Review left by former employee - against standards?

[Cherie Dickey]

Hey everyone,

I have a situation where a client's former employee left a negative review. She does say in the review "As a former employee I can say that..."

It's my understanding that it's against guidelines to leave reviews for employers and former employers since it's a conflict of interest. I figured it would be a relatively easy fix since it's so blatant. Am I incorrect? I ask because I have flagged the review as a conflict of interest, and so has my team, but the review is still there after almost 3 weeks.

I wanted to make sure before I contacted support.

Thanks!
Cherie

 

[nwinezog]

You are correct, it's considered a conflict of interest.

Joy published an article on this last year that speaks a bit more in-depth about it:

Negative reviews from ex-employees are finally against Google's guidelines - Search Engine Land


If the review hasn't been removed as of yet I would definitely contact support.

 

[BenFisher]

It is a conflict of interest and can indeed be removed. You can hit up support on Twitter or escalate it in the forums. I would flag the review in GMB first, wait three business days and then report it.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Cherie Dickey, if you send me the link I'd be glad to flag the review.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Thanks everyone!

@BenFisher, I did flag the review a couple of weeks ago when it was first found. My client actually had a current employee post her own review in response, and I had them take that down when I first started troubleshooting this.

I went ahead and posted over in the forums since my Twitter account is currently tied up with a merge request. I don't like mixing two issues at once, haha

Here's the link: Negative review left by former employee - The Google Advertiser Community - 1851661

@Phil Rozek I'll PM you the link to the review

Thanks!
Cherie

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Cherie Dickey - I escalated it and am fairly certain Google will remove it.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Thanks Joy!

 

[SmallBizGeek]

Looks like the review has been removed since I am not seeing it.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

I've rarely had luck with the regular flagging of a conflict of interest review. Always need to escalate for it to be taken down.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yep, Google got back to me and they removed it.

 

[Stefan Somborac]

Perfect timing! I was just looking at the language in the conflict of interest section. Here's the quotation in question: "Examples of disallowed practices include, but are not limited to: ...Posting content about a current or former employment experience."

Specifically, you can't leave a review about an "...employment experience."

Say you had a lousy job at a coffee shop, so you quit. I'm interpreting the quotation to mean you can't write a review that reads "Lousy place to work. Would never work here again." But, if you went in and had a bad coffee, you could write "Lousy coffee."

The fact that @JoyHawkins got the review removed suggests that former employees simply shouldn't be writing reviews, even if they're reviewing the product/service and not the "employment experience".

I guess the language "...disallowed practices include, but are not limited to..." leaves lots of room for interpretation!

Good to know!

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Thanks for your help everyone!

Yes, I've never had sucess with just flagging before either. It's a pain, and sometimes makes me doubt myself, haha

I marked your answer as best answer over at the Forum, @JoyHawkins

@Stefan Somborac I wonder if the stipulation is there because it's pretty common to become emotionally attached to a job, making it impossible to be completely unbiased in the review - even if you're just talking about the quality of your coffee...was it really and truly a bad cup of coffee? Or is it not as good as you used to make it?

 

[Stefan Somborac]

@Cherie Dickey For sure! Totally agree.

That's why I'm glad this came up. My interpretation of the language was too narrow. The fact that the review was removed shows that Google considers it a conflict of interest.