Ex-boss begs former employee to leave a review at a local job review portal, he complies, leaving a very bad one and requesting the elimination of false ones, making the average bad: 'Management has suddenly been acting super nice and accommodating.'

Author image for María Cetra
María Cetra • Writer
Jul 13, 2026 10:30 AM EDT

Why would a boss think that an employee who was mistreated, overworked, and underpaid would leave a positive review about the job?

Bosses who have zero respect for employees are common. Bosses that overwork their employees are predictable. But bosses that expect a positive review after all that- that is shocking! The nerve that you have to pretend that an employee you forced to work over their job title for the same salary leaves a nice and extremely positive review after quitting because of the horrible work environment. It doesn't even make sense. Why would you pretend that? Why would a boss think they have the right to demand a positive review of a former employee who left because of them? In what world did he think that was possible?

In this Reddit story, we are presented once again with malicious compliance in its full splendor. Complaining about what your boss, or in this case, former boss, asked only to create a bigger problem. This boss not only has an incredible nerve, but he also believes he still has some kind of power over a former employee, and he even thinks he has to ask for a favor from an employee that he mistreated during their time in the company. If you have to beg for reviews for people to want to work with you when we are in a job crisis, that is because your company values are especially questionable and your work environment is unbearable. The fact that, as a manager, you know that you are doing something wrong, but instead of fixing it, you believe that the best solution is to beg former employees to leave a positive review, as well as writing a bunch of fake ones so people believe it is an amazing place to work.

If you are a manager looking for amazing reviews to make the job opening that your company has go away. Stop pretending that former employees will do anything for you. Instead, start making actual changes to the work environment. That will not only boost productivity as employees are in better conditions, but also it will get the word out that your company is a nice place to work. No more false reviews. Just make the changes and stick to them so that working there isn't the worst thing. 
 

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  • 01
    For context: I (29M) recently quit my job as a specialist at a small planning and design firm somewhere in Germany. The place was a mess. The pay was a joke, the leadership was completely unpredictable, and they expected me to do the job of a fully qualified project manager (like planning the entire renovation of a large municipal facility) without the pay or the support. The turnover was crazy. Three of my colleagues quit around the same time and during
    via Hopplafish
  • 02
    A typewriter writing a review page, representation.
    via Markus Winkler

    A typewriter writing a review page, representation. 

  • 03
    my 4 years there, my boss went through 5 different assistants. I eventually packed my bags and moved to a different city for a fresh start. A week after my last day, my former boss texted me. He casually asked me to "please leave a review" for the firm on a popular local job review site (basically our equivalent of Glassdoor). He genuinely thought we parted on great terms and assumed I'd drop a 5-star rating
    via Hopplafish
  • 04
    to boost their cpy score. I just rolled my eyes and ghosted him. Fast forward to a few days ago. I checked the company's page and saw three brand new 4.5-star reviews posted in the same week. They were so obviously faked by management. They all used the exact same HR buzzwords ("great work-life balance", "amazing health benefits", which was literally just 15 minutes of stretching on Wednesdays, lol) and magically praised all the
    via Hopplafish
  • 05
    exact things people usually complained about. At this point, I remembered his text. He wanted a review? Fine. Let's comply. I sat down and wrote a brutally honest, mathematically precise review. I kept it completely professional and entirely subjective ("In my experience...", "I felt that...") so they couldn't legally sue me to take it down. I gave them 1 and 2 stars in almost
    via Hopplafish
  • 06
    every category, explicitly mentioning the lack of support, the horrible communication, and the heavy workload. But I didn't stop there. While I was at it, I contacted the platform's support team and reported the three new 4.5-star reviews for manipulation, pointing out the identical wording and the fact that they were posted at the exact same time. Less than four hours later, two of the three fake reviews
    via Hopplafish
  • 07
    were nuked by the platform. The automatic spam filter probably caught them because my boss was dumb enough to write them from the same office PC/IP address. With his fake reviews gone and my honest 1-star review dragging the average down even further, panic mode set in. How do I know? Because my ex-boss texted me again. This time the message was full of typos, desperately asking if I could please leave a
    via Hopplafish
  • 08
    good review to help them out. He has absolutely no idea that I am the one who tanked his rating and reported his fakes. I left him on read again. The cherry on top: A buddy of mine who still works there texted me yesterday. He said my review perfectly hit the nail on the head. He also mentioned that since the review dropped, management has suddenly been acting super nice and accommodating to
    via Hopplafish
  • 09
    everyone out of pure fear that more people will quit.
    via Hopplafish
  • 10
    A group of different coworkers posing in their uniforms, model image.
    via microtersagency

    A group of different coworkers posing in their uniforms, model image. 

  • 11
    freshaleena38 ngl that sounds like the perfect setup for some honest feedback lol
    via Hopplafish
  • 12
    Fire-Marauder My company has asked the same thing after someone left an honest bad review. I can tell who left good reviews after asking us to leave good reviews...it should be illegal
    via Hopplafish
  • 13
    CoffeeExtraCream Bravo sir. This was well played malicious compliance. And as they say, be careful what you wish for.
    via Hopplafish
  • 14
    Geminii27 Tell the buddy, and anyone else he can talk to off the clock, to leave similar 1-star reviews. See how panicked the boss can get.
    via Hopplafish
  • 15
    dedayyt Wow! Maybe your review was a wake up call for management to treat their employees better? At least for a month or two. You done good.
    via Hopplafish
  • 16
    Ipsolpsum Chef's kiss! For some reason, it feels even more satisfying that you didn't do it right after leaving. It wasn't in a moment of anger, it was a practical and reasonable response to their bad behavior. The fact that they explicitly asked you to do it just makes it sooo much more fun!
    via Hopplafish
  • 17
    Party-Description980 Hat off to you! I could visualise your Boss' Face when he read your review lol! Gut gemacht & weiter so!
    via Hopplafish
  • 18
    Secure-Corner-2096 One behalf of all humanity thank you. This warms my soul.
    via Hopplafish
  • 19
    Talwyn_Wize The fact that they now act nice tells me they always could, knew they should, but never would. That makes it even more horrifying in my eyes.
    via Hopplafish
  • 20
    BearRevolutionary273 operating out of pure fear that everyone will quit In a perfect world, this is the way businesses would operate.
    via Hopplafish

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reviews malicious compliance work environment bad bosses
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