They are confidential.
TL;DR: Fill out the surveys honestly. It won’t make you more or less likely to be RIF’d.
This means they have identifying data collected that links responses to records, but that data is strictly protected from general viewership. This has been the case for Verizon surveys for over a decade.
The results are aggregated for leaders with 5+ responses. However, the comments are kept as is for leaders to review.
This year, they specifically call out that an ethical or policy comment requiring attention may have the submitter details shared with the “appropriate teams.”
It being confidential is how they can continuously remind you to take it if you haven’t filled it out.
Comments being shared verbatim is how leaders can identify a person based on details of events, conversations, or direct naming of people. It’s often how they check if they know the general attitude of their employees by trying to guess who wrote what.
Verizon very likely does not use a Pulse Survey to distinguish who is and is not added to a RIF list. For one, this would be deemed as retaliation which employees are federally protected against. Secondly, the survey is run through Gallup while RIFs use a separate third-party company to determine the list based on performance, conduct (specifically infractions/warnings), tenure, pay, and title. It’s very carefully screened to not overly target employees based on age, race, or other protected characteristics.
So submit your answers honestly. Even a 100% great response from every employee for their leader isn’t going to save the team from any planned RIFs. Similarly, any absolutely negative response won’t put a target on the back of the employees or leader. At most, it will have Verizon senior leadership and HR looking into the leader to see if a leader conduct/performance warning is necessary.