Discuss.

4/16/2015 8:04:22 AM

Dont burn bridges, but give genuine and honest feedback.


sometimes the feedback goes into the rubbish pile. But some HR departments really do want to know why their employees are leaving.

4/16/2015 8:09:25 AM

^ what he said.

Tell them why you are leaving.

Insinuate any personnel who may be difficult to deal with with things like "conflict of interests" or some other way to insinuate the issue at hand.

But "so and so is a jack hole and this whole place stinks" will be ignored probably.

The last place i worked i cited that my manager brought up other personnel in my review and was what i considered to be less than professional and, that there were severe inefficiencies with the time keeping and planning of the company (if i worked for 1 hour on something i had to spend 15 minutes writing it down in 7 different places)

[Edited on April 16, 2015 at 8:20 AM. Reason : .]

4/16/2015 8:19:19 AM

As a general rule NEVER say anything bad, just move on unless there is something verifiable and its really adds value, and/or there are many people backing you up. With that said its unlikely anything you say will make a difference except make YOU have the disadvantage overall relative to whom you're trying to tell the truth about. Just move on.

4/16/2015 8:23:41 AM

Ehh if i'm leaving for any major organizational issues i'm not coming back.

and honestly i just got a job offer from my former company for which i gave that exit interview.

4/16/2015 8:28:08 AM

You should be as honest as you need to be in getting your point across.

If you're leaving because of an individual or a group of people, HR wants to know that. It can help prevent future issues or lawsuits. If you're leaving for structural/organizations issues, someone on the executive team wants to know that. They might not be able to actually do anything about it, but it helps with planning retention strategy, or becoming more efficient later on down the line.

But at the end of the day, exit interviews aren't required and are usually pretty awkward so if you don't want to participate its not a big deal.

4/16/2015 8:46:00 AM

My exit interview is actually just 3 pages of questions.

Basically I'm leaving for the following reasons
1. My boss mishandled a project I was on by not reading the associated open-source license on the code base we were building on. He thought it was Apache and not GPLv2. This meant that 10 months of work that I did essentially got scrapped and we had to rebuild from scratch very quickly.

2. During my first 10 months on the same project, my boss was very hands off, not giving me feedback or direction. We prepared a demo script for him for a demo to some potential clients, and despite offering to practice with him repeatedly, he didn't. So finally 15 min before the demo, he looks at me 'Just do the demo by yourself"...the demo was a script that involved 2 people.

3. Our office admin quit and they shoved all her duties on to me. While it wasn't too bad, during the fallout of #1, I was being pulled from work for a few hours to do stuff my boss could have easily done himself and another employee who was't on the project volunteered to do, but he insisted I had to be the one to do this. Which was kinda bs because I was already focused on the project and he knew I was coming in on the weekend anyways to fix his fuck up.

4. Our office (we're a remote office) is 10 people big: 3 managers, 3 senior level engineers, 2 junior levels (myself) ,1 QA, 1 tech writer..no way was I advancing.

4/16/2015 8:54:16 AM

yeah and see that's all stuff someone wants to know.

1. poor performing manager
2. (see 1)
3. poor management of resources
4. top heavy organization costs too much money and breeds laziness (see 1,2,3)

Just find a PC way to say it that could allow you to work there again should the need be.

[Edited on April 16, 2015 at 9:05 AM. Reason : .]

4/16/2015 9:04:48 AM

If i were a personnel or program manager, i would want to know that an employee that i paid to hire/train was leaving because of a non-nurturing environment, project mismanagement, wasted resources, and limited personal growth.

4/16/2015 9:11:53 AM

Yeah, but nothing gonna happen.

4/16/2015 9:23:17 AM

4/16/2015 9:32:17 AM

Tell the truth, and if the truth is ugly. LET IT BE UGLY.

4/16/2015 9:33:30 AM

just don't use it to vent - give actionable feedback if there is a chance it will happen

4/16/2015 9:35:25 AM

^^ Yeah... don't do that...

Think constructive criticism not venting frustrations.

4/16/2015 10:15:13 AM

4/16/2015 10:15:42 AM

you have absolutely nothing to gain here. no one's gonna shuck and jive to bring you back. don't say anything. give some patriot style after game interview, "one game at a time" type shit.

4/16/2015 10:18:02 AM

Say it was awesome, thank god for the opportunity and move on.

