Bad Mouth the Boss on 'Glassdoor'

Did you just leave a job and you want to warn others to 'stay away'? Now you can with Glassdoor.com. The new site from the creators of Expedia and Zillow allows you to anonymously submit reviews, ratings, and salary reports about your job.

Throughout the last year, Glassdoor has amassed 3,300 reviews and salary reports from 250 companies they specifically targeted, and the site has another 40,000 major corporations pre-loaded into the system. If your company is not listed, the site allows you to register your company and dish all about your workplace. Once you're a registered member, you can also comment on any of the reviews on Glassdoor and register for alerts whenever new content is posted about a specific company. You can do this all anonymously, although you will have to use a legitimate email address to register. (Source: wired.com)

Right now, Glassdoor is permitting a sneak peak at company reviews for Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, but if you want to access any other content you will have to submit a review of your current position or a job you've held in the last three years. Glassdoor calls this the "give-to-get" model. (Source: glassdoor.com)

However, if you plan on getting even with your boss by calling him a few bad names or revealing his torrid affair with the secretary or copy boy, think again. Any reviews submitted to Glassdoor are vetted within 48 hours after submission and are only posted if they adhere to the company's terms of service and community guidelines.

Even though the working stiff is the main beneficiary of this workplace gossip mill, Glassdoor argues that employers will benefit as well. In a statement, Glassdoor, said the site can serve as "a real-time barometer of internal satisfaction and compensation." Company representatives can also sign up for the Employee Advisory Panel to preview new features, add to surveys and participate in focus groups.

I'm all for the free flow of information about workplaces and market compensation, but I'm thinking some companies are not going to be so comfortable with this and Glassdoor could end up with a lawsuit on its hands before the end of the year.