I work for a large company. I've been there for 5 years, and my current team for just over a year. Between being unhappy with the team and the work and getting a poor performance review (my worst at the company), I'm moving on to another team. Reflecting on how the past year went, it was a combination of team-work mismatch and management. Considering I'm staying at the company, how candid should I be in feedback when I leave?
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18Did they ask for feedback or is it common to give feedback when you leave?– BigDataScientistCommented Aug 5 at 11:13
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6If you're staying with the company, I assume you think the company overall has value and it was just one bad team? Add therefore you believe that the wider organization might act on your feedback?– afaulconbridgeCommented Aug 5 at 11:27
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2you are not leaving the company, so why would they ask...– Solar MikeCommented Aug 5 at 21:47
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Reading between the lines, are you saying the poor performance review was unreasonable (your manager was bad? coworker? cultural fit?), and are you saying you have someone in senior mgmt who trusts you with whom you want to try to raise that? That can be risky. (Otherwise, who's asking your feedback that it would actually be in your interests to talk to now?) Was there no discussion at review time? They approved your transfer request, so you must have initiated that somehow. If it's not likely to help you to offer unsolicited feedback (to who, exactly?), consider not doing it.– smciCommented Aug 6 at 7:31
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10This needs more information: Who is asking for feedback? HR, a trusted senior manager who you know, an online form where you don't know who will read it? Or did no one ask for feedback and you want to provide it anyway? - This will shape possible answers.– FalcoCommented Aug 6 at 9:09
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5 Answers
As honest as you can be without burning any bridges is my opinion on this. My partner had a situation at a job where one person was responsible for ruining the day to day experience for her and plenty of other co-workers, but people wouldn't really speak up out of fear of being the negative one, or management not caring. When she finally left she decided to have a one on one with their boss and the boss was very thankful about the honest remarks, because she had noticed negative trends around the team but couldn't do anything at all about it until someone spoke up. Once she had made her point, and a colleague that kept working there also sat down with their boss, changes could start being implemented and the work environment started slowly getting better (as reported by friends of hers that still work there)
So while it is not your responsibility and you don't want to burn any bridges, if you care about people there you can still make an effort to provide honest and helpful feedback. You have to be very aware how the person you give this feedback to will react. Hopefully you have some sort of inclination on if they're open to feedback or not and can make your decision from there.
TL;DR: Professionally you have no obligation to. Personally you might want to.
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2Seconded. I had a coworker that did literally no work for well over a year, just attended status meetings and said everything was "fine" until tasks were reassigned as deadlines approached. My manager knew, but couldn't get rid of them until some of the team gave formal feedback he could take to HR. And this was in the US, where people can be fired without cause at any time; just too much red tape to cut internally.– brichinsCommented Aug 7 at 1:43
Considering I'm staying at the company, how candid should I be in feedback when I leave?
None. Your feedback becomes unimportant as soon as you leave the team. Keeping you happy was somewhat important when you were on the team. That is no longer on their radar.
Any constructive criticism that brought positive change should have been articulated and hopefully been followed through while you were on the team. If it wasn't, then the chances of it being successful now are zero.
Any grievances you had, could maybe have been resolved while on the team. Now, both the chance of doing it and the impact of doing it are zero.
So don't give feedback. They either already have your feedback and didn't care, or never cared for it in the first place. Either way, it's a dead end.
If you are forced to give feedback through some boring meetings with HR or management, say something non-committal like "I liked the colleagues" or "I liked the product", but the new team seemed more aligned to your current needs.
Only if you have a positive parting gift to your team, say something positive: For example "I think my old team could really use a bigger budget, they do great work and could be even more productive with this new tool they need".
Other than that... zip it. It's not worth your time.
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81I've worked places where several developers spoke about the workload and stress when leaving. The first time, you're right the impact was zero. The second time though the company got the message that something was up. So I wouldn't say it's totally zero Commented Aug 5 at 11:12
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20You can speak more freely when leaving, as then you don't have to consider how this will affect future work relationships. You'll also find the other team members may be speaking more freely. So I do not agree with the premise that the ship has sailed - though I do agree that the difference can be marginal, it pretty much depends on what consequences talking might have even if not in the same team. Commented Aug 5 at 14:08
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13This is one of those cases where the best course of action for an individual (don't say anything negative) leads to an overall worse situation for the organization (or society) as a whole. Sure, the individual doesn't risk tarnishing their image by being labelled a whiner. But nobody saying anything leads to situations festering, during which time a lot more people will have been harmed. Eventually things might even blow up, when they could have been solved much less ado if action had been taken earlier.– muruCommented Aug 6 at 5:24
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5I would argue that the company not listening to their employees while they are still employed is what harms people. It could certainly have been solved earlier, but don't put on the former employee what could and should have been handled by the company.– nvoigt ♦Commented Aug 6 at 5:30
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5I'm confused by all the talk of "former employee" in the comments, when the question is 100% clear OP is not leaving the company. Commented Aug 6 at 14:17
how candid should I be in feedback when I leave?
Well, you should say only as much that as being "politically correct". You always need to think about the outcome of the interview or feedback - there can be good, there can be bad, and sometimes, there can be ugly consequences of being candid / brutally honest. Most of the times, these feedbacks are likely to have minimal to no impact on the things you wish to change, but almost certainly will have major impact on you - starting from simply souring the relationship to all the way completely burning bridges and labeling you as potential troublemaker, barring all opportunities of a good reference, or re-hiring at a later point of time.
My advice, stick to generic, boilerplate answers. Do not appear to be the person who seems to be badmouthing the team / manager / colleagues / department / organization and policies while leaving. Mention generic reasons, like career advancement, alignment with your career visions, new learning opportunities, expanding knowledge horizons etc etc.
answered Aug 5 at 1:47
Even if you were leaving the company, you might meet the same people again, and even work with them again. That's one of the reasons people usually advise not to rage-quit anything, ever. Since you're staying at the company, the chance of your candour biting you back is even higher than if you were leaving.
So, consider what "candid" feedback are you considering giving, and why haven't you already given it? If the reason you haven't given it already is that you didn't want to say anything rude to your current boss and colleagues, then don't say anything rude to you ex-boss and colleagues either. If was socially unacceptable to criticise them before, then it's still socially unacceptable to criticise them now (and that's a problem, but not one that goes away just because you're switching team).
If "candid" here doesn't mean "rude", and it's stuff that you have said before: leaving the team could mean that you've been asked for feedback from a different person (HR, or your boss's-boss instead of your boss). Then, this could be a really good opportunity to put across the team's problems to the rest of the company, in a way which isn't seen exactly as coming from within the team.
As general rule, exit interview is barebone generic information time
No name, no details, no grievances :)
