While it remains to be seen whether or not the bailout bill will curb top executive salaries and payouts, the topic of CEO compensation has always been the subject of controversy and gossip. In particular, the debate over severance packages circulates around what is fair and whether the executive should really be paid for a job that was not well done. One of the most memorable in recent history was the $210 million exit package awarded to Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli in 2007.

With all the moving and shaking in the job market, we started thinking: What is the going-rate to fire a CEO executive these days anyway? Is there any correlation between a CEOs approval rating and the quality of their severance package?

Thanks to SEC requirements, various public records and Glassdoor’s CEO approval ratings system, we wanted to see if there is any consistency in how severance packages have been awarded to CEOs that have recently been asked to see themselves out the door.

It seems that no matter what a CEO did to get fired or how low their employee approval rating drop, there is definitely an option of a huge payout at the end of the tunnel. Even though only two of the seven CEOs identified above actually took (or even had a chance to take) their exit package, it still doesn’t seem too justify some of the huge sums of money these executives are offered to simply walk away. I guess if you’re going to be forced out the door, why not try to get every million you can!

Make Millions, Get Fired! is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Related posts:

1. Voluntary Layoffs: Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?
2. Employee Fired For Not Wearing Makeup
3. Negotiating Severance Packages—A Refresher

We’ve been working on solving that fundamental question for awhile now, and to be honest – before we launched we weren’t really sure how our hard work would be received. Now that we’ve launched however, things have changed – we’re no longer just making “good guesses” – we’re fortunate to have an engaged community that will tell us what we’re doing well, and in some cases not so well.

Thankfully the feedback from users has been overwhelmingly positive, but in the spirit of practicing what we preach we wanted to share some of the feedback we’ve received from members of the Glassdoor community – the good, the bad and the ugly. So here it is for all to see:

• 
  

  (+) Easy of use

  Many users have written in to let us know that the site is well-designed and easy to use. That’s great feedback, especially when I know we can make it even better (and now that we have a full-time designer you’ll begin to see a difference). In the end, I think this is a real point of differentiation for us – we have salaries for a job at a company, not just a job – and when compared to other services I would have to agree that it’s easier to find the information that matters most to you.

• (-) Need location-based search or filtering

  Of all our critical feedback, this is the clearly the issue that gets the most attention (1-3 emails a day). And I have to admit it’s well-deserved. Thankfully we’re already working on designs for allowing you to search for salaries and company reviews by city. It gets a lot more complicated when you throw in our international cities because we need to consider other currencies but that just makes it harder not impossible. We’ll get there soon.

• (+) Quality of the content (balanced, thoughtful, constructive)

  I remember when we launched there were quite a few naysayers who thought we would be another venting site for disgruntled employees. Well, we proved them wrong. In fact, we have more positive reviews than we have negative (we’ll dig deeper on that in later blog post). Part of the reason we’re able to achieve such high standards is because our “give-to-get” model ensures a more balanced cross-section of all employees, but more importantly we review every post before it goes live on the site to ensure it meets our Community Guidelines and quality standards.

• (-) Not enough international content

  Our international launch generated some serious buzz and it more than validated our suspicion that the need for workplace transparency would know no borders, but it still takes time to get the “give-to-get” model going. For the US, we launched with a solid foundation of employee generated content – but for all our international countries it was harder to tell users to post content of their own if there was nothing to see for their country. With time this issue takes care of itself, and it already has for many of our top countries, but it will require some time to get the word out for our other countries.

• (+) Great customer care

  Many of our users have written in with an issue or question, and are often surprised when they get a personal email response (let alone from our CEO or VP). Well, we do our best to respond to every email and if it’s an issue we can fix – we promise to do our best. In many cases, such as the search issue above, we’re not just responding to the issue but letting you know that the solution is already in the works (which always helps!).

• (-) Not anonymous enough

  A few users have said that our service is not anonymous enough for their situation – for example, let’s say they’re the only one with that job title in their office. Well, we want to remind everyone that there are ways to post your salary or review without risking your anonymity. For posting a salary, you don’t even need to specify your company (which means nobody will know it’s you) and for reviews you don’t even need to tell us your location or job title (that’s pretty anonymous). We’re looking for other ways to allow everyone to participate and already have a few ideas, so stay tuned.

• (+) Always getting better

  This is some of the best feedback to receive. First and foremost, it’s always great to see that our users love the concept behind Glassdoor. Many write in wishing that we were around when they were looking for their last job, but even more write in excited about how the site just keeps getting better. It’s two things – the more content we have the better the experience, but we also have a team of all-stars that are able to continue releasing new features every month. We plan to continue keeping with that tempo of new features, there’s a lot more to come!

I hope that sheds a little light on what we’re thinking about at Glassdoor. Like I said, we’re fortunate to have such an engaged community and we want to keep it that way – so expect more of these in the future. We’re listening to all of your feedback, so please keep it coming!

