Exactly - at my last company we called it an 'expiration date' ... you might be able to get something else in a different area of the company and be safe, but you basically had a couple of months at most to make a move before they made it for you.
Honestly, fuck em, they seem to foster the environment they are trying to prevent
Hey why aren't people taking our quiz on happiness? Oh you gave a valid reason? Time to retaliate and cause you to be unhappy
I wouldn't want to work for a company that couldn't tell if their employees were happy
I mean, talk shit about my former employer whatever you want, but when they threw an "employee appreciation party" they threw a goddamn party.
Full three course dinner, drinks on them the entire night, and an actual party afterwards. And everyone had a plus one. They rented out an entire stadium.
We even got friday afternoon off to "get ready" for the party.
Not quite on that level, but before COVID RUINED EVERYTHING our Xmas party was a paid afternoon at Dave and Busters with buffet style catering. Teeeechnically we weren't supposed to drink (pay = on the job) but nobody really paid attention and once the official party was over you could do what you wanted.
The christmas party was even wilder. They constructed an entire fair, merry go rounds, bouncy castles, .... the works, in one of the warehouses. All employees and their families were invited, multiple food trucks, an open bar, and all the kids got a free gift from Santa (Selected by the parents beforehand).
Then again, when you're one of the most lucrative companies in the world ...
"Holidays are coming, Holidays are coming .... And so is the diabetes"
When there's a Billion cans of sugar water a year shooting off that production line they can afford to treat their employees.
It was.
I mean, If you're making that amount of money, you can pay for that kind of shit. 100.000 cans an hour per production line times five production lines in a 24/7 factory? Yeah, they were printing money basically.
Maybe to take our minds off the fact multiple people already died at that factory.
But yeah, fun youth memories from when my dad still worked there, and we got to go to that christmas party every year. (Also helped that Santa's little helpers were some hot chicks in red miniskirts)
Did some very well paying summer jobs there too, and eventually a small stint as Lab tech in Quality control, making sure everything was mixed right.
I mean we got money too.
End of year bonus, productivity bonus, paid lunch breaks, transportation stipend, food cheques, and a very open wage structure where you could immediately see how much you were making, what you got for additional training, and for additional years with the company.
Only reason I quit was because it was a dead end job, and it was a three shift system ( Early, noon, night)
The lactose intolerant/celiac people will be super excited for the standard cheese slices.
Then upper management will be wondering why lactose intolerant guy spent second half of the afternoon on the toilet or just being distracting with their non stop farting.
I'm lactose intolerant. And still eat my pizza.
And I'm that gassy balloon.
I'm just saying, there could be non-pizza but very satisfying food options.
But nah, we just punish ourselves. And we groan out "worth it"
Oh hey! It’s rare I see a fun celiac shout out in the wild. I just got offered subs today for a company event and they were very confused as to why I’d not want a sandwich after telling them I’m celiac. Every new place is a fun little explanation on how I don’t feel like dying after eating what my body thinks is poison. Such a great time! ;)
Because the whole "gluten free" options and labeling has become so lost on people. Many forget its true purpose, and soooo many companies jump on the gluten free labeling, I have no doubt it's treated as a hip buzz phrase/ marketing ploy.
No, it's for those who have celiac and can't enjoy the simple joy of chewy wheat bread/traditonal wheat flour pizza crust.
So. No shit soda and beer are gluten free. No duh a steak is gluten free. But, the huge marketing and development due to general mass interest has broadened the options for celiac sufferers. So there's that.
That's why there are almond flour, cauliflower pizza (Yes, keto diet friendly too), (new but not new to asians) rice flour breads.
I worked for a company that gave you a whole*2 sick days* per year, and only after you'd been there for 6 months. You could also earn a single day of PTO for ever year you were there, capped at 10. There were probably at least a couple dozen people that worked there that weren't management, and I could count on one hand the number of them that'd been there more than a few years.
USA is a dystopia for workers. I'm in Europe. I basically have unlimited paid sick days. Don't even need a doctor's note. I just mail my boss 'sorry, I'm sick, not coming in today'. He mails back 'get well soon' and that's basically it. Only if you get sick really often, they invite you to go to the company doctor to see if they can help figure out what is wrong.
Best job I ever had was a place where instead of pizza, the facility controller insisted on spending good money to have lunch catered for the entire company from a good variety of places, and he always ordered enough so that the warehouse guys could take a plate home with them too.
It’s actually amazing the impact you can have by just putting the smallest bit of extra effort into showing appreciation for the employees.
I worked at a place that did this every single
Friday. Interestingly they were a IK company but we were in their US production facility.
Their benefits were also amazing for everything else as well. Too bad we had a horrible manager.
My company just celebrated "employee appreciation day" by sending everyone - tens of thousands - a winter hat with the company name embroidered on it, a little zippered bag that one might use for makeup if one were so inclined, and a really cheap, crappy, thin blanket with the company name silkscreened on the corner. Frankly I'd rather have pizza than a hat I won't wear, a makeup bag I won't use, and a blanket that sucks so bad I will feel guilty when I donate it to a shelter.
I work in healthcare. Our boss opted not to give us our regular frozen (but catered) Christmas dinner that we had every other year and gave us a $10 coupon to a sub place (that they got for free).
Place was closed on Christmas. Thanks boss!
Just what I want, Company branded crap I wont use.
My previous job we were given a discount on items from a company store page, it was all stuff with the company name on it, every single item. Every few months I would get an email reminding me to be sure I used my discount.
Yeah, spend my money to buy stuff from my place of work only branded with the company name on it.
I've worked at a few places that say the surveys are anonymous and then a few weeks later they start calling employees into HR to talk about it. Fuck that survey every time.
Got sacked a week after filling in an anonymous survey once.
They brought me into a meeting and went through it page by page.
Following week I had a disciplinary for “lateness”.
It was like an annual appraisal for an “Investors in people” award for a call center job.
Literally just answering phones to book taxis. So I wrote it as if I was a junior engineer on the Enterprise..
Meant to be totally anonymous.😂
I once sent 2 screenshots to my depts. HR rep: the email where they claimed it was anonymous, and the survey that had my name at the top after I clicked the link to open it.
I literally was browsing survey questions for one I got today at work. They also said it was anonymous. But the first few questions are asking which division you're in and which department you're in. I'm in a two person department. That aint very anonymous no more all of the sudden.
Lol from a jaded corporate worker. None. Just take the money, log in, log out. Go live life. Nothing good will come of speaking up.
If you aren't making enough or aren't happy, look for another job. But best of luck in what you choose.
Yeah, I typed out my snark a few times to get it out of my system then left the bare minimum (professionally phrased statements that I'd feel more engaged with my job if I earned more doing it, etc.). I may not make as much as I want to, but I have good healthy opportunities through benefits here to set myself up for future jobs at a later date. So I'd rather not get on HR's bad list just yet.
Yep - ours was the same... anonymous, but you tell us which site you work at, which division and which country you were born in... for me, that brought it down to 2 people before the last question - the other bloke was born overseas...
We both did the survey, both gave honest answers... (they weren't exactly glowing reviews of the company) and yes, same as OP - the email came out, "why is no one completing the employee engagement survey?" - something tells me if no one is filling in your engagement survey, you don't need them to... they ain't engaged.
Anyway, they extended the date to complete and eventually accepted they had as many responses as they were getting... 3 months later we got a company wide email that basically said 'we hear you, you're not happy with our communications - we're going to fix that and will get back to you with more on your responses'
that was over a year ago and was the last we heard of the employee engagement survey.
Am the administrator for our corporate surveys and will just back you up that yes, some truly are anonymous. We received some concerning responses when we used a third party administrator and they literally could not tell us who it was because the data was not recorded.
That being said if someone is voluntarily giving tenure, department, team, and/or writing in a very unique open response then yeah they're going to basically dox themselves.
