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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

#301

Post by gregmac »

joezydeco wrote: post #228
mindcrime wrote: post #47

My approach to Glasdoor reviews is similar to my approach to Amazon reviews... ignore the positive reviews, and focus on the negative ones. Now, "absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence", but a large number of negative reviews is a strong "stay away" signal. A small number of negative reviews is, more or less regardless of the positive reviews, a "neutral" indicator to me.

I interviewed with a company just last month that had a string of awful Glassdoor reviews - all mentioning the same internal problem. During the on-site interviews I asked multiple employees about the situation. They had no response, but I got a call from the HR director shortly afterward wishing to clear the air about my questions. Her explanation was that 1) the internal employees don't read Glassdoor so they weren…

"No response" as in "I don't want to/can't comment on that" or "I have no idea what you're talking about"?

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#302

Post by AndyKelley »

Here's a fun one: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Backtrace-Reviews-E1742217...

Excerpts from one of the reviews obviously written by the CTO:

> Also two other huge tech companies I can't name without getting fired; their names start with letter A.

> Co-founders do talk about successes like winning Amazon's contract (huge!)

This silly thing of saying the first letter of a client (and then forgetting that they did this and revealing the client anyway) is a dead giveaway. The CTO did that all the time.

Never work there!

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#303

Post by paavoova »

coderintherye wrote: post #87

They also sell your data now: "We have updated our Privacy and Cookie Policy with changes to how we use and share information. Among other things, our updated Privacy and Cookie Policy: Allows Glassdoor to share data with Glassdoor affiliates. Subject to user visibility and control, permits Glassdoor to share a user's Profile or resume with prospective employers when a user creates and saves a Profile and uploads a r…

Do any such services not engage in similar practices? Including LinkedIn? I'm kind of dismayed at the state of the modern application process, where you typically have to give your info to one or more third parties instead of being able to submit directly to the company/recruiters.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#304

Post by ben509 »

freedomben wrote: post #142
gtirloni wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 leav…

I wonder how it would change things if there was a question on the review, "were you asked by your employer to leave a review?"

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#305

Post by [deleted] »

justin66 wrote: post #214
NotHereNotThere wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you opted to reveal the company's name (Snowbound software), I went ahead and read the reviews on GlassDoor. Your review is very emotionally charged and with very few facts or examples, which makes it difficult to take seriously. Since you were fired I can understand why you would write like this, but it is a bit ironic considering the article is about manipulating reviews. Yours is scathing indeed, but not in…

The negative review was informative enough. Political, negative work environment and old, dead tech. Blah blah. It's the context that is particularly damning. Whenever you see a heartfelt negative review surrounded by obviously fake or reactionary (do you really not see that?) positive reviews, that is a red flag. It is not uncommon.

[deleted]

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#307

Post by erikpukinskis »

chaostheory wrote: post #86
commandlinefan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me guess, he laughed when he said it like he was super funny, too, right? Like when I used to ask one former boss which of the ten tasks he'd just assigned to me was highest priority he'd say, "yes!" and laugh like he'd just told the greatest joke and then run out of the room (seriously) before I could pin him down on an actual decision.

imo this is endemic in areas with poor job markets where there's really about 1 or 2 large employers. It's not just time to leave the company; you need to leave the whole area as well.

I thought you were going to say time to take the other undervalued workers and start a competitor.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#308

Post by tomashertus »

Look, Glassdoor is complete bullshit. It's unbelievably biased against companies and the CEOs. Basically, the simplest way for an unhappy employee is to write a stupid review to Glassdoor. I used to work in a company which didn't suite everyone and the Glassdoor reviews were brutal. The HR tried to adress these issue and encouraged people to talk with their managers and with HR if they had issues. None of my coworkers ever did that, they just wrote a Glassdoor review and never bothered to talk it out with the managers.

The company was receiving calls on daily basis from Glassdoor and their affiliates offering to remove the negative reviews for thousands of dollars. If somthing, this is at least unethical business practice.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#309

Post by rcfox »

ghostly_s wrote: post #294
RomanPushkin wrote: post #242

It's not only about Glassdoor. There is also censorship in HN's "Who Is Hiring" threads. You can't say a bad word about a company, even if you reworded and your question is within the post rules.

Well, they also allow companies to publish want ads to the front page with comments disabled, and no indication that they are paid placements. But HN also doesn't bill itself as a neutral review aggregator.

I always assumed that was a free service for YC companies.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#310

Post by josho »

switch007 wrote: post #151
josho wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went over to glassdoor, curiously after signing up a dummy account they have a banner claiming: "Your trust is our top concern, so companies can't alter or remove reviews." But, I noticed from a past review that there is some kind of 'approval' required. So, yes it seems they can remove reviews by not approving. Sigh.

Worded like that, it seems it doesn't rule out Glassdoor doing it on a company's behalf.

If I remember correctly the approval was likely automatic. So, I suspect you could pay to have certain keyword filled reviews automatically be disapproved--obviously this would only be used to filter out swear words or proprietary details of the company.
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