I just read with great interest your viewpoint “Open and Honest Feedback” [August 2007]. Right on! It is a real shame that companies that used to care for their employees (and customers, for that matter) have been reduced to this. I experienced firsthand what constant reorganization and downsizing does for employee morale. I was even asked for “open and honest feedback,” which after giving it, did much more harm than good to my career. So, to make a long and painful story short, I left after 24-plus years with a major investor-owned utility. I now work for a small cooperative in eastern North Carolina, and it is a refreshing change. I hear similar stories all the time from either disgruntled employees or the ones who have taken the plunge and left what they thought (as I did) would be lifetime careers. What a shame. What will these companies do when all their experience, knowledge and talent (not to mention loyalty) leave?
— Ben Beagle

You hit the nail with a 16# maul with the viewpoint article “Open and Honest Feedback.” I certainly agree that when you have to have meetings “for feedback,” the so-called teamwork has been lost. No one will stand up and risk their job in an environment where others have been pushed aside or out because they weren't on the team or the bus. True, there are employees who are never going to be happy, and they need to be excised one at a time based upon their performance. However, when a work environment is clouded by an artificially created atmosphere, an air of suspicion, one-upmanship, backstabbing, fear and resentment grow like a wet basement mold. It seems that “being on the team or bus” today means to put on the happy face, yuk the current motto and do as you are told. Contrary to what the “team builders” say, they start the incipient downhill slide of the office into the pool of indecision, no-decision, let's-see-what-happens, happy-faced management who are on the watch for the non-team players. Feedback is that daily exchange between employees and supervision, supervision and management, management and executives. Sadly, there is a lot of chatter going on, but no one is really communicating.
— Bob