Glassdoor can flip your workplace upside down, from a low CEO approval rating, leaving HR scrambling to explain how it happened, to a disgruntled employee posting multiple reviews filled with both truth and, well… not something you want to hear about yourself, coworkers or your company.

So, can you remove negative Glassdoor reviews? Not directly, but if a review breaks the rules, is fake, or misleading, you can report it and potentially get it taken down through Glassdoor’s review system.

Of course, everyone wants their business to shine on Glassdoor, in the long run, it’s a tool for attracting talent and boosting your company’s reputation. But in a bad economy, when tough decisions are being made, Glassdoor can turn into a roller coaster experience. Suddenly, everyone’s in the office wondering, “Who posted that?” and “How on earth do we delete that?”

Managing Glassdoor Reviews with Smart Removal and Response Strategies

The first step in managing Glassdoor reviews is to create Employer Account and claim your company page (unclaimed pages are often targeted by “bad actors”, making it much more difficult to secure ownership later). When this is done, you can update your business information, including your company description, logo, benefits, photos. An Employer Account provides you with tools and analytics to manage your profile, track page views, gain new followers, and monitor reviews and ratings. This will also allow you to access and respond to reviews that employees have written in the past.

What to Do First After Receiving a Negative Glassdoor Review?

Unless the Glassdoor review is clearly fake or from someone unaffiliated with your organization, avoid taking immediate action. Give some time to analyze what went wrong and build the strategy around how to tackle the issue.

Your Options for Addressing Glassdoor Reviews

• Claim your employer profile and take control of your company listing
• Respond publicly with a clear, professional explanation and path to resolution
• Move the conversation offline to resolve issues directly when possible
• Flag and appeal reviews that violate guidelines or appear misleading

Try to Resolve the Issue Offline First

If you know who is the former employee, contact this person respectfully to see if you can resolve their concerns. Avoid being defensive because this can backfire and lead the reviewer to edit their negative review with additional information and complaints. It is also a good idea to wait before reaching out, giving the person some time to “cool off” and perhaps better chance to take down the negative Glassdoor review.

Offline resolution is less effective with current employees because they are likely to be extremely careful, hide any identifiable information, and remain anonymous. Engaging with someone who still work at your organization and you suspect left the review can also backfire, leading to more resentment as they might feel threatened.

Here is a quick example of successful offline resolution. A current employee once left a positive review on Glassdoor but gave only 4 stars, believing it indicated room for improvement. However, with a 4.7-star average rating, this actually lowered the company’s overall score. A quick explanation that a four-star rating is actually bad and negatively impacts the overall score prompted the employee to update it to five stars.

How to Report Glassdoor Reviews That Violate Guidelines

If you can’t resolve a negative review offline and believe the review violates Glassdoor’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Use, then you should flag it.

Flagging Glassdoor Reviews in Question:

1. Log into your Glassdoor account (it became mandatory since 2021).
2. Navigate to the review in question.
3. Click on the flag icon or the “Report” link next to review.
4. Select the reason for reporting the review.
5. Provide additional comments and evidence to explain why the review should be removed.
6. Click “Submit” button.
7. Wait for Glassdoor moderators to respond.

Alternatively, you can contact Glassdoor directly:

• Go to Contact Us page
• In the section “What is your question about?” select “Find Inappropriate Reviews”
• Write a message with your appeal.
• Click “Submit”.
• Wait for Glassdoor to respond.

Visual Guide to Reporting Glassdoor Reviews That Violate Guidelines

Which Types of Glassdoor Reviews Can Be Reported and Removed?

Any review containing the following types of content can generally be challenged, appealed, and taken down:

1. Abusive or Aggressive Language, reviews that are disrespectful, contain profanities, insults, or threats.
   • Threats, reviews that raise safety concerns, ask for retaliation, personal attacks, or wishes for violence and harm to organization or individuals.
2. Discriminatory Content, reviews that contain stereotypes and/or any references to race, gender, age, religion, nationality, and other personal traits. As well as discussing specific groups or identities.
3. Personal Information, reviews that reveal employees names or personal information. However, names of public figures representing the company such as owners and top executives can be mentioned and it does not violate Glassdoor rules.
4. Misinformation and Gossips, reviews that spread misinformation about the company, its products and services, also gossips, rumors, or simply trolling intended to provoke.
5. Duplicate and Fake Reviews, multiple reviews written by the same individual, a competitor, or someone unaffiliated with the organization.
6. Disclosure of Confidential Information, such as private and proprietary company information, financials, trade secrets, customer data, engineering details, etc.
7. Accusations of Illegal Activity, reviews alleging illegal/criminal activity by the company or its employees, such as scam, fraud, theft, or regulatory violations. If it exists, it should be reported to the appropriate authorities and not to review networks.
8. Spam and Irrelevant Content, reviews that discuss or promote competing products and services, or contain irrelevant information.

