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I work in a business where I oversee some social media, trying to get positive reviews, etc. I noticed what a sub prime review of our company on Google - it's 3 stars. So it's not the end of the world, but it's not 5 stars.

The review was left by an employee in another department.

I don't want to get this person fired, but I don't want to have a 3 star review online.

How should I handle this?

I have never met the employee in question. I rarely speak with his manager. I am under a manager, but my manager is fairly new to the business.

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    Is this person disclosing their affiliation with the company in that post? People are going to be leaving bad reviews on companies if they dislike them, the best way to get better reviews is to actually improve the company, not punish people willing to be honest about problems it's facing. (Even if they pick the wrong medium to do it, in this case.)
    – Erik
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 9:03
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    The best way for a business to handle a bad review is to take on board the criticisms and try to be better in the future.
    – Jonathon Cowley-Thom
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 10:15
  • A 3-star online review is not the problem you should be trying to address. It's a symptom of the problem. Find and address the actual problem and the symptom will go away.
    – brhans
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 13:05
  • @brhans You overestimate my influence in this organisation. I don't have authority to make sweeping management changes which is what would be required to make employees happy.
    – Coomie
    Commented Jan 19, 2018 at 0:38

5 Answers 5

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The other answer suggested taking action like checking if you can get him fired if there is a clause that says "Don't say anything about your company" or going to HR.

As such ratings are editable by the person that posted them, I would suggest that you go to the person, and ask what's wrong. What problems he has with the company and how to improve in his eyes. This might give some valuable insight.

I would not try to force a better rating, but rather improve to naturally get people more satisfied and this way they WILL give better ratings. Improving the working environment is always a good thing.

As a other answer said..

"If not then talk to the person and explain to them that it is not their private business but may have negative professional consequences."

..is in my opinion maybe true but morally not the right thing to do. Every person has his own opinion and is allowed to have. If I was in a company that doesn't treat me well or has other problems that might really frustrate me I would do the same.

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  • "checking if you can get him fired". I said no such thing.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 19:24
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    @gnasher729 "In most places, they have a policy that you say nothing about your own company on social media. In the UK people have been fired (successfully) for saying negative things not actually about the company, but about their job.See if your company has any rules about this."
    – MansNotHot
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 6:44
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I don't want to have a 3 star review online

Well, then try to understand what is that this person doesn't like and see if you can improve it.

Don't do it just with him, send out an anonymous survey and ask the employees what they like and what they would improve, then act accordingly.

If you fire somebody for expressing their mind, you simply enforce the concept that you want your employee to lye about your company, which leads to a toxic environment.

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In most places, they have a policy that you say nothing about your own company on social media. In the UK people have been fired (successfully) for saying negative things not actually about the company, but about their job.

See if your company has any rules about this. If not then talk to the person and explain to them that it is not their private business but may have negative professional consequences. If yes then talk to them and if they don't do something about it contact HR. (Your boss may be HR).

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  • Can you cite one such case where a British employee was fired for saying "negative things" (that's not a legal term btw) about their employer?
    – BoboDarph
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 9:51
  • @BoboDarph It took me about four seconds to find this - Bank worker fired for Facebook post comparing her £7-an-hour wage to Lloyds boss's £4,000-an-hour salary
    – user44108
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 9:55
  • That's disclosing internal wages, not expressing an opinion friend. That is illegal. It's not the opinion that got that person fired, but the illegal act of disclosing company secrets.
    – BoboDarph
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 9:58
  • metro.co.uk/2015/04/28/… Posted on Facebook that she didn't like the job, got fired. And remember this is not a law site, so there is no need to be bothered with legal terms.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 19:27
  • @BoboDarph: I'm quite sure the fired worker didn't get the bosses salary from some internal communication but from the newspaper. For example, the fact that Richard Howson got a total package of £1.3 million a year to drive his company into a billion pound debt with £600 million missing in their pension fund comes from the newspaper. Dont talk about "illegal acts" when you don't understand legal terms.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 19:32
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You should not do anything but make your manager aware of the post and research policy regrading posts by employees. So he is a new manager.

Talk directly to this person or his manager is above your pay grade. So many ways this could go poorly.

The business needs to balance manage the employee versus manage the company image. Consider the scenario of the employee goes to the media that he was strong armed for a 3/5 review.

The best scenario is the manager and company fix what is bothering the person.

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So let me get this straight, you want to lay someone off for speaking their mind on the interwebs? You don't care if they are right or wrong or if they have a legitimate reason for leaving a bad review, you just want to get them fired because they said something that doesn't agree with you.

Fire them right now, the company you work for does not deserve them. Right or wrong, they need to know they are working for a company that punishes people for expressing an opinion online.

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  • You need to work on your reading comprehension. "I don't want to get this person fired."
    – paparazzo
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 13:01
  • You should work on your implied meaning in written communication. The construct "I don't want x but if y happens..." reduces to "if y happens, x will be my response". Your entire question can be read as "how can I get this person fired if he keeps his 3 star review up".
    – BoboDarph
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 14:28
  • I still don't agree with your interpretation of the words nor your logic. Get the person fired does mean post will come down. If anything they have less reason to take the post down. And probably add they were fired for the post.
    – paparazzo
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 14:32
  • What will happen when they read your question on stackoverflow and come to the same conclusion I did? Will you still get to disagree with them or will you be writing your own resignation?
    – BoboDarph
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 14:36
  • Not going to even try and argue logic with you at this point
    – paparazzo
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 14:36

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