4/16/2015 10:22:29 AM

What I've written seems pretty professional, but honest. It addresses the reasons why I'm leaving without saying 'my boss is an idiot'..I think I'll stick with that

4/16/2015 10:24:40 AM

draw a picture of your boss in crayon with stink lines coming off him

4/16/2015 10:25:37 AM

Realize you'll hurt yourself 10x more than you could affect said boss

4/16/2015 10:29:41 AM

Yes you will hurt yourself because we all go back to bad jobs.

4/16/2015 10:31:35 AM

Leave an open can of tuna behind the drawer of your desk

4/16/2015 10:32:11 AM

I'm not sure how I can hurt myself, I have a great evaluation that was written 3 months prior to me quitting. I don't intend to come back here. I already have a new job lined up, so I really don't see what's the harm in being honest as long as I'm professional about it.

4/16/2015 10:33:18 AM

You should lie and say it was so awesome that you had to leave.

4/16/2015 10:34:29 AM

Be sure to grab a handful of secretary ass on your way out.

4/16/2015 10:37:25 AM

They made me the secretary

4/16/2015 10:40:21 AM

that makes it really easy then...

always within reach.

4/16/2015 10:43:17 AM

In that case, give the secretary a Handy J ಠ_ಠ

4/16/2015 10:44:40 AM

bbehe wants to get his boss fired but is too afraid to go all-in on it

4/16/2015 10:53:16 AM

btw when i said they just gave me a job offer.

that was 2 years later after all the butt-hurt settled and they realized i was right.

4/16/2015 10:54:40 AM

4/16/2015 10:56:42 AM

Quote :

"As a general rule NEVER say anything bad, just move on unless there is something verifiable and its really adds value, and/or there are many people backing you up. With that said its unlikely anything you say will make a difference except make YOU have the disadvantage overall relative to whom you're trying to tell the truth about. Just move on."

mostly agreed, though i wouldn't even drop criticism even if it's verifiable/has backing, etc.

Nothing good can come out of any negative feedback or criticism. I would recommend either avoiding the exit interview altogether or using liberal amounts of coachspeak. No need to lie, but just think about whatever was actually positive, and communicate that.

You're leaving, and your only focus should be on extricating yourself from the current job professionally.

[Edited on April 16, 2015 at 11:11 AM. Reason : .]

4/16/2015 11:10:10 AM

yeah, this ^.

I feel like the premise of an exit interview is largely,

"Okay. Now that we have no power over you, would you care to say some shit that you wouldn't be foolish enough to say if you were sticking around?"

obviously, the best, most professional answer is, "No, of course not. I've enjoyed working here and have absolutely zero complaints."

4/16/2015 11:47:53 AM

Wow there are some nutless wonders in here.

there is no point in a BS exit interview.

Why would they have them if they didn't want to know the truth.

They typically only have exit interviews when the employee is leaving on decent terms and they want to know why the employee is leaving and where they can improve their business and keep future employees.

If you gave me an exit interview and said there was no reason you were leaving and the place was great i'd think you were a bigger asshole than if you sacked up and told me why.

Now... if you start whining about dumb stuff like pedicures on Friday and your "long 42 hour" weeks or something.. yeah good riddance.

4/16/2015 11:53:55 AM

next thread will be

"First day of new job - what to wear?"

followed by

"How early in a new job is too early to use PTO time?"

haha

4/16/2015 11:56:05 AM

^^
true enough, I suppose. I went overboard on the "Don't say anything negative" bit...you can be moderately, tactfully negative

Also, fuck you for the "nutless wonder" phrase

4/16/2015 12:01:23 PM

Quote :

"Tell the truth, and if the truth is ugly. LET IT BE UGLY."

nutless wonders

4/16/2015 12:10:54 PM

...

"Is sleeping with the cleaning woman on your desk frowned upon?"

4/16/2015 12:26:46 PM

Quote :

"Also, fuck you for the "nutless wonder" phrase "

I was going more for bobbydigital

As a person who deals with this now i'd much rather you tell me where even i screwed up.

To be honest i'd prefer you do it before you turn in your notice but if not then.. then the exit interview is the time.

But again its how you do it.

"my boss was an arrogant prick" isn't going to get you anywhere. but subtle clues to the issues are appreciated.

ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS THERE.

Try to leave the place better than it was when you found it. If what you say is factual and they're intelligent about it they will adjust the work environment accordingly.

4/16/2015 1:10:39 PM

^do you think if an employee got fed up enough to leave to find a new job in this job market, they didn't make it clear where the boss man was fucking up or try to fix things? if it gets to the point of you leaving, they weren't and aren't interesting in fixing things.

4/16/2015 1:58:00 PM

I guess its also worth mentioning that the primary duty of HR is to protect the company from its employees, they essentially don't give two shits about being a resource for you.

