Employee Surveys Are Anonymous

[LeaP]

... Or I just outed myself!

I typed and deleted it 3 times before finally submitting with "Add transgender insurance coverage" in the box asking about how benefits could be improved.

My good deed for the day.

[Danika140]

If being TG/TS isn't hard enough living a lie, then battling through adversity while transitioning, we get less rights and protection than everyone else! I missed the part where being TG/TS apparently makes me less of a person than a genetic man or woman...

It's with help from people like you that will enable following generations true freedom! Thank you!

[elizabethamy]

That's my girl! Yay! I plan similar forms of activism while closeted this fall. This is what those of us who aren't quite ready to jump into the chasm can do to help the cause. If you're outed, Lea, it's to someone you don't deal with daily, and someone who could lose his/her job for spreading rumors about the personal lives of employees. So you're not 100% safe but pretty safe. YOu had this friend...

[LeaP]

I'm actually confident about the confidentiality, as these are collected and collated by an outside service firm.

The FUN part is that all comments are collated and circulated to the management team along with the statistical summaries. This is undoubtably going to attract notice and elicit some comments and discussion. Not the least of which will be speculation on the identity of the TG employee. Big company ... small business unit.

[Julia_in_Pa]

Very good Lea.
Now lets see if they pay attention to it yes?



Julia

[MarcyRex]

As a retired CG, we were constantly reinventing our "Business model" and surveys were just one facet. Now the CG is a small military service, units even smaller and as a result rather tightly knit (usually). The six degrees of separation did not apply. Even with "scubbed" comments, someone/somewhere could pinpoint the event, location or unit and thusly narrow it down. While I wasn't out, comments (friendly or snide) indicated I wasn't stealth enough. Before and during DADT. Didn't have a problem, but I can be sure if an equivalent comment was put in, I would be the target for a couple of humorous commentary. As long as job was done and performance was not an issue, we GLBT could work without much bother.

[arbon]

It usually so much easier just to do the safe thing, glad you took a chance putting it down and hopefully it may plant a seed.

[LeaP]

Planting a seed is exactly what I had in mind.

[BRANDYJ]

This thread reminded me about an employee survey the company I worked for used. We had to log into a website and respond to drop down responses to questions about our work place, management, happy, not happy etc. Then a place for written comments if you chose to make them. I answered honestly. Funny how within 3 weeks I was terminated after almost 4 years. And they say the survey in anonymous.
Now I don't think so.

[LeaP]

Sorry to hear that, Brandy.

I've been pretty blunt in past surveys at this company - as well as pointing out positives (e.g., the superb communications of, and knowledge depth in the management team). No problem so far ... knock on wood.

[edit] I should point out that the company already has a gender identity and gender expression non-discrimination policy in place.

[larry]

LeaP : ( Employee Surveys Are Anonymous )

You really don't believe that do you ??

[Traci Elizabeth]

... Or I just outed myself!

I typed and deleted it 3 times before finally submitting with "Add transgender insurance coverage" in the box asking about how benefits could be improved.

My good deed for the day.


OMG! You just really screwed up! I know for a fact that your company has an analyzer that can identify fingerprints, your air blown on the paper, type set differences, AND embedded in the survey paper itself was a nano sized camera that secretly took a picture of every one who filled this survey out.

You might just as well start looking for another job now before they peg you and "out" you to all the other employees, and report this to MSNBC, CNN, ABC, and Fox News as well as Rush, Ann, Mike, Gerardo, David, Conan, Jay, and the late Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Parr, and Johnny Carson.

[sandra-leigh]

Last time that an employee survey came my way, I refused to fill it out. The surveys unquestionably had tracking information (unique URLs, you would get nagged if you hadn't filled it out, the form knew your job area and job classification code, etc.) The part of the organization that was collecting the information has rules about disclosing individual identity, but the higher-ups in the organization demonstrated last year that they will simply change the rules they don't like. Oh, and did I mention that I am one of only two people in our section that have my particular job classification code?

I know it wasn't very brave of me, but the organization had become pretty bad by that point and I would have had to rate most things about the organization as "below average" to "poor". My response would have stood out anyhow, even without my adding any comments at all, and any comments I made about gender would probably have been dismissed as being "not credible" since they "obviously" came from "someone with an axe to grind" who "did not answer honestly". Disgust and bitterness is in fact the honest response of the people in my section who care a lot about their work, but I am one of the few people willing to say so outright -- when I say anything at all.

Interestingly the overall response to the survey said that 47% of the people in my organization were looking for a new job...

[kimdl93]

well, it just depends on how many people are completing the survey in your company...

[Karren H]

Just like random drug test are really random... Yeah right...

[LeaP]

People just HATE these things, don't they?


LeaP : ( Employee Surveys Are Anonymous )

You really don't believe that do you ??

Yes and no. I know the mechanisms inside and out. I know who has access to what. It is 100% possible to trace an individual survey response and in several ways beyond the obvious ones (such as the unique number attached to each response). There are good reasons for the ability to exist, like people using surveys to deliver threats, which happens occasionally. The snoopy ways of getting at the information require knowledge and access that most people don't have. The legit ways are via an auditable process. I'm unconcerned.

