Self-reporting job satisfaction to HR
March 20, 2020 1:35 AM   Subscribe

European here, working in a European company but with US owners. Owners have an online HR system where we are required to put in basically our CVs. That's fine. However, there's one field that gives me pause: Current Job Satisfaction. Are there any reasons at all to not put in a high score here? Or am I being too paranoid after reading to many HR-related horror stories online?
posted by Harald74 to Work & Money (7 answers total)
 
I would certainly not tell the truth there if you are unhappy. Sorry if that seems paranoid. There seems to me no reason to escalate any ill feelings through that channel.
posted by frumiousb at 1:54 AM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


I would never put my foot it that trap. Sorry.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:02 AM on March 20, 2020 [3 favorites]


Depends on who your HR is. I'm HR, and I'd be pissed if people were just putting in false information to avoid ''getting in trouble''. If I have a staff member who was unhappy with their job, I'd want to know, so that I can do everything in my power to fix it!! The most important part of my job is taking care of our staff, making sure they're happy, that we are responsible employers, and that coming to work for us is overall a positive, life-improving experience. And I will fight against senior leadership to make sure this happens. Thankfully, my stance on this is welcomed and appreciated by my employer. What I'm saying is, not all HR are assholes. But some are. Let that determine your response.
posted by hasna at 3:45 AM on March 20, 2020


Put an "almost the highest number" there. Like 9/10.

you can take specific requests/situations to a specific HR person if you know them and think they have a way to help you. But you have no idea where that data in the system is going to go. Best case, it goes to an internal HR survey of overall employee satisfaction, which isn't all that smart anyway since it's got no useful info on it. Worst case it goes straight to someone who will penalize you for the wrong answer.
posted by fingersandtoes at 4:53 AM on March 20, 2020 [5 favorites]


If HR really wants you to answer the question honestly, they should take active precautions against it being used against you, and let you know what those precautions are. (I mean not just "We value honesty at this company" or "We cross our hearts and promise nobody will get in trouble," but assuring you that the answers to that question will be anonymized or something along those lines.) Nobody should stake their job security on the hope that their HR rep is a nice person, even if some HR reps are indeed nice.

So yeah, if you have to ask this question, you shouldn't tell the truth.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:06 AM on March 20, 2020 [10 favorites]


HR exists to keep the company out of trouble. I have declined to participate in HR polls where even my location or business could be identified because as a middle manager, I know how those polls can be abused. [Location XYZ is full of a bunch of whiny babies, let's get rid of them.] HR only protects employees if executive management wants them to. If you are fortunate enough to work in that kind of company, you should see lots of evidence of that.

Some European countries have very strong job protections for permanent employees so when the s--- hits the fan, some multinationals (like one I used to work for) RIF their US workers (in my case, 85% of our workforce) but keep harder-to-RIF employees on the payroll. I'm not complaining about job protections -- I wish we had stronger ones in the US -- rather trying to help you gauge the risk of responding honestly.

The other side of responding honestly is -- is this going to do any good? So what if most of the people think the company sucks? Does the company have enough information to make positive change? Do they have a track record of positive change? If not, why bother being honest?

Based on what you said, I would personally rate 9/10.
posted by elmay at 8:23 AM on March 20, 2020


Response by poster: Since hasna isn't my HR representative, I'll go with y'all's advice and mark it almost top score.

Thing is, I'm pretty happy with how things are, but of course it could be better. However, I have a manager that will listen to me, and marking this score pretty high and then going to my manager with my particular (small) complaints seems like the best course.

BTW, the company reached out to us all yesterday and gave us an allowance of additional 10 paid days off to help us manage the whole Corona situation with our families. For us Norwegians it's a long way off having to dip into that pool, but anyway it is good to know our less fortunate (US) colleagues are taken care of to some extent.
posted by Harald74 at 10:21 AM on March 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


« Older Better responses to delayed feedback?   |   Tools and tips for online peer support meetings? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.