A warning about Glassdoor • Hacker News Board

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#281

Post by lhnz » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 10:55 PM UTC

alisonatwork wrote: post #15

My eyes opened to this after leaving my last company. They announced layoffs shortly after I quit and Glassdoor was inundated with a flood of long, detailed reviews expressing concern and unhappiness around all the issues that had caused me to leave voluntarily. The company's star rating dropped from 3.5ish to 3 and was trending down. Then, mysteriously, within the space of a week, almost all of the negative reviews…

I wonder if a secondary system which showed the trend line of reviews and any spikes in ratings would be valuable?

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#282

Post by sdenton4 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

anonymousiam wrote: post #262

rocha wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nassim Taleb wrote a whole book (Skin in the Game) under a similar premise: “Never trust anyone who doesn’t have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them.”

Sounds like an interesting book. I will check it out. I am wondering if in it, he addresses voting rights? Please don't mistake my retelling of history for bias when I say that before 150 years ago, voting in the United States was limited to white male property owners. The race and sex restrictions are not relevant to my point, but restricting voting to property owners was a prime example of ensuring "skin in the gam…

Well, those who live under a modern government have skin in the game in the sense of paying taxes and relying on infrastructure, services, and regulation that make day to day civilization a thing.

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#283

Post by Teknoman117 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

jiveturkey wrote: post #233

j2bax wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I mean, their rating is pretty good as an employer... https://www.glassdoor.com/glassdoor

4.2 in SF location. So this is very good info. That's the baseline. Below 4.2 => DO NOT CONSIDER. I know on ebay and amazon I do not buy from sellers under 99.6%, as an absolute minimum. It's ok for the system to be gamed, as long as one can understand the rules.

I'm not that strict when it comes to things. I sell a few things here and there on eBay, even a 4 star review would easily pull me below 99.6%.

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#284

Post by sdenton4 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

alisonatwork wrote: post #15

My eyes opened to this after leaving my last company. They announced layoffs shortly after I quit and Glassdoor was inundated with a flood of long, detailed reviews expressing concern and unhappiness around all the issues that had caused me to leave voluntarily. The company's star rating dropped from 3.5ish to 3 and was trending down. Then, mysteriously, within the space of a week, almost all of the negative reviews…

Yeah, it's kinda weird how large institutional actors have more power than a motley crew of disorganized workers.

If only there were some other way.

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#285

Post by starchild_3001 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

My 20 something person startup managed their glassdoor ratings like a hawk. Any low star ratings were immediately challenged (through official channels at glassdoor to remove them) and current employees were asked to write glowing reviews to counterbalance. Glassdoor ratings are a joke. Please don't get fooled.

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#286

Post by anonymousiam » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 11:00 PM UTC

sdenton4 wrote: post #282

anonymousiam wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like an interesting book. I will check it out. I am wondering if in it, he addresses voting rights? Please don't mistake my retelling of history for bias when I say that before 150 years ago, voting in the United States was limited to white male property owners. The race and sex restrictions are not relevant to my point, but restricting voting to property owners was a prime example of ensuring "skin in the gam…

Well, those who live under a modern government have skin in the game in the sense of paying taxes and relying on infrastructure, services, and regulation that make day to day civilization a thing.

True, but property owners pay property tax, which is a big part of where city revenue comes from. Allowing renters to vote on how the money is spent creates the same issue described in the grandparent post.

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#287

Post by fogetti » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 11:03 PM UTC

eindiran wrote: post #193

fogetti wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that the bad reviews were published on the site regardless of their offer. So I can't see how is this extortion. Extortion would be along the lines of "we publish some made up bad reviews unless you pay".

> extort - (transitive) To take or seize off an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity. This is taking money from an unwilling person by duress, using an undue exercise of power (ie control of bad reviews on their platform). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/extort

Duress? LOL. What duress? If they pay, the situation gets better. If they don't pay the situation remains the same. Your claim is ridiculous. In any case the situation never gets worse so there is no duress.

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#288

Post by starchild_3001 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 11:04 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #26

I'll admit that I was bit by Glassdoor astroturfing. The company had an almost 4-star average review and the first three pages were glowing 4 and 5 star reviews. My first week at the company was nothing like the great workplace describe on Glassdoor. I'll spare the details, but suffice to say it was the most abusive workplace I've ever seen. Later, I realized that all of the 4 and 5 star Glassdoor reviews started aft…

Yup my experience isn't too far off.

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#289

Post by starchild_3001 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

fakedang wrote: post #129

AlexandrB wrote: post #20

Every organization that accepts reviews from "users" about goods/services/employment provided by organizations eventually seems to run into a conflict of interest between their stated purpose and their finances. This is true of Yelp, BBB, and now, I guess, Glassdoor. This is why organizations like this are not a replacement for government enforced labor and consumer rights. Once an organization establishes a strong b…

Ahh, I remember the good old days of Zomato extorting our restaurant. Zomato's rep offered to give us a 5 star rating if we gave him free takeaway food, or a 3 star rating otherwise, during the initial listing. We obviously gave him the free food, but I thought I would be a wise-ass and decided to record him. Posted it online, but turns out, Zomato's doing that with every restaurant, so it didn't become much news at…

P1: What's your company's business model? P2: Oh, it's extortion based. P1: Wow, sounds great!

Re: A warning about Glassdoor

#290

Post by fogetti » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 11:07 PM UTC

cjaybo wrote: post #181

fogetti wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. You are right. That is not extortion.

In my opinion, the important takeaway is that their actions completely undermine the integrity of the service they are claiming to provide. Whatever you'd like to call it, it's scummy behavior and they deserve to lose any market share they've gained by misleading users about their service.

Calling something extortion which is a legal term and punishable by federal law is different from accusing them undermining integrity of the service. And yeah, it's scummy.