SCAM ALERT!

Major companies are scamming their employees in order to cut their salaries, bonuses and other benefits as follows.

When you visit, say, a car dealership or a phone company, the person who has served you will often say something like, "If you receive an online survey asking you to rate my performance out of 10, please try to give me 9 or 10."

What sounds like impertinence is the expression of a legitimate fear.

Here's how it works:

• The company sends the survey to all the customers Billy has served over a given period, asking them to rank his service from 1 to 10.
• If you reply and rate Billy at below 9 there are consequences for him. The lower the number, the worse they will be.
• If you are fantastically enthusiastic about Billy's service and give him - as many inexplicably do these days - an 11 to emphasise the fact, his score will actually be 1. This is because the company's computer doesn't recognise numbers above 10 so it records only the first digit.
• If you don't reply - and the company knows full well that only a small proportion of those receiving surveys at distance ever do - this is taken as a negative response, also with negative consequences for Billy because he's measured against the number of surveys sent out not the number sent back.
• His employer also knows that if Billy does well but you're unhappy with the company's performance, you'll be tempted to give him a lower score however good his service. In other words Billy will pay for his employer's failings.

I therefore recommend that, unless an employee actually punches you in the face, you always reply to any online survey about their service, and you always give top marks for service received, even if you don't think it fully merits it.

You may also want to use the opportunity to complain to the company as part of your reply.