Anonymous on line review Now the standard?

[+ purplekow]

I was recently contacted by a recruiting group which had a professional opening for which they thought I would be a candidate. I am always on the look out for a better professional situation and as it turns out, the opening for which they were recruiting is within walking distance of my home. It would also be a position which would match my preference of long shifts but many fewer shifts. I spoke with the recruiter and submitted my resume. After not hearing anything for a few weeks, I called him back to ask about the status of the application and he told me that it had been submitted and that I would be contacted about an interview within a week. After a month, I was fairly sure that the interview was not forthcoming but I called to check on the status of the application so as to be able to exclude this job from my mind. I had once been offered a job 8 months after I applied for it, so I like to be sure. The recruiter was contacted and told me that they would not be granting me an interview. When I inquired as to why, he told me that there were several negative reviews of my performance on line and this was the main reason for the decision. Now the irony of an anonymous review being a major factor in hiring me, a member of this forum, was not lost on me. I am wondering though, is this really the new standard? Are anonymous review sites which will allow you to scrub your record clean for a fee, now part of the professional standard or was this recruiter just blowing smoke up my ass? I have heard of people having professional problems related to Facebook posts and tweets, but this had me a bit stunned. Thoughts?

[+ honcho]

I'm also appalled, and offer my sincere condolences.

 

While the odds of getting the job would be meager at best, if it were possible to determine which practice

had engaged the recruiter, and letting them know that the recruiter depends on anonymous reviews

would suit my taste for revenge.

 

That the recruiter would make an exclusionary decision on that basis alone would seem to me to be

completely counter to due diligence.

[+ VeryHappyCustomer]

What industry are you in?

[Nebost]

Just to clarify...do you mean online reviews for medical professionals and individual contractors? I'm unaware of online reviews for other types of professionals that are available to the general public.

 

That said, I think anything that is available online is game for a potential employer to evaluate as part of the hiring process. That's just the way of the current world.

 

I do think this creates for a difficult situation if you see a high volume of clients. If you are a doctor and see hundreds of people in the course of a year, any one of them can post a review without any vetting process. Same goes for our working boys (which is why I don't write a bad escort review unless I think the guy misrepresented himself signficantly). A professional working for a big company only gets reviewed a few times a year, usually by fellow workers who have seen a greater body of his work.

[whipped guy]

There are tons of review sites out there where anyone can post anything. That can include those who are pleased with a providers services, disgruntled clients, or those who simply want to cause havoc. Having been in business for 38 years I made it a policy when the internet became popular to always periodically check to see if anyone had posted anything derogatory about me, my staff, or my office in general. Fortunately, the only things ever posted were complementary. I'm not sure what kind of action could have been taken to correct the record if anything false had been posted. Fortunately I never found myself in that position.

 

Still, the things that I would find when I Googled my name were often quite scary. They included my professional credentials (including state and federal license numbers etc.) and even financial information that had been submitted to the Federal Government. Who woulda thunk that the government would share the financial info with third parties and that it then would be posted online for the entire world to see. I know for a fact that one person obtained my professional credentials online to falsify some documents.

 

Even now I periodically Google my name to see what pops up. It proves that there is absolutely no privacy in this world and that it is impossible to hide anything from anyone, be it true or not!

 

Whatever you do don't google whipped guy. But at least I don't have my own website, not yet that is!

 

http://purplekow.com/SnackDessert.html

[jawjateck]

Hiring decisions based on reviews? That's utter rubbish!

