4 ms·

General rule of thumb for all reviews is to ignore the star ratings, read the most helpful negative reviews. Think critically about them. See if there are theme

General rule of thumb for all reviews is to ignore the star ratings, read the most helpful negative reviews. Think critically about them. See if there are themes or if they’re being unreasonable.

marcinzm 3y ago
I've found this to be pretty indicative of company cultures and issues based on companies I've worked at.
Silhouette 3y ago
Although if the reviewed party has any significant ability to influence what the review system shows - which appears to be the case here - then the whole thing is compromised so you can't really trust anything about it at all. The most helpful negative reviews might no longer be there and only ones that look like someone being unreasonable remain for example.
- layer8 3y ago
  Companies hiring unreasonable people might still be a signal. ;)
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- armchairhacker 3y ago
  The article says pretty much all of the reviews which got removed were the unreasonable ones (rude language, unfounded accusations, and TOS violations). Albeit according to the HR reps, but with context it sounds believable.
  - Silhouette 3y ago
    The article also describes numerous unethical-at-best practices that some companies have used to skew reviews positively. Some of those practices were ways to beat the system so that potentially legitimate reviews might get removed on one of the reasonable-looking grounds.
    - lazide 3y ago
      Yelp does that too. The only bad reviews I got to stick had clear, unambiguous written evidence and were written like a police report with clear, neutral language and specifics backed by documentation. The number of folks who can meet that bar are very, very low. One I did get to stick was the car dealership that tried to scam me into ~$1k in unneeded fluid changes, where I posted the exact times, amounts, and a photo of the written quote (with quote #) they gave me after I demanded it in writing - in the middle of their public showroom where they couldn’t try to avoid it. It’s a jungle out there, and yes the review sites are a problem too. the police are also not very helpful either in many cases. I had someone at Bestbuy steal a VERY expensive TV from me (I ordered it for pickup, but when I got there a few hours later it had ‘already been picked up’ - and definitely not by me), and got clear self serving bullshit from the store manager, including ‘we’ll call the police, you don’t need to do it’ - which they didn’t - and went home. When I called the police later, they required me to drive there (the store was an hour away), and wait for awhile before they’d even dispatch anyone to even take a report, let alone do anything. So figure several hours, just to get a report in. This was solid felony territory too.
      - grugagag 3y ago
        How did your story end? You got your money back immediately or it took a while?
        lazide 3y ago
        I had other things going on in my life that meant I couldn’t do what I needed to do in a reasonable amount of time - and unfortunately just got screwed. I couldn’t charge back on the card without a police report during a specific time window (30 days). Filing it after that might have resulted in some action, but I wouldn’t likely get my money back. I suspect it was the store manager, and I wasn’t the first one. But I had no real evidence, just a pattern of shifty behavior and lies. They’d conveniently avoided having cameras in the areas to document what actually happened, and my pickup code had been used to pick it up, so definitely an inside job. I had video evidence I was at home when the supposed pickup happened, but that was it. So the thief won.
layer8 3y ago
Same as for Amazon reviews.
londons_explore 3y ago
Thing is... This is gameable too. A competitor can easily come along and post 10 negative reviews all saying similar things like "This company says you get holiday, but the reality is if you ever take even a days holiday then you will forever be blacklisted from promotion. Promotion is strictly for people who work 8am till 8pm, 6 days a week, 365 days a year. And to trap you in, they'll offer a stock vesting schedule that means you have to throw away a lot of money to change companies.".
- lazide 3y ago
  Sure, but that is legally actionable and can be falsified or not (as would the company actually doing that). relatively easy to verify during an interview too (does everyone look like a burnt out zombie?).
  - BossingAround 3y ago
    As if Glassdoor was amenable to going to all the trouble of talking to various employees at a company to judge whether 10 reviews all saying the same thing are correct or not. And then, potentially facing a law suit for their decision.
    - lazide 3y ago
      I meant easy to verify for the consumer of the reviews. Like the Amazon reviews talking about a bicycle when the produce someone is looking at is a random usb stick. And if a competitor targeted someone, the Glassdoor reviews should be subpeonable, and there is a legal framework for extracting compensation in that case. Takes a lot of time and effort though.
- brookst 3y ago
  Do you think that happens?
  - bentlegen 3y ago
    Given that Uber was once caught booking (and canceling) thousands of fake rides on Lyft -- seems perfectly plausible. https://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-requests-lyft/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-r...
jredwards 3y ago
My opinion has always been that Glassdoor is a useless resource in every regard.
- goostavos 3y ago
  Let's not go crazy. It's great for mining which leetcode (or class of leetcode) problems you're going to be asked in the interview.
- smcin 3y ago
  It was great pre-2010-ish, and before it was compromised by its business model and subsequent acquisition; but those were always inevitable. Consider the proportion of GD's revenue from employer premium subscriptions vs from jobseekers (job listings, profile views). When there's lots of hiring, the jobseeker-related revenue will prevent the worst excesses. But in a downturn, there's less disincentive to not live off charging employers premium for reputation-washing. [It's not easy running a for-profit technical jobs board, let alone doing it ethically and delivering growth; StackOverflow Jobs was sadly killed off in 2022. One of SO Jobs's innovations (other than almost zero on-site advertising) was it allowed you directly interact with the hiring mgrs, so you'd skip days/weeks of non-technical preliminary interviews.]