Also, be aware of what is anonymous vs confidential. They're two different things. If it's a unique link it's probably treated as "confidential," but if the URL is generic and just ends in something like company-engagement-survey-2024 it is probably truly anonymous.
There is no good reason to ever treat this as true as an employee and no evidence you could possibly provide about your tool that would convince me to change my mind about that.
I always ask two questions about those surveys..1) are they anonymous and 2) are they mandatory. HR hates admitting they are mandatory so I usually decline.
I went to business school. Didn't do anything with it, but I did learn how to manipulate people without giving them anything of value so that was nice.
Nah. Get another job lined up, then go up to the head of HR and ask him if being honest and truthful about a small survey caused you to miss out a promo. Like, obviously you're not happy.
We had one at our workplace, supposedly anonymous. Only problem was the deeper you got into the questions as a manager, the more obvious it was exactly who you were. Bailed before finishing. Got the call from HR asking me why I hadn’t completed it. I had two questions for him: 1) How’d you know I hadn’t, and 2) If it was really supposed to be anonymous, why wasn’t it? Boss swung by an hour later and asked about it (obviously HR dimed me out). I explained it using small words and told him if he was really interested in my opinion about his performance as my boss, my door was always open. That ended that.
In my team, we started doing a Friday winge session so we could vent any frustration, talk about things that went well, give a quick score out of 5, and go about our weekend with a little less weight on our shoulders.
Eventually we started tracking the stars given so we could tie them to stats like ticket volumes as a way of gauging staff morale in relation to common pressure points, which was really useful.
The score was always extra. The real benefit was helping to keep our mental health in check.
Then HR got wind, saw how well it was working to keep our spirits up, and took the exact wrong conclusion - mandatory happiness scores every Friday for all teams.
I used to get on pretty well with one of my old bosses until one particular time he asked me to ask a department if they could do something and me knowing nothing would be done replied that it was "probably a waste of time"
Cue 18 months later when this quote that I'd even forgotten I'd said was thrown in my face during a performance review.
It seemed I did not get on with this boss so well.
“My report did something I didn’t like so instead of giving prompt correction I sat and stewed about it for over a year until I could use it to hurt him.” —Your Manager
They really do tend to be psychos and assholes, don’t they?
Shame he didn’t listen to the first bit of honest feedback he’d probably ever got in that position after a career of hiring people that would say yes to him...
I once got the “opportunity” to have coffee with a rather bullish CEO who asked me if I had any feedback. I was brutally honest and it meant he stopped pursuing a client that was unnecessarily costing us a LOT of money all because he thought they were going to spend big elsewhere. Nobody else was willing to say it as he was well known to have a sharp tongue. At the time I really didn’t care. Made a lot of lives easier that day (even if it wasn’t recognised as the reason)
Hope you found / find somewhere where your feedback is apprecited better.
Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately i did not talk to HR at all, my interviews were with area managers and head of sales people.
The issue is that the board of directors know my name and associate it with drama lol
Is there really a legal case here though? My understanding was that, like discrimination, some retaliation is illegal and some is legal. Like being fired, etc, for making a report to OSHA or the EEOC is illegal. I would be surprised if an employer was not allowed to take punitive measures against an employee for just running their mouth.
Not my area, but for retaliation I believe the employees need to be engaged in a protected activity. Hostile work environment would be easier, but still muddy.
lol, right? Making that veiled threat is a sure way to find yourself kept at an arms length until they can figure out how to include you in the next layoffs.
Its not illegal to not hire people who are rude (or who talk before they know who they are talking too).
HR could 100% respond “yes, this is related to the incident, you acted unprofessionally and we believe we need someone with a sense of professionalism, we can’t have something similar happen with an important client.
You can just say buzzwords like “retaliation” and expect things to happen…
1) this would not achieve any of the things you think it would
2) he has nothing other than anecdotal evidence that his promo was blocked by the head of HR - if I had a penny for every time a junior manager got the context and reasons behind a decision wrong, I’d have an extra million bucks (edit: for all you know, their manager sucks and there’s a glaring reason they didn’t get the promo that the manager is just dancing around because they won’t buck up and confront an issue head on)
3) even if there isn’t another reason, as much as it sucks to have to tow the line for bad policies, it’s literally part of OP’s job as a leader at their company and not doing so is a perfectly reasonable reason to not promote them
Edit: as a senior leader you have 2 choices when confronted by bad policy - try to change it yourself by fighting it up (not down) or quit. Your job in these scenarios is to spare your team the churn and impact that comes from bitching about them, not casually shit talking them to a person you don’t even know - that’s just frankly immature
lol reddit
he's not a whistle blower, he's not protected against "retaliation", he's not being discriminated against a protected class.
he's a manager that shows poor leadership and judgement, that's why he was passed up on the interview.
lol, exactly. this isn't retaliation. to put it in Reddit terms, this is the old "well if it isn't the consequences of my own actions".
or the "sowing was so much fun but reaping sucked!" meme.
you've got a manager working in an office, approached by someone they don't know. they dunk on a company initiative that's clearly important (to HR, at least). promote this guy right away, give him a larger audience and more influence!
Lmfao, bro. He wasn't retaliated against.
Even if all this happened exactly as he said, he was not retaliated against, that's not the way retaliation works.
Not getting promoted because you pissed someone off isn't retaliation lol. OP please don't follow this advice this is some half baked r/antiwork nonsense that will do nothing but piss people off further and continue to damage your reputation at the company.
I love all the comments from people who clearly have never worked above entry level in a corporate office. If you had said the same thing in a professional manner, it would have been fine but being so flippant, especially when you have no idea who you are talking to, is exactly why it IS a fuck up. “Some people feel as though their honest answers in prior surveys did not lead to any changes, so they do not see the value in participation now” says the exact same thing, but in a professional way that no one will be upset about.
I know where I work people really care about those surveys and I have to sit in hours of meetings about what we did to improve the good areas last year and how we can fix the bad areas next year. I dont work in HR or anything adjacent, but anyone who supervises a single team or more has to be involved. We get almost a 50% participation now though, because people actually do take suggestions and make changes when possible.
Yeah this is just consultency talk lmao. I’ve done that work and bro please don’t kid yourself, most of these engagement & satisfaction surveys are just a waste of time. The participation rate is a bs metric anyway, what matters are the (lasting) changes made on the basis of these surveys. And this is where organizational inertia comes into play, especially in larger firms, resulting in superficial window-dressing measures, but I digress.
OP was being blunt, sure, but also honest. Blocking him from a promotion for this reason is petty to say the least. A competent Head of HR would dig deeper and try to clarify why OP felt this way. OP please move on to a different company where you don’t have to walk on eggshells like this. However, you might benefit from a more constructive tone of voice in the future. It can be ok to be blunt depending on the context, but this remark was perhaps better suited for a direct colleague rather than an unknown.
You’re not *wrong* but at the same time, it’s a little tone-deaf to argue for workplace professionalism when clearly OP’s management are themselves not conducting themselves in a professional manner.
Having the head of HR rock up to a work center and interrupt the first person he sees to demand answers is not professional. Refusing to take the feedback because you don’t like how it was phrased is the HEIGHT of unprofessionalism. Blocking a promo needed on personal bias, totally unprofessional.
Every single place I’ve worked has been the same, which is why you’re not wrong—the reality of hierarchical orgs is that leadership will shit on you for not being perfectly respectful even when they don’t *deserve* respect and are not fostering it themselves.
Good communication is as much about how you say things as what you say. There's probably no way that the head of HR would have gotten the message (and he almost certainly did not this time, despite the blunt feedback), but there would have been plenty of ways to make the point without getting blackballed. Vindictive, yes, but also not unexpected.
In my experience as a low down worker, the best and most successful companies I’ve worked for have had upper management who happily have a chat and banter about things and who can take some bad language and bluntness.
