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Interesting tidbit regarding Gallup: the Fortune 500 company I work for manipulates our surveys by asking general questions about the company and then holding t

Interesting tidbit regarding Gallup: the Fortune 500 company I work for manipulates our surveys by asking general questions about the company and then holding the supervisors accountable for the results even if all of the questions are way out of their control. So they leverage the the employee-supervisor relationship to make it seem like there is more happiness and less discontent. That being said, I find it hard to believe my company is the only one doing that, I even called Gallup about it and they did not seem to care. At all. Imagine what the real numbers look like.

kodah 5y ago
I've seen our internal surveys go like this as well. They'll be critical on themselves with easy-to-solve issues but if it's something substantive then the polling will be very obtuse.
- laurent92 5y ago
  In my company (a famous company which builds trucks) they introduced those bullshit happiness surveys during Covid. So we coordinated so that the average of our marks were 1, 3, 4, 10, 5, 5, 10, 4, 3, 1, which is a Batman graph. Fortunately the “1” matches the first lockdown, but the managers are still wondering why the spikes at 10.
  - flapjaxy 5y ago
    doing the real work right here!
  - jrs235 5y ago
    Reminds me about a cohort of colleagues at a place I worked that would have some fun conspiring similarly to this. Seemed HR and the company wanted everyone to fall in line. We called ourselves "the loose ends".
slumdev 5y ago
My employer administered questions regarding how many days per week the employees wanted to spend in-office versus WFH. Zero days per week in the office was not presented as an option.
- LeifCarrotson 5y ago
  How many days per week do you want to spend in the office versus work from home? (A) Seven in office (B) Six in office (C) Five in office, seven evenings plus two days WFH (D) Please replace me
  - MR4D 5y ago
    (E) I have COVID and am going into the office to screw the company over. Will be interesting to see if this choice happens.
- mrRandomGuy 5y ago
  AKA "we spent way too much on the lease for you to just work from home pleb"
  - serial_dev 5y ago
    I honestly think it comes down to this in the majority of the cases. "Look, we have a two-years contract where we pay X thousand dollars a month for 100 desks and we have on an average day 3 developers in our office. After one year of lockdowns, we know our developers work at least as well from home as from the office, but higher ups ask us why we pay so much for an empty building, so we will force you come back to the office as soon as we can, even if we don't save any money with that and most likely decrease our efficiency and employee satisfaction." I live in Germany and that's more or less what's happening at my company as we speak. Nobody complained about our performance or said they wished the company would enforce "work from office" rules, yet, they already try to slowly increase the days where we need to work from the office. In my opinion, once a month in the office is great for chatting and connecting with people, but when it comes to work output, it doesn't move the needle, it's actually a day lost to the business.
Macha 5y ago
Seen this before too. 1. Company makes unpopular decision (cuts a benefit, partners with someone unpopular, enforces some tedious process to make management life earlier) 2. Next poll season comes round 3. Shock, results are down 4. Declare an aggregate engagement measure as an action item which incorporates both the happiness metric but others such as understanding of company strategy 5. Declare the problem with this metric are line managers not conveying company direction well enough 6. Declare you're taking action by measuring line management on this metric 7. A bunch of ensuing makework on something execs think is important (at a certain size, a singular company vision is just too generic for line employees to care), yet they sell it as taking action
- jjtheblunt 5y ago
  simple solution == flat-as-possible org structure?
  - clomond 5y ago
    But once you make a formal structure flat enough, informal structures can start to solidify and dominate (think High School). I always try to keep this in mind, Valve which famously has a completely flat structure, ended up turning into an environment where things like popularity and ability to dispense resources defined the practiced org structure. Be careful what you wish for.
    - danuker 5y ago
      Perhaps "popularity and ability to dispense resources" is better than just "ability to dispense resources" (i.e. traditional hierarchy).
      - rowanG077 5y ago
        Did you go to High School with the rampant bullying? Popularity is not linked at all with personality traits that make someone a good leader afaik. Traditional hierarchy at least tries to keep people who are a competent in power.
throwaway75787 5y ago
Surveys set up by the likes of "Great Place to Work" and similar are nothing but HR and PR fluff. It's set up to be spinned and covered up.
- mohaine 5y ago
  This. You can only win with quite a bit of work which a company without issues will not put in.
- tripa 5y ago
  I've said it before and I'd say it again with or without a throwaway: being certified “Great Place to Work” doesn't mean we're a good work environment, merely that we allocated >1 FTE to winning the contest.
  - Izkata 5y ago
    FTE?
    - tripa 5y ago
      Full-Time Employee
      - aspyct 5y ago
        *Equivalent, can be a freelancer too.
        tripa 5y ago
        Indeed. (actual employees in our case)
- ThePadawan 5y ago
  I took the GPTW survey a while back at a former workplace. I wholeheartedly agree. It's come to the point where if a company mentions that they participate in those surveys during the hiring process, that's a yellow flag.
namdnay 5y ago
Hahaha you too? Saw this at a previous employer. Suddenly the Gallup scores became the sole responsibility of your direct manager. So guess what? One year later, everyone briefs their reports to make sure they don’t get in trouble, Gallup scores were through the roof, trebles all round for HR!
foobiekr 5y ago
I work for an employer where anything is on the table for dealing with the deservedly poor reputation including buying "Best Workplace" awards. So... most of these surveys are actually probably counter-indicators.
Dracophoenix 5y ago
Not exactly the same, but your experience reminds me of this old tidbit from Yes, Minister: https://youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA https://youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

kodah 5y ago

I've seen our internal surveys go like this as well. They'll be critical on themselves with easy-to-solve issues but if it's something substantive then the polling will be very obtuse.

