"Employee Morale Survey"

[pmbryant]

Got one of these for the first time ever last week. I'm tempted to just ignore the thing, as I'm not sure I trust the ability to stay anonymous. I work for a rather small company (<100 employees).

Has anyone else gotten one of these? Did it do any good?

Thanks,
Peter

[gulfcoastliberal]

1. They are Useless

I work at a medium sized <500 company and they sent these out after tons of rumors of layoffs, etc. Then they did the layoffs and sent out more surveys. Then one day the person coordinating the surveys sent out an email about frogs racing for something(complete with cute graphics), and how the jeers of the crowd stopped all of the frogs save one, which won the prize - and turned out to be deaf. Moral of the story? Drown out the ngative rumors with cheerful thoughts (I guess like getting unemployment if you're pinkslipped). Gee, great morale booster there.

[pmbryant]

2. Ouch.

I hope the situation here isn't that bad, though I can't guarantee it isn't.

:scared:

Thanks for offering your experience with this.

--Peter

[tigereye]

3. actually those types of things are usually too little too late

You have to mean it, not just as window- dressing. Probably would have been better to actually ask for ways to make things better and actually use them! One organization I worked for had a better idea, when they were making a major philosophical change to short- term treatment ( this was a mental health agency when managed care was taking over everything), they allowed the staff to throw nerf balls at the trainers as part of the shift. It did make people laugh and feel a little better. They always let everyone have their say, but usually they just did what they wanted to do, anyway.

[pmbryant]

8. Yes, that's what I'm afraid of

As an illustration of the previous cluelessness about morale in this organization, at the last all-employee conference call, the executives were quite proud of their idea about how new R&D jobs could be outsourced to India.

Throwing nerf balls just doesn't seem like it will do the trick any more. ;-)

--Peter

[pagerbear]

9. I have an even more lame example of morale-boosting

During a peak season, when everyone was working hard all day long, the HR director (whom we called Patty Idontgiveadamn--her name had that many syllables and rhymed) arranged to have games and stuff of the sort that schools rent for carnivals put up. No one had the time to play them. No one would have if they'd had the time. And she couldn't figure out why people didn't enjoy it.

[MidwestMomma]

18. I've experienced the same

And the HR person gets 'mad' cause you don't appreciate their hard work of trying to keep morale up cause planning those parties ARE HARD WORK...

They never seem to get that if they would hire adequate staff and pay adequate salaries, morale would be fine and we wouldn't need any friggin' games!

[prolesunited]

4. What are some of the questions?

Perhaps we can help you answer them. :evilgrin:

BTW, just haven't had time to respond to your other question. Awesome is a word that comes to mind, though. :hi:

[pmbryant]

7. I didn't even want to open it.

Is that some kind of indication of my morale? ;-)

Finally looked at it today and the questions seem to cover the typical stuff you'd expect (e.g., Do you see a link between your work and the organizational objectives?, Do you feel you receive appropriate recognition for the work that you do?, How do you feel we can improve upon company communication as mentioned above?)

My concern is not with the questions, but with whether the results are going to be taken seriously and with whether being too truthful may come back to haunt me. I have enough suspicions about the latter to be extremely wary about this process. I have been burned in the past (at a different employer) by taking my boss's words too seriously and being too honest with my opinions.

And, BTW, "Awesome" sounds great. Can't wait to hear more. :-)

--Peter

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. "The floggings will continue, until morale improves"

[pmbryant]

10. A classic :-)

Alternatively: "All further vacations will be postponed until morale improves".

:crazy:

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. The firings will continue until morale improves.

A bit of a twist on yours and Cuban_Liberal's.

[lpbk2713]

6. An interesting note on anonymity and privacy of information.

I worked for one of the largest telecomm companies for 35 years (retired 4 years ago). Every so often they would send out an "Employee Attitude Survey" to a group of allegedly randomly selected employees. They didn't require any personal info or to have the respondent identify themselves at all. I remember one in particular in which I gave my honest opinions and most would have been perceived as unfavorable or highly critical. There was even a "remarks" page where one could sound off about anything in general. I used that opportunity and spoke my mind. Now, this part I do remember well; I didn't sign it and I didn't give a return address on the envelope. A couple of weeks after I mailed it I received a form letter from the company prez thanking me for my remarks. Only thing I can figure is there may have been something like ultra-violet marking on the form or something similar. Ever since this happened I have been careful about what is said to be anonymous or how anyone says they will guarantee my privacy. Maybe I owe them a debt of thanks for the object lesson. The bastards.

[pagerbear]

11. There could be an innocent explanation for that

Maybe the company prez sent the same letter to everyone who got the survey, on the assumption they'd all complete it.

[lpbk2713]

14. Possible but not likely.

The letter expressed thanks for the remarks. I doubt if everyone who received the survey entered remarks.

[pagerbear]

12. The guy at my company who does this sort of survey

....turns out to be the lover of a friend of a friend, so I met him outside the office. Had never met him at work, although I'd seen him around. He as much as told me he would pretend he didn't know me when we were at work. How's that for morale? (Yes, I know it's whatever is going on in his tiny little head more than anything about me, but it still hit me the wrong way!)

[laura888]

13. Could be because of high turn-over?

My company is concerned at the rate employees are quitting. The survey is an attempt to find out why they are leaving.

[Exgeneral]

15. I think you should post it here

Let US take it, and turn THAT in.

[BiggJawn]

17. Our Boss wanted us to evaluate him...Totally anonymous!

S'Yeah, right....I took him at his word that it was also totally "Voluntary"...

I mean, nobody wants to be told that they're a butt-suck to the VP, right?

[cally]

19. I've filled out several

and it's never done any good. My favorite was when the business wanted to redesign the offices. I knew the person compiling results and overwhelmingly employees did not want an 'open' office design. A week later the supervisors displayed the new open office plan. They just ignored the responses. I agree with others. I would be very worried that they could figure out who responded and in which way.

Sorry your job is so miserable. :hi:

[pmbryant]

20. Well, the cumulative experience here is pretty clear

I think I'm just going to ignore this thing.

Thanks cally, and everyone else, for responding.

:-)

--Peter