Employee saw his boss's behaviour changed after he filled anonymous work surveys. What happened?

An employee recently took to the Indian Workplace subreddit to share a cautionary tale about the illusion of privacy in so-called anonymous workplace surveys. He recounted how believing in the promise of confidentiality once backfired on him and led to professional retaliation.

He explained that in his previous organisation, employees were informed that their survey responses would remain untraceable. Trusting that assurance, he filled out one honestly, sharing his views about work culture and management. However, soon after, he noticed a change in his treatment at work. His boss, apparently displeased with his comments, began to act vindictively. While most of his colleagues were permitted to continue working remotely, he was suddenly instructed to return to the office three days a week. Feeling singled out and disillusioned, he eventually resigned six months later—ending a five-year tenure with that company.

Now employed elsewhere, he said his current organisation had again circulated an “anonymous” survey. But having experienced betrayal once, he refused to participate. He lamented how some companies solicit employee opinions under the guise of feedback, only to weaponise those insights against their own staff. While acknowledging that his present employer might genuinely mean well, he admitted he could no longer risk being exposed or targeted again.

Others Share Similar Experiences

His post resonated with many Redditors, several of whom shared similar accounts. One user described a time when everyone in their company received a survey link about workplace concerns. Pressed for time, the user and two colleagues had not yet completed it. On the survey’s final day, the HR department contacted them directly, inquiring whether they had submitted their responses. Suspicious, the employee asked how HR knew who hadn’t filled the form, to which HR casually replied that they were “randomly asking.”

The user later discovered that only those who hadn’t completed the survey received follow-up calls, confirming that the supposedly anonymous survey was actually being tracked.

Another contributor, who claimed to work in backend development, confirmed that such surveys are rarely private. They explained that responses are stored in databases accessible to administrators, making it easy to trace individual inputs.

Adding a touch of irony, one Redditor jokingly advised always giving perfect ratings—“11 out of 10”—on every anonymous survey to avoid drawing management’s attention.

This discussion sparked a broader debate about workplace surveillance, employee trust, and the lack of genuine anonymity in corporate feedback systems.