My exit interview was with my HR manager, over the phone, my second to last day at the company.
Before the interview, they had me fill out a whole survey with questions asking me why I’m leaving, whether I felt supported by my manager, whether I felt I knew the direction of the company, things like that. They were all radio buttons with the options Strongly Agree/Agree/Neither agree nor disagree/Disagree/Strongly Disagree. The best way to fly under the radar is to answer everything as “Agree”. HR tends to ignore those completely. The only ones they probe you on are the ones where you said “Neither agree nor disagree”, “Disagree” or “Strongly Disagree.”
With that in mind, I answered Agreed or Strongly Agreed to everything, except a couple of things, which I answered “Neither agree nor disagree.” One question was about me understanding the growth initiatives in the company. I told HR that I simply wasn’t in a strategic position in the company and their emails went over my head. I did go the extra mile to tell them that I don’t believe everything the leadership says because they have a stock price to worry about, and unless I had time to research our competitors, I really don’t get a good view of where the company is going. I totally could have just answered Agree on this one, who cares about my opinion on this anyway?
The second one was “Do you feel the opportunities in this company are better than opportunities in most other companies.” I explained that I see other companies as different, and I can’t say that my company is the end-all of perfect jobs.
At the end she asked me if there was anything else I wanted to add. I did say that maybe if they wanted to take a proactive approach at retention, they would have noticed that I applied for a job based in Boston (in my same company, different division) early in the year. If they had talked to me about what I was trying to accomplish, maybe it would have come out that I wanted something more local, and the story would have been different. Having said that, I worked remotely from this office happily for 4 years, and it would be hard for you to probe every single employee if they don’t speak up themselves. But that’s just a tip, in case they wanted to get proactive about it. Her answer “did your manager support you in your application for that job?” I said yes, she said “ok, then the process is working right.” And THAT, ladies and gentleman, is why it is NOT worth saying negative things in exit interviews. This was a VERY MILD case of defensiveness, after all, I wasn’t badgering anybody or my job or HR or anything like that, it was a very innocent tip based on a true fact. The response was less than introspective.
Anyways, really not much to tell there, but I thought I’d chronicle it anyway. Best advice is to Agree on everything, and leave with a smile on your face and a Thank You in your lips.
abi
Image Source: http://www.careerfaqs.com.au/resignation-tips/547/Whats-in-an-exit-interview