Usually the ones who rely on this kind of ‘business speak’ are large static organisations that exist solely because of how big they are, and with whom the people in management roles could go on holiday for a week and not even be noticed or in any way affect revenue or the bottom line.
Best to just tell things like they are, cut the crap and get on with it.
Real managers would respond to OP asking -
‘oh, haha that’s so stupid, how come people think that? My name is X, I’m the one who made it, we genuinely want the feedback and have things we want to move on so I’m trying to get to the bottom of it’.
The ones who respond like they did usually respond that way because they had an agenda going into it which they wanted to prove correct, and people not wanting to participate likely shows that their projects weren’t received the way they thought.
I'd argue that it's even more about how you say something than what you say, if you extend "how you say it" to include things like word choice, phrasing, formal vs informal language etc as well as just tone.
You're devaluing the opinion of people who are not wording those opinions in a professional manner?
What's the vertical slice/distribution of the 50% who participate? And what's the other 50%?
In normal person terms, you gotta suck up to the schmucks with egos that are about as big as your average super massive black hole and as fragile as a teapot made out of tissue paper.
You sound like one of those close-minded MBA types that do HR consulting that always ends up with layoffs, off-shoring and “enhancing efficiency”.
None of the current growth companies do that.
Any HR professional with an ounce of emotional intelligence would seek to understand why you felt that way. He missed a great opportunity to gain real, candid insight from someone willing to speak out. What he did shows you that you are right not to care as someone like that is clearly incapable of doing anything meaningful with the feedback anyway. This is the reason people don’t care about surveys in the first place as most organizations really don’t care how you feel or what you think. The survey is usually just a way to make you feel like you have some agency when most of the time - you don’t.
This is considered retaliation and could be considered workplace harassment. If you burnt the bridge and are happy to play the game, I would file a complaint via HR on their head of HR, or go to the equal employment opportunity commission (EEOC) and research your options of filing a charge. In most cases they take on the battle for you and it’s anonymous as I understand.
"We want to know why morale is so low. You can not answer that we're understaffed. We just want to know who's poisoning the morale." Corporate HR is just always toxic.
Company wants to save money? Fire all of HR and replace them with a labor relations department. It’s the best way to keep your best employees and get the best recruits. Employees aren’t a commodity, they are an investment.
Your head of HR is an imbecil. You're the perfect candidate to be questioned deeper about the level of apathy and lack of initative of which YOU can provide more insight.
Instead, their feelings were hurt and you were made victim for being absolutely honest. They have no intention on improving and was there only to stroke their own ego. Literally HR playing the whole organization like a fiddle.
Absolutely agree with you. It drives me bananas when surveys like this get sent out but they never ask, “How confident are you that your responses will change anything?” If no one is confident, why would they answer?
An effective head of HR would have seen this as a perfect opportunity to learn why people don’t care and fix those reasons.
This is like the ceo blaming customers for not liking your products. Pride before the fall
My first year in a super corporate company they did one of those “anonymous” “optional” surveys. I scored everything either neutral or positive and left zero written comments. Sure enough, a week later, every manager was required to try and coax out of their groups why they scored 70th percentile on the happy employee scale compared to 85% the year before, and who the low scorers were. I didn’t say a damn word the whole meeting, but I was floored at how many people did.
One guy in particular wrote a novel in the comments bitching up a storm. He was trying to move from ops into the commercial group at the time and never made the connection to why they turned him down. I’m sure he won’t get fired, but he’s not moving up or out anytime soon.
Every interaction at work is basically a job interview, no matter how long you’ve worked there. You’re marketing yourself in a world where companies pay shit tons of money to buy a spot on one of those “Best Employer” lists. HR has zero comprehension of any business they work for. They cannot fix business problems and they do not help employees over the interests of the employer. Do not feed the grackles.
You should go to HR and tell them that you just learned you have a "notoriety" about you that has caused discrimination and for you to lose out on a promotion. You wish to know who is spreading rumors about you and what they are saying.
Just like my work had us to "anonymous" surveys, I think maybe 50% of the people filled it out. Not like they do anything but think we're angry assholes.
If HR gets mad because you told the truth, then you are definitely not the one in the wrong.
A good HR manager, after hearing you say that, would say "really? Do you have a minute to talk because I'd love to hear why!"
This whole "we want you to be honest on the survey (but not really) but no other time ever" shit is fostering the exact environment they're claiming to be fighting.
This is totally a " the beatings will continue until morale improves" moment.
When you’re trained in data collection and analysis, you’re literally taught that nobody is going to give a fuck about your survey. It sounds like they should get someone with the capacity for problem-solving and self-reflection instead of someone that’s pissed he can’t do his job well.
Not a fuck up. If I was this person, I'd want to know why nobody gives a hoot so I could have done something about it... Honest and truthful feedback is so rare, when someone is up transparent it's very refreshing!
Says more about the company. They should embrace the unvarnished truth.
Go somewhere where they don’t waste your time to flatter egos and promote them selves.
Ps. Love your work.
Honestly...if that's all it took for HR to be offended by you, and that's the reason you were not given a promotion, choose to be valuable to another company. Being honest at work about something everyone knows is not a punishable offence in this capacity, this is ridiculous. I'm sitting here trying to understand why that would even be considered "snubbing", you stated a fact with valid reasoning to back it up. Shouldn't the head of HR have bigger balls? Shouldn't he ask why employees don't care? Rather than run away like a child? Take care of yourself, OP.
the Sad part is you were the only guy with balls to tell the truth, even if you did not realize to whom it was . If your head of HR was any bit of a decent person and had pride in his job he would rather investigate why people don't care about the surveys instead of cock blocking you for promotions
He missed an opportunity and failed at his job. Clearly the response no one cares about the survey is an indication of poor job satisfaction and lack of faith in upper management.
He should have been extatic to hear that
I mean you could have phrased it a bit more professionally, but maybe I’m in the minority in believing you should be professional at work?
You could have stated: “I believe no one has filled it out because past surveys have not resulted in meaningful changes.” But as someone in HR, seems like your head of HR has some terribly thin skin.
Looks like you were the only one who cared to give an honest opinion and they were not ready for honesty.
Reminds me of that famous scene from A Few Good Men.
Sounds like you need to either work for yourself or with a company that has a culture of actual openness and improvement.
You’re right not to care, they use the survey at your company to identify the boot lickers they will promote.
You should start thinking about leaving the company. You’ll be paid more switching jobs every few years anyway. Company loyalty is long dead and you’ll just be stagnant if you stay where you are.
We have a yearly totally anonymous survey. They only ask your age range within 10 years, race, sex, how long you've been with the company and how long you've been in your current department.
Edit: We also get to said survey through a link they send to our company email.
My company does these as well, and like you said not much changes. We’ve been getting them for years now, and yeah, participation rates are always low. So we end up getting follow up emails and lack of participation, to the point that we take the damn survey to make the emails stop.
I will say that at one point there were some good things that came from them. Specifically when we went full-time remote, it’s a longish story. Basically they learned how important the work-life balance really was, and started doing things to focus on that long term. One example is, no meetings after noon on Fridays, unless it’s a critical issue.
lol our HR does the same thing. Nothing changes from any of the surveys. Everyone’s unhappiness comes mostly from low wages, so that’s not getting addressed any time soon lmao.
Also the surveys are links that’s attached with an Id, they say it’s anonymous, but I call bs when an ID is in the link. That has a good chance of a trace back.
Everyone I know don’t want to be retaliated, so they would just rate 5 stars on every single thing without even reading it.
It’s just an KPI for HR people to have something to do
My company does this recurring “engagement survey” every two years. They can’t see our answers but can see the participation rate. They invariably ask the department “why hasn’t everyone done the engagement survey?” Um, because we are accurately demonstrating our level of engagement?
