[Cyrus]

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Do you tend to believe an employee at face value if they have an axe to grind towards their boss?

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What do you think?..

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You once argued that we can’t take the word of soldiers on the front line because they cant be objective. Interesting reversal of positions.

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I argued that we couldn’t construct a war's history solely on the account given about that war by the front-line soldiers, even though their testimony is highly important. This was my argument and you can check it out.

I also added that the (infamous) fog of war indeed muddles most accounts given by persons directly involved in combat -- but I also argued that the collective testimony does assist the historian.

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I guess that I am just very sceptical in general. I just think ex employees in general are not very credible sources and I think they are even less credible when they have appear to have other motives.

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I cannot agree more! Of course, a disgruntled ex-employee tends to be ..well, disgruntled. What else is new?

I'm saying that the (admittedly not easy) task of a serious manager/leader is to make the effort and try to gauge one last bit of company-related information from an employee who recently departed.

There's a ton of literature devoted to the subject. I recall some HBR material I've come across years ago. And, if it's relevant at all, during the time I've been practicing exit interviews, I have waded through a lot of mud but I also discovered some precious diamonds!..