TG insurance coverage isn't going to rise above anyone's radar anyway, except from the standpoint of it being unusual. Perhaps amusing to some.


OMG! You just really screwed up! I know for a fact that your company has an analyzer that can identify fingerprints, your air blown on the paper, type set differences, AND embedded in the survey paper itself was a nano sized camera that secretly took a picture of every one who filled this survey out.

You might just as well start looking for another job now before they peg you and "out" you to all the other employees, and report this to MSNBC, CNN, ABC, and Fox News as well as Rush, Ann, Mike, Gerardo, David, Conan, Jay, and the late Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Parr, and Johnny Carson.

Ya, but then I get my 15 minutes of fame, get rich suing the living daylights out of the company, and get a job in some foundation somewhere as an activist! I'll give you a shout-out if I get on Conan!


I know it wasn't very brave of me, but the organization had become pretty bad by that point and I would have had to rate most things about the organization as "below average" to "poor". My response would have stood out anyhow, even without my adding any comments at all, and any comments I made about gender would probably have been dismissed as being "not credible" since they "obviously" came from "someone with an axe to grind" who "did not answer honestly". Disgust and bitterness is in fact the honest response of the people in my section who care a lot about their work, but I am one of the few people willing to say so outright -- when I say anything at all.

Interestingly the overall response to the survey said that 47% of the people in my organization were looking for a new job...

Outliers show up for what they are instantly. It's the same with 360 reviews. People who are out to get people only hurt themselves.

This was something very, very small, with a minimal, understood risk. It was in a company, moreover, that is known for taking progressive anti-discrimination stances. Finally, I also work in a state with statutory anti-discrimination provisions for trans people!

My God, the fear! I share it, but someone has to say something, somewhere, sometime.

[elizabethamy]

This thread is making me think how important it is that those of us who are closeted find a way out without, as has so often been said, "losing everything." We have to speak up or nothing will improve. Similarly, since we are the "T" in "LGBT," we need to do more work within LGBT organizations to get their help for something as basic as insurance coverage and protection against hate crimes, job discrimination, etc. The LGB lobby is powerful, and T deserves a ride on their express bus -- but we won't get it if we don't insist.

[Traci Elizabeth]

Ya, but then I get my 15 minutes of fame, get rich suing the living daylights out of the company, and get a job in some foundation somewhere as an activist! I'll give you a shout-out if I get on Conan!


You go Girl !

[sandra-leigh]

My God, the fear! I share it, but someone has to say something, somewhere, sometime.

The organization I work for has gotten bad enough that several major magazines issued public pleas for the organization to reduce the climate of fear in the organization.

[Pamela Kay]

I answered one of these a few weeks ago. They have done them for years and the survey always says that nobody trusts the upper management, of course the answer is to put all of the employee's through team training. (right) Anyway this time there was a check all those that apply to your situation, it asked about lifestyle (gay, lesbian, etc.) and had transgender as a choice. Since a friend has already transitioned in my organization and I have came out to management and HR I checked the box.

Made me wonder if they are trying to figure out how many of us are out there since two of us have come out in less than a year.

[PretzelGirl]

Good for you Lea! I am also sad to see comments that lean towards assuming tracking an automatic termination. It is a survey and that is all. But yes, if we don't push for changes, then it will all come at a slower pace.

[DebbieL]

... Or I just outed myself!

I typed and deleted it 3 times before finally submitting with "Add transgender insurance coverage" in the box asking about how benefits could be improved.

My good deed for the day.

Last year my company added Transgender to the list of "Diversity" they wanted to know about. I not only checked the box, but found out there was a transgender support group, including a community board and a number of local groups that planned social events for LGBT community. I read somewhere that the company covers some of the transition costs, but I was not able to confirm that yet.

Harvey Milk suggested that if the gay community came out to their friends and family, they would gain more support over the long run. I think the same is true with the transgender community.

From age 6 to 21 my mother was the only one who knew, and even she couldn't talk to me about it. I told my girlfriend when I was 24 and married her at 25. After our divorce 9 years later, I came out and started the transition process. I had to stop when my ex-wife threatened to have my visitation revoked, but I still went en-femme evenings and week-ends, after work.

I quit dressing for a leadership program and gained 50 lbs. Going from 160 (size 14) to 210. I didn't want to go out as Debbie in public after that and eventually shot up to 325 lbs. A heart attack and a stroke later, I decided that I wanted to lose some weight and get back to a size 16. I started dressing again as often as I could, went to weight watchers, and lost 85 lbs. That put my in size 16. At this point, most people know I'm transgendered. I still plan to lose another 60 lbs and see where that puts me, but at least I am comfortable in skirts again.

When my dad was about to die, he told me "I want you to be yourself". I knew that he had seen my transgender postings on facebook, and he told me that he was sorry he had objected all those years. He didn't want me to get hurt the way he had been hurt. He was ttransgendered too, but in his time, transition wasn't an option.

[DeeDee1974]

I answered a survey once about my boss at a former company. It was supposed to he anonymous, but then she called me in her office and asked me specifically about all my negative responses. It was very intimidating.