Being Honest In Exit Interviews Is Pointless

Esther Schindler writes "Say that you're leaving a job, either on your own volition or because they decided it was time for you to 'pursue other opportunities.' Before you leave, the HR department wants to chat with you about the employment experience, in an exit interview. 'Oh goodie,' you think. 'Now I can really tell them what I really feel.' Don't do it. If your employer couldn't find the time to ask you what was good or bad about working at the company while you were still working there, writes Lisa Vaas, why bother with honesty and potentially burned bridges now? (If they did ask, give them constructive feedback before you leave this job; they deserve it). Discuss."

Comments

Re:What about ENTER interview?

[Anonymous Coward]

HR are part of the executive, disguised as employees, basically a corporate Trojan horse. Never trust HR. They are there to advance your employer's interests, not your interests. In all your dealings with HR, only ever do and say things that will advance your own interests.

Re:Exit Interviews are always flowery

[overlordofmu]

The only argument you give is a single anecdote and only credential you give is revving engines at hate addicts.

You have entirely failed to convince me. However, this law professor and police detective have me convinced of their argument.

Don't Talk to Cops, Part 1 -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik
Don't Talk to Cops, Part 2 -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08fZQWjDVKE

(I realize that forty-eight minutes of video versus your seventy-five words is certainly not balanced but you have the ability to respond if you something more to add. Sorry, some lessons don't fit into a tweet.)

Re:Exit Interviews are always flowery

[HnT]

Even then, there are ways to say bad things without saying bad things

There is a particular "code" used in references or certificates of employment you get when leaving your job here in central Europe - basically employers are not allowed to hinder you from finding a new job in any way, so they cannot say anything bad; instead they rely on very subtle differences and certain phrases to the point where you can read about this "code" in books and hear about it in trainings. An example would be saying you "always tried to do a good job", which sounds alright, right? But the code here is that is does not say "you always did an absolutely outstanding excellent job" so what they were actually saying is "you were frakking horrible", you never really did anything (hence "tried to.."). In another examples, there are certain key phrases, so if they are saying that you "always associated with your fellow employees" or something like that, then that can mean you are a mean drunk and/or sexually harassed colleagues. And there are techniques to leave things out, like not mentioning you were always polite to your superiors and customers but you were to your colleagues, then that could mean there were issues there.

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_reference_letter#Language
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeitszeugnis#Zeugniscode