7

We all love The Workplace Stack Exchange, but there is a whole world of people out there who need answers to their questions and don't even know that this site exists. When they arrive from Google, what will their first impression be? Let's try to look at this site through the eyes of someone who's never seen it before, and see how we stack up against the rest of the 'Net.

The Site Self-Evaluation review queue is open and populated with 10 questions that were asked and answered in the last quarter. Run a few Google searches to see how easy they are to find and compare the answers we have with the information available on other sites.

Rating the questions is only a part of the puzzle, though. Do you see a pattern of questions that should have been closed but are not? Questions or answers that could use an edit? Anything that's going really well? Post an answer below to share your thoughts and discuss these questions and the site's health with your fellow users!

1
  • I've answered a separate answer for each reviewed question to make it easier to discuss improvements on each one individually. Please feel free to engage me in the comments if you think my summary is wrong or could be improved.
    – user5305
    Sep 9, 2013 at 9:50

11 Answers 11

Reset to default
5

How can I get off on the right foot with a new intern who is older than I am?

Quality of Question

High quality, still nice and short, lays out the issue very clearly.

Quality of Answers

Fantastic answers! 7 answers covering a range of methods and one 'answer' that was an admitted comment. If deletion of this goes through then I will be happy.

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

"intern older than i am" "intern older than me" Both rank us 1st in google so im happy with the ability for people to find this information

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

I can find no other site that even acknowledges this as a question so we currently hold the market on this information.

Overall this is the first one i am happy to mark as Excellent!

2
  • I didn't find this one on google as easily, because my guess is that 95% of the people who would value most from the question are not in the situation where their subordinate is an intern. Managing older employees doesn't have us in the neighborhood, nor does 'subordinate older than me' or the like. And that is a shame. Though our resource is comparable (if not better than) the articles that come from that search.
    – jmac
    Sep 11, 2013 at 2:59
  • If I remember right I put a bounty on this as I felt it was a very good question but until that point didn't have as sufficient/comprehensive answers as I wanted.
    – enderland
    Sep 11, 2013 at 23:12
4

My current boss asks surprising questions which haven't been asked by a boss before, how should I respond?

Quality of Question

Could be a bit shorter, its lengthy and at the bottom im pretty sure it needs to be edited or removed as it is very rude and doesn't pain a good picture of what this sites quality is.

Id like to point out that the below is NOT a comment, its actual content of the question

@HLGEM and @notmyrealname it is perfectly normal for a manager, or anyone else, to ask what one is doing. What point are you trying to make and how do you relate your point to this question? No where in this question did I say it's strange for the manager to ask what it is I'm currently doing. I do have trouble answering the question what I am doing latter when the job involves a lot of variability but this is an entirely different question.

I suggest removing this part.(Incase its edited during the review this is here for posterity)

Quality of Answers

Good quality answers that tackle it from a range of views. The top two answers are outstanding. Overall i am happy with the quality of the answers.

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

Difficult to find unless searching exactly the title. I suggest retitling as this will really help us to find it easier through searches.

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

Very generic question so hard to find other answers on it, overall im happy with our answers.

In conclusion i marked this as Needs Improvement. The question has potentially rude content towards some members and it is hard to find by searching.

1
  • On review, I thought this question may not actually be a good fit for the site. What is the actual problem being solved here? The answer serves the person asking, but the answers would be useful to future visitors who need to know, "How can I effectively answer my boss' questions?" which is a lot more broad (and has a lot more resources out there). I think this one definitely needs some serious improvement.
    – jmac
    Sep 11, 2013 at 3:09
3

When keeping track of your hours, should you round at all?

Quality of Question

Very short, simple and clear question that makes it very user friendly. I'm a fan of these types of questions as its easy for people to see if it is the same problem that they are facing or not with ease.

Quality of Answers

3 Good answers offering differing view points, providing a large amount of information that users can pick a solution from. Overall i am happy with the state of the answers.

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

"tracking worked hours, rounding" Ranks us 3rd

"rounding worked hours" doesn't rank us on the first page

This could use a lot of work to be honest, we get ok results the more specific the searchers are but we would benefit a lot more if we could get shorter phrases to direct to us

Overall, ok.

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

Our answers generally agree, we suggested asking HR as it is company specific and it seems to be the consensus on every other site that doing so can get your company in trouble for incorrectly billing clients, thus making it a business problem not a personal issue.

Overall i ranked this as satisfactory, as our SEO could be improved.

1
  • This question is very new, and so I think it may be suffering from a lack of links from other questions. I would hope it improves in the future as far as SEO is concerned.
    – jmac
    Sep 11, 2013 at 3:04
3

Final Results

1
  • 2
    @Rhys - I don't want to forget this; you or someone should post a feature request to have these automatically sorted by sort order.
    – jmort253
    Oct 3, 2013 at 1:35
2

Resigning when you have multiple bosses in multiple locations?

Quality of Question

I marked this Question as Satisfactory. It is short and to the point and doesn't bombard users with irrelevant information. This makes it very concise and easy to see the problem.

Quality of Answers

Unfortunately this question only has one answer which means that future users won't be able to get a good overview of the pros and cons of each potential solution. This could be improved upon by retroactively providing alternate solutions.

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

This is quite easy to find when searching phrases such as:

"Resigning when you have multiple bosses" Ranks us 1st

"multiple bosses, resigning" Ranks us 1st

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

I found only ONE other site that dealt with resigning when you have multiple bosses, and that site was Yahoo Answers.

I'm confident that we are now the leading provider for information on resigning when you have multiple bosses. It is for this reason that I urge more answers covering more points to be retroactively posted to ensure the prolonged use of our site.

2

What is a Professional way to customize personal note in linkedin

Quality of Question

The question itself is ok, clear and concise. Marked as Satisfactory. Though probably has more tags than needed. I.e its not specific to Australia or interviewing, that's just the intention the OP has, for this reason they were used more like meta tags.

Quality of Answers

High quality answer that makes sure it answers a much wider band than just the specific scenario asked by the OP.

Only one answer but it covers so many points that it doesn't really bother me too much. Though of course, if someone has an alternate answer please feel free to add it in!

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

I had to mark low for this, no matter what search terms I used nothing I could find took me to our SE. Instead all links were focussed around LinkedIn itself. Something I don't think we can change.

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

I couldn't find another site that focussed on the question and answered the way we do, but I also couldn't even find out site through searching. If we can make it more obvious to find our site we will have an advantage.

4
  • "Ability to find in Search Engines (Google) I had to mark low for this, no matter what search terms I used nothing I could find took me to our SE. Instead all links were focussed around LinkedIn itself." This was the top result when I searched.
    – Joe Strazzere
    Sep 9, 2013 at 16:43
  • @JoeStrazzere what search term did you use?
    – user5305
    Sep 9, 2013 at 16:54
  • @JoeStrazzere Are you searching in incognito mode? If not, then your results are fine tuned to your search history and browsing habits.
    – yannis
    Sep 9, 2013 at 17:11
  • @Yannis - Yes, I am using incognito mode for the search.
    – Joe Strazzere
    Sep 9, 2013 at 17:36
2

What's an employee stock option scheme?

Quality of Question

The question itself contains background information from the OP's specific scenario and could use some generalisation to ensure it applies to a wider range of situations. But the question asked is good and clear so it's not something that overly bothers me.

Quality of Answers

Only one answer but that's to be expected from a 'What is X' question so this is fine by me. The answer is of good quality and covers the Why as well as the what.

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

Very very poor. Even if you google the question word for word identical to how we have it here we aren't even on the first page of results.

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

We have roughly equivalent qualities to other sites. I am happy with everything bar our SEO.