While not covered in community guidelines, it possible to remove negative Glassdoor reviews on the following topics (anecdotal examples):

1. Criticism of personal appearance, interests, or lifestyle choices of co-workers.
2. Reviews containing words associated with health, mental, or medical conditions of others.
3. Content unrelated to work or the company’s culture.
4. Speculating about the future, such as predicting the company’s failure or employees losing their jobs.

Some real anecdotal examples include reviews taken down because a reviewer talked what people wear in the office, or disapproved of the music coworkers listen during free time. Additionally, reviews containing childish complaints about coworkers not being “cool” enough (true story), have been removed by Glassdoor.

Select the Right Reason When Flagging or Appealing

When appealing an unjust review on Glassdoor, choosing the right reason is crucial for a successful removal. The right category increases your chances of success on the first attempt. Before you begin, familiarize yourself with Glassdoor’s Community Guidelines to identify precisely which rules the review violates and why it should be deleted. Select the appropriate category from the dropdown menu (see the image).

Explain Why the Review Violates Glassdoor’s Guidelines

After selecting the reason for appeal, you will proceed to the next section, where you can write a brief description explaining why the review violates the Glassdoor’s guidelines and therefore needs to be removed.

Remember, Glassdoor does not take sides in disputes about facts, contracts, benefits, or job responsibilities.

How Long Will It Take for Glassdoor to Review My Appeal?

Glassdoor moderators typically take about 72 hours, or 3 business days, to review your appeal and decide whether to remove or keep it. In some cases, you might receive a response on the same day, it depends on the volume of appeals.

After you submitted your appeal, you don’t need to go back to check the review constantly. You’ll receive an email confirmation with their decision and explanation. However, from experience, there have been situations where the review was removed long before the confirmation email was sent.

Example of Glassdoor’s Email Confirming Review Removal

If Glassdoor determines that the review does not violate Community Guidelines, you will receive a similar email informing you that the review will remain on the network.

Chances of Removing a Flagged Glassdoor Review

The success rate for removing an unjust Glassdoor review after flagging it can be different based on several factors, like reasons for the appeal, how the review violates Glassdoor’s Community Guidelines, and the evidence provided. Reviews that clearly breaks the guidelines often have higher chance of being removed. In some cases, multiple appeals may be necessary, and contacting Glassdoor support directly with a detailed explanation of the situation might be required as well.

For example, in one situation a former employee posted four negative reviews for the same company within two months. Initial attempts to flag and remove these reviews were denied. Business owner had to contact Glassdoor, presenting a strong case about the reviews being written by the same individual, despite not violating the guidelines, and explaining full history with the personal bias involved. Eventually, Glassdoor agreed to remove 3 out of 4 reviews.

Glassdoor does not publicly disclose exact success rates for review removal. Various services may offer different success rates, but no one can guarantee 100% removal. Be cautious of those who promise guaranteed success, it can be misleading.

Stronger Reviewer Verification on Glassdoor. Why Fake Reviews Are Easier to Remove.

Since 2024, the platform has moved toward real-name and identity-based systems, meaning that while reviews may still appear “anonymous” publicly, they are more traceable internally. As a result, Glassdoor is putting greater emphasis on detecting and filtering out fake or inauthentic accounts to ensure reviews are more genuine. This shift actually works in favor of employers in one key way: if a negative review is clearly coming from a fake account or someone who was never a real employee, it is now easier to build a strong case for removal because the platform has more robust signals to validate reviewer authenticity.

