Written by the Removal Lab team.
Did a former employee just post a review that names your office manager and shares your next quarter’s budget? If you are wondering how to remove a Glassdoor review, the route is to flag it so Glassdoor’s Trust and Safety team can check it against the Community Guidelines. Removal Lab wrote this guide from Glassdoor’s own help pages so you know what breaks the rules, the exact flagging steps and what employers are not allowed to do.
Glassdoor says it welcomes both positive and negative content and never deletes a review simply because it is negative. So the real question behind how to remove a Glassdoor review is which rule it breaks.
The quick version
- Read the review against Glassdoor’s Community Guidelines and note the exact rule.
- On your company profile, click the Ellipses icon on the review and then Report. Or in the Employer Center, select Reviews and click the Flag icon.
- Choose the reason from the drop down menu and explain it in 400 characters or less if a text box appears.
- Click Submit or Send.
- Expect a decision within 72 business hours, either on screen or by email.
What Glassdoor’s Community Guidelines allow and remove
Before you work out how to remove a Glassdoor review, know that Glassdoor positions itself as a neutral platform. Its Community Guidelines say it cannot judge disputes over facts or opinions between users and their employers and that it does not act as the finder of fact. That shapes how to remove a Glassdoor review: you need a clear guideline breach, not a disagreement.
| Guideline | What Glassdoor says |
|---|---|
| Naming executives | Allowed for the most senior people with broad influence, such as C suite, President, Owner or Founder, when the content describes their behaviour or performance at work. Negative comments about other identifiable individuals are not allowed. |
| Proprietary information | No confidential, non public company information. Glassdoor lists merger and acquisition details, source code, customer lists, manufacturing techniques, research work, budgets, detailed financial results and technical know how. |
| Abuse and insults | No aggressive, offensive or deliberately disrespectful content and no insults or profanity used to target others. |
| Hateful content | No attacks based on race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, age, disability or serious disease. |
| Threats and violence | No violent threats, wishes of harm, incitement or glorification of violence. |
| Personal information | Revealing someone’s personal or confidential information as harassment is not allowed. |
| Impersonation and misinformation | No impersonating another person and no misinformation. |
| Spam | No irrelevant promotions, referral links or repetitive content. Content meant as an advertisement is rejected. |
| One review per employer per year | Each person may post one review per employer, per year, per review type. Content should relate to jobs or interviews within the last five years. |
| Incentivised or coerced content | Glassdoor removes content where it has evidence users were incentivised or coerced into posting it. |
Glassdoor’s page on when it removes content adds a few more points. It might remove a review that is clearly false based on reliable, independent information such as a reputable news outlet. It does not remove reviews because someone simply asked. It does not negotiate about decisions. It says it is not equipped to assess evidence from parties with a vested interest in removal.
How to remove a Glassdoor review by flagging it
Here is how to remove a Glassdoor review through flagging. Glassdoor’s help page on flagging content gives two flows. Both are free.
From the company profile
- Click the Ellipses icon in the upper right corner of the review.
- Click Report.
- Choose the reason you are reporting the review from the drop down menu.
- If a text box appears, explain why in 400 characters or less. Glassdoor says only its Trust and Safety team sees this message, not the reviewer, the employer or the public.
- Click Submit.
From the Employer Center
- Visit the Employer Center.
- Select Reviews.
- On the review you want to report, click the Flag icon below the content.
- If a text box appears, explain why you are reporting it.
- Click Send.
On timing, Glassdoor is specific about how to remove a Glassdoor review. Glassdoor says it will respond within 72 business hours with its decision. If you get an on screen response, no email follows. To prevent misuse, Glassdoor limits how often the same content can be flagged. Glassdoor’s FAQ for employers adds that a second tier moderator looks at flagged content, that you are emailed either way and that the review’s author is not told it was flagged.
What employers can and cannot do
| Employers can | Employers cannot |
|---|---|
| Flag a review for moderation for free | Pay Glassdoor to remove a review |
| Post a free public response of up to 5,000 characters | Name the person they believe wrote the review |
| Add contact details and links to internal policies or an ethics hotline in a response | Threaten the reviewer with legal or other punitive action |
| Edit or delete their own response | Make a response private |
| Ask employees for honest reviews | Offer gift cards, bonuses, extra time off or other incentives for reviews |
| Update company information through a Free Employer Account | Have the company profile removed on request |
Responses go live straight away but are moderated. Glassdoor removes ones that break its guidelines. To respond, go to the Employer Center, open Community Reviews, choose the Employee Reviews or Interview Reviews tab, type in the text box and select Add Comment. Glassdoor’s guidelines say the employer gets the last word on a review.
What if it does not work
- Read the decision. If your attempt at how to remove a Glassdoor review fails, Glassdoor says decisions are solely at its discretion and it does not negotiate. Glassdoor also limits how often the same content can be flagged.
