Archive for November, 2008

Southwest and Continental Score Highest with Employees

Posted by • November 26th, 2008 • 4 Comments

For anyone who has ever traveled by plane, you know that sometimes there seems to be no getting around a delayed flight or avoiding an unfortunate loss in luggage. But what we also know is it’s the people who work for the airlines that can make the hassles during our travels just a little bit easier.
With Thanksgiving just a day away, the airports are expected to be a little more hectic than usual. So with that in mind, we wanted to find out what airline employees thought were the best carriers to work for and see if it ranks even to JD Power’s airline customer satisfaction ratings. And does a happy airline employee mean a happy customer?

In terms of employee satisfaction, Southwest ranked the highest low-cost airline and Continental received top score as traditional network leader. But when it comes to customer satisfaction, JD Power reports that JetBlue ranks #1 for low-cost airlines and Alaska takes the lead as the traditional network airline. As we dug deeper into our airline employee reviews and ratings, we found four of the airlines (Alaska, JetBlue, Northwest and Southwest) had Glassdoor ratings that were significantly different than their JD Power ratings.  Although JD Power gave JetBlue ...

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Black Friday may be extra hard on Wal-Mart employees…

Posted by • November 25th, 2008 • Leave a comment

Editor’s Note: Sadly, this post was prophetic – it was written before we received the very sad news this morning that a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death as people rushed into a Long Island Wal-Mart on Black Friday.  Glassdoor extends its deepest sympathies to those that were injured or died, and their families, in this senseless violence.  [11/28/2008 10:20am PST]

Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season which falls the day after thanksgiving, may be particularly hectic for Wal-Mart employees this year. That’s because high jobless rates and record low consumer confidence will cause holiday shoppers to seek out deep discounts in order to stretch their holiday budget further. Wal-Mart, known for its low prices, is a natural place for discount seeking shoppers to turn. This added influx of holiday shoppers may be bad news for Wal-Mart employees, who are already “Dissatisfied” with the overall work experience at Wal-Mart, which rates lowest among employees of major retailers on Glassdoor.com

We compared employer ratings of frontline sales associates at major retail chains and found Wal-Mart to be at the bottom of the list of places to work, with overall scores of “Dissatisfied”. Other retailers, Best Buy and Nordstrom topped the ...

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Symantec Employees Forewarn New CEO

Posted by • November 19th, 2008 • Leave a comment

On Monday, Symantec CEO John Thompson announced that he is stepping down as CEO in early spring (although retaining his position on the Board). This perhaps is a good move for Thompson considering that his employee approval rating was just 38% which means that he is one of the lowest rated CEOs according to the rankings on the Glassdoor CEO Watch List.

Enrique T. Salem, Symantec’s current chief operating officer, will take the lead and replace Thompson as the top executive at the security software firm. 

So as a courtesy to the CEO, employees are offering up advice on what the company needs:

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Advice for the new Chief Executive at Yahoo! from Glassdoor

Posted by • November 18th, 2008 • 2 Comments

Yahoo stock price is up today given the news that CEO Jerry Yang is stepping down. At times like these, not only can we provide employees and job seekers insights that encourage more informed career moves, but we can also offer a new CEO tips on what is working and what is not from an employee perspective. As the Yahoo Board works today to find a replacement for Yang, we’ve culled employee reviews to give the new CEO, whoever it may be, a unique overview of internal company operations.

So new CEO, here’s your chance – listen close to the Yahoo Reviews by your soon to be employees:

Yahoo Business Development Manager in Sunnyvale, CA

“Big layoffs to reduce expenses. Figure out what Yahoo stands for – no one seems to know (Google = search, Microsoft = software, Yahoo = ??? email, gossip news???, large audience??). When I was there, Marketing couldn’t come up w/ a coherent message b/c no one could figure out what defines Yahoo. A bunch of lame marketing at that time – FUSE acronym, TV commercials w/ people carrying around placards w/ URLs on them, etc”

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Employees remain positive but layoff talk is on the rise

Posted by • November 17th, 2008 • 2 Comments

I’m sure I don’t need tell you that the economy is performing REALLY badly these days.  U.S. jobless rates are at a 14-year high and consumer confidence numbers are at an all time low.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 37.2% year to date, and personally I can’t bring myself to look at my 401(k) statement.  All of this economic turmoil prompted us to analyze company reviews & ratings on Glassdoor to find out what effect the economy was having on how employees review and rate their companies.

Company reviews remain balanced
Since our launch, employees have shared a pretty balanced view of their employers.  On average, 42.4% of reviews are positive, 32.2% are negative, and 25.2% are neutral.  When we compare our positive review percentage to the Consumer Confidence Index, we see that majority of reviews have remained positive and constructive, even in October, when the Consumer Confidence Index plummeted to an all time low of 38 (1980=100).  Frankly, that surprised us.  We hypothesized that when the economy slowed, employer ratings on Glassdoor.com would fall, but they haven’t.  That’s the good news.

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October’s Review of the Month

Posted by • November 11th, 2008 • Leave a comment

It’s been tough to report good news in the financial services industry recently, but today a former employee from Bank of America, one of the world’s largest banking institutions, received some good news – $500 worth of good news to be precise. This former Bank of America Credit Analyst has been selected as the winner of the Glassdoor’s October “Review of the Month”. This review came to our attention because it was voted by several Glassdoor members as ‘helpful’. So without further ado – here are some of the specifics that make this review a worthwhile read (especially for those in the financial services industry).

This Credit Analyst’s review stresses the impact that location, management and banking division have on the shape of one’s career experience at Bank of America, so be sure to research those areas before joining the bank (read the full review here):

I can’t stress how much your experience at the bank will be VERY dependent on what city you live in, what division you work in, and who your manager is. Some managers are highly incompetent, and poor motivators, others are great motivators, great leaders, and inspire you to work hard. So when you interview, ...

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