Where Else Glassdoor Reviews Are Shared? Expanding Its Online Reach

When someone posts a review on Glassdoor, it appear on other networks as well. Due to its popularity, Glassdoor reviews are often shared across various parts of the web. These reviews can appear on other networks, applications, and platforms, such as:

1. Indeed – Glassdoor merged with Indeed under the parent company Recruit Holdings, allowing for shared content and data across both platforms. Each platform keeps its features, some integrations of reviews and job listings appear on both. Indeed also has it’s own review removal process.
2. Job Aggregator Sites – Job aggregator and career sites can scrape Glassdoor reviews and/or post snippets from Glassdoor on their pages.
3. Google Search – Glassdoor reviews often appear in Google search results and in the “Knowledge Panel” on the right side on the search.
4. LinkedIn and Facebook – Not directly integrated, but job seekers, employees, and professionals often reference and post Glassdoor reviews in discussions and posts on social media.
5. Reddit, Quora and Other Online Communities – Both discussion networks have dedicated groups and communities where people post and share Glassdoor reviews.
6. AI Platforms and Virtual Assistants – like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Bing Copilot can quote Glassdoor when people research companies. Glassdoor reputation already became a part of GenAI optimization.

By removing negative reviews on Glassdoor, you potentially removing them on other platforms where Glassdoor reviews are shared. That’s why managing and deleting Glassdoor reviews help improve company’s image not only on Glassdoor but on other networks and applications across the web.

Glassdoor–Indeed Integration

As Glassdoor becomes more connected with Indeed, the way reviews are handled is becoming more standardized across both platforms. In simple terms, they are using similar systems and rules to review and moderate content. This makes outcomes more consistent and predictable, but it also means there’s less room for flexibility and getting a review removed can be harder if it doesn’t clearly break the rules.

Glassdoor Reviews Rank High on Google and Bing

Search engines like Google and Bing not only rank Glassdoor reviews highly but also display snippets with star ratings and the number of reviews next to search results. Many users now perform searches for companies and reviews directly on Google but may not click through, this phenomenon, known as “zero-click” searches, occurs in over 60% of all searches and the reason behind it, because users often make decisions based on the information presented in snippets alone. Companies with low Glassdoor ratings risk losing potential job candidates and customers, as decisions are made based on these visible snippets rather than visiting a website and seeing full review or content.

How AI Platforms Feature Glassdoor Reviews in Search & Recommendations

By 2026, Glassdoor reviews are no longer just something people read on the site. They are actively surfaced and summarized by AI assistants like ChatGPT or Google Gemini when users research companies, work culture, or interview experiences. Instead of clicking through multiple links, people now form opinions directly from AI-generated answers and summaries that often reflect review content and overall sentiment.

The examples above show that Glassdoor is being integrated into AI platforms more and more. In the near future, this integration will go even deeper, allowing users to access even more detailed information from Glassdoor through various AI tools.

Can the Same Employee Leave Multiple Reviews, Including Negative Ones, for a Business?

This is important! According to Glassdoor’s rules, each individual is allowed to leave one review per employer per year, per review type. This means a person can only submit one review about the company and one review about the interview process each year. However, as the year progresses, the same person can submit additional reviews to describe any changes in their personal experience and company itself, whether improvements or declines.

Tips on Improving Your Chances of Reporting and Removing Negative Reviews from Glassdoor

Here quick tips how you can increase your chances of successful flagging and removing of review from Glassdoor:

• Understand the Guidelines
• Claim Your Business Profile
• Provide Clear Evidence
• Be Specific and Professional
• Don’t Be Too Emotional
• Present the Evidence
• Follow Up If Necessary
• Contact Support Directly
• Be Prepared for Multiple Appeals
• Seek Professional Help If Needed

Also remember that timing matters. Instead of rushing, take time to gather clear, specific evidence and avoid responding emotionally. This gives you a stronger, more credible case when submitting a report and increases the chances that Glassdoor moderators will take action. If your appeal is successful and the review is removed, the original reviewer will be notified by email that their content was taken down.

Is Glassdoor Review Removal Permanent?

Congratulations if your appeal was successful and Glassdoor decided to remove the review. You may still see the negative review for up to 24 hours after the removal, as noted in your confirmation email. Once it’s gone, it’s permanently removed and you won’t see it again. Your star rating will be updated as well.

However, the reviewer will receive notification that their review was removed for violating Glassdoor’s Community Guidelines. While the original review is removed, the reviewer can still post an updated review, and it will go through the same approval process and could appear on your profile. When this happens, you may need to repeat the removal process. In some cases, it might be more productive to reply professionally and move on, rather than engaging back and forth in an ongoing dispute that can backfire or produce more negative reviews on other networks.

Building Strong Glassdoor Reviews to Offset Any Future Negativity

To protect yourself against future negative reviews, ask happy employees to post positive reviews on Glassdoor. This way, positive feedback can build up over time, balancing out any negative reviews and improving your overall star rating.