- Look for a sharper rule. Learning how to remove a Glassdoor review often means moving from “this is unfair” to “this names a junior employee” or “this shares our budget”.
- Check for a newer review. Glassdoor allows one review per employer per year per review type. If the same person posts again within a year, the older review is archived.
- Respond well. When you cannot work out how to remove a Glassdoor review, a calm, specific response is visible to every candidate who reads the review. Glassdoor encourages responses to old reviews too.
- Fix the cause. Glassdoor says recent reviews carry more weight in the overall rating. Honest reviews from current staff, asked for fairly, add recent voices to the profile.
Mistakes to avoid
- Assuming how to remove a Glassdoor review is a matter of asking. Glassdoor says it does not remove content because someone simply asked.
- Thinking how to remove a Glassdoor review starts with identifying the reviewer. Glassdoor protects anonymity and its guidance tells employers not to name or threaten anyone.
- Pushing staff to post positive reviews. That is not how to remove a Glassdoor review. Glassdoor removes incentivised or coerced content and warns against pressure.
- Flagging the same review again and again. Glassdoor limits repeat flags.
- Paying anyone who claims special access. Glassdoor warns against services that claim they can promise removal or have special advantages.
- Arguing facts in your flag message. Glassdoor does not act as finder of fact.
A worked example
This is a made up example to show the steps. It is not a client case.
A logistics firm saw a new review that criticised its warehouse supervisor by full name and quoted the exact figure from the next year’s budget. The supervisor was not a senior executive.
The HR lead checked how to remove a Glassdoor review, then visited the Employer Center, selected Reviews and clicked the Flag icon below the review. In the text box she wrote that the review named an identifiable employee outside the senior leadership group and disclosed budget figures, both covered by the Community Guidelines. She clicked Send. She did not try to guess who wrote it. Within the timeframe Glassdoor gives, the team received its decision.
Two breaches beat one complaint
Glassdoor’s moderators work from the guidelines. The best answer to how to remove a Glassdoor review is a flag that names the exact rule, such as naming a non executive or sharing budgets. That is far easier to act on than a flag that says the review is unfair.
Where Removal Lab fits
Flagging is free and you should try it yourself first. If you want help with how to remove a Glassdoor review, we read each one against the guidelines and tell you honestly whether it qualifies. We do not work for Glassdoor, cannot delete anything and never promise a removal.
Our Glassdoor review removal service handles the flag and the follow up. For employer reviews on other sites, see Indeed review removal. For the bigger picture, see business review removal, how it works and what we cannot remove. If customers are the issue rather than staff, our guides on how to remove a Yelp review and how to delete a Facebook review cover those platforms.
How Removal Lab works
- Send the link. WhatsApp, email or the two field form. Two minutes, no long questionnaire.
- Free policy check. A specialist reads it against the platform rules and tells you honestly whether it qualifies.
- We build and file the case. The right policy, the right channel, the evidence attached. We handle the appeal too.
- Pay only when it is gone. No upfront payment on qualifying cases. If the platform says no, you owe nothing.
What we will never do
- Promise a removal. The platform decides, not us.
- Post fake reviews or pay anyone to delete a review.
- Pressure, threaten or try to identify a reviewer.
- Charge an upfront fee on a case that does not qualify.
A Glassdoor review crossing the line?
Send the link. A specialist checks it against Glassdoor’s Community Guidelines and replies within one business day. No upfront payment on qualifying cases.
Frequently asked questions
What is the short answer to how to remove a Glassdoor review?
Flag it for Glassdoor’s Trust and Safety team, either from the review on your company profile or from the Reviews area of the Employer Center. Glassdoor removes it if it breaks the Community Guidelines or Terms of Use.
Can an employer pay Glassdoor to remove a review?
No. Glassdoor says employers cannot pay to have reviews removed and that its clients agree to this in their contracts. Moderators apply the same standard whether or not a company is a client.
How long does Glassdoor take to decide on a flagged review?
Glassdoor’s help page says it will respond within 72 business hours with its decision. If you get an on screen response, no email follows.
Can an employer find out who wrote a Glassdoor review?
Glassdoor says it protects reviewer anonymity and does not share personal details with employers. Employers must not name the person they believe wrote a review or threaten them in a response.
Will Glassdoor remove an old review?
Glassdoor says it does not remove or archive reviews based on their age. New reviews should relate to jobs or interviews from the last five years.
Does the reviewer know their review was flagged?
Glassdoor says the author is not notified when a review is flagged. Your flag message is visible only to the Trust and Safety team.
Sources: Glassdoor Community Guidelines, Glassdoor Help: Flagging content on Glassdoor, Glassdoor: When does Glassdoor remove user content?, Glassdoor: Responding to negative reviews FAQs, Glassdoor for Employers: Responding to reviews and Glassdoor: Dos and don’ts of asking for reviews. Removal Lab does not work for Glassdoor. Every decision is made by the platform.