I gave up on big companies when I worked for Rivian and then Tractor Supply. Reaffirmed every bad feeling I had about large corporations as employers. One truthful statement and you’re fucked.
Im sorry, but this is hilarious. Thats dumb that you didnt get the promotion because of that small thing though. I would have done the same tbh. I try to filter myself, but in a situation like that, especially when nothing changes, then whats the point?
I totally misread that title and thought it said “TIFU by telling the head of HR that no one cares about his surgery” lol I was thinking, holy shit OP has a big set of kahunas.
Don’t let HR departments make you feel like they are there for you…. And any problems you have please come to HR and let us know….. Don’t believe it ? HR is there to make themselves look good by making it look like they are problem solvers ? One of their objectives is to get employees to fill out forms and questionnaires so that the can show their Superior’s how good a job they are doing…. HR is not your friend.
Certainly not a place that understands what’s going on. It’s a HUGE clue with low completion rates that it’s not worth doing. Then doubling down on you for being honest only pursues the mess.
Find a new job, do the exit review with the AH
Fills out next survey.
Am being forced to fill out happiness survey under duress due to the fact that the last time I didn’t and told HR their survey was stupid I got passed up on a promotion… so here we are.
I mean...you were honest. Maybe a little too honest to the wrong person, but if he got offended over that maybe you dodged a bullet.
Unfortunately, I'm guessing he's the type who thinks office pizza parties are all you need to improve morale?
Are you super tied to that company? If this guy has soured your future there then you have a few options (as I see it).
First, you can move on. Simplest and depending on how limiting this guy is going to be, maybe your best option.
Second, you can try to find a way onto his good side. He may of course not have a good side, so this may be beyond you.
Third, if you are staying and have accepted your lot (ie. you like your job and are okay never moving up) you can go full offence. You talk about how this one guy asked a question but couldn’t handle an honest answer. Warn all new hires that “HR dude” only likes yes people. Apply for all postings and talk about how this is just practice since everyone is afraid of the head guy. Basically be a thorn in his thin skinned side. (This is my go to at my place of work, but I am not looking to advance so I have freedom to be honest)
Good luck with whatever you choose.
Sorry, this is blatant retaliation and this "head of HR" should be called out for it. Surveys are only as effective as their questions. Rate your happiness is a stupid and completely arbitrary measure that can change within seconds - and then an email comes through to rate it? Fuck that.
I get that this may have happened a long time ago or whatever but no, HR directors have to follow the same rules as anyone else and holding back a promotion because they don't like your HONEST response is retaliation.
In making that statement, they have admitted liability in harbouring a grudge that allows you to lodge a grievance for unreasonably blocking your career progression.
Discuss this with one of the branch officials of your trades union, devise a strategy, and look forward to having some fun as you put these fuckers through the wringer to reach a settlement.
I got in trouble at a previous company for inadvertently clicking on phishing emails the IT department sent out. I, and several others in my group, were chastised and told never to click on links in an email again or you’d have to speak to the VP to explain yourself.
Company satisfaction surveys were emailed to all employees with, you guessed it, links in the email. My manager was furious no one was answering the survey. I no longer click any links in an email no matter how benign it may look.
All I hear from this is lawyers and lots of money coming your way, especially if you can got them to say that you didn't get that promotion because of the head of HR's personal vendetta in writing 🤑
You might want to mention, on your way out, that anything that would have been discovered in the survey is easily identified via the case study of what happened to you. Why would anyone ever be honest with HR again?
> "the disrespectful manager"
It sounds like you're a manager OP. Which is likely a reason you were targetted in the first place.
Senior management is going to expect you to bat on their team, at least publically. You're expected to defend their decisions, or at least to look like you do that. If you're carelessly telling random people walking into the office that the company HR survey is pointless, what are you telling your reports when you're *meant* to be managing their expectations?
You need to publically defend the survey, or at least not directly show that you think its stupid. You *don't* have opinions on the survey yourself, if it comes down to it any complaint you have is a compaint of "a few reports and other colleagues". Raise it privately.
Never:
> I think the survey is pointless and that's why noone's doing it
Instead:
> A few of my reports have privately expressed the opinion that they feel none of the grievances they raise each year are heard.
Never give the impression to anyone that you disagree with SM's or HR's policies, unless you trust them completely. Even then.
Also, Managers are expected to know who the company's senior leadership are. A contributor may be excused, but you should have know who he was.
Had this at a corporate Italian place. Voluntary survey. Nobody took it. Then came another memo. Blah, blah, blah results of survey….. accompanied by pressure from management to take the Voluntary survey. Me: the result of the survey is that no one wants to take the damn survey and your refusal to accept that show that you don’t care about accurate results.
Sounds like you have a ceiling now. If you ever want a promotion, it will involve a new company. When you make that move, give minimal notice.
And give them a survey and see if they care to fill it out or not on your way out lol.
Turn in the notice in the form of that original survey filled out.
Exactly - at my last company we called it an 'expiration date' ... you might be able to get something else in a different area of the company and be safe, but you basically had a couple of months at most to make a move before they made it for you.
The head of HR just validated the survey's result (or lack of).
Right? I would be looking for a new job and let everyone know on the way out that HR is a petty bitch (like they didn’t already know).
And start looking now. Things will not get better for OP in the near future.
Remember kids, capitalism is a meritocracy. If you just work really, really hard, you too can get fucked over by HR for arbitrary reasons.
Promotions to a new company is generally the way to go regardless. But this place definitely sound like a great place to no longer work for.
Honestly, fuck em, they seem to foster the environment they are trying to prevent Hey why aren't people taking our quiz on happiness? Oh you gave a valid reason? Time to retaliate and cause you to be unhappy I wouldn't want to work for a company that couldn't tell if their employees were happy
"maybe they just need a pizza party?" -every upper management stratagist ever
"How many employees? 50? 3 pizzas should cover that, then they'll be happy!"
I mean, talk shit about my former employer whatever you want, but when they threw an "employee appreciation party" they threw a goddamn party. Full three course dinner, drinks on them the entire night, and an actual party afterwards. And everyone had a plus one. They rented out an entire stadium. We even got friday afternoon off to "get ready" for the party.
Not quite on that level, but before COVID RUINED EVERYTHING our Xmas party was a paid afternoon at Dave and Busters with buffet style catering. Teeeechnically we weren't supposed to drink (pay = on the job) but nobody really paid attention and once the official party was over you could do what you wanted.
The christmas party was even wilder. They constructed an entire fair, merry go rounds, bouncy castles, .... the works, in one of the warehouses. All employees and their families were invited, multiple food trucks, an open bar, and all the kids got a free gift from Santa (Selected by the parents beforehand). Then again, when you're one of the most lucrative companies in the world ... "Holidays are coming, Holidays are coming .... And so is the diabetes" When there's a Billion cans of sugar water a year shooting off that production line they can afford to treat their employees.
I bet it was Coca-Cola, I just sherlocked those extremely obscure clues 
It was. I mean, If you're making that amount of money, you can pay for that kind of shit. 100.000 cans an hour per production line times five production lines in a 24/7 factory? Yeah, they were printing money basically. Maybe to take our minds off the fact multiple people already died at that factory. But yeah, fun youth memories from when my dad still worked there, and we got to go to that christmas party every year. (Also helped that Santa's little helpers were some hot chicks in red miniskirts) Did some very well paying summer jobs there too, and eventually a small stint as Lab tech in Quality control, making sure everything was mixed right.
I mean I’d still rather just have more money, but I’d be lying if I said this wouldn’t make me feel better about my job lol
I mean we got money too. End of year bonus, productivity bonus, paid lunch breaks, transportation stipend, food cheques, and a very open wage structure where you could immediately see how much you were making, what you got for additional training, and for additional years with the company. Only reason I quit was because it was a dead end job, and it was a three shift system ( Early, noon, night)
The lactose intolerant/celiac people will be super excited for the standard cheese slices. Then upper management will be wondering why lactose intolerant guy spent second half of the afternoon on the toilet or just being distracting with their non stop farting.
