Archive for September, 2008

AIG – An Inside Look

Posted by • September 30th, 2008 • 1 Comment

With everything that’s happening in the world of financial services, it’s becoming hard for us at Glassdoor to sit on the sidelines. So after reading Sunday’s New York Times article chronicling the crisis at AIG, I thought I’d take a look at what the AIG employees have been saying on Glassdoor.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VvGW98D3XA&hl=en&fs=1]

It wasn’t hard for me to find a few AIG reviews that just got it – maybe we should all be listening to employees on the inside? Take this one.

New Direction is needed badly – AIG Business Analyst, Wilmington, DE
“Management does poor job of communicating with employees. There does not seem to be much transparency between departments. Management tends to think things are better than they actually are. For instance, they have been in denial awhile now about exposure to sub-prime mortgages.”

Now that’s an analyst that saw the writing on the wall. And s/he wasn’t the only one to recognize communication as an issue for AIG, and most feel that AIG’s size is to blame. For example:

“Recently, the stock value has been killing us. Also, the size can be overwhelming at times. Communication is a challenge because of this. As a leader in the insurance ...

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Life Imitates Art? Office Depot, Staples and Dunder Mifflin

Posted by • September 25th, 2008 • 42 Comments
Michael Scott (Dunder Miffllin Regional Manager), Ron Sargent (Staples CEO), Steve Odland (Office Depot CEO)

“What happens to a company if somebody takes a boss away? I will answer your question with a question. It’s like what happens to a chicken when you take its head away. It dies unless you find a new head. I need to find which one of these people has the skills to be a chicken head,” – Michael Scott, Regional Manager, Dunder Mifflin

With CEO approval ratings of 5 percent and 56 percent respectively, perhaps CEOs Steve Odland (Office Depot) and Ron Sargent (Staples) would be wise to heed the wisdom of the dysfunctional but loveable regional manager of fictitious office supply business Dunder Mifflin.

Michael Scott (Dunder Miffllin Regional Manager), Ron Sargent (Staples CEO), Steve Odland (Office Depot CEO)

There’s a saying that sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. In order to maintain the integrity of our data, we carefully examine each and every company review that comes into Glassdoor and, well, we couldn’t agree more (you’ve already seen the salaries!). So, after scores of reviews from Office Depot, where employees give CEO Steve Odland a measly 5 percent approval rating (84% disapprove); and Staples whose CEO Ron Sargent is holding steady with a 56% approval rating ...

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Dunder Mifflin Salaries Revealed by Glassdoor.com

Posted by • September 24th, 2008 • 4 Comments
salaries for Dunder Mifflin

As huge fans of NBC’s The Office, we’re anxiously awaiting this season’s premiere. Call us geeks but we thought it might be fun to see what the self-proclaimed “World’s Best Boss” and the rest of his fictional Scranton-based team would earn if Dunder Mifflin existed in the real world.

Here’s how they’d stack up according to real salaries posted on Glassdoor for similar job titles at Dunder Mifflin-like companies. Take a look:

salaries for Dunder Mifflin

It gets pretty interesting once salary transparency gets thrown into the mix. So, what do you think your “office” salary chart would look like? Find out by posting an anonymous salary and review for your company at Glassdoor.com.

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WaMu CEO Bites the Dust – Who’s Next?

Posted by • September 18th, 2008 • 1 Comment

Last month, we posted on the CEOs with the lowest approval ratings following oustings of the CEOs of Alcatel-Lucent and AMD. Recently, WaMu CEO Kelly Killinger, who has been one of Glassdoor.com’s lowest rated CEOs since launch, was given his walking papers. While only 10% of employees said they approved of Killinger, three out of four (75%) said they disapprove.

Some employees may be asking the board what took so long. Last week, new CEO Alan Fishman assumed the top job asserting that he believes WaMu has a future as an independent company. Time will tell.

CEO transition is hard for any company, but in adversity there is often opportunity. In reading reviews from Washington Mutual’s headquarters employees, Fishman could bode well by walking the halls and taking some time to focus internally and listen to the advice from his employees….and even address some of their (perceived?) inequities:

Morale problems – Take responsibility for decisions that cause the stock price to drop, during layoffs show that you are being affected as well as the folks on the ground doing the work.
Good times gone. Stop listening only to what your directs are telling you. Get out there among the rank and file for a ...

