Employee survey - they know I didn't complete it

[ItalianoSl]

Twice a year we (a team of 7) are asked to complete an employee morale survey.
I don't want to do it. I am not contractually obliged to do so.
It is anonymous.
The manager posted in our team channel stating he knew (via the admin assistant) that only 6 out of the 7 had completed it, and that we should indicate with thumbs up emoji whether we had completed it.

I asked the admin assistant whether this was appropriate and she said she would tell him that she had enough responses.

He did add to his post that all responses were received, but did not remove his first post. 6 of the 7 have thumbed up, so it is completely clear that I have not completed it.

Is it appropriate to track individual participation in this way?

I could have just lied and thumbed up.

Sorry, jargon ...

I
Think
You
Mean

Have you had any conversations with your line manager about why you are unhappy there ?
X

I have said in other posts that yes I do talk to my manager.

@ItalianoSl What jumps out to me is that there are actually two different issues here:
Confidentiality of survey responses
Tracking who has (or hasn't) completed the survey
Those are not the same thing.

An employer can quite legitimately know who has submitted a survey while still keeping the answers anonymous. Many survey systems work exactly that way. For example, the system records that Italiano completed the survey, but separates that information from the actual responses. So the manager knowing that "6 out of 7 people have responded" does not automatically mean the survey wasn't confidential.

Where it becomes awkward is the manager's decision to ask everyone to publicly "thumbs up" if they'd completed it. In a team of only seven people, that effectively identified the one person who hadn't participated. It doesn't reveal their survey answers, but it does reveal their non-participation. Whether that's "appropriate" is more a management and workplace culture question than a legal one. Many people would see it as unnecessarily pressuring staff to take part in a supposedly voluntary survey, undermining confidence in the anonymity process; creating peer pressure in a very small team.

On the other hand, management might argue they were simply chasing a response rate and that no survey content was disclosed.

I think the strongest argument for the employee isn't "they've broken anonymity", because they haven't necessarily done that. It's that they appear to be treating a voluntary survey as though participation is expected, while publicly identifying the sole non-participant in a very small group.

Your comment "I could have just lied and thumbed up" highlights the flaw in the manager's approach. If the purpose was genuinely to find out who had completed the survey, the emoji request wasn't a reliable method anyway.
My view? I'd find it clumsy and slightly coercive rather than a serious confidentiality breach.

The manager seems to have blurred the line between an anonymous survey and a participation-tracking exercise, which is exactly the sort of thing that makes employees suspicious of "anonymous" staff surveys even when the survey provider is handling anonymity properly.

The end result of this type of management behaviour is they have to explain a 115% completion rate coupled with lots of negative feedback on senior managers. Those joining and leaving the team were so keen to participate but didn’t understand our strategy - hmmm.

@PrettyPickle
I was only questioning how appropriate it was for the manager to ask the team to indicate whether we completed the survey or not, I know this does not compromise the anonymity of the survey results.
I maybe blurred what I was concerned about when I even mentioned anonymity.
I do question just how anonymous a pool of 6 or 7 results can be, but that's a different issue.
Stupid fucking survey! My morale left the building some months ago.

I will have an opportunity to talk about any issues, and I'd rather do it face to face than via a survey.
Yeah...I do feel they hired me, used my skills and experience to improve things and will now hire cheaper staff from overseas to take over. I think it's quite reasonable to be annoyed and sad about that and not really believe that they care about their staff. It's about money - fair enough, they are a business.

And that is the point I am making, if he was asking for thumbs up then anonymity goes thru the door for you as you can tell who the thumbs up are from, that was unacceptable. Had a friendly reminder been sent to say if you haven't completed it, then do it now, it would be fine.

Your manager, overstepped.

You are right, it is not appropriate.

The survey is either compulsory or optional.

In can understand how you feel but that’s business after all. Constantly improving and evolving to stay competitive. Often driven by consumers (eg us) demanding “cheaper” products.

The same tactic applied to our own services (ie what we offer employers) ensures our salary grows, we stay relevant etc.

Best wishes for your new venture!

Either way, in the absence of penalties for "incorrect" answers, it's also a total waste of time and energy.

I’m never confident that these are anonymous.
Also when I’ve completed them previously and the results are published, the areas that staff express unhappiness with don’t ever seem to improve because the following years, the same level of dissatisfaction is shown in the same areas in results published.
I no longer take part in them.

I’d have just said “I’ve not completed it because I’m leaving soon”.

Yeah, never believe they are anonymous! I got called into HR once to discuss perfectly acceptable comments albeit negative I'd put on an "anonymous" staff survey. Admittedly my comments were about HR 😄

That's outrageous! What happened? Surely the only response is 'why are you calling a random person in to talk about an anonymous survey?!?'

I can see why you're annoyed OP. With only 7 people in the team it's hardly anonymous anyway! Don't think it was necessary for your manager to put you on the spot like that

I stood by my comments and pretty much said what you said, I think it was one power crazed HR person decided to speak to me, assumed I'd be terrified. Oh and I told everyone lol

Told everyone 😄 I love it.

Just thumbs up and he’ll be none the wiser!!

Results of the 'anonymous' survey are out.
I am encouraged by what I've read.
My colleagues are pissed off by the admin burden (tracking of work done) and top-down decision making (manager not using extensive knowledge within the team).
There were multiple comments about the challenge the team will face when I leave.
I have just been keeping my head down, so it's interesting to read that others believe they are micromanaged and that the manager shuts down people wanting to get involved in new/interesting projects.
I was hired when there was a massive back log of work. We've got that down now. It will rise quickly again when I've gone. Best they get on with 'expanding our team in India'.
How can they expect my morale to be anything but in the toilet when I read they are excited to expand in India. They are hiring people 1/4 of my price to do exactly the same work. It makes business sense, so don't then bleat about how you value your staff.