# Workplace Surgery Q2: 'Anonymous' feedback or CEO spy mission?

- **Episode:** [178](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/178.md) (2025-03-11)
- **Type:** workplace-surgery
- **Tags:** anonymous-feedback, employee-feedback, surveys, trust
- **Time:** 39:40–46:06 (start 2380s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/178?t=2380](https://truthliesandwork.com/178?t=2380)

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[39:40] Al Elliott: I'm not sure there is an answer. I'm not sure there is, but I just, I picked it out because I thought it was really funny. Uh, and I'm so sorry if you're a big believer in, um, in, in, um, conspiracy theories, but if you are, you probably believe that we're lizard people as well. So, okay. Now, question number 2. Our CEO has turned into Sherlock Holmes. Hmm. After months of asking for a way for our teams to give honest feedback, our CEO finally introduced an anonymous feedback system, but ever since, he's been obsessed with identifying who wrote what. He's comparing writing styles, asking managers which team members might think that way, and even calling people into one-to-ones with suspiciously specific questions about feedback that was supposedly anonymous. People are panicking, and the system that was meant to improve psychological safety has made everyone paranoid. I drafted some important feedback about our toxic leadership culture, but I haven't submitted it because I'm genuinely worried about repercussions. Yeah, don't submit Can we salvage this situation, Leanne?
[40:40] Leanne Elliott: Not really. Not really. And it makes me really sad because I've seen, I've seen various different business owners go through various different emotions when first opening themselves up to this type of feedback. I understand it's a very, very hard situation to put yourself in as a business owner, to open up to this, you know, yourself so vulnerably to this type of feedback. So you, You have my empathy, business owners out there who are going through this process. This screams to me, was it an Indian company not so long ago that did a stress test and then ended up sacking everyone who said that they were feeling a bit burnt out? Once that trust has been breached, it's very hard to get back. It's like in any type of relationship
[41:23] Al Elliott: Yeah
[41:24] Leanne Elliott: If somebody goes against their word, if somebody breaks a promise, essentially cheats on you, by not meeting your expectations, then that trust is really, really hard to earn back because there's always going to be that part of you that is going to think, I, I don't trust that you're not going to do it again because you've done it before. I agree, Al. I wouldn't be submitting that feedback. Um, I think if there's a— was this person a manager in the company, or?
[41:47] Al Elliott: Yes, this person's a manager, but it's a CEO who's put this in place
[41:50] Leanne Elliott: I mean, the only thing you could do is go to your peers, or depending if there's other leaders between you, or basically kind of get together almost like a, a group of people at your level who—
[42:05] Al Elliott: Like an angry posse, is that what you're saying?
[42:07] Leanne Elliott: No, like an intervention, like an intervention that you've got people— let's say there's 4 other managers in the business that are reporting to the CEO. You could go to them and go, do you think this is uncool as well? Is this fundamentally a problem? Do we need to bring this to his attention that actually it's It's backfired massively. If you get all 4 people on board and you go to your CEO together in a supportive, articulate way, and perhaps with some suggestions of how we can start to undo this, which is basically stop this activity immediately, make sure that there are added guarantees around this data remaining anonymous and confidential. There's nothing else he can do to find out who people are. I would suggest that he's no longer involved in the raw data. Or indeed those initial, what we'd call listening events, or more kind of information gathering sessions. And really work towards, at this point, I'd say try and get in an independent consultant if you are going to try and salvage this to get the feedback. Because with that, if I, for example, go in as an independent consultant, as I do, to work with organisations to gather this type of feedback, if I break confidentiality in any way, Mm-hmm. An employee has the right to contact the HCPC, the British Psychological Society, make a formal complaint and potentially strike me off so I'll never work again. So my professional reputation and lifestyle, wellbeing, what's it called? What's it called? Life? What's it called? Living. My professional living
[43:30] Al Elliott: I thought it was a more complex word than that
[43:33] Leanne Elliott: No, it depends on it. So there's, there's, you know, a direct path you can, you can take should you want to complain, which is what is the nice thing about bringing in an independent consultant. So that would be, that would be my kind of advice. Try and get some people together who share your thoughts. Try and get this CEO away from any kind of data. Don't submit what you have, um, you have put together and maybe look in the future to bring in an independent person to, to run this with. The thing I would say to a business owner, if they're listening and going, oops, I might've done a little bit of this, there is nothing you are gonna gain from knowing who said this. It doesn't matter
[44:09] Al Elliott: Yeah
[44:10] Leanne Elliott: And it's irrelevant, irrelevant. Doesn't matter if one person thinks this in your business or 100 people think this in your business. It doesn't matter, 'cause that's a pocket of toxicity that we always talk about, the pocket that isn't quite right that defines your culture. There's one person in your business that feels uncomfortable about something, unhappy about something, marginalised by something, that defines your culture. It doesn't matter who said it. The fact is it was said, and that's why you put your energy into fixing the problem
[44:35] Al Elliott: Just a quick word about this. We did have, and I've said this before in the pod, and I almost hope this person does hear this, Um, and, and realizes I'm talking about them. We had this person who was going to do a, um, implement an employee survey. And so for the day it was going out, did one of these cringey posts on LinkedIn with a picture of her looking really nervous going, oh my God, I'm so nervous. I'm, my, my employee survey's going out today. Number 1, what a way to skew results. Number 2, what a way to set yourself up. Number 3, you probably know it's not gonna be as good as you hope it is. Number 4, you're binding your entire personality and your self-worth to a set of results. Instead, be a scientist. Instead, approach it like a really good marketer or product manager will do and say, I have a hypothesis, but let's test it. Let's see if we do have a good workplace culture. And if we don't, these are results. This is not an impression. All right. Yes, it probably is a little bit to do with you, but this is an interesting set of results. that will help you to improve things massively. So treat it like an experiment, get the results back, be impa— not impassive. What's the word when you're slightly reserved, removed from it? Do you know the word, Leanne? We both run outta words today
[45:45] Leanne Elliott: Passive
[45:45] Al Elliott: Passive
[45:46] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[45:46] Al Elliott: Listening. You know what I'm talking about. Um, and just treat those as results
[45:50] Leanne Elliott: Sexy when you talk about science
[45:51] Al Elliott: I talk about science the way of, uh, the way of, uh, of doing, um, of doing marketing and sales and products and all that kind of thing
[45:58] Leanne Elliott: Anyway. Exactly. It's data collection, isn't it? And you, it's only useful if the data is actually reflective of what's Yeah, it's, um, it's not to be used for evil