General rule of thumb for all reviews is to ignore the star ratings, read the most helpful negative reviews. Think critically about them. See if there are themes or if they’re being unreasonable.

marcinzm 3y ago

I've found this to be pretty indicative of company cultures and issues based on companies I've worked at.

Silhouette 3y ago

Although if the reviewed party has any significant ability to influence what the review system shows - which appears to be the case here - then the whole thing is compromised so you can't really trust anything about it at all. The most helpful negative reviews might no longer be there and only ones that look like someone being unreasonable remain for example.

layer8 3y ago
Companies hiring unreasonable people might still be a signal. ;)
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
armchairhacker 3y ago
The article says pretty much all of the reviews which got removed were the unreasonable ones (rude language, unfounded accusations, and TOS violations). Albeit according to the HR reps, but with context it sounds believable.
- Silhouette 3y ago
  The article also describes numerous unethical-at-best practices that some companies have used to skew reviews positively. Some of those practices were ways to beat the system so that potentially legitimate reviews might get removed on one of the reasonable-looking grounds.
  - lazide 3y ago
    Yelp does that too. The only bad reviews I got to stick had clear, unambiguous written evidence and were written like a police report with clear, neutral language and specifics backed by documentation. The number of folks who can meet that bar are very, very low. One I did get to stick was the car dealership that tried to scam me into ~$1k in unneeded fluid changes, where I posted the exact times, amounts, and a photo of the written quote (with quote #) they gave me after I demanded it in writing - in the middle of their public showroom where they couldn’t try to avoid it. It’s a jungle out there, and yes the review sites are a problem too. the police are also not very helpful either in many cases. I had someone at Bestbuy steal a VERY expensive TV from me (I ordered it for pickup, but when I got there a few hours later it had ‘already been picked up’ - and definitely not by me), and got clear self serving bullshit from the store manager, including ‘we’ll call the police, you don’t need to do it’ - which they didn’t - and went home. When I called the police later, they required me to drive there (the store was an hour away), and wait for awhile before they’d even dispatch anyone to even take a report, let alone do anything. So figure several hours, just to get a report in. This was solid felony territory too.
    - grugagag 3y ago
      How did your story end? You got your money back immediately or it took a while?
      - lazide 3y ago
        I had other things going on in my life that meant I couldn’t do what I needed to do in a reasonable amount of time - and unfortunately just got screwed. I couldn’t charge back on the card without a police report during a specific time window (30 days). Filing it after that might have resulted in some action, but I wouldn’t likely get my money back. I suspect it was the store manager, and I wasn’t the first one. But I had no real evidence, just a pattern of shifty behavior and lies. They’d conveniently avoided having cameras in the areas to document what actually happened, and my pickup code had been used to pick it up, so definitely an inside job. I had video evidence I was at home when the supposed pickup happened, but that was it. So the thief won.

layer8 3y ago

Same as for Amazon reviews.

londons_explore 3y ago

Thing is... This is gameable too. A competitor can easily come along and post 10 negative reviews all saying similar things like "This company says you get holiday, but the reality is if you ever take even a days holiday then you will forever be blacklisted from promotion. Promotion is strictly for people who work 8am till 8pm, 6 days a week, 365 days a year. And to trap you in, they'll offer a stock vesting schedule that means you have to throw away a lot of money to change companies.".

lazide 3y ago
Sure, but that is legally actionable and can be falsified or not (as would the company actually doing that). relatively easy to verify during an interview too (does everyone look like a burnt out zombie?).
- BossingAround 3y ago
  As if Glassdoor was amenable to going to all the trouble of talking to various employees at a company to judge whether 10 reviews all saying the same thing are correct or not. And then, potentially facing a law suit for their decision.
  - lazide 3y ago
    I meant easy to verify for the consumer of the reviews. Like the Amazon reviews talking about a bicycle when the produce someone is looking at is a random usb stick. And if a competitor targeted someone, the Glassdoor reviews should be subpeonable, and there is a legal framework for extracting compensation in that case. Takes a lot of time and effort though.
brookst 3y ago
Do you think that happens?
- bentlegen 3y ago
  Given that Uber was once caught booking (and canceling) thousands of fake rides on Lyft -- seems perfectly plausible. https://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-requests-lyft/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-r...

jredwards 3y ago

My opinion has always been that Glassdoor is a useless resource in every regard.

goostavos 3y ago
Let's not go crazy. It's great for mining which leetcode (or class of leetcode) problems you're going to be asked in the interview.
smcin 3y ago
It was great pre-2010-ish, and before it was compromised by its business model and subsequent acquisition; but those were always inevitable. Consider the proportion of GD's revenue from employer premium subscriptions vs from jobseekers (job listings, profile views). When there's lots of hiring, the jobseeker-related revenue will prevent the worst excesses. But in a downturn, there's less disincentive to not live off charging employers premium for reputation-washing. [It's not easy running a for-profit technical jobs board, let alone doing it ethically and delivering growth; StackOverflow Jobs was sadly killed off in 2022. One of SO Jobs's innovations (other than almost zero on-site advertising) was it allowed you directly interact with the hiring mgrs, so you'd skip days/weeks of non-technical preliminary interviews.]