nhgrif

from developer all the way up to President

I mean... I have delivered constructive criticism to someone with every different title in our company

And venting is how you end up looking like an ass.

I can listen to someone vent and turn that into constructive criticism, yes... but it's not delivering professional constructive criticism. It's just complaining about something you're mad about with no purpose other than getting it off your chest and making yourself feel better.

Venting implies a different intent from the person delivering the "feedback"

venting isn't providing feedback.

it would've been fine.

so...

People who can't take constructive criticism don't get to be "one of the top people" in this company.

so again, as I've been saying

the exit interview isn't the time or place to vent.

venting isn't the same as providing feedback

there was no drama..

the last exit interview I did, the person leaving and I discussed very legitimate problems with one of our training programs

there is a professional way to give feedback... and to presume there isn't might be your problem with giving feedback in exit interviews.

giving feedback != leaving drama in your wake

I am not talking about a specific personal problem I am having.

I... have one of (if not THE) the best retention rates in my company.

The people I have given exit interviews for, I essentially always know ahead of time why they are leaving...

Maybe it's just my personality, but if I ever worked somewhere where I felt my feedback was unwanted or was going to result in negative consequences for myself, then I'd just find somewhere else to work.

It's possible. I'm unfortunately not in a position to look at all the exit interviews. And really that's the only useful way to use this sort of stuff, by looking at it in bulk.

please let me repeat

Again

Will work for a year, rank 10/10 on any polling, never have any complaints, leave, and we find out the whole time they were unhappy with something that we couldn't fix because they never told us.

Correct, but regardless of the culture, you still get people who won't give any honest feedback.

people who come in with that preconception, based on past experiences... and hard to break them of that mindset

The problem is... even in collaborative companies, there are still people who work there with a mindset that they can't give their feedback because they will be retaliated against based on their feedback

versus a smaller business that actually desperately craves and values honest critical feedback on where they have room for improvement.

There's a difference between a company like Walmart doing exit interviews because that's what their HR department has learned is the industry standard and then just dump those exit interviews in a filing cabinet and never look at them again after than

Like, what you guys are describing is way different from my experiences.

Guess you guys need to quit working at shitty companies.

Dunno. Depends on the company and some circumstances. There's a good chance you're still on their health insurance plan.

And providing misleadingly positive feedback in the exit interview can actively work against other feedback received about something and prevent action from being taken.

Again... I don't know why you're so stuck on the exit interview. My emphasis is on feedback in general, where the exit interview is one of many opportunities to provide that.

I don't know how it works at other companies.

As the exit interviewer... I will have heard any feedback you've given...

Like, it's not complicated.

I don't know what your critiques are of whatever you're dealing with.

Correct. You don't work with me.

The importance is not giving the feedback in the exit interview itself, but giving it at all.

How? I don't know what feedback you've given up to that point.

But you guys are stuck on exit interviews... I'm emphasizing general honest feedback (where the exit interview is just one opportunity to provide that). And cautioning that if you don't want to give criticism, at least don't give misleadingly positive responses.

And again, @TheSnarkKnight, I've repeated numerous times... people aren't honest in exit interviews OR other requests for feedback. If you've given the feedback already and have nothing NEW to say in the exit interview, that's a bit different scenario.

Guess it depends on the project... but if you had nothing but good things to say about our company and were leaving, I think (depending on circumstances), we may be less likely to hire you.

I have seen a "manager" reassigned from one project to a different one based on feedback from employees bother through quarterly surveys and exit interviews.

Does that have to be the response to a single employee's disgruntled feedback in an exit interview?

where potentially, a terrible manager is getting a pat on the back and encouraged to keep up his or her terrible behavior at the expense of your former coworkers