Okay so I work in one of those amazing tech companies where you have to submit 360 feedbacks every 6 months & will be PIPed etc. As here because unfortunately the programming related communities seem pretty inactive.
My former manager had putted me on a PIP before switching teams (first time ever in my 10 YOE). I somehow managed to survive that and now was asked to provide a 360 feedback for this old manager who PIPed me.
I didn’t bother to answer the request, but now the skip level of that manager reached out via Slack and wants my feedback because they’re having „additional calibration sessions“. He asked me to provide it via Slack „to save time“.
I asked ChatGPT to word it in corporate speak so it sounds diplomatic even though it’s like 70% „constructive feedback“, but I’m wondering if I have anything to gain from this.
Would you send the feedback? Is it weird that they want it via Slack when it takes like 2 minutes more to fill this out in Workday?
Let me see if I got this.
The manager of your former manager is asking for feedback about your old boss. You decided not to provide it, and now they’re reaching out and asking if you can. Correct?
What’s the concern? Retaliation?
If you’re worried about confidentiality because of your past work history, you can thank the sender for the opportunity and tell them you have a confidentiality concern.
As for what you have to “gain” from feedback - a healthier workplace for you and your peers. It sounds like your old manager might be problematic, and others are complaining about that person as well. If that is the case, and everyone keeps their mouth shut about this person, then they’re going to be allowed to persist and terrorize others.
It‘s the skip level of my former manager who’s reaching out now, but otherwise correct. Yeah my concern is about confidentiality and possible retaliation. Like it would be helpful to share the feedback but not at my own expense. So I guess I’m trying to weigh the risks here.
At least in my experience, if a skip level is contacting you about feedback they normally know something isn’t right and want to gather examples. Just give objective feedback with specific examples of when you have seen it.
I kind of thought the same so I tried to be as objective as possible and submitted the feedback
Create a paper trail.
I could go into chat GPT, say that you were asked to give 360 feedback for someone and you’re worried about retaliation. Then give it the top 2 or 3 things you’d like to highlight.
For example, if you want to talk about micromanaging, you could say:
“I believe there’s an opportunity to foster a more autonomous work environment. Empowering team members with greater decision-making responsibilities could lead to increased productivity.”
That pretty constructive and bland.
Thanks for the idea, I’ve actually done that to make sure everything is as PC as possible and formulated in a positive way and decide to submit the feedback.
“I have no comments I feel would be helpful at this point.”
In my experience, there’s never been anything positive to come from upward feedback.