4/16/2015 1:58:23 PM

I've decided to be pretty honest with my exit interview, our main office is up in Fairfax and the only interaction with them is through the managers here, so I hope this will give HQ a little more insight at what happens here.

4/16/2015 1:59:45 PM

Nothing is gonna happen though.

STOP SNITCHING

4/16/2015 2:01:38 PM

lol...

tww bein tww.

Hr's goal is to make sure they get the most out of all employees.

they really don't want to hear is anything about the owner.

At my old company we had an employee turn in evidence that our majority owner was having an affair with the CFO. The entire HR dpt found new jobs and quit. (only 4 people but still....)

[Edited on April 16, 2015 at 2:35 PM. Reason : .]

4/16/2015 2:34:54 PM

Quote :

"Hr's goal is to make sure they get the most out of all employees."

lol

4/16/2015 2:41:11 PM

I don't give a fuck about helping them fix their operation, the time for that would have been prior to me deciding to make an exit. That sounds self centered, but once you are no longer going to be part of the team there is no upside to providing this info, only a downside.

Just be obnoxiously positive and say it was an honor working with such a great bunch of people and that you value your professional growth during the time with the company. Do this even if they are a bunch of assholes and you hate their guts. You may want to come back one day, nothing good is going to come of you airing your concerns and grievances on the way out the door.

I can promise you no one has ever been turned down for re-hire because they were positive at their exit interview and complimented their supervisors, it has most certainly worked the other way around however.

4/16/2015 2:52:20 PM

4/16/2015 3:33:07 PM

Quote :

"Wow there are some nutless wonders in here. "

If, while in the previous position, you didn't have the nuts to be up front about whatever concerns/problems you had, your position is that-- essentially ratting him out to a third party is the courageous thing to do?

This isn't about nuts, it's about the fact that effecting change through an exit interview is high risk, low reward. Even if said change happens, it won't benefit you at all. If one is a person that approaches your career with any level of strategy, high risk/low reward activities are things one avoid.

It doesn't do any good. if you're going to be giving negative feedback about your boss, for example-- he or she has power over you until you leave, and if he catches wind of it before your last day, he can find a way to fuck you. Assuming HR even does *anything* with your feedback, he will defend himself to HR, share things with them you don't know that will make his actions appear to be reasonable. your attacks will appear small, and likely personal. Remember, your boss has, in his/her head, all the deliverables you missed, times you were late, poor quality on some of your work-- he or she can reach back into history and bring up any example of poor performance to justify anything you might have issues with, and you can't win that argument because you don't have a seat at the table because you're no longer there. Therefore any information that was directed back to him/her will be blunted.

Same thing goes for the company-- they have reasons for its policies that you don't like. You're not smarter than the company, they just disagree with you on how they should run a company. If a company has a genuine interest in continuous improvement, there will be other venues to receive that feedback than an exit interview.

Yeah, you say you'll never go back to company x no matter what, and that's easy to say now. But say you find yourself laid off 3,5,10 years down the road and a potential opportunity at the old company, you might regret what you said when you're on the rehire ineligible list. Your desire to have that epic drop-the-mic moment worth more than putting food on the table?

Consider that your boss can pretty easily contact your new employer and drop the old "better watch out for that guy." Note that this can happen, leading to a bad situation for you, and you might never find out that your old boss sabotaged your reputation with the new employer. Or a few years down the road your old boss gets hired at your new company, perhaps another rung up the ladder from before. You think anything that came his way from you is long forgotten? Do you even want this kind of uncertainty?

At the end of the day by providing negative feedback in an exit interview, you have nothing to gain but you expose yourself to unnecessary risk.


[Edited on April 17, 2015 at 4:35 PM. Reason : . ]

4/17/2015 4:32:39 PM

Quote :

"Why would they have them if they didn't want to know the truth."

Corporate america loves bureaucratic horse shit, also it makes the HR dept look like they are contributing, if they cared about your opinion they would have been gathering it before you decided to leave.

4/17/2015 4:35:39 PM

Don't say anything. Just get out of there as quick as possible.

They are only so HR can fill out some survey and keep self-serving stats. Not sure why you care about a company you are leaving. Someone who is leaving has zero leverage to change anything, so the endeavor is completely pointless.

IOW, it's just emotional venting.

There is no upside and lots of downside for you. If someone takes your feedback the wrong way, they might try to screw you through their own professional network.

[Edited on April 17, 2015 at 6:01 PM. Reason : .]

4/17/2015 5:57:27 PM