Needed: A 'Rate My Boss' website

I’m sure many readers of this blog are familiar with “Rate My Teacher” and similar websites under other names. Now, in an era of grade inflation and helicopter moms, a lot of the teacher ratings on such websites aren’t based on fact as much as on various emotions.

But, that’s a whole other story.

I just thought, today, that we need something similar — a “Rate My Boss” website.

After all, our bosses rate us, with pay raises or lack thereof, with good or bad evaluations, and above all with ridiculous work, emotions and various sheiss dumped on us, if they’re out to punish us, or if they’re just bad bosses or have taken on the patina of dysfunctional workplaces.

So, why shouldn’t we be able to rate them back on such a website, even if totally anonymous, and extra-filtered (like being listed as a former rather than current employee, etc.)?

Because this is the United States, not Western Europe, let alone the Scandanavian subset.

Even a fair amount of blue-ish states have at least some “at will” provisions for bosses and companies being able to can your or my ass at their pleasure.

You’ve likely read the stories about companies trying to force current or would-be employees to “open” their Facebook pages, by changing account settings or providing their password, if they’re not open to the public.

Don’t you think something 10 times worse would happen with this?

Of course it would.

But, we still can dream. And, in today’s America, given wingnut Republicans and business-friendly neoliberal Democrats, that’s about all we can do.

At least for now.

That said, some part of me says that the right progressive, labor-focused nonprofit organization, IF it had its cybersecurity certified by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, just might be able to pull this off. 

And, we need somebody to try.

In today's era of shrinking unions, white and gray collar workers still having socioeconomic class snobbery (even if they're not that high on the totem pole) about unions, "tort reform" directed against on the job injuries and more, an informational mecca like this would definitely level the playing field to some extent. 

It's not as if state governments stand up for workers, certainly not in red states like here in Tejas. The Texas Workforce Commission? It just posts job ads you can find on Monster and elsewhere while casting a narrow eyeball on unemployment eligibility. It officially does not act as a site to receive employee grievances against employers.

Personal thoughts below the fold.


With a boss who, two months ago, advertised my position as "open," then last week, still having not made too much work to fill it, retitled my job and trimmed my pay while promising a "more active" search to replace me, yet hasn't readvertised my position, would be at the bottom, to date. As if I don't already want out of here and am trying to get a decent job, and one that's not a short-term pickup, with decent pay.

And, if we had a companion "Rate My Workplace" site, ditto on it, and on ownership. And, beyond that, not just that, but as a newspaper ... sorry, but the longer I'm here, even in today's newspaper world, the less this place impresses me as a newspaper in some ways.

Oh, I've learned things here. But primarily from the "via negativa," to use the old Christian metaphysics term. Or, more specifically, more about how things shouldn't be run then how they should. I've also learned more than ever before about workplace personal dynamics.

That all said, Robert Reich was right, in "Locked in the Cabinet" — "we" language vs. "they" language is a clear indicator of an employee's emotional investment in a job. My previous newspaper, I split on this language, in part because I hated not being in Dallas any more. Here? It's all "they" language when I talk to outsiders beyond this area.