Employee faces retribution from employer after critically answering "anonymous" survey: 'It quickly became clear she could guess who wrote what'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Nov 19, 2024 10:00 PM EST

When you first start off your career, you're bright and starry-eyed, carrying such ideals as "work hard and be rewarded," fueled by stories and mythology of working stories you've heard. The reality is that work is more like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down again—nothing gained, changed, or earned except the opportunity to complete the task again.

You probably think that as long as you put effort into something, it will eventually pay off and that honest feedback, given with honest intentions of improving the business, will be taken into account and even praised. The reality is those making the decisions will almost always feel criticized upon hearing that their subordinates don't like things the way they are—the way that they, the powers that be, made them.

Your honest feedback—nay, criticism—will be met with retribution rather than those powers recognizing that they are not infallible, something their egos could never reconcile. 

Giving feedback, whether in person, in reviews, or through "anonymous" surveys, is a mistake you only make once in your career, carrying the lesson with you forever after once things go belly-up. What's worse is that even if you were promised, the survey was anonymous—even if it is actually anonymous—it's not hard to figure out and narrow down who has likely answered what. It's easy enough through simple pattern recognition to whittle down who might say what and how they might say it.

Unfortunately, this is probably what happened to this worker who shared their story with this online community.

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    ויווו
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    Image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Image is for illustration only and subjects are models.