Glassdoor Takes Its Own Medicine is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Related posts:

1. Glassdoor.com – Not Just for the Americans
2. Keep it comin’….
3. Glassdoor Breaks 100K and Keeps Getting Better

	Yahoo! Reviews
	Overall Rating – 3.4
	CEO Approval Rating (Jerry Yang) –
	34% Approve (42% Disapprove)
	AOL Reviews
	Overall Rating – 2.8
	CEO Approval Rating (Randy Falco) –
	14% Approve (65% Disapprove)
	Microsoft
	Overall Rating – 3.7
	CEO Approval Rating (Steve Ballmer) –
	45% Approve (30% Disapprove)

I practically bled purple and yellow when I joined Yahoo!, but in the years that followed you could almost see the company lose it’s “mojo” (right along with their most talented employees). And as the race out of those purple and yellow doors began, I remember a conversation with one of my career mentors in which he said, “we’re going to become the next AOL, so get out while Yahoo! still means something.”

In the end it was great advice – I took it earlier this year and left shortly after Microsoft had given my Yahoo! stock a well-timed bump. But I didn’t think we’d still be talking about all this more than 6 months later. Now I don’t know what to believe – will my mentor’s prediction come true (Yahoo! and AOL become one in the same) or will Microsoft come in again (and give my friends there well-time bump before they leave).

So I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone has been saying on Glassdoor. What I found was surprising…in many ways Yahoo! and AOL are already one in the same. Just take a look below at a few of the review snippits from Yahoo! and AOL employees. Let’s see if you can guess which company the employee is talking about: (answers at the bottom of this post).

Review #1

Clear out the dead weight in sr management, focus on core businesses, and invest heavily in them. Allow business owners to take risks where appropriate and be willing to accept failure as part of the business.”

Review #2

When the rumors start flying, and depending on if your division is likely to be affected, employee morale basically plummets and it seems hardly any work gets done.”

Review #3

There is lots of over-strategizing going on. Decisions are often revisited over and over again. Senior management is often afraid to make difficult decisions. As a result of these factors, teams and projects spend a lot of time spinning in circles, rather than executing and moving forward.”

If you want change at Yahoo!, you’ll see that selling out to Microsoft is not looking so bad anymore. And when 28% of the AOL reviews already mention the word “layoffs”, that can’t be a good sign (though it may be quite prophetic).

I’m not saying Microsoft is perfect, but it sure seems like the better of the two options to me. You’ll get your stock bump, you can leave (either by choice or with layoff), and life will go on. Yes it will be sad, but it will be better than living through another several months of uncertainty and speculation.

Answers: (1) Yahoo! Product Manager (2) AOL Principal Software Engineer (3) Yahoo! Director

Want more? See all the company reviews for Yahoo!, AOL, or Microsoft on Glassdoor.com

Yahoo! – Ménage à Mess is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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1. Microsoft and Yahoo Announce Partnership; What Could this Mean for Employees?
2. Yahoo CEO Bartz Leaves With 33% Approval Among Employees
3. Yahoo CEO Gives Herself ‘B-’; 54% Of Employees Approve Of Bartz

Amazon.com Office in Seattle

Balanced, thorough, and honest. That’s the best way to describe this month’s winning review. Though not the most positive, this Amazon.com review almost feels like advice from one friend to another. That’s what the Glassdoor community is all about. Take a look and we think you’ll agree why this review stands out:

The culture has a sense of fun to it but it masks disrespect for the people working for management. There is a clear assumption that management knows best in every way, and so they have to watch over every detail to ensure that the dumb workers do not screw something up. This will just suck your soul – there is no presumption that you know what you are doing because you earned the job there.”

And, for those of you considering a career at Amazon, here’s your warning:

Within the company, the implications of this micromanagement attitude are well known – the company consistently misses goals for retention of its best performing employees and I believe that is because smart and able people do not like having no freedom to make decisions or priorities and do not like being treated like they do not know what they are doing.”

But this review was not all negative, there are also several positives to highlight from this review:

Many times we made decisions that were bad for the company short-term but better for the customer. Great to be guided by what’s good for the customer.”

Strong sense of innovation – they try to do things in a new way and think big and ambitiously. You will have the opportunity to build interesting products and features.”

And as you might expect from a winning review, there is also some thoughtful and actionable advice to management:

Think about a succession planning – Jeff has such iron grip on the company that it will be lost without him. Encourage some bottom-up development and decision-making: Start a new group and isolate it from the old-school management so they can’t interfere.”

This Glassdoor user will receive $500 for taking the time to offer a thoughtful and balanced look at life inside Amazon.com. You could be our next winner, so keep those reviews coming!

Better Late Than Never – September’s Review of the Month Winner is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Related posts:

1. First “Review of the Month” winner
2. August’s Review of the Month
3. July’s Review of the Month

About a week ago we achieved a major Glassdoor milestone – we crossed the 100,000 mark for total approved reviews and salaries. That’s a BIG number to hit in just over 100 days since launch – and we have users in over 90 countries to thank for this success. It’s become more and more obvious that the need for transparency in the workplace knows no boundaries, so we will continue working hard for you.

Thankfully with our “give-to-get” model, it should get easier and easier. It may not be obvious, but this big number is just the beginning. With our “give-to-get” model, the more we have to offer new users, the more likely they are to post their own review or salary (and join our community). And so it goes – it’s a model that supports itself – so thanks everyone for helping us get that ball rolling.