Is it legal to ask employees? Glassdoor actually encourages businesses to solicit employee feedback and provides resources and tools to help facilitate this process. Here is advice page and a webinar, with email templates on their site, as well as tips and best practices for effectively requesting and managing feedback. But remember, it is important to note that Glassdoor prohibits employers from incentivizing or coercing employees to leave positive reviews. All feedback must be given voluntarily.

Do Interview Reviews Impact My Glassdoor Score? Should I Report Negative Ones?

Interview reviews do not impact Glassdoor star ratings, which is calculated only from employee reviews.

However, negative interview reviews can affect potential candidates perceptions. Job seekers often look at interview review section to fid more about the interview process, including what to expect, questions asked, and outcomes from previous candidates. Negative feedback can deter talented job candidates and harm your ability to attract top talent in the future. Thats why if an interview review violates Glassdoor’s guidelines, it’s worth reporting it as well.

Separating Job Candidate Feedback from Employee Reviews

It’s often overlooked, sometimes interview reviews can slip to company reviews section and affect the score!

When managing your Glassdoor reviews, it’s important to verify that job candidate feedback doesn’t get mistakenly categorized and appear in employee reviews, as this can impact your overall rating. Sometimes, job candidates can choose the wrong category when submitting a review, causing it to be incorrectly listed under employee reviews and affecting your company’s score. If this occurs, make sure to report the issue to Glassdoor for correction.

What to Do if Glassdoor Rejects Your Review Removal Request

If your appeal to remove the Glassdoor review was denied by the moderators, there are a few steps you can take:

1. Wait and Try Again. Wait a few of weeks and consider appealing the review again, sometimes it takes several attempts for successful removal. Think about how you can strengthen your appeal to convince the moderator that the review violates Glassdoor’s rules.
2. Use the “Contact Us” Form. Give it a shot to a different method by writing to Glassdoor using the “Contact Us” form and selecting “Flag Inappropriate Reviews.” However, it won’t increase your chances for successful removal.
3. Respond Publicly to the Review. If the review stays, you should reply on behalf of your company. This shows that you care about feedback, take it seriously, and escalate the matter to the highest level. Your response may also encourage the reviewer to reconsider and hopefully rewrite to something more positive or even take down the negative content. Either way, at very least, it shows the public that you are proactive in addressing concerns.

Are Some Reviews Impossible to Remove from Glassdoor?

Of course, some reviews are well written and comply with all of Glassdoor’s rules. As mentioned earlier, the best way to handle such reviews is to address them offline and find a solution with the employee who posted it. Another way, you can write a company response to attempt to resolve the situation, the reviewer might be satisfied and decide to take the review down.

Employers often find themselves dealing with disgruntled employees who exaggerate facts, fabricate details, blow things out of proportion, and even lie. While you may disagree with such feedback for being one sided and providing misinformation, Glassdoor might still not remove them if they are well written and don’t violate community guidelines. Even if the information is misrepresented, it can be simply impossible to prove that it’s not true, at the end Glassdoor don’t take sides. The best way to handle such reviews is to respond professionally, avoid confrontation, direct the person to the appropriate department such as HR, and apologize even if you feel that you are not at fault. Being defensive can escalate the situation and make the review and the company’s response look much worse to future candidates, who might perceive the company’s response as immature and mistreating employees.

A well written response and follow up can improve your chances of peaceful resolution or even turn a negative review into a positive by showing that you take all complaints seriously, working on improvements, and provide the best support.

Why Are Reviews That Violate Glassdoor’s Rules Still Visible?

Glassdoor uses both manual and automated systems to review and approve new submissions. Still, with thousands of reviews each day, some questionable ones can slip through. They also rely on companies and the community to report inappropriate content, making it essential for businesses to regularly monitor their Glassdoor profile and flag any questionable reviews. The screenshot below shows example of a review with inappropriate language that managed to slip through and remain on a company’s profile for years.

The inappropriate Glassdoor review pictured above is from 2015 but is still live because the company never reported it.

How to Deal with Fake Reviews on Glassdoor

Fake reviews on Glassdoor can appear for different reasons. Sometimes disgruntled employees leave multiple fake reviews to lower company ratings. Other times, scammers try to extort businesses, or someone with a personal vendetta posts negative reviews out of spite.

