At work, recently, a survey done by a company that was organized to give access to "salaries, ratings and reviews posted anonymously by employees". The only part of the survey that I was able to see was a listing of the top 50 and the bottom 50 companies with sales above $1 Billion. To my amusement, which was closely followed by horror, the company I work for is in the bottom 50.My first reaction was that, "Well of course, all of these people who are writing on this page are all people who got fired, laid off, quit, or just plain want to spew their venom and feel important." As it turns out I decided to visit this website called www.glassdoor.com and see for myself what this really was all about.
For clarity sake, the aforementioned survey was based on a "Yes or No" check box if you approve of the company's CEO. That is hardly a representative, or statistically valid, sample in itself. That being said, the same question is being asked in the same way to everyone on the site at every company. So it still does hold value even though I would not call it statistically significant.
After reading a few of the opinions of my company on the web site (almost all of these were negative, they were also mostly negative at other companies) I began to see a more complete picture of my own company. It was fascinating to hear that Engineering was having all of these problems that seemed to small to me, but, for some reason they thought it a big enough problem to post and *gasp* worth the risk of revealing themselves as an unhappy employee. Then I read about some of our employees in customer service complaining about not being to able to work their hours requested, overtime problems, staffing issues. All of these I suppose I could relate to better as they interact with our customers directly. As I kept clicking I found one of the more interesting things of all: A management review!
The manager was not exactly happy with the company. They were from the southwest. I think I know who it is, and if it is indeed that person I respect them very much. They wrote not about pay grievances (they probably have a salary of $150k+) but about quality of life issues. How they are asked to do more without any help. They are alone on "an island" away from headquarters and it only complicates things because information is not communicated effectively or accurately except when they meet 4-6 times a year. Finally, about their hiring practices. This manager wanted more control of their sales force choices due to the fact that they were held to the standard of meeting their company given objectives.
After reading all of these, mainly negative, opinions I found myself sitting there grinning like a Cheshire cat. I have no doubt that if all of those people's names were exposed that they would find themselves in trouble. I also have no doubt that some companies would use this type of feedback as a tool to punish. I also do not think that that same company that would punish their employees would also get good ratings on this, or any anonymous, web site.
So why the grin? If I were the CEO/Manager I would print all of these off and do my best to commit them to memory. I left www.glassdoor.com with a complete understanding of how my organization works not from the top down...but from the bottom up. The people doing the real work were the ones telling the world how to fix it. Yes, it had a very negative spin. But, in the right hands a talented manage could see through the frustration and make positive changes in the organization. No one needs to be punished, but obviously some things need to be changed.
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