Exit interviews are a trap • Hacker News Board

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#71

Post by rootusrootus » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

The best exit interview I ever gave was with the incoming security manager. I laid out all the gory details for him, told him what he was going to find and where to look for it. It was a delightful interview. The organization didn't really want to deal with the reality, but it was a pretty big business risk nonetheless.

Sadly, for them, he promptly quit a week later. I don't know for sure if it was my exit interview that convinced him.

Other than that, I generally follow the advice in the article. Keep it kinda bland. But that's mostly because I'm old and very experienced, and by the time I leave it's because management has clearly indicated they're not going to change things. I've already told them the problems, because I'm not afraid of retaliation. So everyone is on the same page, and if I don't like that page, I step away.

It helps to have a strong network of good former coworkers so I can just find another gig if this one doesn't suit me.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#72

Post by ryanbrunner » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

xxs wrote: post #64

dweinus wrote: post #39

Is everyone really doing exit interviews this wrong? At my company the exit interview is with HR. All feedback is anonymous, rolled up with non-exit feedback, and delivered to managers/leads periodically so it can't be easily linked back. As a manager, this has been extremely helpful. HR is not always your friend, but in my scenario there is really nothing to lose.

>All feedback is anonymous How do you know that?

They are speaking from the perspective of a manager, so HR isn't leaking identities to them.

Although based on what they are saying, I don't think it would be hard to de-anonymize this info - exit interview feedback looks different than general feedback, and if it's in any way specific (and if it's unspecific it's not super useful) it's almost always easy to identify who it's from.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#73

Post by rising-sky » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #35

legitster wrote: post #26

I have no idea what the author is on about. The exit interview is often the best 30 minutes of a bad job! You can tell them what they are doing well, what they aren't doing well, praise good employees and criticize bad managers. If you are both professionals, it's a cathartic experience that supports your remaining coworkers. If they are not professional, they weren't going to give you a good reference anyway. But if…

> If you are both professionals, it's a cathartic experience that supports your remaining coworkers. If they are not professional, they weren't going to give you a good reference anyway. It seems to me that the author is suggesting a third type of person: one who is professional until they're criticized.

then they are not professional, taking constructive criticism come with being being professional

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#74

Post by ramesh31 » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #20

My issue with the author's claims is that everything is framed in a "what's in it for me" reference. Even when they decided to break their own rule and go to an exit interview, the decision was made because there was the "didn’t think I had any downside risk." There are times when your personal choices may need to take a backseat to more important goals. If you are really committed to a mission, even one you've decid…

> If you are really committed to a mission, even one you've decided to leave, I would think you'd want to give feedback that can help improve the chances of that mission being successful, even if there's a personal downside risk.

Let's not have any illusions about the "mission" that 99% of us are on. That mission is to do mind numbing meaningless work on some ad-tech platform because they pay us 3x the median salary to do it. Don't ever think for a moment that your company cares about you or your affinity to their "mission" at all.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#75

Post by decebalus1 » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

dweinus wrote: post #39

Is everyone really doing exit interviews this wrong? At my company the exit interview is with HR. All feedback is anonymous, rolled up with non-exit feedback, and delivered to managers/leads periodically so it can't be easily linked back. As a manager, this has been extremely helpful. HR is not always your friend, but in my scenario there is really nothing to lose.

> All feedback is anonymous, rolled up with non-exit feedback, and delivered to managers/leads periodically so it can't be easily linked back

Oh sweet summer child.. No feedback is anonymous, ever. It can be 'confidential', which means that HR can disclose it at their discretion or as appropriate.

As a manager, if you get value from the exit interview, with all due respect, you're doing it wrong. All the feedback which could be part of the exit interview should never be a surprise or an added value after the fact.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#76

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

gbfkjdjvc wrote: post #44

dweinus wrote: post #39

Is everyone really doing exit interviews this wrong? At my company the exit interview is with HR. All feedback is anonymous, rolled up with non-exit feedback, and delivered to managers/leads periodically so it can't be easily linked back. As a manager, this has been extremely helpful. HR is not always your friend, but in my scenario there is really nothing to lose.

Nothing that passes through HR is anonymous. Ever.

[deleted]

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#77

Post by samstave » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

gbfkjdjvc wrote: post #44

dweinus wrote: post #39

Is everyone really doing exit interviews this wrong? At my company the exit interview is with HR. All feedback is anonymous, rolled up with non-exit feedback, and delivered to managers/leads periodically so it can't be easily linked back. As a manager, this has been extremely helpful. HR is not always your friend, but in my scenario there is really nothing to lose.

Nothing that passes through HR is anonymous. Ever.

HR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND, EVER.

Ive been in orgs where HR was literally sleeping with head of sales, and had me fix phones with dickpics and BJ vids and etc btwn employees...

uh HR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.

Do not confide in them, especially anything personal.

Also, if you have an IOS device - log into your apple account and confirm the devices tied to it.. HR will (in many SV orgs) attempt to add a device to your apple account to monitor you.

BYOD is a nightmare for personal privacy, and HR depts will use personal info against you.

---

EDIT: Just a reminder that Uber literally went after the medical records (HIPAA violations, at min.) to slander a person calling them out for sexual misconduct

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#78

Post by mistertester » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

I am not afraid of doing an exit interview and putting everything on display, specially if leadership is toxic. It's important for HR to understand problems within the company so that they can be addressed. I have done this with no issues arising from it even though I have referenced that same employer in my resume.

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#79

Post by bryanrasmussen » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

xxs wrote: post #64

dweinus wrote: post #39

Is everyone really doing exit interviews this wrong? At my company the exit interview is with HR. All feedback is anonymous, rolled up with non-exit feedback, and delivered to managers/leads periodically so it can't be easily linked back. As a manager, this has been extremely helpful. HR is not always your friend, but in my scenario there is really nothing to lose.

>All feedback is anonymous How do you know that?

they said they were a manager, evidently the responses come to them in such a way that they feel it is anonymous.

However, I have a problem seeing how the data from an exit interview if truly anonymous would be at all useful. But they said it was useful for them as a manager as well, so...

Re: Exit interviews are a trap

#80

Post by PaulKeeble » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #20

My issue with the author's claims is that everything is framed in a "what's in it for me" reference. Even when they decided to break their own rule and go to an exit interview, the decision was made because there was the "didn’t think I had any downside risk." There are times when your personal choices may need to take a backseat to more important goals. If you are really committed to a mission, even one you've decid…

Whistleblowers get destroyed in the culture we have right now, they loose everything. It don't think its reasonable to ask people to destroy their own lives so that we might one day find out about the horrors that companies do only to watch as nothing is done to resolve it with the perpetrators.

If the circumstances were different and the public didn't stand for such widespread mistreatment of those that stood against illegal activity then there is different advice, but far from having protections for whistleblowers as it stands we only have punishment.