In the past week or so, everybody got a request to complete a management survey. Is this mandatory to fill out? It would be ideal to fill it out honestly, but I'm worried about possible retaliation, especially given situations witnessed in the past. Does anybody know any details about how this works? Does it count against either the employee or manager if one doesn't respond? Thanks.
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I responded but doubt that they will even do anything about the feedback. It will more than likely fall on deaf ears.
“A more objective metric would be employee turnover.”
Yes it would be if they cared about exit interview feedback - and they’ve conducted tons of them in the last five years. Some of whom are from the smartest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
Ex-employee here with over 12 years at SAS before leaving during the Great Resignation. HR performs exit interviews but they have no incentive or ability to implement any suggestions given.
It’s part of their job to conduct them and they’re just checking a box. They’ll take and record all the juicy one-sided gossip or legitimate suggestions you want to give them, but it doesn’t go anywhere.
The most frustrating part is organizing truthful, constructive feedback for people who don’t have ears to hear it.
Remember, HR’s primary reason for existing is to prevent lawsuits.
At this point, frank employee feedback shouldn’t be expected. Any fool can see the company is downsizing. Who would want to make themselves a target?
A more objective metric would be employee turnover. How many voted with their feet during the Great Resignation?.
I know two managers who each had -30% turnover during that time. Sadly, both retained their positions.
" ... and they have never been oppressed for their race, ethnicity, s-xuality, etc."
Grow up and take responsibility for yourself. Stop trying to find some bogeyman 'ism' to blame.
@at The deck was not stacked against me. I had some toxic managers, that’s all. I knew friends who were treated worse.
In my time, there was little training, and no accountability, for SAS managers. Many were kind and decent. Others were abusive, and HR never did a damn thing to stop them. So different people could have completely different experiences at SAS, depending on who managed them.
If you trust your manager, and you trust HR, do as @ag says and fill out the survey. I regret that my experience taught me not to trust.
Manager here. They usually pass along comments (sometimes abridged, but they do quote) if they're relevant and there are enough responses to obfuscate the respondent. So if you do comment and you have a distinctive writing style they'll be able to figure it out. And if you're the squeaky wheel who has nothing good to say, they'll probably be able to figure it out as well.
Remember that no survey is truly anonymous, and the pseudoanonymity is only as good as the company or software collating the results makes it. Make of that what you will. The company wants people to respond, and the responses are better and more honest if they're anonymous, but managers don't want that at all. Wait and see. There will be a few people in this thread who will say "I should know who my accusers are!" or "Did you give your manager a chance to solve the problem first?"
These people are privileged. They imagine they would have "handled" the problem (to their satisfaction), and they have never been oppressed for their race, ethnicity, s-xuality, etc. any of which might cause someone to seek anonymity. They can't imagine a person might not want to confront the person responsible for their merit increase (if any these days) because that endangers their future prosperity. So it really only comes as a surprise to managers who are too stupid to realize that relationship is one-sided.
Given my experience over 30+ years at SAS, I'd certainly NOT worry about retaliation.
It never mattered who was right or wrong. Certain employees always feel the deck is stacked against them.
Manager here
We only see the results of the survey if there are enough responses to provide a range to protect anonymity.
We really have no insight on who wrote which results.
That said, nothing you put on that survey should be a surprise to anyone. If you haven't said anything to your manager yet on how they can be better a manager, your problems aren't going to be solved by taking an anonymous survey. Not saying the issue isn't on them.
As far as the general SAS stuff on there? Just be professional but honest.
They say the survey is anonymous. There should not be any retaliation.
Given my experience over 20+ years at SAS, I'd certainly worry about retaliation.
It never mattered who was right or wrong. HR always supported the manager.