laurent92 5y ago
In my company (a famous company which builds trucks) they introduced those bullshit happiness surveys during Covid. So we coordinated so that the average of our marks were 1, 3, 4, 10, 5, 5, 10, 4, 3, 1, which is a Batman graph. Fortunately the “1” matches the first lockdown, but the managers are still wondering why the spikes at 10.
- flapjaxy 5y ago
  doing the real work right here!
- jrs235 5y ago
  Reminds me about a cohort of colleagues at a place I worked that would have some fun conspiring similarly to this. Seemed HR and the company wanted everyone to fall in line. We called ourselves "the loose ends".

slumdev 5y ago

My employer administered questions regarding how many days per week the employees wanted to spend in-office versus WFH. Zero days per week in the office was not presented as an option.

LeifCarrotson 5y ago
How many days per week do you want to spend in the office versus work from home? (A) Seven in office (B) Six in office (C) Five in office, seven evenings plus two days WFH (D) Please replace me
- MR4D 5y ago
  (E) I have COVID and am going into the office to screw the company over. Will be interesting to see if this choice happens.
mrRandomGuy 5y ago
AKA "we spent way too much on the lease for you to just work from home pleb"
- serial_dev 5y ago
  I honestly think it comes down to this in the majority of the cases. "Look, we have a two-years contract where we pay X thousand dollars a month for 100 desks and we have on an average day 3 developers in our office. After one year of lockdowns, we know our developers work at least as well from home as from the office, but higher ups ask us why we pay so much for an empty building, so we will force you come back to the office as soon as we can, even if we don't save any money with that and most likely decrease our efficiency and employee satisfaction." I live in Germany and that's more or less what's happening at my company as we speak. Nobody complained about our performance or said they wished the company would enforce "work from office" rules, yet, they already try to slowly increase the days where we need to work from the office. In my opinion, once a month in the office is great for chatting and connecting with people, but when it comes to work output, it doesn't move the needle, it's actually a day lost to the business.

Macha 5y ago

Seen this before too. 1. Company makes unpopular decision (cuts a benefit, partners with someone unpopular, enforces some tedious process to make management life earlier) 2. Next poll season comes round 3. Shock, results are down 4. Declare an aggregate engagement measure as an action item which incorporates both the happiness metric but others such as understanding of company strategy 5. Declare the problem with this metric are line managers not conveying company direction well enough 6. Declare you're taking action by measuring line management on this metric 7. A bunch of ensuing makework on something execs think is important (at a certain size, a singular company vision is just too generic for line employees to care), yet they sell it as taking action

jjtheblunt 5y ago
simple solution == flat-as-possible org structure?
- clomond 5y ago
  But once you make a formal structure flat enough, informal structures can start to solidify and dominate (think High School). I always try to keep this in mind, Valve which famously has a completely flat structure, ended up turning into an environment where things like popularity and ability to dispense resources defined the practiced org structure. Be careful what you wish for.
  - danuker 5y ago
    Perhaps "popularity and ability to dispense resources" is better than just "ability to dispense resources" (i.e. traditional hierarchy).
    - rowanG077 5y ago
      Did you go to High School with the rampant bullying? Popularity is not linked at all with personality traits that make someone a good leader afaik. Traditional hierarchy at least tries to keep people who are a competent in power.

throwaway75787 5y ago

Surveys set up by the likes of "Great Place to Work" and similar are nothing but HR and PR fluff. It's set up to be spinned and covered up.

mohaine 5y ago
This. You can only win with quite a bit of work which a company without issues will not put in.
tripa 5y ago
I've said it before and I'd say it again with or without a throwaway: being certified “Great Place to Work” doesn't mean we're a good work environment, merely that we allocated >1 FTE to winning the contest.
- Izkata 5y ago
  FTE?
  - tripa 5y ago
    Full-Time Employee
    - aspyct 5y ago
      *Equivalent, can be a freelancer too.
      - tripa 5y ago
        Indeed. (actual employees in our case)
ThePadawan 5y ago
I took the GPTW survey a while back at a former workplace. I wholeheartedly agree. It's come to the point where if a company mentions that they participate in those surveys during the hiring process, that's a yellow flag.

namdnay 5y ago

Hahaha you too? Saw this at a previous employer. Suddenly the Gallup scores became the sole responsibility of your direct manager. So guess what? One year later, everyone briefs their reports to make sure they don’t get in trouble, Gallup scores were through the roof, trebles all round for HR!

foobiekr 5y ago

I work for an employer where anything is on the table for dealing with the deservedly poor reputation including buying "Best Workplace" awards. So... most of these surveys are actually probably counter-indicators.

Dracophoenix 5y ago

Not exactly the same, but your experience reminds me of this old tidbit from Yes, Minister: https://youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA https://youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA