Glassdoor Myth: Glassdoor verifies review accuracy and employee status

I can confirm that it is a complete myth that Glassdoor has an interest in truth or accuracy.  And indeed, the CEO confirms they are happy to publish ANYTHING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBlMAOf5T9M 

The mantra for Glassdoor is "publish and be damned". It is more important to them to provide a medium for anyone and everyone to say whatever they like about a company than to take any responsibility of verifying accuracy, either of a comment made, or the identity of the individual. What if a victim can demonstrate a clear untruth? The review will stay, for years. Truth isn't important! The opportunity for people to say whatever they like is what is important to Glassdoor. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for "Freedom of Speech" but with this should come responsibility. However, with Glassdoor, we have a medium for anyone to say anything.

I am NOT proposing this as a business strategy but it is one some companies may well consider.... Identify who your competitors are, set up a fictitious identity, purporting to be an employee of the company, think up a few horrific stories, refer to the Management Team, the CEO, the CFO, (whoever takes your fancy), make mention of their poor management style, bullying approach, alcoholic tendencies, unhealthy interest in meriones unguiculatus or some other small animal...... put that review on to Glassdoor and job done. Put your potential clients off the idea of speaking to your competitors, discourage candidates from applying to the company, frighten the people already working at the company.

Or if driving down the share price is your thing, just write a few reviews. It doesn't matter what you say as long as you say it. And with Glassdoor, the comments will stay, for years. PS definition of Meriones unguiculatus: The Mongolian Gerbil

So what has pushed me to write this article? A review on a company where the CEO was described as "Ceo yells at his employees to intiminate, paranoid, abusive, moody, fires people a lot. curses freely and unnecessarily. Abusive to his staff. In less than a year, lots of turnover, and i have been summoned to the office 3 times and yelles at for following instructions exactly. Once i had personal situation buying a house and ceo didnt care but if single mom it was ok". 

Now I would like to point out that this is a direct quote, so the poor spelling, grammar and formatting rests with the individual writing the review. The review was supposedly written by "a current employee" and based in the US. Glassdoor were advised that the CEO is actually female and based out of the UK and when it comes to "firing staff" there are a series of robust processes in place to protect the individual and the company, and frankly yelling and cursing just isn't her style. The response from Glassdoor "As we express in our Community Guidelines, if we suspect that a review is bogus in any way, we will reject it." Alas the gender of the CEO not being a male, did not, in the eyes of Glassdoor make the review "bogus". And so the review remains. The video from the Glassdoor CEO - Robert Hohman gives a full picture of their philosophy. So to anyone reading a review on Glassdoor, take with a pinch of salt, to anyone with a malicious streak in them, who has taken exception to a company or an individual, or to anyone wanting to bad-mouth the competition, reach out to Robert. He will be delighted to host your comments.