On the spot upward appraisal not anonymous advice.

[MurphysColeslaw]

In a staff meeting yesterday and the boss sprung an upward appraisal questionnaire on us.
“No repercussions, be honest etc etc”
We had to write our names at the top, which I thought was ridiculous and contributed to it being a pointless exercise.
Is this normal? I wouldn’t have expected it to be standard HR procedure.
She is not a great boss btw.

Anyone?

There's nothing wrong with the method. The receiver of the feedback needs to allow for the fact that people may not be honest so results may be pointless but most feedback should be done face to face anyway.

Just to add a previous boss of mine did this- around a board room table- and the bravest person immediately addressed the "elephant in the room" about the bosses mannerisms and we all gave inpit om how that made us feel. It can be brave if the person can take the feedback they have asked for on board

Face to face, that wouldn’t work either.
Nobody would be daft enough to say actually you’re a bully .

My boss asks for verb feedback every 1:1 we have and written feedback once a quarter.

You can be honest without being rude. Just be specific and give examples.

I personally think anonymous feedback is less useful.

No but you can say “I wasn’t comfortable with how you dealt with xyz situation, it would have been better to do ABC.”

We couldn’t give examples, it was a rating system on specific questions they asked.

Sounds like they have discovered the radical candour school of thinking (or similar) and want to thrust it on everyone. Nobody as zealous as a convert!

Well then rate them honestly, but have examples in mind for if you are asked to explain your ratings.

We have already done it.
She gave us 10 minutes at the end of the meeting, without warning.

I think that’s fine. If she is actually a bully have you or any of the team reported it to her manager?

Sounds like this approach is part and parcel of the bad management style!

I'd ask HR is this was a standard management approach to upward feedback and surely it wouldn't work if it was sprung on people AND they had to give their names to any comments AND they had a 10 minute window to do it in.

@Shedmistress That was my thinking, but it would appear to be the minority view?

Maybe the other posters dont know what they are talking about?

This is definitely part and parcel of a bullying style.

Bad practice

I didn’t know to follow it up. That’s why I wanted to check it it was generally a standard thing.
it just doesn’t seem like a productive or ‘safe’ way of doing things.

Its a pretty good way to get a self evaluation that says "dont know what everyone is on about, look all my feedback is fine"

Its also meaningless feedback!
But - a warning. I filled in an "anomous" form, and 2 weeks later someone passed a comment that meant they knew exactly what I had written on the form, and that it was me who had written it. i stopped filling in forms at thst point!!

@SnapAndTap Mine wasn’t anonymous though.
i think the whole thing if it being sprung on us in the way it was is unprofessional.
But I wanted some HR perspective in case I was being over sensitive.

Was it one of those 'customer satisfaction' style things with giving things marks out of 5 or 10? Without any open ended feedback?
It sounds like some initiative that's been introduced and she's unhappy about it. So rather than sending it as a professional seeming anonymous survey she's making people do it on the spot with their names on? I'd have questioned why we need to put our names.
But either I'd be honest or just give the middle mark for everything. Or put don't know for every answer.

Yes it was that kind of thing.
However I don’t know whether to follow it up

I guess it was more a warning incase an anonymous version comes out shortly.

Eh?

It depends on what the management structures are in your workplace.

Your difficulty is, if your boss is really terrible you won’t feel comfortable addressing your concerns with her directly.

How easy is it to reach out to her boss, one of her peers, or a people partner?

I’d have lots of options in my company (including an anonymous tip line) but I know not all companies are the same.

It’s not like that where I am.
She started there at 23 from when it first opened 8 years ago.
I think she’s largely been able to do her own thing unchallenged.
Morale is low and she rules largely by fear and intimidation , she does the rotas, you piss her off she messes with your shifts, so no one says anything.
My issue from yesterday was asking if it was standard procedure to do upward appraisals in this manner, to me it seems counter productive and just ‘off’ 🤷🏻‍♀️

Bumping for any HR evening folk.