Glassdoor review removal: what Glassdoor takes down, and what it keeps

01/ 09Why Glassdoor is different

Glassdoor exists so that employees can speak freely about where they work, and its reviews are anonymous for that reason. An employer cannot find out who wrote a review by asking Glassdoor, and Glassdoor does not take a review down because the employer disagrees with it. The whole site is built on that position, and every policy it applies is written to protect it.

For a business owner that has two consequences. First, the bar for removal is a breach of the guidelines, and Glassdoor holds that line firmly; a review being unfair does not meet it. Second, trying to unmask a reviewer is pointless, and it is also the fastest way to turn a quiet review into a public story about how you treat staff.

02/ 09What Glassdoor will consider taking down

• 01Naming staffreviews may criticize senior leaders who are the public face of the company, but naming or identifying ordinary employees is a breach.
• 02Confidential informationtrade secrets, internal figures, client names or anything the reviewer was trusted with and is not free to publish.
• 03Abusethreats, hate, harassment, and language aimed at a person rather than at the workplace.
• 04Conflict of interesta review by someone who never worked there, a competitor, or a review planted to push the rating up or down.
• 05Not about working therea review that is really a customer complaint, an advert or something unrelated to employment.

03/ 09What it will not take down

An honest account of a bad experience stays, even when it is one-sided, harsh or wrong in your view. So does criticism of pay, management style, hours, culture and the leadership team. A review being bitter, or written just after someone left, is not a ground on its own.

This is where owners spend money they should not. A case that says "this review is unfair to us" is asking Glassdoor to set aside the thing it exists to protect. It will not, and a pattern of flags like that can make the business look like an employer that tries to silence its staff.

04/ 09How to tell which kind of review you have

Read the review twice: once as yourself, once as a stranger who has never heard of the company. Then ask four questions.

1. Does it name or clearly identify an employee who is not a senior leader?
2. Does it reveal something the writer had no right to publish?
3. Is it abusive, or aimed at a person rather than at the job?
4. Is there real reason to think the writer never worked for you?

If the answer to all four is no, the review is almost certainly staying, and the better investment is in your reply and in the reviews that come after it. If the answer to any is yes, there may be a case, and it is worth having it looked at properly before anything is flagged.

05/ 09The reply is the part every candidate reads

Glassdoor lets employers answer reviews in public, and a candidate weighing an offer reads those answers closely. A defensive reply confirms the review. A calm one, which takes the point seriously and says what has changed, often does more for the business than the review cost it.

Illustrative: “Thank you for being direct about this. Scheduling was a real problem last year, and we have since moved to shifts published four weeks ahead. We would like to hear more from anyone still affected. Our door is open.”

Never guess at the reviewer’s identity in a reply, never mention their performance, and never suggest legal action. All three read as retaliation to the next person deciding whether to join you.

06/ 09What a candidate actually takes from your page

A candidate rarely judges an employer on one review. They look at the overall rating, scan the most recent reviews, and read the themes: does everyone mention the same manager, the same hours, the same promise that was never kept? Then they read how the company replied.

That works in favor of an employer with one unfair review among many fair ones. A single bitter account surrounded by balanced reviews, with a calm reply under it, reads as what it is. The damage comes from patterns (the same complaint repeated by different people) and from silence. A pattern is information about the workplace, so it has to be fixed in the workplace rather than on the page.

It also means removal is rarely the best thing to spend money on here. Removing one policy-violating review that names a colleague is worth doing, for the colleague’s sake as much as yours. Trying to clear honest criticism is not, and it is the one thing that reliably makes a page worse.

07/ 09When the same person reviews you on Google too

An unhappy former employee sometimes posts on Glassdoor and on your Google profile in the same week. The two need different treatment. On Glassdoor, an honest employment review is in the right place. On Google, a review written by a former employee posing as a customer is a conflict of interest under Google’s policies, which we cover in a Google review from a former employee: can it be removed?.

08/ 09Improving the rating the honest way

The most reliable fix for a Glassdoor rating is more reviews from the people who are happy to stay. Many satisfied employees never think of writing one. Telling everyone, at a fair moment, that honest reviews are welcome produces a profile that looks like the real workplace. That means no rewards, pressure or targets, and no picking only the people you expect to be positive.

The same principle holds for customer reviews: ask everyone fairly, and never buy or filter reviews.

09/ 09What this comes down to

Glassdoor removes reviews that break its guidelines and keeps the rest, however painful. Naming ordinary staff, leaking confidential information, abuse and conflicts of interest are the grounds that matter; unfairness is not one of them. For the reviews that qualify, our review removal service handles it for you and is only invoiced for removals that are verified. For the rest, a good reply and a steady flow of honest reviews do more than any flag. A free audit tells you which is which.