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    My manager read out the results of a "confidential" engagement survey. I don't feel this is right. Every six months, my company asks us to fill out a "confidential" engagement survey. I work in a large marketing industry, and I assumed the surveys were for the wider company's statistics.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 03
    Last week, though, my manager gathered our team, read out our scores, and started sharing some of our "anonymous" answers. Even though she wasn't given names, it quickly became clear she could guess who wrote what. My colleagues all denied responsibility, which made it obvious I had written the harsher feedback.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 04
    I'll admit my answers were critical this year. I find my manager abrupt and belittling, and she plays favorites with my colleagues. Our team dynamic feels cliquey, with the "popular, bubblier" colleagues in the spotlight while I'm more of the older, quieter one. I'm also awaiting an autism diagnosis, and my manager has previously told me she finds me "disengaged" and "aloof" even though that's never my intention.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 05
    After sharing the survey results, she said anyone with negative feedback should reach out to discuss it further. But I'm not willing to do that. This survey was supposed to be anonymous, and I feel betrayed that my line manager has access to the results in this way. Now I feel even more alienated and disliked because I'm sure my feedback stood out.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 06
    To make things worse, my end- of-year review is coming up, and I'm terrified my manager is going to bring up my survey responses and hold them against me. Am I overreacting, or is this as inappropriate as it feels?
    via fairwellfairground
  • 07
    olneyvideo • 14h ago • I wasted my time and energy on employee surveys when I first started with my company. Things only get a little shittier every year so I stopped putting in effort on those. I would say it's probably a hot topic in management for about a week and then
    via fairwellfairground
  • 08
    nobody cares anymore. If it is brought up directly during your review I would probably say something along the lines of "Oh the anonymous survey that was shared with everyone? Yeah lesson learned on that one. I appreciate the opportunity to give feedback but didn't realize it would be used against me." That puts your manager on the defensive and they will likely make a statement about it and move on.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 09
    . The_Sparkleho... • 14h ago • First time I actually put negative / constructive comments about leadership in the "anonymous" survey, the atmosphere cooled considerably. Enough to make things uncomfortable at work. Realized then that it's never truly anonymous
    via fairwellfairground
  • 10
    DO JustVisiting Lif... 14h ago . There's no such thing as an anonymous work survey. I either don't respond to them or respond with vague or mediocre responses.
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    Dull_Lavishnes... • 14h ago Yyyyyeah never assume those things are actually anonymous. I always just give middle ofnthe road answers or rank things 5s and move on with life. They'll never actually take any constructive criticism and if they really don't like what you say they can easily find out who wrote what
    via fairwellfairground
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    t. 13h ago Edited 13h ago They know who did the surveys. One issue I found is worker gossiping. Some people just cannot help themselves talking about, like in a survey for example, that they gave harsh criticism, only to find out the criticized knew the person who did that survey. Could
    via fairwellfairground
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    be a co-worker bootlicking to get up farther on the ladder, make more money (BTW, that is a function of workplace politics). Always be careful with even your closest co-workers because division is how capitalism works best in the workplace,
    via fairwellfairground
  • 14
    and getting people to backstab for a pennies more pay is not uncommon. If you are a good worker, work well with others, productive and make workflow better, that should count for the increase. But if the manager makes it personal, then that says more about them and (possibly) not the company. I hope your increase is a god one.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 15
    Where I worked (very large financial company) they did surveys. But we mostly complained they were not anonymous, even on written ones, because they pertained to a dept then overall corporate. The worst was having to do them online, because to do them
    via fairwellfairground
  • 16
    in the company intranet, required a login using my corporate ID. They say it is anonymous, but seriously, I am supposed to believe that when my creds were needed to access that survey, I was not shy and I would literally talk to my manager about doing the survey in front of them and tell them how I feel. We were a rare company where that was OK, but the backstabbing was always a feature there.
    via fairwellfairground
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    StrangerOnThe... • 14h ago. Confidential is not the same thing as anonymous. Confidential means they are tracking who took the survey and what their answers were, and results will be shared with relevant party. This is very very common in surveys, and normal for something like an
    via fairwellfairground
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    engagement survey. I usually see it where a different company administers the feedback, throws it into some reports, and sends those reports to your company. Mine does it so every manager gets a report on their area, as long as you have enough people. that it can still be considered confidential (i.e at least 5 people in their group took the survey).
    via fairwellfairground
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    An anonymous survey means your personal info is not associated with the survey results. Something like your IP address might be, but not your name/email. Since they don't know who took what survey, they wouldn't have a way to send results back for different levels, just the overall level.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 20
    In either case, you should never answer with enough information that someone could figure out that it was you. That's the same for anonymous or confidential. "What can we do better?" "I asked my manager for a dollar raise and they told me it's not in the budget, but then my coworker got a raise a month later, even though their results aren't as
    via fairwellfairground
  • 21
    good as mine." Anyone remotely familiar with your team would have enough info to figure out it's you, even if you only put in one "tell" instead of like 5. Instead, vague answers. "Higher pay, our competitors. have postings up for more money than we are paid here." Vague, but you can still communicate you're unhappy with pay.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 22
    Your situation is still up, just not in the way you think: 1. Even if the survey is confidential and someone somewhere knows exactly what your answers are, that does NOT mean your manager should be handling the results by reading them out loud in a team meeting. If everyone gets to hear the answers, then it isn't confidential
    via fairwellfairground
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    anymore. For fO's sake. HR would probably be interested in knowing about this. 2. Your manager obviously does not give a about your engagement. If you're not job hunting already, you should start. 3. They intentionally say confidential so you feel safe giving more information than you
    via fairwellfairground
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    would if you understood what confidential means. 4. Lots of people sending surveys also don't know the difference between confidential and anonymous. You may receive a survey that says all results are "anonymous" but are actually confidential.
    via fairwellfairground
  • 25
    Assume every survey you answer will have your name attached to it, and answer accordingly (or choose not to).
    via fairwellfairground
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    CyberMonkey N... • 13h ago • Sorry but first time!?! I've lost count of the ex- coworkers fired for responses on anonymous surveys. There are 2 right ways to complete a survey 1) don't, and 2) tell leaders what they want to hear. If you want change at a job change jobs.
    via fairwellfairground
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    Captain_Crout... 12h ago. Nothing is anonymous or confidential at work! EVER.
    via fairwellfairground
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    . Jazz_Cigarettes 12h ago • First rule of work fight club : There is no such thing as anonymous feedback. If you survive your review, take this lesson for the rest of your career. I learned this one the hard way.
    via fairwellfairground

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