Confidentiality was broken

[Pugonarug]

At work we needed to fill out a survey about how we felt in the workplace and specific questions in detail about management and colleagues. We were guaranteed anonymity and that the link was the same for everyone. I had some things to get off my chest about my superior and a colleague. I thought that when HR reviewed the surveys they would use that information to investigate or watch their performance. However instead of this being the outcome it was announced everyone’s surveys had been checked and some of us will need to speak in the office with management about our responses. I’m terrified of what will be said in the morning. I had anxiety for years and I’m feeling it again this evening as I know everyone will know it was me who put those comments and I’m worried I’ll be treated awfully. I wish I could retract my response for an easy life but it’s too late. I’m angry it wasn’t confidential after all. We were previously told that if we bad mouthed the company or staff it would be gross misconduct. They could potentially sack me for what I said, although it was all 100% true could be seen as allegations without proof. What will happen? Could really do with some reassurance.

Just because it’s anonymous to YOU does not mean it is anonymous full stop.
Ours asked fir department, and other identifying features

Are they calling people in to try and identify!/locate who had made serious concerns as right now they don't know exactly who it is?

@pugonarug I hadn’t read your latest post before my last post. That sounds very peculiar - no survey that I have ever worked on has attempted to trace back to who completed each response and I even don’t know how that would be possible. But then all the surveys I have worked on were administered by third party research companies, which meant that we (the company) never saw the raw data, it was all collected and analysed by the third party.

I’ll be honest and say that we/line managers could occasionally recognise individual people from the subject matter of their free-text comments and, as a result, I never put anything detailed in any free text comments box.

I worked for a private hospital (very well known brand). I was also very honest in an “anonymous” survey then got called into the office by manager about it. I refuse to do them now and just write a different type of chocolate in each box so it looks like I’ve responded m. They never change anything and really don’t give a fuck about their employees so why should I waste my time.
Honestly get another job any work place who pull stunts like that aren’t worth working for.

I've run one of these and I absolutely made sure it was anonymous.

Depends on the survey tool used and its settings.

Not that the top management were interested in doing anything about the issues raised even though they'd been very enthusiastic about the survey previous to seeing the results.

It really does vary company to company as to how it plays out

Lots of surveys will ask identifiable data which is pooled with other peoples responses to form a pattern, eg people in this department said this, people in this age group said that… the data is not available to the people running the survey in the format of seeing individual responses (eg someone of this age in this department who was female said X). If it’s done by a reputable company, those details will not identify anyone down to an individual level. If you’ve made allegations of illegal activity or potential gross misconduct then the company will have a duty to investigate. If you have done this, what did you expect to come from it?

It wasn’t illegal or serious allegations, it was generally about how they leave the hard work to our team and stand around chatting, gossiping etc and overall crap at their jobs. Nothing ever gets done about it so I thought by adding it then HR would be watching over them to make sure they are doing their jobs and not having a free ride all day. If they knew I said it then it would make my job very difficult and stressful so I regret trying to be ‘the voice’ of the team.

OP could you work with me by any chance? We’ve just had exactly the same thing happen, a big hooohaaa over people not doing it because they can’t be honest and we were promised anonymity and it be in confidence.
it wasn’t and the shit has hit the fan.

i was asked why I was ‘so harsh’ in some of my responses and I just said I wasn’t willing to discuss it further as the whole thing was supposed to be anonymous. That’s all I’ve said so far but not sure what to do it if goes further.

very possible? Is there anything you could say to see if we are that wouldn’t out you?
im scared of the confrontation more than anything as main boss while lovely is also very intimidating especially with something like this I’ll feel like a naughty child in detention

I’m SMT, if it’s anonymous to me it’s anonymous to all. The exception would be Hr if they could be arsed to somehow secretly manipulate it, but it’s all done through a platform where no identifiable data is asked, except department - none of which are small enough to be an issue.

Is it a survey created within your company or using an external one?

i used to create surveys and could chose if they were anonymous. We had to tell people they weren’t.

The external company we used were always anonymous. They worked hard to do so.

They have to be careful as no one will complete them in the future.

I think it was one they made on Google docs so not sure if they had full control or not? I can’t reopen it to have a nose because it’s been wiped from there now the results are received.

If you didn’t sign in and just used a link it should be anonymous??

If it wasn’t, I’d be throwing back to your manager and hr about them lying to you. That’s far worse then you giving honest answers on a survey.

A Google form could have had your email address autofilled at the start so they could identify you?

If a Google doc then the doc owner can usually see version history of who has written what.
Google Forms often collects email login addresses

I didn’t sign into anything to fill it out if that makes any difference?

How did you get the link to fill it out? If it was emailed to you then they could have that. I'm always really bland when I fill out staff surv3ys in work because I never entirely trust that noone will look at the edit history/email address etc

A google form will tell you at the start if it’s captured your email
If you re try the link what does it say?

You won’t need to log in as such on a Google form if your company uses single sign in then it won’t really be clear it’s captured your email

I’d probably own what I said tbh. If there’s something to say it needs saying -

we had an ‘anonymous’ survey where had to write which site we worked at, our job title and how long we had worked there
so not very very anonymous
they never told us it was confidential tho - it never is

I preferred the other ( same type of thing in a different work setting) survey where we were asked to give our name.It just felt more honest somehow,
there was never an expectation of anonymous ness or confidentiality - so it felt easier to be factual not reactive

Similar thing happened to someone who I know: I'm sorry to say that his superior, who had recently been hired and wasn't up to the job (which is what he said in the survey) 'restructured' and he found himself being made redundant after an excellent track record with the company

These anonymous HR surveys are a crock of shit.

I've heard too many stories of how HR are not to be trusted at all - if you are being bullied by your manager, they will side with them, gaslight you and make you the problem. I saw that a lot at work with people who were having problems with their managers and went to HR for help.

If your name isn’t on it then just deny and say you didn’t complete one in the end. They may be baffled but stand firm and they’ll assume technical issue.

our annual NHS survey is anonymous but people never believe us. An external company compiles the results and groups teams together if they are small.

Sometimes these surveys really are anonymous, as in the responses cannot be matched to individuals.

Sometimes responses could in theory be matched back to people; but if promises of anonymity were made, it's down to the integrity of those involved not to drill down to that level of information.

If anonymity (as opposed to confidentiality) has been promised, they would be putting themselves in an awkward position to follow up in a way that makes clear this was not honoured.

Most likely scenario in relation to what you describe: as a result of issues you (& perhaps others) have raised, they are following up at a team/ department level. i.e. it's very possible everyone closely linked to those colleagues is being asked to discuss things.

Don't assume they know what you said, let them tell you what they want out of the meeting.

The badmouthing you were warned against is very different from responding to a survey they asked you to participate in, so dont worry too much about that.

Although a degree of professionalism would ideally guide the way you express issues - something to bear in mind in the meeting and future surveys.

Good luck!

As some people have said anonymous is not the same as confidential. If done reputably they won’t be able to see who has written what, or identify a person based on the team they are in (I’ve had to do analysis on these before)

however people often have themselves away in free text fields with what they wrote and how the referred to situations.

it’s likely if the company is reputable that the meeting is purely then going through the survey with you the figures asking your opinions in that, and if there were allegation of impropriety that they may also be asking the staff in the area where it came from in order to do a fact find to determine if it needs a formal investigation

These surveys can be completely anonymous and used as a way of rating management; but I think it all very much depends on the size of the company. A large multinational or a small company with employees in the hundreds or below? It is an awful breach of trust if it is going to be handled on individual responses. Either way, stick to what you said, it is your experience and believe in yourself, do not waver.