Coworkers.com Facebook App available

The Coworkers.com Facebook app enables you to easily display a badge with your Coworkers.com rating information. Choose from different styles, some more detailed than others. If you are a Facebook user, add it to your profile!

I got an email that said 'You've been reviewed', but...

We recently sent out a batch of emails to people notifying them that they had been reviewed on Coworkers.com. However, in some cases, after registering, people did not see any reviews. This is due to a bug that did not properly account for reviews that were only partially submitted, or were deleted after submission.

If this happened to you, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We are working on a fix for this.

UPDATE:

• If you would like to know whether you have any active reviews, without registering, click here do a search by your email address. If no reviews have been posted, or if they have been deleted, it will say 'No reviews have yet been entered for [email]'.
• For information about opting out, please see this forum entry.
• For other questions, please see our FAQ.
• Thank you for your understanding.
  

Coworkers.com Announces Improved Review Management Features

Coworkers.com has improved its review management capabilities by allowing users to more easily dispute and exclude unwanted reviews.



“One of the strengths of our review platform is that it allows for the creation of detailed, and optionally anonymous, reviews. While this offers our users the ability to give and receive unbiased feedback, it is also open to occasional misuse. Seeking to better address this, and in listening to feedback from our users, we have simplified the process for excluding such unwanted reviews from a users profile.” explains CEO Jonathan Clay. “Should a user receive a review that does not seem legitimate – for example an anonymous review that seems like ‘spam’, they can simply login and “dispute” the review with a single click. After the user enters a reason (for example, ‘erroneous’ or ‘excessive’), the review will be excluded from their profile, and its rating will no longer count toward their aggregate score. In addition, a user can report a disputed review to Coworkers.com if it appears to violate our TOS.”

Clay goes on to say “since our ‘soft launch’ (beta release) last year, we have been listening closely to our early adopters, as well as knowledgeable business advisors, trying to find the right balance between information freedom and protection against derogatory information in the delicate area of work reputation management. We believe that we now have a solution that is fair and effective for all parties concerned. By restricting disputed reviews to premium (paying) members, we are acknowledging the fact that abuse can occur and minimizing its impact, without sacrificing the principle that honest information about people’s work histories should be accessible.” Professional reviews are just one of the many workplace performance tools offered at Coworkers.com. Review a colleague, or request feedback today.

Take Those Numeric Ratings and - Make Them Motivational

about.com: "Do numeric ratings make a contribution in the workplace? Done well, I believe numeric ratings can motivate excellent work performance; done poorly, numeric ratings undermine your positive work environment... these six recommendations set the stage for what makes an appraisal rating system, for employees or non-employees, sound, and potentially - motivational...

1. should be objective rather than subjective;
2. should be job-related or based on job analysis;
3. should be based on behaviors rather than traits;
4. should be within the control of the ratee;
5. should relate to specific functions, not global assessments,
6. should be communicated to the employee."

As the article states "Numeric ratings can have a positive impact on your company". Read the entire article to see other guidelines, as well as common things to avoid.

Already hip to this? Create a Coworkers.com review now

New Feature: Coworkers.com Adds Personal Avatar & Multiple Picture Upload Support

Coworkers.com has added picture-uploading tools for registered users! Users can upload multiple images to share with others. In addition to having a picture library, users can upload a default photo to use as their avatar (personal icon), which will be displayed on their Coworkers.com profile page.

We feel that it is a good opportunity for our users to share images related to their professional identity. This can be as standard as a great portrait photograph to display on their profile page, to screen-shots or project images from their business portfolio. Pictures speak volumes, and a handful of impressive images coupled with our other features such as unbiased reviews, and work experience, can help project a balanced representation.

Supported image formats are jpg, gif, and png with a maximum individual file size of 3 MB. Animations are not supported.

Inc.com: "Are You a Bad Boss?"

From inc.com: "Seven signs that your employees detest you. (By you, of course, we mean some other boss.)"



"There's a reason Dilbert, The Office, and their ilk are so popular. Satire gets old fast, but the appeal of realism endures. And the real world, sadly, is full of lousy bosses. Someone ought to do a study on where these louts come from. Were they abused by their own bosses? Did they toss overboard the ballast of human kindness to hasten the ascent of their career balloons? Or is this an example of absolute power corrupting absolutely? Such research might also demonstrate how ubiquitous miserable managers are. The proliferation of boss-bashing screeds with titles like When You Work for a Bully, Nasty Bosses, and How To Work for an Idiot suggests a plague..."

The article outlines "seven signs that you are a bad boss". Here's our favorite excerpt:

"Sign # 4: Your 360-degree evaluations come back short and full of generically positive comments, with one very mild criticism ("Sometimes she works too damn hard for her own good") thrown in for credibility's sake..."

This is exactly why Coworkers.com Reviews are a more effective solution to providing and receiving unbiased feedback!

