Het Amerikaanse advocatenkantoor Layfield & Barret heeft de vacaturewebsite Glassdoor gedagvaard. Het kantoor wil zo achterhalen welke individuen schuilgaan achter anonieme uitingen op de website waarin wordt gewaarschuwd voor de werkomstandigheden bij Layfield & Barrett, meldt Above the Law. ‘Horrible place to work. Unreasonably cruel.’ En: ‘For the love of God. Do NOT go work there.’
In de dagvaarding eist het kantoor dat Glassdoor de identiteit onthult van de auteurs van de volgende twaalf berichten:
1. ‘Bad place to work (this company just changed its name) Research Layfield & Wallace’
2. ‘Deceptive, Unethical, Poorly Managed, No Sense of Direction’
3. ‘You will HATE working here – Please read all the reviews’
4. ‘Working Here is Psychological Torture’
5. ‘New Admitees Beware!’
6. ‘For the love of God, do NOT work here’
7. ‘Anyone who gives this place a full rating has literally just started working there’
8. ‘Working for Philip J. Layfield (a.k.a. Philip S. Pesin) Was Pure Misery’
9. ‘Horrible place to work. Unreasonably cruel’
10. ‘Phil Layfield Changed His Name from Phil Pesin for a Reason’
11. ‘Don’t let the name change fool you, read the reviews for Layfield & Wallace. This is Phil Pesin’s way of ‘starting fresh’
12. ‘Layfield & Barrett, wallace or pesin STAY AWAY!!! BAD BOSS’
Website Glassdoor, waar overigens ook positieve postings over Layfield & Barrett te vinden zijn, wil niet reageren op de dagvaarding. Op de website staat wel vermeld dat het bedrijf grote waarde hecht aan het beschermen van de identiteit van anonieme auteurs.
Layfield & Barrett laat er in een schriftelijke reactie geen gras over groeien. ‘We pay top dollar for candidates and many of our attorneys earn in excess of $1 million per year. When people are lazy or incompetent, they either quit because the writing is on the wall or they are terminated. Unfortunately, most of those people are unwilling to recognize their shortcomings and they turn to anonymous blogs to spit their venom. The reality is that they should be upset with their parents for raising lazy and incompetent young adults, but they choose to spew false information on blogs such as Glassdoor. The majority of these posts contain blatantly false information. We are going to obtain the identities of these cowards and bring them to justice.’
Update 19 mei: Glassdoor heeft inmiddels ook een reactie gegeven. Vice President Corporate Affairs, Dawn Lyon: ‘As a rule, we do not comment on the specifics of pending litigation. I can tell you that Glassdoor fundamentally believes our users have a constitutional right under the First Amendment to share their opinions about their jobs and work environments without fear of retaliation. This level of transparency empowers people to make more informed decisions about where they choose to work, and it also helps employers attract the right candidates for their culture and company. Occasionally, company management doesn’t like what employees and/or former employees have to say, and they attempt to sue Glassdoor and/or our anonymous users, often requesting that we divulge the identity of our anonymous user. It is our standard practice to fight on our users’ behalf to protect their anonymity and rights to free speech. If necessary, we vigorously fight in court to prevent any user information from being disclosed.’