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Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

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Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#121

Post by thaumasiotes »

xenophon wrote: post #25
rothbardrand wrote: post #7

Negative reviews seem to be pretty reliable, you have to have a motivation to post them, even if the content may not be objectively accurate. I worked for a company with terrible management and every time an employee would leave they would leave a negative review. However, glassdoor is not completely objective-- companies can get negative reviews removed simply by complaining about them, and the quality control on th…

There are all kinds of motivations to post a negative review, and not all of those motivations map "reliably" to accuracy. Leaving a job can be traumatic for employees for reasons that have nothing to do with the company's culture or behavior--a disgruntled employee fired for cause has a strong motivation to leave a bad review, but that doesn't mean it is reliable. Glassdoor has the same pros and cons of any review a…

> perhaps uniquely so, like Yelp

Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#122

Post by KGIII »

gdilla wrote: post #84
ransom1538 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In my experience, the negative ones are usually absolutely reliable!" Yes. In my experience: Only people extremely pissed off take the time to open their macbook and write a truthful rage at 2am. There are good reviews, but they just don't have the same soul crushing honest factor. Comically, people think they are being anonymous -- but you can't soul crush without knowing -- and people (engineers) quickly put thing…

With NLP and ML any company can know who wrote what review if they wanted to. They have all your emails and thus writing style is easily ascertained.

Wouldn't that be easy to foil? I can, and do, write with different styles that depend on the audience I'm trying to reach. I'm reasonably sure I could write entirely unlike my normal writing and appear to be a completely different person. I've done a lot of writing for very different audiences.

Am I, perhaps, over-estimating my ability? Are they really that good at determining origin?

Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#123

Post by devdad »

Waterluvian wrote: post #88
llaith wrote: post #34

In 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…

That made me think about the reviews in app stores these days. There will be a valid complaint and rating, followed by a response from the company that might be something like, "this has been addressed in the next version. we're sorry you had a bad experience." Something like that turns a 1 star rating into a positive signal to me. Maybe Glassdoor reviews need the opportunity for a company representative to say, "thi…

I often struggle with app store reviews, because people that are satisfied won't go and rate the app out of the blue. Non-technical users that can't follow an industry standard sign up flow will go completely nuts and give one star with completely insane comments.

I used to believe that the "please rate my app"-popup was bad ux. Now I know why it's used.

I'd think the same pattern applies to GD. Why would I write a review when satisfied with my work? I'd have no reason to even visit GD.

Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#124

Post by KGIII »

Balgair wrote: post #97
llaith wrote: post #34

In 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…

Does anyone know how GD is funded? Is it ads or do companies pay somehow to be listed? I ask, as the payment method is critical to understand it's reliability. If it is ads, then yes, I think it should be reliable. 'You' are the 'product' in that case. More negative press will likely keep you clicking and searching about, therefore more money. If it is the companies, then it it not likely reliable. Why would you pay…

So far, it looks like they are supported by VC funds. I can't find any info on how they intend to become profitable but a few comments, drawn from memory, suggest they are expecting to fund with ads and a couple of people have suggested they will have a subscription service.

However, I can't find anything official about either and Wikipedia isn't very helpful. They do have some information about their existing funding:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassdoor

A part of me thinks this type of thing would make a good not-for-profit enterprise. I'd even consider some sort of government backing. I'd say a service like that has good social potentials and can help society to make nformed choices.

Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#126

Post by nilkn »

john_moscow wrote: post #120
nilkn wrote: post #94

I don't really trust any Glassdoor reviews. I've always figured many positive reviews are fake, and the problem with negative reviews is that they're often written by disgruntled employees who are unable to reliably assess their own contributions to problematic situations. The company I'm at -- the best company I've ever worked for, hands down -- has a few negative reviews from over the years that were written by emp…

The company I'm at -- the best company I've ever worked for, hands down -- has a few negative reviews from over the years that were written by employees who were fired for basically being awful, hostile, aggressive people who fought with everyone and refused to do work. These are the folks who are technically competent and think that gives them a pass for generally being an awful human being to work with. If this hap…

It's just a few cases in 10 years. I don't think there's much of a pattern there. It's certainly not a perfect company, and conflict management is one of the hardest parts of being a manager. But overall the situation you describe was not the issue in these cases.

Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#127

Post by TwoNineFive »

Balgair wrote: post #97
llaith wrote: post #34

In 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…

Does anyone know how GD is funded? Is it ads or do companies pay somehow to be listed? I ask, as the payment method is critical to understand it's reliability. If it is ads, then yes, I think it should be reliable. 'You' are the 'product' in that case. More negative press will likely keep you clicking and searching about, therefore more money. If it is the companies, then it it not likely reliable. Why would you pay…

You can pay Glassdoor to become an "Engaged Employer": http://resources.glassdoor.com/contact.html?channel=homepage...

So yes, Glassdoor's intensive structure is aligned to make employers happy. They don't take any income from individual review contributors or readers.

Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#128

Post by JSeymourATL »

s73ver_ wrote: post #73
JSeymourATL wrote: post #46

> are there any reliable alternatives? The Old School method was to ask around, find actual company insiders or former employees. These days it's relatively easy to find these individuals via a quick sort on Linkedin. Simply, reach out and talk to these people direct.

How reliable is that? I mean, how honestly would you answer such a thing?

Can you gauge sincerity in a live 1:1 conversation?

If someone pinged you with a transparent motive-- We share a mutual connection in 'Mike D', I'm interested in learning more about your experience in (company/ex-employer) because they a have a job opening I want to explore. Would you be open to a brief 10 minute call/Skype?

Wouldn't you tell that person the straight deal?

Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#129

Post by KGIII »

SmellTheGlove wrote: post #20
rothbardrand wrote: post #7

Negative reviews seem to be pretty reliable, you have to have a motivation to post them, even if the content may not be objectively accurate. I worked for a company with terrible management and every time an employee would leave they would leave a negative review. However, glassdoor is not completely objective-- companies can get negative reviews removed simply by complaining about them, and the quality control on th…

> Negative reviews seem to be pretty reliable, you have to have a motivation to post them, even if the content may not be objectively accurate. I agree with this. I'm usually more suspect of the glowing, very positive reviews, particularly a bunch in a row within a certain time period. I've read at least once that I can remember where employers were essentially providing incentives for employees to go out and write p…

Hmm... I generally only leave positive reviews for goods and services. My thinking has been that satisfied people don't generally take the time to write reviews, while unhappy people will invest the time and energy.

I figure that adding a negative review is only going to add to the noise. So, I usually avoid doing so unless it is particularly egregious.

This means that I also weigh the good reviews heavier than I do the negative reviews. I do try to keep an eye out for fluff reviews and try to ignore those. No, this product didn't 'literally save your life' and things like that. Many of the negative reviews read like they didn't understand the product or service and are displeased that it didn't meet their goals, which would be expected because it didn't claim to meet those goals.

It does make me wonder if there's a way to ensure honest and objective reviews. I doubt there is, but we may be able to make the system better.

Re: Ask HN: Are Glassdoor reviews a reliable indicator of a company's culture?

#130

Post by itsdrewmiller »

Balgair wrote: post #97
llaith wrote: post #34

In 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…

Does anyone know how GD is funded? Is it ads or do companies pay somehow to be listed? I ask, as the payment method is critical to understand it's reliability. If it is ads, then yes, I think it should be reliable. 'You' are the 'product' in that case. More negative press will likely keep you clicking and searching about, therefore more money. If it is the companies, then it it not likely reliable. Why would you pay…

They have a sales team for working with employers. In the pitches I've received it was focused on recruiting and there wasn't a whiff of any sleazy reputation management stuff.
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