"Ask About My Co-Workers" Cartoon

via talentzoo.com: This cartoon by 'Brandtoonist' Gary Kopervas gave us a good chuckle...



Coworkers.com would like to remind you that there are indeed more subtle & informative ways to share your opinion ;-)

Happy 2008

We're hard at work and look forward to an exciting year for the Coworkers.com community. Keep your eye out for more updates!

Feature Update: Site Stats & Data Page

Our new Site Stats & Data Page is live! Think of it as a dashboard that tracks the cool stuff happening across the Coworkers.com network of users. From this page you can check out:

• Fun facts like: Average review ratings; averages by gender; averages by signed or anonymous rating; highest and lowest rated profiles; and more
• Top keyword searches on the site
• Top companies represented on the site
• Most sent Zingers
• Most viewed Forum threads

We'll also be highlighting a power-user profile as "Coworker of the month". Site Stats & Data is a great addition to the site. It allows our users to get a quick overview of what's hot, and how they can get more out of the aggregate data on the site.

Coworkers.com on "KillerStartups"

Check out our profile on KillerStartups.com. Feel free to give a positive vote if you please.

TechCrunch France highlights Coworkers.com

TechCrunch France recently published an article about Online Reputation services. Coworkers.com is highlighted in the section covering rating tools.

• Read the original article (in French)
• English translation via Google Translate

New Feature: Zingers! Instant email feedback

Want to give a coworker some quick feedback, but don't have time to enter a full review, or want to keep it private? We have the perfect solution - send them a Zinger! Just write a short note, or browse through our categories of pre-written messages. Click send, and your colleague will be Zingered instantly by email!

Coworkers.com Profile on Facebook

Facebook has launched a new feature for companies. Now you can track your favorite products and services too. Check out our Coworkers.com Facebook Profile Page and select the "Add to my Products" option.

New Feature Coming: Forum!

We have a new Forum feature, not fully rolled-out on the site yet. So, friendly blog reader, please go check it out!

http://www.coworkers.com/forum

Feedback & new forum posts will be greatly appreciated.

Feature Update: Improved 'Review Averages' Display

When viewing a person's profile page, the rating summary in the upper left hand corner now offers more detail regarding how the rating has been calculated. The layout now does a better job at displaying the three types of reviews one can receive, and how they influence an average rating:

1. "Signed": a review submitted by, and identified with, a registered user of Coworkers.com
2. "Anonymous": a review by a registered user of Coworkers.com, who has chosen not to be identified
3. "Unverified": a review that was created by an unknown person, not logged in as a user of Coworkers.com

Montreal Gazette - Business Coverage of Coworkers.com

Site allows you to post anonymous evaluations of co-workers: "Be nice to co-workers. It's no secret that forward-thinking employers are looking at social networking sites to get a handle on prospective employees. It's one thing for them to see a bunch of glowing recommendations about someone from their friends, but what about honest opinions from actual colleagues? Coworkers.com is a site that lets anyone, not just friends, write reviews about people they work with..."

Read the rest of the article here...

Feature Update: Added "Share With a Friend"

So, you saw a cool/funny/interesting profile on Coworkers.com, and you thought to yourself, "gee, it would be nice to share this cool/funny/interesting profile with my friends who appreciate cool/funny/interesting stuff, but I'm too lazy to switch to my mail editor and write a message?" No problem! You can now just click on the "Share" link, tweak the message if you like, enter your friends' addresses, and presto! - they'll get your message right away. You can thank us later.

Feature Update: Streamlined "My Coworkers" Page

"My Coworkers" is the dashboard to your account on Coworkers.com. We've recently made some updates to streamline the presentation of information available on this page. It's now even easier to:

• See your public profile link
• Create a badge that links to your profie
• Get a snapshot of your account settings with ability to make edits
• See an overview of review activity
• View a summary of your watchlist

Login and check it out.

Mashable! highlights new Coworkers.com feature

Mashable is the world's largest blog focused exclusively on social networks.

The site is a great place to follow social networking business news. They were kind enough to share the news about our new badges feature.

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

We've just installed a little tool on the Coworkers.com blog called Snap Shots. It enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out. If you absolutely hate it, let us know and we'll consider its fate.

Feature Update: Coworkers.com Badges

Looking for a cool addition to your home page, blog, online resume, or email signature? By simply inserting a couple lines into your HTML source, you can quickly display one our "badges" wherever your like... you can even show your Coworkers rating inside any web page! Each badge links directly to your public Coworkers.com profile page. Just go to our "Tools" page, login, and get your code.

Feature Update: Enhanced Profiles

We're busy making refinements to the overall Coworkers.com user experience. We are pleased to announce some recent refinements to the way Profiles are presented. Improvements include a more prominent highlighting of the overall rating, and quick links to options for the profile.



This is just a taste of some of the updates coming in the weeks ahead. Thanks again to all of our users. We'll keep you posted as other stuff goes live.