Anonymity means a lack of psychological safety

Here’s a good rule of thumb for your business or organization:

If you need to allow the people in your organization to remain anonymous while completing an employee satisfaction survey, a professional development evaluation, or any other kind of workplace appraisal in order to receive honest feedback, your organization lacks psychological safety.

The need for anonymity indicates the presence of fear, which is an obvious sign that your people do not trust you or feel safe at the workplace.

And it’s almost certainly your fault.

If your employees don’t feel comfortable being truthful in their opinions about their workplace, then you, as a leader, have failed to create a place where honest, critical feedback can be offered without fear of retribution or malice.

Boy, does that suck.

I sign every anonymous survey with my name—sometimes more than once—because I want people to know exactly how I feel, and I feel safe to do so. My psychological safety is derived in part from leaders who I know will respect my opinions, even when they disagree, and not take any punitive actions toward me for expressing my thoughts.

But it also admittedly comes from my desire to never be promoted beyond the role of classroom teacher. I can say exactly how I feel because I have no desire to climb that awful educational ladder away from children and into administration. If I were seeking a promotion, perhaps I would be more cautious in my criticism, but this is exactly what a future leader should not do, and yet, I could sadly see this happening if I had greater career ambitions.

I’ve also been doing the job for 25 years, so I’ve established myself in my profession. I’m a former Teacher of the Year in my school district and a former finalist for Connecticut’s Teacher of the Year, and I’m recognized nationally as a teacher of some merit.

If I were a brand new teacher or a teacher who hadn’t received such accolades, I might feel differently. Again, this would be a disaster, since the honest opinions of all teachers are essential to a healthy and prosperous school district.

I’m also an author, a consultant, a business owner, and a performer, so my family is not relying solely on my teaching career to put food on the table.

If my teaching career was our only means of support, I might also feel differently.

Would I still feel psychologically safe adbsent these mitigating factors?

I’d like to think so, particularly given the nature of my current administrators, but I’m not sure.

Perspective also plays an important role. I’ve also been arrested, jailed, and tried for a crime I did not commit. I was homeless. Struggled through poverty for a long, long time. I’m the victim of a horrific armed robbery. I’ve died twice and been revived both times by CPR. And an anonymous coward tried mightily to destroy my career once already but failed miserably.

A less-than-positive response to my critical feedback on an employment survey would pale in comparison to some of my past struggles. I don’t worry about someone being upset by my professional opinions.

As my current administrator would rightly say, that would be small potatoes.

But should a person need to struggle for long periods of time and experience serious trauma to be able to provide honest feedback to superiors?

I would hope not.

But here I what I know for sure:

Requiring anonymity or even affording the option of anonymity on surveys indicates a lack of psychological safety in an organization, and it should signal to management that work must be done to improve the culture and climate immediately.

If your people cannot be honest absent obscurity, you have failed to create a workplace where employees feel safe.

Every organization’s goal should be for employees to feel free to share their honest and informed thoughts and opinions without fear of retribution.

The need for an anonymous survey clearly indicates that leaders are failing to achieve this goal.