Are there still rules against employee reviews?

[Gerry.Foster]

I know that at one time or another Google highly discouraged employees from leaving reviews about the business they work for. There were threats of GBP bans, website blacklisting etc. Now...I realize this may have been a bit sensationalized by my then-supervisor because of his own fears about dealing with that problem.

Aside from general decorum (I think it's a bad look), are there still any rules about this?

How about when a competitor is doing it en masse? Smashing reviews for their own business by employees in order to bury bad reviews left by actual customers?

Just looking for some guidance from the pros, as I'm trying to explain to management why encouraging our employees to do the same shady practice is bad news at best, and bad decorum either way.

 

[Conor Treacy]

There used to be a section on the Reviews policy regarding "Conflict of Interest" where it specifically stated that employees could not leave reviews, but I'm not seeing it on their guide any more.

There is still a "conflict of interest" under the "Deceptive content > Misrepresentation" but it no longer has the word "employee" - Prohibited and restricted content - Local Guides Help

We'd need to find that line regarding the employee end of things and then report as appropriate. I know in years past, it was very clearly stated that employees could not leave reviews, and if you found others that were in violation, then you'd go through the normal channels of reporting reviews etc.

 

[PaulSteinbrueck]

Well, if it's not explicitly prohibited, it must be ok.