Let’s say you are about to leave a job and the news just went public. How do people react generally? And how do you feel about their reactions?
Direct interactions and limitations
- Some of your colleagues might express their disbelief and disappointment about your exit. Whether they actually mean it or not, you will definitely feel proud and nice when they say good things :-) Some of them (true friends?) might even convey positive criticism and give advices, in case they had not done so before.
- Some others might choose not to specifically express their opinions (not that they don’t like you); they may just diplomatically check with you about your future plans. All they care about is to not cut ties with you. You might not differentiate between the first category and this one - lost in your excitement to talk about your own future.
- And there will always be remaining some who will be completely silent about the whole thing. At the most, they may exclaim on the final day (i.e. in case they happen to directly face you) “Oh! Alright, it’s your last day!” neither expressing any feelings nor showing curiosity about your next step; and you might just smile back. This need not really imply that they don’t like you, though that’s a definite possibility, other possibility being indifference!
Reality Check
But what do your colleagues really feel about your exit? Sometimes you wonder later, when it is too late. I kinda felt that way when I left Infosys in 2010, after spending almost 8 years in the company. There was a tool in Infosys to collect anonymous feedback, but, one of the reasons I perhaps did not bother using it was because I had spent enough time over there, and I thought I knew what others thought about me. Yet, after I left, I wondered at times!
Creation of Exit Poll
A year after I left Infosys, when I was leaving my next company, MphasiS, I thought I could do something different. It was a relatively shorter stint at MphasiS and I felt an honest feedback will help me in my own ‘perception evaluation’. I realized that I was growing into senior roles and it mattered more than ever how I am perceived by others. So, I came up with an informal form that I requested everyone to fill up independently and collected valuable feedback from them.
Result
The result was phenomenal, I was fortunate to get some really nice, flattering comments that people generally fail to convey in person; and I also received some comments that were eye openers which I welcomed wholeheartedly. The feedback I collected might not be one hundred percent honest, but I found it to be much better than my previous exit experience.
I am sharing here the form that I created. Hope you find it interesting. Please note that this is from the perspective of a Project Manager. Feel free to use it the next time when you leave your job; if you do use it I’d be happy to know about your experience.
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The Exit Poll
PLEASE DON’T discuss with anyone, I need YOUR OWN feedback
Fold it and keep it with you, I will collect
1. What was your first reaction when you learnt that I am leaving MphasiS?
- Hurray, sweets for everyone :-)
- Whatever, I don’t care…
- OMG, No…..!!! :-(
2. Do you think I was being unreasonable in several team meetings while addressing all of you and setting expectations on various things?
- Totally impractical and overly demanding most of the times, Grrr…
- It was ok, since you are the manager! But you need to improve a lot
- You were a 4 rater – can improve in some areas here and there
- You were lenient and gave us lot of freedom, should have been more strict, he he
- You were just fine, don’t worry
3. Do you think I was trying to help you out when you had a problem and came to me for resolution?
- You drove us away most of the times without helping, it was very frustrating
- You were ok, but you could have been more helpful
- You showed lot of concern, helped me in resolving my issues
4. Do you think I was treating everyone equally and fairly?
- Not at all, you discriminate a lot
- Pretty much, yes
- Of course, all the times
5. Please choose all that describes me
- Intelligent / Dumb
- Calm / Angry
- Confident / Timid-Shy
- Humble / Arrogant
- Friendly / Stay-away-guy
- Innovative and Visionary / Follow-the-existing-rules-guy
6. Do you think you learnt anything from me?
- Yes, lot of things as to what I am NOT supposed to do when I become a manager
- What did you teach by the way?
- 50-50
- Thanks for all the good things that I learnt from you
TURN THE PAGE OVER FOR MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION
7. Overall, tell me the truth – do you ever want to work with/under me again in future?
- No way
- I don’t care, I will if I have to
- Why not? It’s ok!
- Yeah, definitely! :-)
Free Text Space: Fee free to write (including your name, if you want to!!)
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13 comments:
Its waste of time
Good innovative idea.
What was the result of this Exit Poll ?
Shivakrishna
@Shivakrishna: About the results I can only reiterate what I have already written in the article :-)
ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿಗಳೇ ನನ್ನ exit pollಗೆ ಕನಿಷ್ಥ ನೂರು ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯಗಳು (ಸಾವಿರಾರು ಹಾಜರಿಗಳು)ಬಂದಿವೆ. ನಾನು ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ಹೊರಗೆ ಹೋದಮೇಲೆ (ಮಾರ್ಚ್ ಮೂವತ್ತೊಂದು), ಕಾಲದಿಂದ ನಿರೀಕ್ಷೆಗಳು ಮಾಗಿದ ಮೇಲಷ್ಟೇ ಫಲಿತಾಂಶವನ್ನು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪಮಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಅಳೆಯಬಲ್ಲೆ :-)
ಅಶೋಕವರ್ಧನ
indeed a manager feedback questions, good ones, looks closer to HP's VoW questions.
Thanks for sharing, open and honest feedback...
Wow! this can be helpful. Shastry you may want to consider creating a survey for people on the job too. (hoping people answer without courtesy bias).
@Pradeep: Thanks for the encouraging words. I will try to create the one you suggested, will keep you posted :-)
Hi, Goodone if you have not done this before exiting the company. We are doing this in UK as part of the annual 360 apprisal which helps to evaluate yourself. Get feedback from very senior to very junior staff. however this is the best in Indian scenario where there is no 360 apprisal in place
Even in India there is 360 degree appraisal process in many companies. But they are not meant for getting feedback when you quit a company :-)
Best place you do this is with your family members , after the exit .. Ask the same questions but put the timeline as while I was in Infosys, while I was at XYZ etc.. It is not an exit or entry poll, but is the reality of how family values you and how the work impacted your normal behavior.. That gives more insight than a co-worker's report who has almost no-expectation from others in workplace in the current work scenario ! and as hypocracy runs thick in orgs, any true reflection is hard to come !
why not ask the opinion of our subordinates how we faired when we are still on the job gives a lot of space to improve
Getting feedback while on the job is also very important, and the message here is not that feedback is required only while quitting the company. However, they are two different things and require separate focus, I believe.
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