Workplace

There’s a new website out there that just might put employees – and managers – on their best behavior. It’s called Unvarnished, and it lets you rate your colleagues’ job performance, just as you would a Netflix movie or an Amazon purchase. According to Time magazine, the concept has caused a bit of controversy. That’s because Unvarnished allows employees to be reviewed anonymously - with no way of removing a negative comment. The creators, veterans of sites like LinkedIn and eBay, think there’s a market for honest feedback about an individual’s job performance and work ethic. They believe Unvarnished will ultimately be more useful than carefully selected job references on a resume, or blurbs on a LinkedIn profile. Co-founder Peter Kazanjy says their goal – in a nutshell - is to take someone’s professional reputation and make people aware of it online.  Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you have a gripe with your co-worker. You can log onto Unvarnished using your Facebook account and either create a profile for your coworker, or add a comment to a page already created. You then assign them a rating and give a description of your issue. Your name is kept anonymous, so your colleague can’t seek out revenge, and your comment is left there for the world to see. Want to give someone kudos? You can do that, too. The site then tallies up reviews and rates the employee’s professional reputation on a five-star scale. It’s not a totally new idea. Sites like Rate My Professors and Rate MDs are popular, but Unvarnished is unique because you can rate your boss, office mate or I-T guy without giving away your identity. However, you must “authenticate” through your Facebook profile, giving the company your name and personal information in case you post something that’s an outright lie. While you can’t remove bad reviews of your performance, you can manage your reputation. Kazanjy says that if you log in and take ownership of your profile, you’ll be able to respond to each post and give your side of the story. You can also invite trusted colleagues to add reviews, and help boost your reputation rating. The website is GetUnvarnished.com.