Are You On A “Bad Boss” Website?

Think you are a good boss?  Think you know how your employees (past or present) would rate you?  Want to know for sure?  Several “Rate Your Boss/Company” type websites have sprung up around the internet and you may want to check them out.  And if you are considering a new job, you definitely want to check out your potential new boss and company.

One of the most popular is eBossWatch.com.   The eBossWatch website is an anonymous (and free) way to either “Rate Your Boss” (good or bad) or look up a potential boss.    The website describes their service as enabling “people to anonymously rate their bosses and employers using a respectable evaluation form so that job seekers can search potential workplaces and can access inside information about what it’s like to work there.”

The founder started the website in 2007, the website states, “after experiencing first-hand the nightmare of working in a hostile work environment.  He decided that there had to be a better way for people to evaluate prospective employers.”

A person can go to the website and choose to “Rate My Boss” or do a “Boss Search.”  The “Boss Search” database is searchable by name or by company.

When “Rate My Boss” is selected, the person is asked 6 questions and can respond as Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Somewhat Disagree, Somewhat Agree, Agree, or Strongly Agree.

For each rating that a boss receives, a graph is generated that a person can click on to view.

Critics of sites like these point out that there is no verification procedure that ensures the person doing the evaluation of the boss really did work for him or her; the boss does not have an opportunity to respond on the website; and the boss is not notified of the posting.  But there is no denying the increasing popularity of these types of sites.  eBossWatch even does a yearly “Worse Bosses” that they post on the website.  It is an interesting mix of the famous and non-famous.

If you want to be proactive and find out what your employees are thinking, you might want to encourage them to go to TellYourBossAnything.com. On this website, employees can type out a message to their boss and the website emails it to the boss.

The boss can respond back to the feedback and the website sends it to the employee.  There is no charge for the basic service. You can upgrade to a paid account if you want more options.

But how about taking it a step further?  If you are a boss and manage more than a few people, you can ask your employees to respond to a poll question or a survey with several questions.  It is a great way to get 360° feedback, and if you go to FreeOnlineSurveys.com, it doesn’t cost you anything to do so.    If you have something simple you want their input on like, “What would be a good team building outing for us to do?” you can create a simple poll (similar to my blog poll question).

For more in-depth information, you can create a survey with many questions, and have multiple choice answers or fill-in answers.  It’s a great way to proactively solicit feedback from your direct reports in a way that is easy, convenient, and anonymous.  You might even consider creating one for feedback from customers as well.  You can send employees (or clients) the poll or survey as an email with a link to click on or embed it on your website with the html code they give you.

Now, go see if you are on ebosswatch.com, I know you’re dying to do it!

If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.  -Bill Gates

Related articles

• The Number 1 Thing Your Employees Want More Of (No, It’s Not Money)
• 10 Phrases Your Sales People Want To Hear
• Why Your Salespeople Quit
• Tips For Coaching Your Salespeople
• It’s Not Me, It’s You: 5 Ways To Avoid Another Horrible Boss (business.time.com)

Here’s an interesting Infographic from Inc.com on the real costs of bad bosses.