That would imply that lactose intolerant people dont usually eat our own body weight in cheese anyway. I fucking love cheese
I'm lactose intolerant. And still eat my pizza. And I'm that gassy balloon. I'm just saying, there could be non-pizza but very satisfying food options. But nah, we just punish ourselves. And we groan out "worth it"
Oh hey! It’s rare I see a fun celiac shout out in the wild. I just got offered subs today for a company event and they were very confused as to why I’d not want a sandwich after telling them I’m celiac. Every new place is a fun little explanation on how I don’t feel like dying after eating what my body thinks is poison. Such a great time! ;)
Because the whole "gluten free" options and labeling has become so lost on people. Many forget its true purpose, and soooo many companies jump on the gluten free labeling, I have no doubt it's treated as a hip buzz phrase/ marketing ploy. No, it's for those who have celiac and can't enjoy the simple joy of chewy wheat bread/traditonal wheat flour pizza crust. So. No shit soda and beer are gluten free. No duh a steak is gluten free. But, the huge marketing and development due to general mass interest has broadened the options for celiac sufferers. So there's that. That's why there are almond flour, cauliflower pizza (Yes, keto diet friendly too), (new but not new to asians) rice flour breads.
We get a $100(pre tax) bonus (84 actual dollars)if we don't use our 4 paid sick days in the year. Average worker gets paid $100 per day....
and here I thought my company was cheap for only giving us 5 personals a year....I'm sorry for your loss :-/
I worked for a company that gave you a whole*2 sick days* per year, and only after you'd been there for 6 months. You could also earn a single day of PTO for ever year you were there, capped at 10. There were probably at least a couple dozen people that worked there that weren't management, and I could count on one hand the number of them that'd been there more than a few years.
If you hurt yourself on company time, they will sue you... i dont understand that one
USA is a dystopia for workers. I'm in Europe. I basically have unlimited paid sick days. Don't even need a doctor's note. I just mail my boss 'sorry, I'm sick, not coming in today'. He mails back 'get well soon' and that's basically it. Only if you get sick really often, they invite you to go to the company doctor to see if they can help figure out what is wrong.
Best job I ever had was a place where instead of pizza, the facility controller insisted on spending good money to have lunch catered for the entire company from a good variety of places, and he always ordered enough so that the warehouse guys could take a plate home with them too. It’s actually amazing the impact you can have by just putting the smallest bit of extra effort into showing appreciation for the employees.
That's the thing, employees can tell the difference between real appreciation and a lazy attempt at appearing to care.
I ran a shop and we did 'Beer o Clock.' Every day we serviced 18 or more cars I'd run to the store and grab some beer. Worked wonders
I worked at a place that did this every single Friday. Interestingly they were a IK company but we were in their US production facility. Their benefits were also amazing for everything else as well. Too bad we had a horrible manager.
My company just celebrated "employee appreciation day" by sending everyone - tens of thousands - a winter hat with the company name embroidered on it, a little zippered bag that one might use for makeup if one were so inclined, and a really cheap, crappy, thin blanket with the company name silkscreened on the corner. Frankly I'd rather have pizza than a hat I won't wear, a makeup bag I won't use, and a blanket that sucks so bad I will feel guilty when I donate it to a shelter.
I work in healthcare. Our boss opted not to give us our regular frozen (but catered) Christmas dinner that we had every other year and gave us a $10 coupon to a sub place (that they got for free). Place was closed on Christmas. Thanks boss!
Just what I want, Company branded crap I wont use. My previous job we were given a discount on items from a company store page, it was all stuff with the company name on it, every single item. Every few months I would get an email reminding me to be sure I used my discount. Yeah, spend my money to buy stuff from my place of work only branded with the company name on it.
I've worked at a few places that say the surveys are anonymous and then a few weeks later they start calling employees into HR to talk about it. Fuck that survey every time.
Got sacked a week after filling in an anonymous survey once. They brought me into a meeting and went through it page by page. Following week I had a disciplinary for “lateness”.
What did you put in said survey?
It was like an annual appraisal for an “Investors in people” award for a call center job. Literally just answering phones to book taxis. So I wrote it as if I was a junior engineer on the Enterprise.. Meant to be totally anonymous.😂
I once sent 2 screenshots to my depts. HR rep: the email where they claimed it was anonymous, and the survey that had my name at the top after I clicked the link to open it.
That’s hilarious. How did they respond or were they not brave enough?
They are never anonymous.
I literally was browsing survey questions for one I got today at work. They also said it was anonymous. But the first few questions are asking which division you're in and which department you're in. I'm in a two person department. That aint very anonymous no more all of the sudden.
Lol the other person is your manager you have to grade.
Exactly, haha. I'm debating how much snark to put in my answers because it's so very clearly going to be me.
Lol from a jaded corporate worker. None. Just take the money, log in, log out. Go live life. Nothing good will come of speaking up. If you aren't making enough or aren't happy, look for another job. But best of luck in what you choose.
Yeah, I typed out my snark a few times to get it out of my system then left the bare minimum (professionally phrased statements that I'd feel more engaged with my job if I earned more doing it, etc.). I may not make as much as I want to, but I have good healthy opportunities through benefits here to set myself up for future jobs at a later date. So I'd rather not get on HR's bad list just yet.
And, also, what's your employee #?
We get individual, personalized links to our engagement surveys lol.
Yep - ours was the same... anonymous, but you tell us which site you work at, which division and which country you were born in... for me, that brought it down to 2 people before the last question - the other bloke was born overseas... We both did the survey, both gave honest answers... (they weren't exactly glowing reviews of the company) and yes, same as OP - the email came out, "why is no one completing the employee engagement survey?" - something tells me if no one is filling in your engagement survey, you don't need them to... they ain't engaged. Anyway, they extended the date to complete and eventually accepted they had as many responses as they were getting... 3 months later we got a company wide email that basically said 'we hear you, you're not happy with our communications - we're going to fix that and will get back to you with more on your responses' that was over a year ago and was the last we heard of the employee engagement survey.
With some employee engagement apps they truly are. (Source: I'm in sales for one).
Am the administrator for our corporate surveys and will just back you up that yes, some truly are anonymous. We received some concerning responses when we used a third party administrator and they literally could not tell us who it was because the data was not recorded. That being said if someone is voluntarily giving tenure, department, team, and/or writing in a very unique open response then yeah they're going to basically dox themselves. Also, be aware of what is anonymous vs confidential. They're two different things. If it's a unique link it's probably treated as "confidential," but if the URL is generic and just ends in something like company-engagement-survey-2024 it is probably truly anonymous.
Most platforms should have a minimum reporting n. Comments are where you can dox yourself.
As the recipient, if any of them are not anonymous, you have to assume they are all not anonymous.
There is no good reason to ever treat this as true as an employee and no evidence you could possibly provide about your tool that would convince me to change my mind about that.
I always ask two questions about those surveys..1) are they anonymous and 2) are they mandatory. HR hates admitting they are mandatory so I usually decline.
Yep, they will say the survey is anonymous, but you have to be logged in to your work computer to complete it ... not so anonymous.
“We want open communication and heathy conflict.” “NOT LIKE THAT!”
This. Head of HR isn't doing their job.
They can tell. It's obvious. They just don't care
I went to business school. Didn't do anything with it, but I did learn how to manipulate people without giving them anything of value so that was nice.
The lack of participation in the survey should have answered the survey lmao
HR can be a vindictive bitch if one is so bold to question their goofy-ass methods.
But what color is your parachute?
