Talk anonymously with your coworkers on Frank
Frank’s head of technology Zeke Nierenberg on anonymous chat with your coworkers.
By: Zeke Nierenberg
Frank exists to give workers a space to use your voice collectively, and when not heard, take action. We believe that effective workplace organizing depends on real identities in safe and private spaces. To that end, we’ve done extensive work to prevent managers and their agents from accessing your groups (you can read more about our approach to security here). But, we also know that speaking with your real identity can be a barrier in certain situations. Many of us are cautious to speak up when we don’t know what others think yet. This can create an environment where those who are quick to speak dominate the conversation or where the most critical issues never get brought up. We wanted to create a space inside of Frank that allows trusted coworkers to talk to each other anonymously.
Starting today, every Frank group has a topic channel called #anonymous.
When you post in #anonymous your coworkers will not be able to tell who posted. We construct an alternative name and profile picture for you (Ex: muddy-frost-491 or red-sound-84). All messages you send will have the same anon username, to help make the conversation coherent.
We’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that Frank will not expose the identity of message authors. That being said, it is entirely possible for message authors to expose themselves accidentally through the content of their message. If your anonymity is important to you, write with care.
You will still be able to edit and delete your messages. You can also post anonymous polls.
The purpose of #anonymous is to make space for candid or difficult conversations, not to create a space devoid of accountability. While it is not our intention to act as a moderator for groups in the long run, for a short period of time, and in very extreme cases, we will. We take our commitment to our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use seriously, and in #anonymous channels that means ensuring healthy conversations with no tolerance for abuse or harassment, while maintaining worker privacy. If we receive reports of abuse or harassment, we may remove content or in extreme cases even ban users. For now, the mechanism to report an issue is either to click “Help and feedback” in the sidebar, or email us at frank@getfrank.com.
Just like everything else in an early-stage product, this is an experiment. We’re doing it because we believe it can be helpful. If, in conversation with workers, we find this feature is not serving your interests, we will improve it or phase out the feature. I’m curious to hear from your feedback about this new channel — my email is zeke@getfrank.com or I can be reached on Twitter.
GetFrank.com is a space to privately talk and collaborate with coworkers, and tools to ensure that you’re heard. Want to use Frank in your workplace? Join Frank.
