Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees • Hacker News Board

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#141

Post by Pica_soO » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

alexandercrohde wrote: post #17

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #6

Is there any service that actually is fair? When Ubisoft makes Forbe's "Best Places to Work" I don't feel like I can trust anything to make an objective measure other than organic word of mouth and simply experiencing it for myself.

It's the natural cycle of the internet. 1. Be a nobody company 2. Utilize generous user content to build up an important knowledge-base/economy 3. People begin to trust the information in the system and come to rely on it 4. Sell-out entirely and make a lot of money letting people buy influence 5. People abandon the site realizing it has no signal anymore (Digg, Reddit, Amazon, Glassdoor, experts-exchange, facebook,…

Couldnt a opensource overlay page transition from one provider to the next, cutting the sell out phase short?

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#142

Post by freedomben » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

gtirloni wrote: post #24

ticmasta wrote: post #18

This article kind of misses the entire point; Glassdoor and the rest of these "professional review" sites sell reputation management services to the company. They use the negative reviews to push other high margin services to the companies. The only one who should care about Glassdoor being gamed is Glassdoor executives; anyone looking for a honest and balanced review of a company workplace on Glassdoor is already ge…

Their policy on negative reviews seems pretty decent. https://help.glassdoor.com/article/I-m-an-employer-What-can-...

I thought that too, except for this:

> Ask Your Employees to Leave More of Them. We encourage you to ask your employees to leave honest reviews on Glassdoor.

I personally see this as manipulating and watering down. It's not an ethical problem IMHO, but I'd rather hear from the people that were motivated enough by their love or hate to go out and leave a review. Also as an employee, I've had an employer ask me to leave an honest review, and there is no question in my mind what they really meant :-)

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#143

Post by 52-6F-62 » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

sonaltr wrote: post #39

A few friends of mine work for a company that most would consider terrible. I know for a fact that when ex employees do leave bad reviews, they have a line to call Glassdoor, and get it taken down under promise of buying a new subscription or renew existing subscriptions. I know this because it's one of my friend's responsibilities - He does this on a monthly basis (based on the whims of the owner) The main use of Gl…

> The main use of Glassdoor as an employee is not the company reviews - it's for interview questions.

I'll add that it's salary survey information as well. Similarly with Indeed. They've saved me a lot of time when I've had companies want to set me up with unpaid hours upon hours of interviews and testing while offering effectively half of what I was seeking, with few other benefits.

At one company, the reviews did inform me, and in numbers, that they promoted pair programming to the extent that you were assigned a fixed station and shared that station with another—not as onboarding, but as a fixture of your role. I killed that one, and fast.

That said, I view all the other reviews with a high degree of skepticism. I prefer to talk to people directly to get a feel.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#144

Post by wrkdatroostify » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

"Jennifer Peatman, who headed Roostify’s human-resources team at the time many of the negative reviews were written, surmised they came from disgruntled former engineers who she said didn’t have the coding skills the company believed it needed.... Ms. Peatman said she left the company a month later, in December 2017, because of what she called poor leadership"

So I worked at Roostify and none of these engineers were fired. They all left for greener pastures. I think it is hilarious that Jenn can leave because of poor leadership, but when engineers leave and cite poor leadership it is because they suck.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#145

Post by lowercased » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

_Microft wrote: post #97

lgleason wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had this happen as well! Basically I think they use the removal option as their revenue model....until people figure out that their reviews are not accurate.

Next-level revenue model: users can pay to read removed reviews.

Double dip surprise(?) - they'll still have ads around them.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#146

Post by StreamBright » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #84

It's amazing, because I used to (naively perhaps) trust Glass Door reviews. Then I started at Canopy Tax and heard in almost every weekly company meeting, an encouragement to go on Glass Door and rate the company. They would also brag during those weekly meetings about the current Glass Door rating. The "Glass Door" rating was also reviewed in the meeting, with lamenting over any negative reviews that would pop up. A…

I think monetization is the problem here and this is why they moved towards removing negative reviews. We should invent a platform where altering past is not possible and not incentivized financially.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#147

Post by mistercow » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

muttech wrote: post #119

sevensor wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Flexibility works one way there A former boss put it like this, "Sure we have flex time! You can arrive any time before 8 and leave any time after 6."

That brings back bad memories of my first day at a new job. We had discussed in the interview that they were flexible with the time I got there. On the first day, one of the first questions I was asked: New Boss: "So, what time will you be here every day?" Me: "I thought we had discussed that being flexible as traffic can be unpredictable?" New Boss: "We are flexible on the time, but you have to be here by that time…

“Ok, I see. Noon, then.”

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#148

Post by beachy » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

snicker7 wrote: post #94

alexandercrohde wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the natural cycle of the internet. 1. Be a nobody company 2. Utilize generous user content to build up an important knowledge-base/economy 3. People begin to trust the information in the system and come to rely on it 4. Sell-out entirely and make a lot of money letting people buy influence 5. People abandon the site realizing it has no signal anymore (Digg, Reddit, Amazon, Glassdoor, experts-exchange, facebook,…

HN as an exception? Astroturfing seems pretty common here.

You reckon?

HN gives off almost a courteous Victorian gentlemen's club vibe it seems to me. Blatant astroturfers are given the silent treatment or shown the door.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#149

Post by mturmon » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:15 PM UTC

sevensor wrote: post #56

aerovistae wrote: post #16

You don't say! I used to work as an engineer at a truly awful little company, the worst I've been at, and when I left I gave them a scathing review. Not long after, several new reviews popped up. Here are some choice excerpts, get a load of this: > Pros: > For anyone reading these reviews, take it from someone who has been at this company for over 10 years, some people just like to use these review sites as a soundin…

Run from any prospective employer who tells you, "we're like a family." They mean it an all the worst ways. Feuding, dysfunction, racist uncles, getting kicked out of the house.

I also am strongly allergic to the "family" analogy with the workplace. It should not be analogized to that - even though management sometimes likes to do it.

You can leave a company, or the company can lay you off, or re-org and divest your department. After a year, you will not go to the company picnic. Just won't happen. Not a family.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#150

Post by NorthOf33rd » Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 6:15 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #130

NorthOf33rd wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just sat through a company wide "Sensitivity Training" at my company (which I'm very much looking forward to leaving, and leaving a review for,) where "We're a family" was repeated ad nausium. I was a little shocked that this was coming from HR and Staff. It was almost a cultish call and response of bullshit. The reality is, we're not family. I don't have to be sensitive to my family. If I don't like them, I can sa…

> The contrarian jerk in me really wanted to yell an epithet during training and say something along the lines of "What, if we're a family, I'm the racist uncle that your dad keeps inviting to dinner despite his offensive tirades and uncomfortable leering at your sister. LOL. But in general I very much agree. Equating a workplace with a family is gross, and a bit cult-ish. I do think the workplace (and the world) wou…

That's assuming that loving each other like our own family would be loving in a loving way, and not in an absolute deep down rage love-to-hate way. But yes, I agree with your sentiment. We're all just people trying to make it and a little love goes a long way.