[jimboivyo]

I was recently contacted by a recruiting group which had a professional opening for which they thought I would be a candidate. I am always on the look out for a better professional situation and as it turns out, the opening for which they were recruiting is within walking distance of my home. It would also be a position which would match my preference of long shifts but many fewer shifts. I spoke with the recruiter and submitted my resume. After not hearing anything for a few weeks, I called him back to ask about the status of the application and he told me that it had been submitted and that I would be contacted about an interview within a week. After a month, I was fairly sure that the interview was not forthcoming but I called to check on the status of the application so as to be able to exclude this job from my mind. I had once been offered a job 8 months after I applied for it, so I like to be sure. The recruiter was contacted and told me that they would not be granting me an interview. When I inquired as to why, he told me that there were several negative reviews of my performance on line and this was the main reason for the decision. Now the irony of an anonymous review being a major factor in hiring me, a member of this forum, was not lost on me. I am wondering though, is this really the new standard? Are anonymous review sites which will allow you to scrub your record clean for a fee, now part of the professional standard or was this recruiter just blowing smoke up my ass? I have heard of people having professional problems related to Facebook posts and tweets, but this had me a bit stunned. Thoughts?

 

irony like this is what should make people think before posting in the future. we can hope for the best

 

I reckon escorts have dealt with this same issue for most of their careers. it ain't right, but yeah, it's the new normal. it takes very little to tarnish someone whether it be truth, untrue or a little of both

[+ honcho]

Hiring decisions based on reviews? That's utter rubbish!

 

I think there's a difference between not hiring on the basis of *anonymous, unverified* reviews, and vetted ones.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I have two close friends who teach at the college level. One posted a link to a humorous student review of her class. Out of curiosity, I checked to see if the other friend also had reviews on the site. Unfortunately, they were not flattering and I now wish I had never done the search.

 

I'm unaware of online reviews for other types of professionals that are available to the general public.

 

Angie's List?

[+ purplekow]

I googled Physician review and there are dozens of sites. I have received unsolicited e mail stating that i have a bad review at a site. When i first got this, I followed up, only to find that for a fee, the review could be expunged. I chalked it up as a con game. As best as i can tell, there were two negative reviews, both having to do with a prolonged waiting room experience. When I sold my practice, I had seen 40,000 different patients. There were any number of patients that came and left for a wide variety of reasons. You can not please everyone.

What I found most perplexing about this whole process is, the recruiter sought me out. They had no difficulty calling me at very strange hours to offer their pitch. Yet, when they reached a decision, I was the one that had to search them out.

[whipped guy]

PK is correct, it is impossible to please everyone. Still, the majority of the complaints received over my many years as a professional service provider were from individuals who refused to take any responsibility for their own actions or lack of action. It was always someone else's fault. People do cast out of their mind what they don't want to know about themselves.

 

Unfortunately that's human nature and is in all probably the basis for most of the negativity posted online.

[Wolfer]

PK is correct, it is impossible to please everyone. Still, the majority of the complaints received over my many years as a professional service provider were from individuals who refused to take any responsibility for their own actions or lack of action. It was always someone else's fault. People do cast out of their mind what they don't want to know about themselves.

 

Unfortunately that's human nature and is in all probably the basis for most of the negativity posted online.

This, absolutely. Whenever I have a negative experience, the first thing I always ask myself is: "What did I do to allow this to happen?" and run my experience by several people to get their input to make sure it wasn't me that was actually being the douchebag in the situation.

 

Of course, sometimes you just are dealing with bad/angry people and nothing you say or do can change that. But a lot of the time I've found that people who'll give you a negative experience or review are inclined to have dissatisfaction as their default MO.

[Guest]

As best as i can tell, there were two negative reviews, both having to do with a prolonged waiting room experience. When I sold my practice, I had seen 40,000 different patients.

 

The real assholes are those who dumped you (apparently) because of these ridiculous reviews. Be glad you're not working with these losers. There are tons of new job opportunities for physicians available all over this country, due to the influx of patients from the ACA. Most physicians' offices are not like hair salons. Sometimes patients have very difficult or serious problems which require extra time and attention. As a physician, I cannot simply tell subsequent patients "I'm sorry, but that patient you just saw leaving the waiting area was suicidal, so I had to spend extra time with him," or "Sorry, but I was concerned that one of the patients I saw before you was having a heart attack, so I had to put him on oxygen and get an EKG." Of course, occasionally when paramedics roll through the waiting room, then the patients understand the reason for the delay without my having to say anything. But most of the time, I can only acknowledge and apologize for the long wait. I wouldn't want to work for the pricks who blackballed you.