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Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

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Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#331

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

aerovistae wrote: post #286
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally disagree. When I read reviews (on Glassdoor or anywhere, really) I try to discount any emotionally charged content and focus on the factual elements of the reviews. I mean, "Political, negative work environment"? Every single group of humans since the beginning of time has a level of political interaction, so when I see comments about things being political I pretty much discount them unless there are some…

> factual elements of the reviews What facts can you really share though? This isn't a court situation, where evidence is scrutinized and held up to rigorous standards. So what are you really expecting? Transcripts of conversations? Financial documents? I don't really understand what kind of "facts" you would be looking for. Reviews are all about "how was your subjective experience there." If the answer is "awful, th…

Because there is a big difference between "awful, the company treated me poorly" and something like "I got 4 consecutive quarters of positive reviews, including a bonus and a raise, but then when there was a change in management I was let go with the reason being 'poor performance'." Something like that would let me know the company is immature with respect to how it managed employee growth.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#332

Post by ta1548177231 »

gaius wrote: post #137
ta1548177231 wrote: post #52

And that's why there is Blind https://www.teamblind.com/articles/Topics I highly recommend everyone signs up their company and gives honest feedback there. Closing the Asymmetric Information gap will only help workers (the vast majority of us) make better choices about where to work, how much to charge employers and what really goes on (not the propaganda campaigns that are online resources and interviews)

Didn’t they have a de-anonymization incident recently? Signing up with real work address is madness.

I would really appreciated a link to what you're referring to. Would be good for all their users to know.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#333

Post by ta1548177231 »

bduerst wrote: post #210
tomatotomato37 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The level of discourse on this place is horrid; it's like a SV 4chan. Why does a workplace opinion site need a "relationships" category anyway?

Yeah, I just checked it out and the topics seem like troll bait with toxic comments. People actually verify their identity with their employer before posting these things?

I agree there is a bunch of toxicity. However, I prefer a toxicity I can preview and assess for myself, than a bunch of unknown toxicity that comes as a surprise after 3 months of employment.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#334

Post by mushufasa »

mratzloff wrote: post #322
mushufasa wrote: post #215

There are so many comments here complaining about Glassdoor's business model. I'm really genuinely curious -- what do you folks thing is a better option for them? Given the constraints that they are a job review site, and they have to make the service free to the people leaving reviews (low barrier to entry), how do you propose they make money as a sustainable business?

Why does everything need to be a business? It's a review site. You could run it for next to nothing.

Unfortunately I don't think that's the case. There's substantial work that goes on beyond server hosting costs, for which you would need human staff.

I agree that VC-style astronomical expectations may be misplaced, but they need to have a team of talented people, which means steady income of some sort.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#335

Post by b_t_s »

kortilla wrote: post #225
tyfon wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem with this strategy is you can never go back. Reading all these stories about bad managers and stuff, do managers and employees take things personal in the US? So if you leave for a better deal you actually will make personal problems between employer end employee? Whenever someone under me quits for a better deal or another job that I can't match I tell them "good luck and thanks for the time you shared…

The issue with the strategy wasn’t leaving for a better job, that’s fine. It’s quitting on the spot without notice.

If you've got a reasonable rainy day fund and are already in or willing to move to a tech hub it's probably pretty low risk.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#336

Post by reaperducer »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #185
nsxwolf wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like how every company offers work from home after 5 and on weekends.

To be fair, no employee ever checks Facebook or posts on HN during work hours (ahem)? It cuts both ways.

HN is research time. Perfectly billable.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#337

Post by conanbatt »

sevensor wrote: post #62
fuzz4lyfe wrote: post #32

I've had negative reviews flat out removed by a company that was paying glass door for some sort of premium service. I extensively reviewed the rules and reworded my comments and they were removed yet again. My points were fully factually true and were not anything too untoward (pay raises were promised to members of a new team, they never materialized, most team members left). For what it's worth, Path Forward IT is…

> 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."

"Do I get vacation time?"

"Work is a vacation. From poverty"

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#338

Post by reaperducer »

dlubarov wrote: post #224
siruncledrew wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glassdoor is basically workplace Yelp. It started out useful for job hunting, now it's also a gamed system with pay-for-PR.

FWIW, Yelp advertising has no effect on reviews. Allegedly some sales reps claimed that they could manipulate reviews, but such claims would have been empty threats/promises. This has been tested in court several times; see e.g. the 9th circuit's opinion on Levitt v. Yelp! Inc: > the business owners pled insufficient facts to make out a plausible claim that Yelp authored negative reviews of their businesses (I intern…

FWIW, Yelp advertising has no effect on reviews

There was a New York Times article a few years ago saying otherwise.

I tried to Google it, but... Google. Perhaps someone else will have better luck.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#339

Post by mark-r »

sevensor wrote: post #62
fuzz4lyfe wrote: post #32

I've had negative reviews flat out removed by a company that was paying glass door for some sort of premium service. I extensively reviewed the rules and reworded my comments and they were removed yet again. My points were fully factually true and were not anything too untoward (pay raises were promised to members of a new team, they never materialized, most team members left). For what it's worth, Path Forward IT is…

> 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."

I heard a variation on this when it comes to owning your own company. You're the boss, you can work half days if you want - you even get to choose which 12 hours that will be.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#340

Post by chasingthewind »

What if Glassdoor added a checkbox on the review that says "This review was requested by my employer" or "This review was coerced by my employer". That information would be anonymous but shown with the company rating so the person submitting the review would be able to secretly rat them out while still appearing to comply with the employer's request.
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