Good point.
One way I could try to pre empt this is to say: "nobody was ever fired for answering 4 or 5 to this question"
But I'm not sure how effective that would be.
One way I could try to pre empt this is to say: "nobody was ever fired for answering 4 or 5 to this question"
But I'm not sure how effective that would be.
I immediately begin to micro-analyze what the likely outcome would be for each scenario. Does these get recorded, and reflected upon to judge my ability? Will it spread? What will the 1on1 manager think of me? If I answer 4-5 am I not capable? If I answer 1-2, are they going to think I'm more capable than I am, and overwork me?
etc etc. Probably not a fault of the question / approach.. just how I operate. Every move in life is a chess move.. and it's stressful.
You'd think I'd be further along in life with that attitude. Yet, it's a fairly recent (~10years) adjustment.
I kept up with him until he felt at around a 3 and then I asked him to take bereavement then... he kept sending me pictures of his WoW Classic character doing quests during his vacation... love that guy.
With rare exceptions, management wants to hear 'no problem' and that 'everything is fine'.
The next thing to do is a PowerPoint chart for the 2nd level managers showing names and stress levels over time with trends.
Also you should leave when there is more middle management then people who do real work.
This makes me so sad. As a manager (formerly an engineer), I want to hear about problems as soon as possible! I can help! It's my job to clear roadblocks, to help find interesting projects, to keep the team working well together for the long term.
It doesn't do me, the engineer, the project, or the team any good to hide problems. Such a bummer when managers push for short term results over the long term health of the team.
OTOH, directors/VPs (and other intermediate levels in larger firms) are not only the people that senior technical staff will run to for various reasons, but also are the folks who love to hear 'no problem' and that 'everything is fine'. Bringing them things to worry about is best done cautiously. In the final analysis, the worker bees are ERUs.
YMMV (very much so) of course. I can speak only for about a dozen companies. The world is a big place.
If they don't have much to complain about it will be low priority items, if they're in a 4-5 situation it will be a longer discussion. At least they might be more open to explain heavy stuff if they know you're there to solve them and not just analyse.
So it would be zero effective. Employees cannot trust their employer to act ethically, at any level of management, ever. Full stop. Every measurement that could be used to influence management will be gamed. The employee can't know whether their manager is asking out of genuine concern, or due to a top-down directive to identify stressed workers, probably so they can be fired first.
If you want to know if the employees are stressed or unhappy, ask via an anonymizing third-party, such as their union rep.