(Cr1tikal) Stop Using Glassdoor Reviews as a Reliable Source of Information - General

[video=youtube;jMlWpruJ5WM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMlWpruJ5WM[/video] There are reviews for Valve on Glassdoor, wonder if they're real.

This is remarkably exploitable.

[QUOTE=TheBorealis;53058257][video=youtube;jMlWpruJ5WM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMlWpruJ5WM[/video] There are reviews for Valve on Glassdoor, wonder if they're real.[/QUOTE] Some might. But there's some that you can tell are fake. I remember one that talked about an employee stock program, at Valve, the privately owned company. I'd go and find it again but I think it's on the second page, and glassdoor requires an account to view that. If it's a big company and you actually want to know you can usually find primary sources if you do some digging through the internet anyways. There isn't much of a reason to use glassdoor.

I generally don't use the reviews. The salary and interview information are a little more reliable in my experience, but the reviews can be faked really easily or are frequently posted more by people who have been rejected or fired. It's a useful platform if people use it right. But you know how the internet is.

Usually a good indicator of any review is the amount of effort put into it. I'm far more likely to believe a well detailed analysis of something rather than just "lol this sucks xD".

[QUOTE=thelurker1234;53058277]Some might. But there's some that you can tell are fake. I remember one that talked about an employee stock program, at Valve, the privately owned company. I'd go and find it again but I think it's on the second page, and glassdoor requires an account to view that. If it's a big company and you actually want to know you can usually find primary sources if you do some digging through the internet anyways. There isn't much of a reason to use glassdoor.[/QUOTE] you can get stock of a privately owned company???? if for whatever reason they do get bought you get money

I learned this shit when the whole "Look up your teachers on ratemyprofessor.com!" craze happened in High School. People lie and exaggerate the hell out of things.

So, if everyone remembers when The Escapist published a scandalous article alleging that Star Citizen was, among other things, violating federal discrimination law by supposedly making racist and ageist hiring decisions, a strange little thing happened that was underreported. The article relied entirely on anonymous sources that were "vetted by legal" (which is code for "the lawyers made sure we can't be sued over repeating what these guys said"). Several days prior to the big article coming out, the same author wrote another article about Star Citizen and less-sensational claims about its alleged problems that was not nearly as popular. In the period between the two articles coming out, Glassdoor suddenly saw a bunch of posts reviewing developers CIG that repeated almost word for word the claims by the anonymous sources of the second story. The service is okay but its critical weakness is that by its very nature it cannot vet reviews, so anyone can shitpost (un)convincing nonsense.

The interview information has been pretty reliable most of the time in my experience. Its pretty much like user reviews on everything else otherwise, weed through the bullshit and look for common themes and consensus to get a better idea of what they represent.

i've seen some one star reviews for companies that are like "they work me hard and I barely get paid!" Like lol what the fuck you think a job is mate. A lot of the reviews I've seen are people bitching because they couldn't keep up.

[QUOTE=thelurker1234;53058277] I remember one that talked about an employee stock program, at Valve, the privately owned company. [/QUOTE] All companies have stock. [I]Privately Owned[/I] just means the shares are not sold [I]Publicly.[/I] They're sold privately. Stock option is popular in private companies because the share of ownership is much more exclusive than in publicly traded companies. It's a good way for startups to anchor good employees because they benefit once the company does go public. It's also a way of providing an employee proper compensation when the company can't afford huge salaries. Shares are just little parts of ownership. It doesn't have to be public.

[QUOTE=OvB;53058833]All companies have stock. [I]Privately Owned[/I] just means the shares are not sold [I]Publicly.[/I] They're sold privately. Stock option is popular in private companies because the share of ownership is much more exclusive than in publicly traded companies. It's a good way for startups to anchor good employees because they benefit once the company does go public. It's also a way of providing an employee proper compensation when the company can't afford huge salaries. Shares are just little parts of ownership. It doesn't have to be public.[/QUOTE] Yeah, true. Albeit, I can't find any indication that Valve do give regular employees stock. All that seems readily accessible is that Gaben at least owns 50%.

[QUOTE=OvB;53058833]All companies have stock. [I]Privately Owned[/I] just means the shares are not sold [I]Publicly.[/I] They're sold privately. Stock option is popular in private companies because the share of ownership is much more exclusive than in publicly traded companies. It's a good way for startups to anchor good employees because they benefit once the company does go public. It's also a way of providing an employee proper compensation when the company can't afford huge salaries. Shares are just little parts of ownership. It doesn't have to be public.[/QUOTE] I found the review that thelurker1234 was talking about, I'll quote the relevant paragraph here: [quote]You also receive no feedback from your review. You get a bonus, and perhaps a raise, and (rarely) some stock options, but other than those numbers in an e-mail you get no information. There is no indication as to whether you are getting better, or worse, or how you could improve. There is no information about how your performance or compensation look compared to your peers. Many employees don’t even realize when many of their coworkers are getting stock options, and the owners rely on this opacity. Those who get stock options do extremely well, and the others do not. It’s an unacknowledged two-class system.[/quote] Unfortunately Valve's corporate governance is completely opaque and we have no idea what benefits shareholders receive. Unless they pay dividends on those stocks as a form of profit-sharing I don't see any point in receiving shares in Valve as compensation. It's also a bit odd for a private company with no intention of being acquired or being taken public to issue stock options, but it's possible that the reviewer has merely gotten their terminology wrong and simply means stock rather than stock options.

[QUOTE=thelurker1234;53059152]Yeah, true. Albeit, I can't find any indication that Valve do give regular employees stock. All that seems readily accessible is that Gaben at least owns 50%.[/QUOTE] You aren't [i]given[/i] stock, you buy stock. Valve can still sell their employees stock even if Newell owns 51% of said stock.

I almost put a negative review for my employer on Glassdoor because I'm still sour that they fucked me on a promised raise and promotion, if that gives you any idea what to think about the people writing reviews on Glassdoor.

[QUOTE=Cyke Lon bee;53059424]You aren't [I]given[/I] stock, you buy stock. Valve can still sell their employees stock even if Newell owns 51% of said stock.[/QUOTE] That's utterly pedantic And it also depends on the company, some quite literally do hand out stock without people having to purchase them.