Some people here at the Cove are often brutally honest - Dual/Secret Identities?

[Mike S.]

I’m curious about something. Maybe the very nature of my post will preclude some people from answering, but I’ll ask anyway:

Some people here at the Cove are often brutally honest in the criticism of their company and some of the people they work for/with. Yet they use the Cove on the job to help them with their work, which I would think, under some circumstances, would or potentially could lead to some of the people they work with – perhaps “higher-ups” – viewing their critical posts. I can see where this might cause some problems.

For example, “Joe Sixpack” posts on the Cove for a year or so, getting advice, giving advice, and, in the process, sometimes saying some critical words about something his company or boss does that Joe thinks is stupid, illegal, immoral, etc. Later, Joe’s company has a problem or question and Joe posts a question on the Cove seeking advice. As usual with the Cove, several people have some valuable input for Joe and he tells his boss about it. The Boss says “let me see that” and eventually sees what the Cove is and sees Joe’s name or “Cove name”. The Boss starts to visit the Cove himself and out of curiosity looks up some of Joe’s old posts and, to his shock, sees some unflattering things Joe has said about the company or the Boss himself.

Has anyone here had that happen to them? Do some Cove members have “dual identities” – one under which they post their true feelings and remain anonymous and one under which they post when the Boss is looking or might want to look?

[db]

I for one don't. I tried once, but kept the same avitar and the boss noticed the license plate. :eek WYSIWYG

Nobody here even frequents the site. Not their cup of tea. I would be more worried about a disgruntled member forwarding your critical post to the company website hoping that they could cost you your job, thereby potentionally eliminating you from participation. Especially if you handed them their ***in public with less than kind posts. Shattered egos are a tough thing to mend but for someone without a shred of decency, a great idea. But, they are traceable and it helps to be a good friend of the System Administrator. I would post the address in all the threads from home, if I had to. That is, in between trips to the unemployment office.
I would be very careful about what I say about the company in a public forum. You never know what evil lurks in the hearts of lesser men. Oh, and women, even though I reserve that type of low life behavior to educated men who may wear eye shadow and girl's underwear.

[noboxwine]

Unlike my last two ex-girlfriends, I have no dual or tri or quad personalities-----(Hi Wendy and Megan---don't forget to take your pills!). It really makes no difference to me. No matter the vocabulary chosen, any posts that I've personally made about any company is based upon hard facts. If my boss were to read a post and take offense, I would simply provide the data to support it and a solution that will increase his profitability. If he still doesn’t like it, oh well. Fire me for speaking the truth. If he’d rather put his ego in front of a business improvement opportunity, then he’s in charge, so to speak. I can’t be a “yes” man or work for someone with Little Mans Disease, anyway. Just my elementary opinion. Miller Time in NY. Buh, bye now.

While attempting to apply some product realization and monitoring procedures to one of our divisions that has very little acceptance criteria to use in a check before shipping the product, I was told that "we aren't going to change anything". Quoting the often used ISO statement, "We say what we do and do what we say". This division leads all others in Customer Complaints. I'm told we will continue to measure the amount of complaints and submit the information to the Steering Committee for possible action. Case closed. In other words, we will use the Customer's Complaints as our Product Verification. Yahoo! Where's the danger? He's the CFO and the Department Head. Oops, now I've done it!

[Randy]

I don't do the dual thing myself. I'm the boss around here (actually the wife is the boss, but it makes me feel good to think I'm in charge)

[JodiB]

Mike, you bring up a very good point. And one that I've thought about from time to time. My name is not so common that I can hide behind it and I publicly identified the company. My boss also knew that I visited here and wasn't so dense that he couldn't figure out the forum if he wanted to. Didn't worry me as I never said anything that wasn't true.

What might worry me more is for a new employer to come here and read my previous posts and take offense. As I'm still unemployed, I'll have to cross that bridge if/when I come to it.

Wouldn't it be nice if Marc could throw up some sort of a "safety net" around us here so that others from our companies couldn't view the posts?

Lucinda said:

Wouldn't it be nice if Marc could throw up some sort of a "safety net" around us here so that others from our companies couldn't view the posts?

Lucinda,

You can change your user name. And, you don't have to put much in your profile. I'm assuming that if you elect to not receive e-mail from anybody in the Cove, your e-mail address isn't shown. When you look at some of the Profiles, there are some very secretive members out there. Like, where you from? The East Coast. I don't know about the e-mail address thing because I use my full name and Company name in my profile. If someone wants to look at my posts from my Company, which will never happen, thay can start reading. I'm pretty careful what I put down. I have about 4 or 5 posts that I think might be candidates for concern. But, they aren't lies! With the amount of posts in 2 years, it would take more than a quick search. Also, in my case, the Company paid for Premium Files access. Of course, I would take the interested party straight to the Files!