Management says they like to hear our feedback on something (process, service, whatever,) they say they want us to be engaged and included, but once we actually provide that feedback we are labeled as troublemakers unless it's 100 percent positive. So it seems being engaged and included means giving praise to anything and everything they put in front of you, whether is good or an inefficient mess that could use many improvements.
17 replies (most recent on top)
Choosing not to participate is providing feedback.
If you are a chronic underperforming whiner, it doesn't take a survey to out you. You stick out like a sore thumb, especially whenever you open your mouth.
This is just another fine example how regressive this company really is. Feedback can be taken with a high road and work to employer's advantage. But no, not here, this is where playground bullies relive their retribution against who are vocal but powerless. When you are so busy rooting out the the naysayers, how would you ever find the time to distill good ideas for their benefits?
If you give negative feedback on any survey it will not change anything so ALWAYS give positive feedback. It isn't always as anonymous as they claim and you don't want to give them a reason to surplus you as not a team player and negative.
Quantum supervisor feedback is anonymous but if you know your people, you will know their writing style and be able to tell who wrote what.
I'm pleased to say that my team appreciate me as much as I do them.
It's a shame we will all be transferred over to another employer by Dec.
They track those, they say they don't but they do. Managers in the call centers are very incompetent.
Earlier post from aoo+1bt1SXUY is lengthy, but worthwhile to read for anyone who wants to improve the workplace or the company's bottom line. You risk being labeled a troublemaker, even if your suggestions are positioned in a positive manner. That post was about another company, but my observation over many has been that the same is true of AT&T. I, too, once was young and naive, but eventually gained wisdom and learned to shut up. Tread carefully.
@aoo+1bt1SXUY, what a story.
The thing that stood out is that you're 100% correct that while mega-corps preach to their employees to be innovative and make suggestions, they really want mindless worker bees just doing their day-to-day.
The reason seems to be because the top executives at these mega-corps have this massive paranoia and inferiority complex, and are terrified that some underling might have a better idea than they do. People like Stink on down through the VP levels believe they are smarter than anyone else, so how could some L1 or L2 have anything worthwhile to suggest?
It's this dismissive attitude born of a prideful ignorance among the execs that ends up turning the culture toxic, creating needless business problems, deflating employee morale, and ending in the inevitable layoffs to cover their posteriors.
This is very true at T. Just ask anyone at Warner or Directv. T came in, ignored the established professionals and anyone who understood how those two businesses succeeded because, well, Stink knows more about TV than anyone, and the result is the charred wreckage of today.
Not all CEOs are as arrogant and destructive as Stink, but way too many are. Unfortunately, the current American capitalist system rewards these people not for results, but for entering the inner circle. Executive pay is insanely out of touch with reality, and isn't correlated with any sort of actual performance metric. Once you're in the club you get your millions and never have to worry about whether your work is good, bad, or otherwise.
Good for them. Bad for everyone else.
More clueless than troublemaker.
i have posted on this board before, mentioned I never worked for ATT, but use site to see what about 4-5 companies are possibilities for employment, what current/former employees have to say. know how to read legit issues and just plain ole complaining. with that said, this topic caught my eye from last long term employer(17 years) with one of top media/technology companies.
with that said, i ran into problems with providing feed back, not just those nonsense surveys they often ask you to fill out. that's all a sham. I am talking about giving feed back up chain on how certain things would be more efficient, ect. all the way to top dog in large division all claimed to have open door policy for any and all ideas. they took one of my ideas, and claimed it as their own, but i did not care, it helped all the folks in trenches life easier. as company/division started to downsize due to tech changes, basically automation, they kept us "lucky" ones on, BUT added so many tasks to our daily work life. they over estimated how many they could let go, leaving us to work across many departments. I was assigned to help with flow in the high end broadcasting equipment tracking of what came in and out, organize, often during emergencies, no one could find spare parts major equipment failures, were supposed to have tons of extra parts. it was a mess. i made suggestion, to either rehire the staff that worked on that full time, they laid them ALL OFF, expecting us who remained to platoon working on that storage facility. That was shot down, got the "trouble maker" for my efforts. Then I suggested to at very least subcontract a logistics outfit to set the place up,upgrade the flow and control of VERY expensive broadcasting equipment, then maintain it. mind you, this was NOT even my job, I worked in one department but they over laid off and was being platooned to so many departments, all the while maintaining expert level performance in what my ACTUAL position was.
I showed the head honcho, a box of brand new ,very expensive broadcasting boards, close to 150k, utterly destroyed on floor. all because too many people working in there with no experience in this aspect, or simply were pi---d and did not care, AT ALL. I took initiative , worked out proposal to upgrade storage room by outside firm, made suggestions on a more cohesive amount of folks working in there afterwards. They thought i was crazy, I reminded them that over 15 people quit because of being asked to do this work, outside their area of expertise and it would continue, more importantly, they were losing TONS of money in broken sensitive equipment. fell on deaf ears, again, was told off record by lower supervisors, don't bother, they are never going to listen, even though i was 100% correct in solution to problem.
FLASH FORWARD TO LAST WEEK, my friends, still working there, told me they FINALLY took my idea, 9 years later!!! now they have job postings for multiple positions, implemented a new logistics tracking system, EVERYTHING I proposed that caused me to be considered a "troublemaker"!! truly pi---d me off, finding that out. What terrible management team they had there. I know, long winded reply, just thought i would share about how it is always taught to show initiative, take that chance to get recognized for practical solutions. IT WAS EXACT OPPOSITE. sad to say, mega corporations these days, want drones that don't speak, just do, no matter how absurd. I don't regret it though, can't stand incompetence, I was very diplomatic, respectful ,professional with my feed back. I DID make about 60 peoples life easier with the ONE suggestion they took, so I can live with my decisions to speak up.
I have turned down positions where I could SEE CLEARLY it was same management style, life too short to live like that. I have been desperately seeking smaller outfits to work for, HOWEVER they all keep getting absorbed by larger companies, in turn taking a better working situation and conforming smaller companies into the dysfunctional mega corp management style.
Definitely not anonymous. Don't fill these out.
A few years ago when they still had NPS Surveys, I once had a Q from my 6th level why I was "disgruntled" with T from the NPS Survey! Turns out I was the only one left in her organization in my location. She had wached everyone else. Then she had an "ah, ha" moment when she realized the mass wackings was the reason I was so demoralized.
Do'oh!
I never participate...it's complete BS....always has been, always will be!
Toxic employees bring down morale and need to be removed.
Fill out feedback, no retaliation.
Believe one of these is upper management/HR's intention .
Found an email years ago, printed out by a "higher up" on a printer, which said basically, those who did not give excellent reviews were "detractors". From that day forward, gave up on ever doing any of these feedbacks.
Agreed. Be very careful.
I personally know of two cases over the years where someone upline knew who had written something and directly followed up with the person.
Remember, every "anonymous" survey requires log in with your attuid and password. Even if your superiors do not get individual identifiers, we know (they state this) that the results are reported at a group level. From there, it often is not too hard to figure out who wrote something, especially if the group is small.
Give all 5's & no comments.
I learned a long time ago that you tell them what they want to hear & they'll leave you alone. A bunch of bad scores only ends with your managers being told to "fix" the scores & that ends up creating more problems than you had to begin with.
They don't care if your manager is incompetent, they just want to make sure your attitude isn't affecting productivity.
Don't participate.