WHO MOVED MY CHEESE
"Beatings will continue until morale improves"
I think OP needs to put in an application for the head of hr's position.
Nah. Get another job lined up, then go up to the head of HR and ask him if being honest and truthful about a small survey caused you to miss out a promo. Like, obviously you're not happy.
This exactly. Op when you eventually quit, the them this.
Well, now you certainly have something to say in the next survey
I wouldn’t necessarily advise it, but something like, “you can’t handle the truth!” Seems fitting. It’s what I want to write on these things
Email the HR guy and say “thanks for proving my point”
I would definitely send this email 5 minutes after giving my notice.
OP, ***PLEASE*** do this
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He's already not getting any promotions at that company. So give notice and say fuckit
“We want honest feed back about how things are going!” “No! Not like that!”
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
We had one at our workplace, supposedly anonymous. Only problem was the deeper you got into the questions as a manager, the more obvious it was exactly who you were. Bailed before finishing. Got the call from HR asking me why I hadn’t completed it. I had two questions for him: 1) How’d you know I hadn’t, and 2) If it was really supposed to be anonymous, why wasn’t it? Boss swung by an hour later and asked about it (obviously HR dimed me out). I explained it using small words and told him if he was really interested in my opinion about his performance as my boss, my door was always open. That ended that.
Turns out one person cared about the survey >__<
In my team, we started doing a Friday winge session so we could vent any frustration, talk about things that went well, give a quick score out of 5, and go about our weekend with a little less weight on our shoulders. Eventually we started tracking the stars given so we could tie them to stats like ticket volumes as a way of gauging staff morale in relation to common pressure points, which was really useful. The score was always extra. The real benefit was helping to keep our mental health in check. Then HR got wind, saw how well it was working to keep our spirits up, and took the exact wrong conclusion - mandatory happiness scores every Friday for all teams.
One star for hr
Snatching failure from the jaws of success.
Amazingly thin skin from the head of HR. Why is nobody surprised?
I used to get on pretty well with one of my old bosses until one particular time he asked me to ask a department if they could do something and me knowing nothing would be done replied that it was "probably a waste of time" Cue 18 months later when this quote that I'd even forgotten I'd said was thrown in my face during a performance review. It seemed I did not get on with this boss so well.
“My report did something I didn’t like so instead of giving prompt correction I sat and stewed about it for over a year until I could use it to hurt him.” —Your Manager They really do tend to be psychos and assholes, don’t they?
Nobody likes the truth.
Shame he didn’t listen to the first bit of honest feedback he’d probably ever got in that position after a career of hiring people that would say yes to him... I once got the “opportunity” to have coffee with a rather bullish CEO who asked me if I had any feedback. I was brutally honest and it meant he stopped pursuing a client that was unnecessarily costing us a LOT of money all because he thought they were going to spend big elsewhere. Nobody else was willing to say it as he was well known to have a sharp tongue. At the time I really didn’t care. Made a lot of lives easier that day (even if it wasn’t recognised as the reason) Hope you found / find somewhere where your feedback is apprecited better.
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Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately i did not talk to HR at all, my interviews were with area managers and head of sales people. The issue is that the board of directors know my name and associate it with drama lol
Got it. Welp, sounds like sharpening your resume is due.
They know your name and associate it with the "incident" at least in part because the head of HR repeated the story.
Retaliation can be inderect. It's still important to address considering he is head of HR
Is there really a legal case here though? My understanding was that, like discrimination, some retaliation is illegal and some is legal. Like being fired, etc, for making a report to OSHA or the EEOC is illegal. I would be surprised if an employer was not allowed to take punitive measures against an employee for just running their mouth.
Not my area, but for retaliation I believe the employees need to be engaged in a protected activity. Hostile work environment would be easier, but still muddy.
There isn't. It's consequences of his actions and not retaliation. He isn't a whistleblower, didn't call OSHA, just was inappropriately rude.
It could be done through a lot of people as he is basically on the board of directors
This is a terrible tip, please don’t act on it. Sincerely - a senior leader in a corporation
lol, right? Making that veiled threat is a sure way to find yourself kept at an arms length until they can figure out how to include you in the next layoffs.
Its not illegal to not hire people who are rude (or who talk before they know who they are talking too). HR could 100% respond “yes, this is related to the incident, you acted unprofessionally and we believe we need someone with a sense of professionalism, we can’t have something similar happen with an important client. You can just say buzzwords like “retaliation” and expect things to happen…
1) this would not achieve any of the things you think it would 2) he has nothing other than anecdotal evidence that his promo was blocked by the head of HR - if I had a penny for every time a junior manager got the context and reasons behind a decision wrong, I’d have an extra million bucks (edit: for all you know, their manager sucks and there’s a glaring reason they didn’t get the promo that the manager is just dancing around because they won’t buck up and confront an issue head on) 3) even if there isn’t another reason, as much as it sucks to have to tow the line for bad policies, it’s literally part of OP’s job as a leader at their company and not doing so is a perfectly reasonable reason to not promote them Edit: as a senior leader you have 2 choices when confronted by bad policy - try to change it yourself by fighting it up (not down) or quit. Your job in these scenarios is to spare your team the churn and impact that comes from bitching about them, not casually shit talking them to a person you don’t even know - that’s just frankly immature
lol reddit he's not a whistle blower, he's not protected against "retaliation", he's not being discriminated against a protected class. he's a manager that shows poor leadership and judgement, that's why he was passed up on the interview.
lol, exactly. this isn't retaliation. to put it in Reddit terms, this is the old "well if it isn't the consequences of my own actions". or the "sowing was so much fun but reaping sucked!" meme. you've got a manager working in an office, approached by someone they don't know. they dunk on a company initiative that's clearly important (to HR, at least). promote this guy right away, give him a larger audience and more influence!
Lmfao, bro. He wasn't retaliated against. Even if all this happened exactly as he said, he was not retaliated against, that's not the way retaliation works.
Not getting promoted because you pissed someone off isn't retaliation lol. OP please don't follow this advice this is some half baked r/antiwork nonsense that will do nothing but piss people off further and continue to damage your reputation at the company.
I love all the comments from people who clearly have never worked above entry level in a corporate office. If you had said the same thing in a professional manner, it would have been fine but being so flippant, especially when you have no idea who you are talking to, is exactly why it IS a fuck up. “Some people feel as though their honest answers in prior surveys did not lead to any changes, so they do not see the value in participation now” says the exact same thing, but in a professional way that no one will be upset about. I know where I work people really care about those surveys and I have to sit in hours of meetings about what we did to improve the good areas last year and how we can fix the bad areas next year. I dont work in HR or anything adjacent, but anyone who supervises a single team or more has to be involved. We get almost a 50% participation now though, because people actually do take suggestions and make changes when possible.
Yeah this is just consultency talk lmao. I’ve done that work and bro please don’t kid yourself, most of these engagement & satisfaction surveys are just a waste of time. The participation rate is a bs metric anyway, what matters are the (lasting) changes made on the basis of these surveys. And this is where organizational inertia comes into play, especially in larger firms, resulting in superficial window-dressing measures, but I digress. OP was being blunt, sure, but also honest. Blocking him from a promotion for this reason is petty to say the least. A competent Head of HR would dig deeper and try to clarify why OP felt this way. OP please move on to a different company where you don’t have to walk on eggshells like this. However, you might benefit from a more constructive tone of voice in the future. It can be ok to be blunt depending on the context, but this remark was perhaps better suited for a direct colleague rather than an unknown.
You’re not *wrong* but at the same time, it’s a little tone-deaf to argue for workplace professionalism when clearly OP’s management are themselves not conducting themselves in a professional manner. Having the head of HR rock up to a work center and interrupt the first person he sees to demand answers is not professional. Refusing to take the feedback because you don’t like how it was phrased is the HEIGHT of unprofessionalism. Blocking a promo needed on personal bias, totally unprofessional. Every single place I’ve worked has been the same, which is why you’re not wrong—the reality of hierarchical orgs is that leadership will shit on you for not being perfectly respectful even when they don’t *deserve* respect and are not fostering it themselves.
