What to Do When an Employee Publicly Criticizes Your Business Online
You discovered that a current or former employee has left a negative review on Glassdoor, Indeed, or another platform or has posted critical comments about your business on social media. Before you respond, you need to understand what the law allows and what it prohibits, because this area is more legally constrained than most employers expect.
The Legal Reality: Much of This Is Protected
Under the NLRA, employees have the right to engage in concerted activity, including discussing their working conditions, wages, management practices, and workplace experiences publicly. A review that describes management style, compensation, or working conditions (even negatively) is generally protected activity.
This means you cannot discipline or terminate an employee for leaving a factual negative review of their workplace experience, even if the review is unflattering or damages your recruiting efforts. Doing so is an unfair labor practice.
What You Can Address
The protection has limits. You may have grounds to address a review that:
Contains specific, verifiable false statements of fact— not just negative opinions, but factually false claims
Discloses confidential company information— trade secrets, financial data, client information
Crosses into harassment of a specific individual
Even then, consult with employment counsel before taking disciplinary action based on online speech. The line between protected criticism and actionable false statement requires a legal assessment.
What to Do About the Review Itself
For review platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed, you have the option to respond publicly to the review. A professional, factual response that addresses specific concerns without being defensive is often more effective than no response. It signals to future candidates that you take feedback seriously. Do not respond emotionally, do not identify the reviewer, and do not contradict the review in ways that reveal you know who wrote it.
What Not to Do
Do not demand that the employee remove the review. This is coercive and likely illegal.
Do not retaliate against the employee in any form. Schedule changes, performance scrutiny, or termination in retaliation for a protected review is an unfair labor practice.
Do not include a non-disparagement clause in separation agreements without confirming with counsel that it complies with current NLRA guidance. The NLRB has taken recent enforcement action on overly broad non-disparagement clauses.
The Better Long-Term Response
Negative employee reviews are most effectively addressed by improving the workplace conditions they describe, and by encouraging current employees to share their honest experiences. A stream of genuine positive reviews from current employees is a more durable response than any attempt to suppress negative ones.
Our Social Media policy includes NLRA-compliant language on employee social media activity, defining what the company can and cannot restrict while protecting the legitimate business interests you are entitled to protect.
Questions about this or other HR topics? Visit pragmatichrgroup.com for more resources.
