Anonymous surveys only work if the person running them actually wants honest answers — and toxic bosses famously do not.

One such boss who ruled his 100 employees with an iron fist handed out paper surveys at a mandatory meeting, and one employee filled his out honestly, assuming the results would be collected privately.

Instead, the boss stood up and started reading the questions aloud, asking the room to raise their hands for each grade they gave.

The silence that followed the first question told everyone exactly what kind of survey this actually was.

Only one brave soul chose to be honest, and that did not go well for her.

Keep reading for the whole story.

Owner turned an “anonymous” company survey into a public loyalty test.

I used to work at a pretty toxic place with about 100 employees.

The owner was big on controlling everyone’s lives and required us to do unpaid trainings and seminars outside of work hours. They basically just relied on intimidating people so nobody would question it.

So when it came time for a company survey, things got interesting.

Anyway, we were at one of these mandatory meetings, and at the end, he handed out a paper survey with questions about the company.

I initially wrote down lower scores that were my honest opinion, assuming they were just going to collect and tally them up.

The boss was anxious to see how his employees responded.

Instead, the owner stood up and said, “Okay, in terms of how the company compensates employees — who gave us an A?”

The room was dead silent, except for one new girl who raised her hand.

At that point, everyone in the room realized this was a test.

At that point, all honesty went oout the window.

So when he followed with “who gave us a B,” every single person put their hand up.

Everyone just changed their answers on the spot to survive the meeting.

And as for the brave soul who gave them a lower rating?

But on one of the later questions, the owner asked who gave a C, and one woman actually raised her hand.

The owner pulled her aside right after the meeting and aggressively questioned her about her opinion.

Sounds like the rest of the employees were right to be afraid.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who took a new dress code policy to a whole new level.

What did Reddit have to say?

“Anonymous” surveys and bad bosses just don’t go together.

In this day and age, being a bad boss is a choice.

I mean, how dumb do workplaces think their employees are?

Some employers have wised up and modified their wording.

The audacity of handing out an “anonymous” survey and then immediately asking people to identify themselves by answer is the kind of move that tells you everything you need to know about how this workplace actually runs.

Nobody in that room was surprised — they adapted in real time because they had clearly been trained to survive this kind of thing before.

The one woman who raised her hand honestly either missed the memo or had enough courage to mean it, and she paid for it with an aggressive post-meeting interrogation.

The owner wanted approval so badly he built an entire system to manufacture it — that’s not how real leaders behave.