Anonymous feedback that is not actually Anonymous..

[Babysonfire12345]

I was sent an 'anonymous' staff survey last week that I used to voice an issue i was unhappy with. I am in a team of 10 but there are 5 teams and this is an issue that could've happened to any of us. I didn't include any specific details nor my name etc.
The feedback is about the training provider and something I was unhappy with.
The email stated that the survey would be picked up by managers, training provider etc.
It was an issue that could have impacted anyone in the training cohort. Anyway I guess I was the only one out of the 10 who raised it as my manager called me for a meeting saying she had identified my complaint from the survey.

Aibu to be annoyed and wonder what the point is? Maybe I should've gone directly to the training provider but I thought the survey was an opportunity to provide feedback. Just feel so overly monitored and that nothing is private.

The survey did not ask which team I'm in either or anything that could've specifically identified me as being in that team.

If the survey is carried out via a computer you have to log into at work then it can never be anonymous. I never do these workplace surveys for this reason

I might be dramatic but it just feels very 1984. I won't be doing one again, it feels like a violation of privacy.

You should reply that you took part in the survey on the condition of anonymity which was assured to you. Then they can't really ask you anything more about your responses.

Just wondering what workplaces are becoming. It's wrong.

My opinion of this depends on the nature of the feedback you gave.

For example, if you mentioned bullying, harassment, discrimination etc in the feedback then I feel they might be justified in their actions

Anything critical is never anonymous in these surveys.
Had them at an oil and gas company I worked at the results were always gushingly wonderful as to what a wonderful company we worked for.
It couldn't have been further from the truth.

I have the same issue with the ‘anonymous’ staff surveys at my old workplace. As a previous poster has already said they have the IT login and can find out who has written what if they want. I’ve known managers come back to certain individuals or teams as they know where the issue has came from. If they truly wanted to have an anonymous staff survey there are ways to do it.

People raised time and time again that the company will never get a true reflection of what everyone thinks about f employees are scare of being targeted. Of course some people aren’t bothered, but other people with very valid concerns will keep quiet out of fear of being seen as a troublemaker.

Honestly I feel sick. I didn't write anything about anyone specific, I wrote about the training provider as a whole and the quality of certain aspects.

Are you sure it wasn't obvious it was you from a turn of phrase? My husband is always baffled how people know feedback is from him, and it's because he's the only person who uses specific words.

If it said it was as anonymous then it should have been just that. They had no business trying to identify you. Maybe you could just say that on that basis you can neither confirm nor deny that you made the comments and will not discuss them.

Very frustrating when anonymous feedback is not so! My workplace has an ‘anonymous’ system for staff to give feedback, however all feedback is delivered directly to your line manager and they can see which team the feedback came from, they just can’t see who it was from. Teams are mostly only 5 or 6 people with a few distinct roles. I gave negative feedback about something which was only relevant to me within my team before I realised this and so it was obvious to my line manager that it must have been me who gave it. I don’t use the system any more, anonymous should mean truly anonymous or if feedback might be identifying it should go to a manager who doesn’t work directly with you.

The same happened to me 20 years ago so it's not new. If I were older and wiser at that time, I'd take the company to the cleaners for this and many other workplace issues. Disgusting organisation which I boycotted ever since (large coffee chain).
I have never completed another "anonymous" survey since no matter how many reassurances I get from management.

This...

We do regular anonymous feedback and in the past it's been very easy to ID people by terms and phrases used. We mainly do tick boxes now for anonymity because of this.