5
  • 1
    "Ability to find in Search Engines (Google) Very very poor." I see it on the 2nd page of my results. Is that "very, very poor"?
    – Joe Strazzere
    Sep 9, 2013 at 16:42
  • @JoeStrazzere yes, when do you ever go on to page 2 of google? theres a blog post somewhere that shows the stats, anything other than top 3 drops massively in views, top 10 drops again once more.
    – user5305
    Sep 9, 2013 at 16:54
  • 1
    Thanks, I understand your definition now. I go to the 2nd page when I really am motivated to find a good answer, or when I want to find more answers.
    – Joe Strazzere
    Sep 9, 2013 at 17:37
  • 1
    I think that it would have been a much better question as 'how do I evaluate an employee stock option scheme?' since that would really teach people about what they are/how they work. As-is, it is far far worse than even the wikipedia article as a resource.
    – jmac
    Sep 11, 2013 at 3:02
  • 1
    when do you ever go on to page 2 of google <-- whenever I search obscure tech problems which have very limited results :(
    – enderland
    Sep 11, 2013 at 23:06
2

If you feel that a younger, more impressionable employee is being lead astray, is it appropriate to intervene without their knowledge

Quality of Question

Good quality question, no extraneous details that aren't needed. Gets straight to the point and addresses his problem.

Quality of Answers

Good quality answers that apply to many situations, not just the one that the OP specifically asks, which make these stellar answers in my eyes.

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

Difficult to find, an issue i've noted with long title names is that they are difficult to match up when searching unless you are almost word for word correct. We can improve this by retitling to give a more generalised view of the question.

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

Not something i've found on other sites, once again we hold the primary knowledge it seems, which is very good for us if only more people could find it easily.

Overall i marked as satisfactory.

1
  • 1
    For items with long titles, I think the issue may be that we are getting unfocused questions, focusing them a bit, and then calling it a day even though they could be refined further. This question could just as easily be, "Is it appropriate to intervene on behalf of a coworker?" or something of the sort, which is a broader question that would still cover this situation. It is tough to do this, especially when the asker is actively responding to comments and editing it (at least I find it to be).
    – jmac
    Sep 11, 2013 at 3:20
2

Sending references and transcripts along with resume and cover letter?

Quality of Question

Ok quality, could do with editing to clear up the details that are OP specific and aren't needed for correct answers to be given. This would make it apply to more people making it of greater use to the site.

Quality of Answers

Good set of answers, some say yes some say no, all explain why. Overall im happy with the quality of these answers.

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

As with all longer names you have to almost type the title word for word to even appear in the top 10 for results, could be improved upon.

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

Annoyingly we dont rank highly but we are the only ones providing an answer to the question, with the results that beat us focussing on writing cover letters rather than the issue as described. Overall we have the best answers to this issue.

2

How do companies handle 'he-said she-said' situations with no objective evidence either way?

Quality of Question

Good question, could do with being split by paragraphs so it doesn't feel like so much of a wall of text to improve the user experience.

Quality of Answers

The first answers are good, the others could use some work, as clarified in the comments, though nothing seems to have changed. Would be nice to see some improvements made from the original writers but at the first are so good im not too bothered by this as the overall advice will still be good.

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

We do not rank highly, even with almost word for word searching we are outranked by song lyrics from the song "he said she said" I don't think there is a lot we can do about this as the song lyrics will always be more searched.

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

Some sites potentially beat us on this, choosing to provide lots of information rather than a short concise summary as favoured by our answers to the question.

Overall i marked as satisfactory

0

When is it acceptable for a subordinate to earn more than a manager?

Quality of Question

Ok quality, short and to the point with a clear title.

Quality of Answers

Very good quality, this could have ended up by a poll but instead we got some fantastic answers covering both the pros and cons of specific points. Overall i am Very pleased with the content we have for this question

Ability to find in Search Engines (Google)

Annoyingly there are lots of news articles with similar headings as ours so we are outranked on searches until you nearly match the title word for word. I dont think there is a lot we can do about this to beat a news site, too many views per day

Quality of Answers compared to other sites answers

Overall i am pleased with the quality of our answers compared to the news sites. If only we could get people outside of the SE network to see it!

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .