Not the Best Policy

Despite what they say, honesty is rarely the best policy.  When someone tells you that they want you to be 'honest', they don't really mean it - they actually want you to agree with them, or simply tow the party line.  So, this week I made the mistake of actually giving my honest opinions at work - it went down like a lead balloon.  My mistake was to take one of those staff feedback exercises at face value and actually give my real opinions.  I didn't swear, rant or make personal attacks on named individuals in the written feedback I gave, but I did express my opinions about the department's mismanagement and the complete failure of current manage to grasp that we are meant to be delivering a public service.  I also offered a critique of some of the current working practices which have been imposed from above and whose impracticalities are causing me considerable stress.  But like I said, that wasn't what they wanted.  Things are still awkward between myself and my line manager, despite the fact that I actually defended him in my feedback and directed the blame at more senior management.

I really shouldn't be surprised, it isn't as if I haven't had experience of this sort of thing before.  I remember that many, many years ago when I was a student, this girl I knew asked me what I thought of her new (and rather severe) hair style.  Just to be that I understood what she wanted, I even asked her: 'you want my honest opinion?'   When she replied in the affirmative, I foolishly responded: 'Just tell me who did it to you and I'll beat the shit out of them'.  She hit me.  Hard.  Very hard.  Ever since then I've kept my counsel on women's hairstyles, and fashions generally, even when they press me for an opinion.  I've become very good at being noncommittal in my replies, (if you are too positive, they just think you are being insincere, which could also get a man hit).  Nevertheless, I don't regret my most recent outburst of honesty - if nothing else, it's made me feel a lot better.  Besides, the things I brought up needed to be said.  Ordinarily, one would expect the Union the raise these issues, but Union reps seem to have become an endangered species in my part of the world, I feel that we have no choice but to raise them through other channels.  And what better channel could there be than some management endorsed staff feedback scheme?