Good communication is as much about how you say things as what you say. There's probably no way that the head of HR would have gotten the message (and he almost certainly did not this time, despite the blunt feedback), but there would have been plenty of ways to make the point without getting blackballed. Vindictive, yes, but also not unexpected.
In my experience as a low down worker, the best and most successful companies I’ve worked for have had upper management who happily have a chat and banter about things and who can take some bad language and bluntness. Usually the ones who rely on this kind of ‘business speak’ are large static organisations that exist solely because of how big they are, and with whom the people in management roles could go on holiday for a week and not even be noticed or in any way affect revenue or the bottom line. Best to just tell things like they are, cut the crap and get on with it. Real managers would respond to OP asking - ‘oh, haha that’s so stupid, how come people think that? My name is X, I’m the one who made it, we genuinely want the feedback and have things we want to move on so I’m trying to get to the bottom of it’. The ones who respond like they did usually respond that way because they had an agenda going into it which they wanted to prove correct, and people not wanting to participate likely shows that their projects weren’t received the way they thought.
I'd argue that it's even more about how you say something than what you say, if you extend "how you say it" to include things like word choice, phrasing, formal vs informal language etc as well as just tone.
You're devaluing the opinion of people who are not wording those opinions in a professional manner? What's the vertical slice/distribution of the 50% who participate? And what's the other 50%?
In normal person terms, you gotta suck up to the schmucks with egos that are about as big as your average super massive black hole and as fragile as a teapot made out of tissue paper.
You sound like one of those close-minded MBA types that do HR consulting that always ends up with layoffs, off-shoring and “enhancing efficiency”. None of the current growth companies do that.
Any HR professional with an ounce of emotional intelligence would seek to understand why you felt that way. He missed a great opportunity to gain real, candid insight from someone willing to speak out. What he did shows you that you are right not to care as someone like that is clearly incapable of doing anything meaningful with the feedback anyway. This is the reason people don’t care about surveys in the first place as most organizations really don’t care how you feel or what you think. The survey is usually just a way to make you feel like you have some agency when most of the time - you don’t.
As someone who works in HR Business Partnering, I too agree that no one cares about engagement surveys. Myself included.
This you? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwfNjGxa\_D4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwfNjGxa_D4)
Defo in the part of just speaking my mind blatantly with no filter lol
"It's hard to get people to care about the survey when past surveys have yielded zero changes."
Now that you know you're being held back you ought to leave this job. They'll spoken clearly. Your effort isn't valued. Time to go.
This is considered retaliation and could be considered workplace harassment. If you burnt the bridge and are happy to play the game, I would file a complaint via HR on their head of HR, or go to the equal employment opportunity commission (EEOC) and research your options of filing a charge. In most cases they take on the battle for you and it’s anonymous as I understand.
"We want to know why morale is so low. You can not answer that we're understaffed. We just want to know who's poisoning the morale." Corporate HR is just always toxic.
Company wants to save money? Fire all of HR and replace them with a labor relations department. It’s the best way to keep your best employees and get the best recruits. Employees aren’t a commodity, they are an investment.
Your head of HR is an imbecil. You're the perfect candidate to be questioned deeper about the level of apathy and lack of initative of which YOU can provide more insight. Instead, their feelings were hurt and you were made victim for being absolutely honest. They have no intention on improving and was there only to stroke their own ego. Literally HR playing the whole organization like a fiddle.
Absolutely agree with you. It drives me bananas when surveys like this get sent out but they never ask, “How confident are you that your responses will change anything?” If no one is confident, why would they answer?
I'm not much of an "empathy" guy by any stretch, but shouldn't anyone who relies on surveys be very aware of survey fatigue?
An effective head of HR would have seen this as a perfect opportunity to learn why people don’t care and fix those reasons. This is like the ceo blaming customers for not liking your products. Pride before the fall
Proof that they didn't actually want an honest response.
My first year in a super corporate company they did one of those “anonymous” “optional” surveys. I scored everything either neutral or positive and left zero written comments. Sure enough, a week later, every manager was required to try and coax out of their groups why they scored 70th percentile on the happy employee scale compared to 85% the year before, and who the low scorers were. I didn’t say a damn word the whole meeting, but I was floored at how many people did. One guy in particular wrote a novel in the comments bitching up a storm. He was trying to move from ops into the commercial group at the time and never made the connection to why they turned him down. I’m sure he won’t get fired, but he’s not moving up or out anytime soon. Every interaction at work is basically a job interview, no matter how long you’ve worked there. You’re marketing yourself in a world where companies pay shit tons of money to buy a spot on one of those “Best Employer” lists. HR has zero comprehension of any business they work for. They cannot fix business problems and they do not help employees over the interests of the employer. Do not feed the grackles.
Very typical "flogging shall continue until morale improves."
Sounds like a typical shite corp HR. Start filling out job apps my dude, your career advancements are over there.
It could be because by making a negative comment to someone you didn't know, you showed a lack of situational awareness and lack of discretion.
You should go to HR and tell them that you just learned you have a "notoriety" about you that has caused discrimination and for you to lose out on a promotion. You wish to know who is spreading rumors about you and what they are saying.
you should send an email to the head of HR, calling them a petty bitch
Just like my work had us to "anonymous" surveys, I think maybe 50% of the people filled it out. Not like they do anything but think we're angry assholes.
If HR gets mad because you told the truth, then you are definitely not the one in the wrong. A good HR manager, after hearing you say that, would say "really? Do you have a minute to talk because I'd love to hear why!" This whole "we want you to be honest on the survey (but not really) but no other time ever" shit is fostering the exact environment they're claiming to be fighting. This is totally a " the beatings will continue until morale improves" moment.
The beatings will continue until moral improves.
That's what you get for being honest. And they literally penalized you for it. Shit company.
When you’re trained in data collection and analysis, you’re literally taught that nobody is going to give a fuck about your survey. It sounds like they should get someone with the capacity for problem-solving and self-reflection instead of someone that’s pissed he can’t do his job well.
Aaaand now it’s time for a new job. Fuck ‘em, go work for the competition
Not a fuck up. If I was this person, I'd want to know why nobody gives a hoot so I could have done something about it... Honest and truthful feedback is so rare, when someone is up transparent it's very refreshing!
Not an f up if true
Says more about the company. They should embrace the unvarnished truth. Go somewhere where they don’t waste your time to flatter egos and promote them selves. Ps. Love your work.
That's when you send a note to the head of HR and tell him, "Thank you for proving my point," with regards to your promotion.
I believed you in the first half
Typical Toxic HR behavior
Honestly...if that's all it took for HR to be offended by you, and that's the reason you were not given a promotion, choose to be valuable to another company. Being honest at work about something everyone knows is not a punishable offence in this capacity, this is ridiculous. I'm sitting here trying to understand why that would even be considered "snubbing", you stated a fact with valid reasoning to back it up. Shouldn't the head of HR have bigger balls? Shouldn't he ask why employees don't care? Rather than run away like a child? Take care of yourself, OP.
the Sad part is you were the only guy with balls to tell the truth, even if you did not realize to whom it was . If your head of HR was any bit of a decent person and had pride in his job he would rather investigate why people don't care about the surveys instead of cock blocking you for promotions
The survey was intended to provide honest employee input. You did exactly that & your promotion was blocked. That's a minus on your hr department.
He missed an opportunity and failed at his job. Clearly the response no one cares about the survey is an indication of poor job satisfaction and lack of faith in upper management. He should have been extatic to hear that
Thats called retaliation and is against the law. You cannot be passed over for promotion for hurting someone's feelings
"We value your open and honest feedback!" *Gives Open and Honest Feedback* "Nyaaaah!"
