fiscal liability under current Federal Statutes. Do some research....

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Never ever respond to surveys - especially ones in a work environment and never communicate your feelings about a place or your plans to stay/leave regardless. Always seems to work.

[RWebb]

advise your partner to document the incident in writing and sit tight for now

is there a union?

[iplagolf]

Still don't know how anonymous this survey was. I just bet the survey was kept by and in departments. How else would upper, upper management know if they have one, or more than one bad egg in lower management, and there always is. This is a real loaded gun to the head situation. Keep your options open and good luck. Fritz

[lane912]

no union mr webb-
we are on our own-

[porsche4life]

I'd start looking for other employment.

[azasadny]

If mgmt needs a survey to find out what's going on with their employees, that's a sign of poor mgmt, IMHO.

[MRM]

There is no such thing as an anonymous survey. Management can always tell who made each response based on the identifying information in each questionnaire. It's broken down by department, job title, pay level, etc. It's really not hard to tell who is who by looking at the responses. Then there are the secret identifiers written into the survey.

Anonymous surveys are corporate IQ tests. They weed out the people who are not savvy enough to make it in the corporate world. Savvy employees, when faced with an anonymous survey, confirm the boss' glowing assessment of himself. They congratulate the department, division, business unit and corporation as a whole for being the best run and most enlightened organizations on the face of the earth. And they express gratitude for the opportunity to work in such a place, the ability to shine in the boss' reflected light, and the aspiration to climb the ladder in such an organization and one day be just like the boss. When deemed worthy by the organization, of course.

Those who face corporate Darwinism treat anonymous surveys as though they were being asked for their honest opinions and were assured that their opinions would never be used against them. Foolish, trusting souls. Or as corporate HQ calls them, the layoff pool.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

I'd start looking for other employment.

not a bad idea

Oregon has at will employment, so they can fire at any time - take a look at her employment contract and see if there is anything about 2 weeks, etc. in it

you might also inquire about good employment law attorneys up there -- keep it quiet as you're in a small town no matter how large it seems to you...

anyway, tell her to stay quiet

maybe, they just want to do their best to improve things and a bit witless about it, despite MRMs cynical or perhaps realistic take on it

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by lane912

the manager had a series of graphs representing the answer set for each question and grilled each person about their feelings on each one-
and yes there were hints to using this to "thin the heard for cost savings"

that's creating a hostile work environment. having been through this myself my best advice is to tell them what they want to hear. the truth in this case will set you free...free to collect UI.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Never ever respond to surveys - especially ones in a work environment and never communicate your feelings about a place or your plans to stay/leave regardless. Always seems to work.

We hired a consulting firm to help with our company a few years ago. They did a similar survey. One person refused to take it. We fired her.
For them to do this in-house was bad practice. They should have hired someone to conduct the survey and make recommendations to management. The company doing the survey should never ever let company management see the response forms.

[dtw]

[pavulon]

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by lane912

this made my partner very uncomfortable.

I "know a guy" that worked for a mega major company and they scaled individuals by contribution. Perceived, actual or otherwise. If the guy asked, they would tell him where he fell in the spectrum. Simply, he sucked or he was great or in between. There was no hinting.

This guy went through probably 15 of these loud-and-proud cost cutting exercises and they finally nailed him after 23 years of service. Poor bastard.

This same multi-national company was not allowed to touch folks in the 911 father-land because of labor laws.

Hell yes, it made him uncomfortable - each of the 15 times.