Generally accurate though it's possible for one person to generate a lot of noise, and companies can talk a Glassdoor into removing reviews. (Generally on the basis of it pinpointing one individual)
Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
51–60 of 163 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#52I generally will give a firm the benefit of the doubt and discount 1 or 2 bad reviews. When there is a consistent negative theme in the reviews then I trust it completely. I have turned down several interviews because of Glassdoor reviews and have bought up bad reviews during interviews. Everytime the HR person has confirmed that the reviews had truth to them and that they were working on the issue or it was already fixed.
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#53I take Glassdoor reviews in the same way I take Yelp Reviews. If there are 9 positive reviews, and a single negative review, that's probably not a problem. If it's 50/50 and the majority of the positive reviews seem like slightly changed variants on the same review, then I'm very suspicious.
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#54In my experience, the negative ones are usually absolutely reliable! When I have left a place happy, I usually forget to write a good review. When I leave a place that was a nightmare to work at, I don't forget to spill the beans to warn people away. It's not uncommon for a company to have some sort of management shuffle, a new (worse) culture is imposed, and people start to leave and write negative reviews. Then the…
"and the BS positive ones like 'it's a challenging place to work, the people posting negative reviews are used to workplaces where they need less initiative blah blah blah."
Nothing gets my goat more than this kind of thing. Suddenly, if I don't want to be harassed every day, I "can't hack it"?
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#55Absolutely. I once made the mistake of ignoring a Glassdoor review and it caused me no end of trouble. What a stinker of a company. The reviews were completely accurate.
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#56It would be great if fakespot added GlassDoor reviews to their set. I would love to see how well it could identify real verse paid for
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#57Have you ever been asked to provide a positive review for a place that you formerly worked at? I have, I suspect this is common.
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#58Glassdoor is an interesting data point, but not "reliable" as a standalone rating system for multiple reasons: 1. It tends to attract complaints and unhappy (ex) employees more than anything else. The ratings tend to skew low as a result. Look for common themes, and take them with a grain of salt. 2. Complaints can be specific to a department or role. Complaints about Amazon, e.g., may be related to working in one of…
True enough but the way a company treats its peons is a good insight into how it will treat you and its culture.
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#59Every now I'll be contacted by a recruiter and look up their company on glassdoor and see like a flood of 1 star reviews on it (both from applicants and employees)... like you can tell that there was a mass exodus of employees and that it's falling apart, so they're trying to rehire for those spots. You inevitably also see a ton of recent five star reviews that say something like: "Wow I don't understand these five s…
(one that contacted me years ago and apparently still exists is kind of amazing to read: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Tobi-Reviews-E315372.htm )
"You can bring your dog, I think"
This kind of thing is generally a yes/no type of thing.
"There's a parking lot"
Wow, this company is reaching for the stars there!
(Note: I don't know where the company is located, but generally having a parking lot isn't a bragging point.)
Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?
#60I take Glassdoor reviews in the same way I take Yelp Reviews. If there are 9 positive reviews, and a single negative review, that's probably not a problem. If it's 50/50 and the majority of the positive reviews seem like slightly changed variants on the same review, then I'm very suspicious.
glassdoor seems like a great opportunity for fakespot.com to take a crack. They don't have the same types of things they can reference though, since most people probably don't have > 1 reviews on the site for cross-referencing.