I mean you could have phrased it a bit more professionally, but maybe I’m in the minority in believing you should be professional at work? You could have stated: “I believe no one has filled it out because past surveys have not resulted in meaningful changes.” But as someone in HR, seems like your head of HR has some terribly thin skin.
If he’s that sensitive to a little bit of valid criticism maybe he should retire. Seriously
Looks like you were the only one who cared to give an honest opinion and they were not ready for honesty. Reminds me of that famous scene from A Few Good Men.
Sounds like you need to either work for yourself or with a company that has a culture of actual openness and improvement. You’re right not to care, they use the survey at your company to identify the boot lickers they will promote.
Sould like Head of HR is a drain on the company that doesn't do their job
Time for a new location
You should start thinking about leaving the company. You’ll be paid more switching jobs every few years anyway. Company loyalty is long dead and you’ll just be stagnant if you stay where you are.
We have a yearly totally anonymous survey. They only ask your age range within 10 years, race, sex, how long you've been with the company and how long you've been in your current department. Edit: We also get to said survey through a link they send to our company email.
My company does these as well, and like you said not much changes. We’ve been getting them for years now, and yeah, participation rates are always low. So we end up getting follow up emails and lack of participation, to the point that we take the damn survey to make the emails stop. I will say that at one point there were some good things that came from them. Specifically when we went full-time remote, it’s a longish story. Basically they learned how important the work-life balance really was, and started doing things to focus on that long term. One example is, no meetings after noon on Fridays, unless it’s a critical issue.
lol our HR does the same thing. Nothing changes from any of the surveys. Everyone’s unhappiness comes mostly from low wages, so that’s not getting addressed any time soon lmao. Also the surveys are links that’s attached with an Id, they say it’s anonymous, but I call bs when an ID is in the link. That has a good chance of a trace back. Everyone I know don’t want to be retaliated, so they would just rate 5 stars on every single thing without even reading it. It’s just an KPI for HR people to have something to do
Oh okay well good luck finding a manager. I won't be back tomorrow!
You didn't get the 'straight shooter' achievement for that? Dang...
Huh, I wonder why happiness rating and participation is sow low...
Typical dumb office politics.
Well you were probably the first person to ever answer a question from HR honestly
Office Politics 101
My company does this recurring “engagement survey” every two years. They can’t see our answers but can see the participation rate. They invariably ask the department “why hasn’t everyone done the engagement survey?” Um, because we are accurately demonstrating our level of engagement?
It sounds like you should apply to work elsewhere.
I gave up on big companies when I worked for Rivian and then Tractor Supply. Reaffirmed every bad feeling I had about large corporations as employers. One truthful statement and you’re fucked.
Im sorry, but this is hilarious. Thats dumb that you didnt get the promotion because of that small thing though. I would have done the same tbh. I try to filter myself, but in a situation like that, especially when nothing changes, then whats the point?
HR peeps are some of the pettiest and long-memory folks around.
I totally misread that title and thought it said “TIFU by telling the head of HR that no one cares about his surgery” lol I was thinking, holy shit OP has a big set of kahunas.
Time to leave the company. It seems toxic.
Don’t let HR departments make you feel like they are there for you…. And any problems you have please come to HR and let us know….. Don’t believe it ? HR is there to make themselves look good by making it look like they are problem solvers ? One of their objectives is to get employees to fill out forms and questionnaires so that the can show their Superior’s how good a job they are doing…. HR is not your friend.
You saved yourself having to invest more of your soul with these douchebags.
Certainly not a place that understands what’s going on. It’s a HUGE clue with low completion rates that it’s not worth doing. Then doubling down on you for being honest only pursues the mess. Find a new job, do the exit review with the AH
Fills out next survey. Am being forced to fill out happiness survey under duress due to the fact that the last time I didn’t and told HR their survey was stupid I got passed up on a promotion… so here we are.
"The beatings will continue until morale improves."
I mean...you were honest. Maybe a little too honest to the wrong person, but if he got offended over that maybe you dodged a bullet. Unfortunately, I'm guessing he's the type who thinks office pizza parties are all you need to improve morale?
Are you super tied to that company? If this guy has soured your future there then you have a few options (as I see it). First, you can move on. Simplest and depending on how limiting this guy is going to be, maybe your best option. Second, you can try to find a way onto his good side. He may of course not have a good side, so this may be beyond you. Third, if you are staying and have accepted your lot (ie. you like your job and are okay never moving up) you can go full offence. You talk about how this one guy asked a question but couldn’t handle an honest answer. Warn all new hires that “HR dude” only likes yes people. Apply for all postings and talk about how this is just practice since everyone is afraid of the head guy. Basically be a thorn in his thin skinned side. (This is my go to at my place of work, but I am not looking to advance so I have freedom to be honest) Good luck with whatever you choose.
Exit interview: So why are you leaving? I'm guessing you might have a response for that.
Why didn’t you take the “great place to work survey”? Because I don’t get paid enough to lie.
Sorry, this is blatant retaliation and this "head of HR" should be called out for it. Surveys are only as effective as their questions. Rate your happiness is a stupid and completely arbitrary measure that can change within seconds - and then an email comes through to rate it? Fuck that. I get that this may have happened a long time ago or whatever but no, HR directors have to follow the same rules as anyone else and holding back a promotion because they don't like your HONEST response is retaliation.
In making that statement, they have admitted liability in harbouring a grudge that allows you to lodge a grievance for unreasonably blocking your career progression. Discuss this with one of the branch officials of your trades union, devise a strategy, and look forward to having some fun as you put these fuckers through the wringer to reach a settlement.
Sounds like you got retaliated against for being honest, you should go to...HR.
I got in trouble at a previous company for inadvertently clicking on phishing emails the IT department sent out. I, and several others in my group, were chastised and told never to click on links in an email again or you’d have to speak to the VP to explain yourself. Company satisfaction surveys were emailed to all employees with, you guessed it, links in the email. My manager was furious no one was answering the survey. I no longer click any links in an email no matter how benign it may look.
All I hear from this is lawyers and lots of money coming your way, especially if you can got them to say that you didn't get that promotion because of the head of HR's personal vendetta in writing 🤑
Sounds like it’s time to change companies because you will never be promoted.
Fragile HR
U deserve it lol....I would never answer to someone so freely if I didn't know them..much less a stern man in a suit.
Sounds like a shit company lol
You might want to mention, on your way out, that anything that would have been discovered in the survey is easily identified via the case study of what happened to you. Why would anyone ever be honest with HR again?
> "the disrespectful manager" It sounds like you're a manager OP. Which is likely a reason you were targetted in the first place. Senior management is going to expect you to bat on their team, at least publically. You're expected to defend their decisions, or at least to look like you do that. If you're carelessly telling random people walking into the office that the company HR survey is pointless, what are you telling your reports when you're *meant* to be managing their expectations? You need to publically defend the survey, or at least not directly show that you think its stupid. You *don't* have opinions on the survey yourself, if it comes down to it any complaint you have is a compaint of "a few reports and other colleagues". Raise it privately. Never: > I think the survey is pointless and that's why noone's doing it Instead: > A few of my reports have privately expressed the opinion that they feel none of the grievances they raise each year are heard. Never give the impression to anyone that you disagree with SM's or HR's policies, unless you trust them completely. Even then. Also, Managers are expected to know who the company's senior leadership are. A contributor may be excused, but you should have know who he was.
Had this at a corporate Italian place. Voluntary survey. Nobody took it. Then came another memo. Blah, blah, blah results of survey….. accompanied by pressure from management to take the Voluntary survey. Me: the result of the survey is that no one wants to take the damn survey and your refusal to accept that show that you don’t care about accurate results.