Mojo In The Morning
Am I The A**hole?: The Anonymous Work Survey
This is the Mojo in the Morning podcast, powered by Michigan Auto Law, auto accident attorneys. Visit autolaw.com. That's autolaw.com. All right, it is Mojo in the morning. Am I the a-hole right now? You decide whether a person on the phone line here, one of our fellow listeners, is an a-hole. I will voice disguise you because I know this is kind of a work issue and I don't want to get you in trouble. And we'll just give you a random initial. Well, Emma, I'm with us right now. Hi, Emma. Good. Emma wants to know if she is an a-hole. I understand that you're a manager of a company, of an office, right? Yeah, I'm an executive at a local company. And you guys recently did something at work that you think that some people are a little upset with. What was it that you did? Sure. I think so. And I appreciate you having my voice disguised as- Sure. No problem. Yeah. Well, we had done a survey at the office recently, supposedly there's some team issues, so, you know, I thought it would be a great idea to put together, you know, like a common anonymous team builder, you know, kind of event. And it was an eye-opener because everybody was submitting complaints and things like that. So it turned out that they were complaining on one specific manager. You know, so I took it upon myself. I decided we needed to talk about this complaint and bring it to the table. Although it was supposed to be unanimous, I kind of, you know, I had to address it. You know, I felt like for us to work as a team, we need to reopen and clear the air. So at the end of one of the meetings, you know, some bits on the team came up to me. She was like, you know, you need to be put in place. She got all of my faith and said that I was deceptive with my motives and the survey was supposed to be actually unanimous. It was her as a ringleader or whatever, but- So you did an anonymous survey and on the anonymous survey, a lot of people came back and said that a specific manager was not a good manager. And you took the anonymous survey and brought it to the whole team and that manager to try to correct the issue. And the people that filled out the anonymous survey were upset that their survey was not anonymous. Did you say, did you say to the manager, the specific people told me that you're not a good person? Good question. Of course not. It's still unanimous, but it was unanimous. It was unanimous, but unanimous. So everybody doesn't like this person. Right. So they all feel like they got called out now because of you brought it to the attention. At the end of the day, with the problem, we just came to dress and although everybody was upset about it, I have a responsibility to call out, you know, on professionalism or just not team-building, you know, like, so it works together like this. All right. So it's obvious that you're wondering if you're the A-hole? Yeah. Am I the A-hole for bringing it up to the team after I've ever done that? What else would you do? Anonymous. Now you're confusing yourself. Yeah. Well, I mean, what else would you do in this case? I mean, aside from firing the manager for being a bad manager- Right. And just- I don't know if you need to bring the entire team into the conversation. Like I think having a one-on-one with that manager, the individual that everybody is speaking ill about is the proper way to handle it. I don't know if you need everybody more. But you made it not anonymous by saying that it was- by saying that everybody agreed that there was a problem with this person. So then every person who took that survey he or she knew took issue with her, right? So everybody was guilty at that point. So I see where you were going and I see you were trying to be a responsible manager here, but I do think you were an A-hole because if I'm taking an anonymous survey, I am going to feel comfortable then saying what I really want to say. We're probably, otherwise, I'm not just because that's my personality. Like I kind of hate confrontation even though I'm trying to get better about that, but I would be upset then because my then my name is out there. But do you really feel like every single person is you really think your work survey is going to stay anonymous? So your managers are looking at what you're saying and they know that you submitted it. Yeah. Is there really some type of privacy at work when it comes to that type of thing? At first I did. I answered one survey for this company very, very honestly when I first started working here. Genuinely, it was sent out to everybody in the company so I thought it was under some sort of like almost Apple algorithm where it was like encrypted. You couldn't follow it back to us and then a manager addressed me about what I had written in it and I was like, oh. In a bad way? Oh yeah. I didn't like that. Wow. I thought it was going to be helpful. That's right. If you're asking to know what the issues are so you can fix them and I tell you what the issues are, don't come blame me for telling you what the issues were. Let's get some calls in this 844-Mojo live, 844-665-6548 is initial M, an A-hole for breaking the trust of an anonymous survey by saying it was unanimous. I think probably that was a bad move like Shannon said, I think that you're an A-hole for that. Kevin's point, you could have just had a one-on-one with her and been like, you know, there was an issue that came up. You didn't have to say every single person said that. Everybody hates you. Now go back to work and enjoy working with each other. I'll be quite honest with you. I don't understand if everybody has an issue. That to me sounds like, and are you that person's boss that everybody has an issue with? Or you're okay? Well, then you got a problem. Because if you can't manage a person to make you know what I mean? You've allowed that person to be that bad, and the problem lies, I hate to say this with you initial M. And also, why would you think public shaming would be the most receptive option for that to fix the issue? Tricia, what's up? Am I the A-hole? I think it's an A-hole. Unfortunately, none of them surveys are anonymous. I worked for a major drugstore retailer, and we did them surveys often. We all knew who said what. Really? So for her to use that information, she needs to make her team better. She takes the survey. It's not just one person that said it. It's across the board. So she needs to address the issue across the board. What if it was, you know, they need to be increased, the issue is supposed to keep that separate too? No. But if you say it's anonymous, then you've set a false expectation. Yeah. Either way, I'm never taking one of those surveys. I'm not joking. Either way, you ever fill out like one of those, you bought a car surveys and stuff, or a survey for a company, and you hear the person has been calling you back, and that happened to me at a business where you fill out a survey and you're like, yeah, it was a restaurant. And I said, yeah, I just thought that they just seemed like they were either understaffed or whatever. And then the manager calls back and I'm like, oh crap, this is one of the places I love to go to. But they were cool with me for giving them the feedback. What's up, Donovan? Hey, good morning, guys, first time long time. Hey, Donovan is initial M and A-hole, but I would say no, she is an A-hole only because I'm in the leadership role myself. And even though it's an anonymous survey, a leader of the health, a different standard. So a manager in this case, I want to hold them accountable and let them know like, hey, there was some concerns brought up in the survey, but I'm not going to say who exactly said it, but I will address it because they are a leader. Would you do that in front of the group or would you do that in a one-on-one? No, that would be a one-on-one. So you're not this manager? Yeah. So that was the problem. The problem was the how she did it, I think. That was the... Ah, okay. Okay. That makes more sense. Even in having everybody sitting there going, oh crap, like that had to be very uncomfortable. David, what's up? Am I the A-hole? Is... And majority of people are saying that. It's like she went to court and pointed at everybody, you know, here's my witnesses. I never understand if you have a situation where a person is that bad and everybody has a problem with it, why it's gone to a survey to get you to notice why that person is that bad? That culture may not be one that provides the level of comfortability for the team members to want to vocalize their frustrations. Why are you not taking at me in the eyes right now? I think that you're referring to something with me. You know I talk to you. I like it. All right, hold on. By the way, here's the survey. Do you like working on the show or not? Answer the survey. To the listeners. You got to answer it at 7.20 in the morning. And by the way, why do I not get the same surveys that Megan gets? The company never asked me for anything. It was like seriously eight or nine years ago. All I do is take tests for how to do an EAS test and not do it, you know, as a joke or whatever. Hey guys, it is Ryan. I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm a bit of a fun fanatic when I can. 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