A harsh Glassdoor review can cost you candidates before they ever apply. But Glassdoor is clear about one thing: it doesn't remove reviews because an employer asks, because a review is old, or because it's negative. A review comes down when it breaks Glassdoor's Community Guidelines, and Glassdoor alone makes that call.
What Glassdoor will look at
- Community Guidelines violations
Glassdoor moderates for fraud, misuse and specific policy breaches. Common examples are personal details about named individuals, confidential company information, harassment or discriminatory language, and reviews that don't come from a genuine employee or candidate experience.
- Obvious falsehoods
Glassdoor says it may remove a review that's clearly false based on reliable, independent information. It doesn't fact-check every statement, so this only works when the falsehood can be shown objectively.
- Out-of-scope reviews
New reviews have to relate to a job held or an interview attended within the last five years.
What won't work
- Paying for removal
Glassdoor states that employers can't pay to have reviews removed, including its paying clients.
- Negotiating
Content decisions are at Glassdoor's discretion and it says it doesn't negotiate about them.
- Removing the company profile
Glassdoor won't remove an employer profile on request, and closing your employer account only removes your ability to respond and update.
- Unmasking the reviewer
Reviews are anonymous. Trying to identify and pressure the author usually makes things worse, and anything legal belongs with a lawyer, not a review strategy.
How to flag a review properly
Claim your free employer account, then flag the specific review for moderation. Name the guideline it breaks and keep it factual: point to the personal information, the confidential detail or the objectively false statement. Glassdoor says it won't treat evidence from parties with a vested interest as decisive, so a clear guideline match matters more than a long argument.
If Glassdoor removes a review within 30 days of posting, the author may be able to revise and resubmit it, so a removal isn't always the end of the story.
What to do with reviews that stay
Respond from your employer account. Thank them, acknowledge the point without arguing, and say what has changed, if anything has. Candidates read the employer's reply as closely as the review. And look for patterns: if several reviews raise the same issue, that's management feedback, not a reputation problem.
If a Glassdoor review needs a closer look:
We review Glassdoor posts against its Community Guidelines before anything is flagged and only take forward the ones with a real basis. No paid removals, no pressure on reviewers.