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HP Restructures, Employees See Pink

Posted by • September 16th, 2008 • 2 Comments

On Monday, HP made headlines when it publically announced that the company decided to cut more than 24, 600 jobs over the next three years – most of which are expected to occur within United States. The move was a result of the recent acquisition of Texas-headquartered EDS which according to the Business Journal marked “the largest acquisition by value in the IT services sector.” HP stock dropped 3.49% at the closing bell Monday.

Consolidation of any size is tough on employees but when the companies are the size and scope of these two, the effects are generally felt far and wide as evidenced by the estimated size of layoffs. The implications for morale impact are high, especially saddled with the already low ratings EDS and HP have as independent companies. EDS CEO Ron Rittenmeyer has been among the lowest rated CEOs on Glassdoor.com since our launch with just 14% approval rating (more than 65% disapprove) While Mark Hurd has a higher percentage of employees that approve of his performance at 44%, the low company ratings are near neck and neck — with EDS at 2.6 and HP at 2.8.

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August’s Review of the Month

Posted by • September 9th, 2008 • Leave a comment

We’re proud to announce this month’s review comes from a Hewlett Packard employee who works out of the Boise, Idaho office. As we took a look through our most recent reviews voted helpful by our community, this one caught our eye…not because it was filled with glowing praise for Hewlett Packard, but because it presented a real inside look with a balanced and constructive tone — the good, the bad along with some direct advice to senior management.

The good.
“Most employees are of the highest caliber – intelligent, experienced, respectful, interesting and interested.”

“The opportunity to have flexible work options provides more choices to fit your lifestyle (telecommuting, job sharing, flex time, etc.)”

The not so good.
“The short-term cost controls may drive the stock price up and put Mark Hurd on the cover of BusinessWeek but are definitely putting the company’s mid-to-long term innovation and growth at risk.”

“Employee morale is at an all-time low. Senior management decisions appear to be based solely on internal politics and expense reduction without any clearly defined, customer winning strategies. The customer-focused, solution-centric, people-powered environment this great company was originally built upon (the formidable HP Way) is gone.”

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Given ‘em something to talk about…

Posted by • September 8th, 2008 • Leave a comment

It’s been just about 3 months since Glassdoor.com first launched and we’ve been growing at a terrific pace – especially since we began showing salaries in currencies for more than 100 countries.

One of our objectives in launching Glassdoor was to provide employees and job seekers with more information about jobs, salaries and workplaces than previously available. We feel this information is extremely powerful and we want people to use Glassdoor’s data to have more productive and informed conversations with their managers.

We know these conversations are starting to happen at work through user feedback, but I’m also delighted the subject and debate of salary transparency is occurring within the international media. A recent New York Times article by Lisa Belkin discussed the benefits and potential pitfalls of this level of transparency (note: at Glassdoor we don’t think there are any pitfalls). Yesterday, Lisa was on NBC’s TODAY show (see Salary Transparency Secrets) discussing some of her findings and Glassdoor.com. Earlier in the week, CNBC’s Brooke Sopelsa took a look at the implications and even went so far as to encourage people to contribute to the site. In Kiplinger’s September issue, Jessica Anderson shows readers how to get ...

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Mac Geniuses vs. Geek Squad CIAs

Posted by • September 3rd, 2008 • 52 Comments
Mac Genius Uniform vs Geek Squad Uniform

Recently a friend asked me if I knew someone who could help them fix their laptop. Immediately what popped into my head were all of the Apple Store “Mac Geniuses” and Best Buy “Geek Squad Central Intelligence Agents” that have been posting reviews and salaries on Glassdoor. What are “Geek Squad Agents” and “Geniuses”? Well, every Best Buy has a counter staffed with Geek Squad “Central Intelligence Agents” (or CIA’s for short) that provide computer support services to customers. Likewise, in every Apple Store you will find a “Genius Bar” staffed with “Mac Geniuses” that are specially trained and certified to help you with Apple hardware and software. The Geek Squad and the Mac Geniuses have been very active on Glassdoor, so I asked Paul (He’s our data manager) to help me dig a little deeper into these two jobs. We’ve created a comparison of how these two seemingly similar jobs compare from an outsiders perspective. Let’s get started…

Mac Genius Uniform vs. Geek Squad Uniform

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