Yeah. Big part of this is cultural. US is "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."
Many other parts of the world value honor and honesty more. I'm from one of those parts. In this case, it's a prisoner's dilemma. Honesty doesn't benefit you, but if everyone's honest, it benefits everyone. Exit interview, it doesn't hurt too much either. It's a safe time to be honest.
Having been on the other side of the table, if your manager is professional -- and most managers are -- it's a numbers game. The odds of an exit interview having an impact are close to zero. It's one person's issue. That doesn't make it invalid -- if you have a 30 minute longer commute to the new office, hate the way we do performance evaluations, or want growth paths into product management, you've got a valid reason to leave.
If five people hate the new location, how we do performance reviews, or don't think they have good internal growth paths, I'll act on that.
* Facebook seems to be a bunch of smart people working on pet projects. Monopoly profits drive a political empire where people at the top think up something random, and it gets built.
* Google has customer contempt. They started with brilliant people who were used to being smarter than everyone else. They also started in algorithm-driven markets like search and ad-words, where everything was statistical and individuals didn't matter. They've lost the smarts and the ethics, and they're in a bit of a hole. I think they've reached the end of the growth line.
* I know nothing about Apple. Too secretive.
* Microsoft has a bunch of cut-throat teams, competing with each other. Their technology is middling. However, they're the only one of the bunch you'd want to partner with for B2B.
* ... except for Amazon, which is hyper-customer-focused, and has a track record of successful forward-looking projects. AWS has been rock solid. On the other hand, I'd never want to work there; they treat employees like crap. But it somehow works out for them.
Many other parts of the world value honor and honesty more. I'm from one of those parts. In this case, it's a prisoner's dilemma. Honesty doesn't benefit you, but if everyone's honest, it benefits everyone. Exit interview, it doesn't hurt too much either. It's a safe time to be honest.
Having been on the other side of the table, if your manager is professional -- and most managers are -- it's a numbers game. The odds of an exit interview having an impact are close to zero. It's one person's issue. That doesn't make it invalid -- if you have a 30 minute longer commute to the new office, hate the way we do performance evaluations, or want growth paths into product management, you've got a valid reason to leave.
If five people hate the new location, how we do performance reviews, or don't think they have good internal growth paths, I'll act on that.