The Employee Survey

“Your feedback is anonymous and confidential.”

It’s not.

The survey tool tracks department, tenure, role level, and location. In a team of six, “anonymous” means your manager can’t see your name, but they can see that someone on the team with 5-10 years of experience rated leadership a 2 out of 5. There are two people on the team with 5-10 years of experience. One of them is the manager’s favorite.

You do the math.

Employee surveys don’t measure satisfaction. They measure what people are willing to say when they don’t fully trust the anonymity. Which is: nothing useful.