To refuse to complete this form?

[Rae34]

My workplace requested we complete a mental health survey the day before the deadline of submission. They said we would be doing a mental health training session (not optional) and we had to send this form to the person running the session but that our company would not know who said what.

However looking at the form it is very specific. Wants me to rate my current mental health and goes into more detail and asks what I think of my specific employer in several questions, mentioning them by name throughout the form.

AIBU to not want to complete this at all?

I echo what @2GinOrNot2Gin has said. It’s probably to gauge how employees are coping in this weird world, and if there are any company procedural issues they can improve upon.

If you don’t say, things can’t change.

Slightly different perspective here. We’ve been asked to fill in optional anonymous surveys (via a web page that doesn’t require your email etc) since the start of the pandemic, with how we’re feeling, why we might be feeling that way and how the company could help.

It’s led to things like screen free hours, well-being payments, a working from home pledge (that sets out what the company won’t expect you to do and things you should expect from them), more flexibility on leave, better comms, better equipment for working from home, less pressure etc. Most of this has come directly from feedback given by staff in these surveys.

So I’ll go against the grain and say it’s not always data gathering to be used against you, sometimes it might actually make your life easier! But if you don’t feel comfortable with it then it certainly shouldn’t be mandatory.

Well, that's a complete fuck up on their part. It should be an anonymous survey, plenty of freee survey spaces on line, some very good professional paid for services too!

They are forcing you to identy yourself making proper anonymisation impossible... and they should know that! It is ethically flawed and probably breaks at least 1 GDPR regulation. It doesn't matter what the company collecting the data says. You are linked to that reply when you really do not have to be. They have not done all they could to preserve confidentiality.

I wouldn't complete it and at some point would explain to my boss why. They need to hire a more professional outfit with up to date technology!

Oh and the duality of the questions is also unprofessional. They are either trying to support staff mental health or they are trying to guage staff opinions on the company. Putting the two together will inevitable skew results... and again begs the question why are they asking - another GDPR issue!

We’ve been asked to fill in optional anonymous surveys (via a web page that doesn’t require your email etc)

The problem is though, there is nothing anonymous about that if the page is on your company intranet. There are several ways they can find out who submitted.

Ours was an anonymous survey, when I was told that I hadn't completed it, I asked how the knew (I know already) as it's anonymous. They wouldn't answer that.

I had to fill in a form like this once. I was so pissed of about the whole thing I scribbled over the multi choice questions and wrote in the box at the bottom that the main problem i was facing just now was having to fill out stupid intrusive forms and then waste my time on a pathetic talking shop.

They started the session by saying " a few of you have shown a very negative attitude to this session".

A few of us left after half an hour and did not return..

I found my inner rebel

I wonder if they've fallen short somewhere in their responsibilities to their staff and it has been noticed. A supposedly anonymous questionnaire about mental health shouldn't need to specifically ask how you feel about your employer, should it?

I don't believe these things are ever anonymous. I wouldn't complete it if I were in your position.

I’d return the form blank. If anyone pointed out that it was blank I would apologise for sending the wrong file and the ask them how they knew it was blank since it was supposed to be kept confidential. Hopefully they’re sensible enough not to query it either way.

@PhilCornwall1 yes there are ways they can find out, but many of those ways go directly against our own policies.

I’m not saying it can’t or never happens, just that in my experience it’s rarely worth it for companies to do this. In my example those who have access to the survey responses have no access to the back end IT that would need to be accessed to start identifying people. To get access to this data they’d need to send a request with many many hoops to jump through before it would even be considered. In reality it’s not what these surveys are used for. But as with my previous response I’ll say it should never be mandatory - fill it in if you want to and see it as useful, don’t fill it in if you don’t want to or see it as intrusive. Being chased for an anonymous survey just makes you less likely to fill it in!

If there are issues and people don't give feedback then the companies can't do anything to improve it.

Lots of people wouldn’t expect their employer to improve their mental health.

What companies need to do is create a climate in which employees know they can approach management without prejudice to discuss any problems with their work that are causing them problems and / or impacting on their mental health. That should be the baseline of support that the employer is offering.

There are so many ways of gathering this information anonymously- eg via surveymonkey or a paper doc on arrival.

Surveys about staff are feeling can be really useful. We had one in March and a lot of people made suggestions for things which could be implemented working from home that could help morale and support staff. Most of them have been put into place. As a result of surveys they have introduced mental health first aiders, duvet days.
If your employers don’t know the issues they can’t be expected to put things into place to help.

@Rose789

Surveys about staff are feeling can be really useful. We had one in March and a lot of people made suggestions for things which could be implemented working from home that could help morale and support staff. Most of them have been put into place. As a result of surveys they have introduced mental health first aiders, duvet days. If your employers don’t know the issues they can’t be expected to put things into place to help.

Was your survey anonymous?

They said it was but it was sent from our work email addresses so I doubt it to be honest.

I have to say this sounds disingenuous to me. To set up an ostensibly anonymous survey and then require its submission via a far-from-anonymous medium would pose a problem for me.

At best, some organisations might be eager to help their staff in a recognition that it boosts productivity, or at least want to tick the boxes that say they've made an effort to do as much. Perhaps in this case the motivation is similarly altruistic, but with today's sophisticated digital communication platforms it shouldn't be beyond any organisation's wit to anonymise the data.

I'm admittedly cynical, and maybe not the most impartial of contributors to this thread, but I've been taught to be by the manoeuvrings of a sector that's rapidly (& deservedly) earning a name for itself for all the wrong reasons. Before Covid we were taking industrial action. But material like this can be used against people, and in my organisation some staff have been forcibly shoved at Occupational Health only to feel they were then under surveillance. I've found myself practically fighting off my LM's insistence that OH might be beneficial for me, despite the fact that there's nothing whatsoever wrong with me and I'd told him I'd be the one to decide whether I needed help or not. Then they wonder why we don't trust our management and are reticent with them.

You can tell them your mental health feels fine, but you find it incredibly 'triggering' to be asked about it on a frequent basis. They are, IMO, creating anxiety where this is unnecessary. But as I say, cynicism ...