Unvarnished Site May Tarnish Your Business Reputation
Unvarnished is a new Internet site that allows you to rate your boss and co-workers anonymously. Though still in beta version, the website states, “Unvarnished is an online resource for building, managing, and researching professional reputation, using community-contributed, professional reviews.”
While LinkedIn allows community users to post recommendations about other professionals, Unvarnished promotes itself as “providing candid assessments of coworkers, potential hires, business partners, and more.” The objective is “by contributing Unvarnished reviews, you can share your knowledge of other professionals, giving credit where credit is due, and valuable feedback where needed.” In essence, by providing anonymous user feedback, a person will be more inclined to share balanced feedback giving readers a more realistic assessment of a person’s performance.
While I am skeptical Unvarnished will reach its goal with anonymous reviews, nonetheless, it is a site that garners a professional’s attention. Be sure to read the suggestions for managing your professional reputation and the guidelines for writing a review.
For readers who have attended my seminars, the following comment may sound familiar: Nothing on the Internet is 100% private. If a person gains unauthorized access to a site, even momentarily, your name and associated words, photos, etc. are accessible to the public. Even Unvarnished states, “reviewers, while not identified, do have identity and a reputation on the site, and gain authority over time through their highly-voted reviews and the creation of recognizable patterns within their professional network.”
From an etiquette perspective, before posting on Unvarnished or any social network site, think about your intention of the post. Is an anonymous text-based post the best communication method to convey your intended message? Can the text-based message potentially be misunderstood by the reader? Do the words convey consideration for the other person? If in doubt, pick up the phone to communicate the message or meet the person face-to-face for a discussion.
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