My favorite town halls are the very early pre-layoff town halls where the older employees with a short runway who don’t give a fûck anymore start asking questions.
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ABU used to have awesome town halls hosted by RK including live audience voting on presentations and followed immediately by a three hour beer bust. Good times.
@7ojw, I would get to the auditorium early to grab an end seat in the back row, so that come Q&A time I’d be the first to duck out. That part of the town hall was lame. Nobody really asked the questions that would interest me, and I wouldn’t be so d-u-m-b to ask the questions myself (not unless I had already put in my papers to retire next week).
The Q&A sessions can be entertaining sometimes.
I got a granola bar once
@6gfs, I covered my identity very well by sending in my questions from an unsuspecting employee’s laptop. I knew a few who would pop up frequently from their workstation to get coffee or go to the bathroom without locking out their laptop or removing their badge.
To anyone nervous about PollEV’s anonymity, let me reassure you there is no way for them to see any details unless you put your name in. And the comms folks who work with the execs and run the PollEVs aren’t exactly technological geniuses either. It’d be easier for them to track you down based on posting history on this site if you use the same pseudonym. You can rest easy.
I remember when the annual employee global townhall included disclosure of the corporate factor for bonuses (useful information) !!
Also, in smaller group discussion (when no recordings were done) with corporate executive---- meaningful questions were asked and thoughtful responses received. Learned from those small group interactions (I was apt to ask the questions everyone was afraid to ask--- but I was nearing retirement)
In my 30 years at Chevron, I’ve gone to 30 annual or major town halls. I can’t say I’ve ever taken anything meaningful away from attending one.
You know things are getting better because this whole board has been pretty chill.
Employees complain there is no communication and they don't know what the heck is going on. Managers are required to have periodic town halls to remedy this complaint. They update staff on what is going on and take open questions. Then, nobody can complain they are being kept in the dark. What employees fail to realize is that management treat these sessions as "public disclosure" so they will not comment on confidential activities or issue forward-looking guidance. They also can not address specific complaints in all cases without knowing more. It is often better to take up your own problems with your supervisor and/or HR rep. The TH is a chance to stay up to speed on what has recently happened in the org and clarify any doubts.
If you're concerned about remaining anonymous then use a VPN. I honestly doubt there is much concern who is asking the questions. This is small potatoes compared to more pressing issues in the world.
As previously said, Bill answered tough questions like someone in his position should be capable of doing. If you're not prepared to field these types of questions without a juvenile meltdown, then you have no business holding the position. (JG minions will never read the above to him)
To be more effective, need more questions like "Thank you Sir! Question is how can greatly balance increased office and ergonomic safety while at same time increasing our diversity levels to all time highs especially for gender and race issues?" LOL....Also, "if we only hire the best and brightest, 'better than best', how is it you have to tell us how to wash our hand, make coffee and not be racist?"....maybe second is better....
Realities of Town Halls: 1) their sole purpose is so management can say, "We communicate!", even if they say nothing or purposely dodge the difficult questions. 2) Management minions monitor the questions coming in, deliberately burying the 'difficult' questions, massaging other questions into softball lobs, and keeping ready standard softball lobs about how great management is, how D&I will re-invigorate Chevron, and how you have nothing to fear from the coming Green tsunami. 3) You can identify the sycophants, high-pots, and yes-persons as the ones sitting in the front rows, nodding their heads and drooling like little kids in a candy store. MW's Town Halls have 100% hand-picked sycophants in attendance.
Publicly identifying the useless id--ts is useful in itself.
Town hall meetings are a farce. A complete waste of time. No more than a dog and pony show for management. There’s nothing of meaningful importance for the rank and file employee. I haven’t attended one in years and really don’t ask anybody who attended what they thought was interesting about it.
@ugx+1bCfRQFF - I don’t think pollev is anonymous. I’m certain the administrator of the poll can see who posted a question.
Big Joey G had a great town hall thats for sure. Hes so out of touch and really just doesn't care about employees.
The LABU town halls were great because they were mandatory and the MD gave Chocolate to anyone who asked a question. He never gave an honest answer.
For the record, I’m pretty sure JG doesn’t give a sh!t what any of us think because “he’s already got enough money” and his whole focus is some sort of legacy / ego trip where he thinks we’re going to er--t a bronze statue of him after he retires, burn offerings in his memory, wear sackcloth, and wail uncontrollably.
@ugx+1bCfRQFF You summed it up pretty well!
One time, JJ came to my BU. He did a townhall in the most active field office. He praised the good work that we were doing. When asked about layoffs, he flat out said, “We aren’t considering doing any reorgs right now.” I thought this was a little strange because the market wasn’t in a good place, but I trusted what he said. Two weeks later, ESP was announced.
That was the last time I made the mistake of trusting what an executive said. Now when I listen to town halls, I consider if the exact opposite of what they are saying is reality. It’s not even reading between the lines. Executives lie to prop up the multi-level marketing organization (like any other publicly traded corporation).
I'll give Bill credit, he took a sh*t-ton of arrows for JG. I hope JG finally wakes up to the reality his circle of minions try to keep from him.
I'm mixed on if I think townhalls are effective, but I think they definitely need to keep Pollev in the feedback equation. Without an anonymous way to submit the questions that NEED to be asked we're just going to see the same old behaviors and org.
I'm not pro or anti Bill, but I'll say that he did answer some tough questions that many other leaders "pretend not to see". It's a start.
I'm still of the mind that there are some funky statistics being used by HR to lower the attrition rate. The fact that someone does not want to provide info or even give an exit interview should be counted, and weighed higher in their numbers.
We've tossed a bunch of good roles out (BA, PM, etc) and as a result have cut loose many a good contributor not versed in the technical jargon-minutia of the day. Not everyone wants to pretend to be a coder in a Microsoft PowerApp capacity.
Not a damn thing
And if so, what?