Research shows that over 23% of online reviews are likely to be fake. Another 24% are poorly written and some probably fake as well. That leaves only about 53% of reviews are actually real and provide useful information to readers. This data includes reviews from Glassdoor, Google Maps, Yelp, and other online platforms.

It is not recommended to respond to fake reviews, doing so can add validation and confirmation to them, potentially confusing future readers into thinking the reviews are genuine since the business replied to them. The best way to deal with such fake reviews is to report them and contact Glassdoor, explaining that your company is under attack and someone is posting fake reviews. Glassdoor may take note, take action, and for some time be more cautious when approving new reviews for your company.

Fake Positive Reviews On Glassdoor

Unfortunately, some owners and employees write fake positive reviews for their own companies to boost ratings and make themselves look good. However, this strategy can eventually backfire. If you want to hire smart people, they are probably savvy enough to spot self promotional fake content, that can raise a “red flag” and turn them away. Also, AI platforms rely heavily on review networks to recommend businesses and in the future they will be able to detect fake reviews and it’ll affect how business rank on ChatGPT and other GenAI platforms.

Here a good example of fake self promotional reviews. Early in my career, I worked for a company that mistreated employees, terminated people without paying their final checks, vendors and contractors had to chase them around to get paid, and the whole work environment was abusive and toxic. Many new employees don’t last there for more than 3 month and get fired or quit. Despite this, the company has over 200 positive reviews on Glassdoor with a 4.8 star average rating. But if you check LinkedIn or Zoominfo, you’ll see the company only employs about 40 people, making it impossible to have so many positive reviews. The few negative, real reviews were drowned out by the fake positive ones. The founder, known for his narcissistic tendencies and intolerance of any criticism, runs a well organized scheme to create fake accounts and post glowing reviews about himself across various platforms.

This example shows how some businesses conduct elaborate fake review schemes to boost their own ratings.

Can I Remove My Company From Glassdoor?

No, Glassdoor does not remove company profiles and permits current and former employees to leave reviews about any organization. Additionally, you cannot remove older reviews that discuss your company before it changed direction, switched management or ownership, moved to different products or services. If you change the name of the company, Glassdoor will eventually update it and keep the previous reviews live.

The only way to enhance your reputation on Glassdoor is to encourage satisfied employees to leave fresh reviews that demonstrate improvement over time.

Can Sponsoring Glassdoor Help Remove Negative Reviews?

It is a common misconception that sponsoring Glassdoor gives businesses control over their reviews. On networks like Reddit you can read complaints from people that Glassdoor removed their reviews guessing that the company probably paid for removal. In reality, Glassdoor maintains a strict policy prohibiting businesses from paying to have reviews removed, buried, or hidden.

With a Glassdoor Enhanced profile, employers can better customize their listing, feature positive reviews, promote job openings, access advanced analytics, and remove competitor ads and job suggestions from their pages. But when it comes to reviews, sponsorship wont give advantages in flagging and reporting unfavorable reviews. Even with sponsorship, Glassdoor applies the same content moderation rules to all clients and not clients, ensuring fairness in review management.

Also, be cautious of claims that individuals work for Glassdoor or have special privileges from moderators for review removal, these are likely just bragging or scams.

Mistakes to Avoid When Appealing Negative Reviews or Managing Your Glassdoor Profile

Here some mistakes you should avoid in managing your Glassdoor reputation:

1. Prohibiting employees from writing reviews, we live in free speech society.
2. Replying to reviews too late, more than 48 hours after it was posted.
3. Confronting negative reviewers, it only escalates the situation.
   • Making legal threats against employees or the platform, it’s counterproductive.
4. Don’t be too defensive when writing replies to negative reviews
5. Posting positive fake reviews, it damages trust and credibility and can backfire.
6. Paying for positive reviews, it’s dishonest and can backfire as well.
7. Spamming Glassdoor by submitting too many requests to remove reviews, do one at a time
8. Creating duplicate profiles, it’s against Glassdoor’s terms and can backfire

Managing your Glassdoor reputation effectively requires transparency and professionalism, avoiding actions that can undermine trust.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Removing negative Glassdoor reviews isn’t always easy, and in many cases it’s not even possible unless they break the rules. But that’s also where things are heading, platforms are becoming stricter and at the same time more transparent, making them harder to manipulate. In the future, the businesses that win won’t be the ones trying to hide feedback, but the ones that know how to handle it the right way. That means understanding the guidelines, taking action when needed, and building a stronger overall reputation.