But that’s not the only thing that’s getting better. We continue to listen to your feedback, and this week we pushed out several new features that are worth noting. The most obvious of which is a new home page to help you find the most relevant reviews and salaries, but we also updated My Account to allow you to edit/remove your previous posts, and we’ve added the ever important “remember me” feature to our login page for those of you that keep forgetting your username or password.

We also began laying the groundwork for a few other major improvements to search – so there’s lots more to come, hopefully we can get you to check back with us in the weeks and months ahead as we roll out these new features. And please keep sending your feedback – we’re listening.

Glassdoor Breaks 100K and Keeps Getting Better is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Related posts:

1. Glassdoor Takes Its Own Medicine
2. Glassdoor.com – Not Just for the Americans
3. Glassdoor Partners With CollegeRecruiter.com To Better Help Students In Search For Jobs

Yesterday, John Donahoe, the new CEO of eBay, announced he would be “streamlining” – otherwise known as laying off 10% of their workforce and letting go of several hundred temporary positions (1,600 jobs in total). Layoffs by themselves are not surprising in this economy, but if you’ve been reading any of the eBay reviews from the last month you’d know that that employees themselves will be looking for John himself to be included in this round of cuts.

	Company	CEO	Approval Rating
	Motorola	Greg Brown	10.6%
	Rain Bird	Anthony LaFetra	11.4%
	AOL	Randy Falco	13.4%
	EDS	Ron Rittenmeyer	13.5%
	Computer Sciences	Mike Laphen	19.3%
	Wal-Mart	H. Lee Scott Jr.	23.5%
	eBay	John Donahoe	25.2%
	Nortel Networks	Mike S. Zafirovski	25.5%
	UBS	Marcel Rohner	27.0%
	Sun Microsystems	Jonathan Schwartz	28.9%

With a dismal 25.2% CEO approval rating (among the 10 worst with 50 or more reviews), employees haven’t been holding back. Whether its managements need for yet another re-org, change upon change that shows a lack of understanding and appreciation for the eBay ecosystem, or concerns about management killing the “cash cow” or “golden goose” (take your pick) – eBay employees have been especially active on Glassdoor lately.

eBay is pure chaos every day. Upper management is constantly changing which means regular re-orgs. We’re a horizontal org, then a vertical one, and back and forth. We work in centralized teams, then six months later we’re decentralized. Employees don’t feel confident that the initiative they’re working on today will be around next month or even next week.” — Program Manager in San Jose

Crazy hours doing crazy things that are alienating everyone – employees, sellers, buyers, shareholders, analysts. Anyone with a stake in eBay is wondering what the hell is going on, or we would wonder if we weren’t so exhausted. We do things, people get upset, we change them, and upper management keeps asking us to make the same mistakes.” — Project Manager in San Jose

Donahoe has made eBay a miserable debacle and it’s getting worse every day…I never thought I would say this, but I miss Meg! Come back Meg!!!!!” — Software Engineer in San Jose

I guess it’s not surprising that this last employee is looking for Meg to return, her approval rating was 75% when she stepped down (3x that of John’s).

There are definitely strong feelings here, so let’s look for a positive – the employees are passionate (and so he has that going for him – which is nice!). Let’s hope that Jon can turn that passion into something positive. Our “hitlist” of the CEOs with the lowest Glassdoor approval ratings has already predicted the departures of CEOs at WaMu, AMD, and Alcatel-Lucent – you have to wonder who will be next? After all, employees know best.

eBay Layoffs – Will Donahoe Be Next? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Related posts:

1. eBay Employees Recall Work Environment Under Whitman, HP’s New CEO
2. Tech CEO Report Card: Schmidt Goes At All-Time High Approval Rating; eBay’s Donahoe Climbs As Yahoo’s Bartz Falls In Past Year
3. CEO Approval Ratings Forecast Job Tenure

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 industry, AIG is always in the spotlight. This is definitely a double edged sword. Things are easily blown out of proportion and misunderstood by the outside world…and then AIG has to react and waste money and resources on the wrong things at times, just to appease the public eye.” (AIG Employee Review 8/8/08)

This review even went so far as to call AIG a “1,000 pound gorilla that, until recently, made money in spite of itself.” (AIG Employee Review 7/9/08) and credited its size with change that comes at a “pre-global warming glacial pace.” Another review even went so far as to say “It’s too large. It’s so large it’s like working for a large branch of government.” (AIG Employee Review 7/22/08) And that was before the bailout announcement – I wonder what it feels like now?

Even with all this, the reviews since the bailout have been fairly balanced. Most importantly, most of the reviews are offering some fairly consistent advice to senior management – improve communication and find ways to retain top talent.

So let’s see what we can do Mr. Liddy. Your predecessor (CEO Robert Willumstad) had a disappointing 23% Glassdoor CEO approval rating before being ousted on September 18th. With all this great advice from your employees, maybe you’ll be able to do a bit better.

AIG – An Inside Look is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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1. Inside Yahoo: Employees Sound Off In Post-Bartz Era
2. Mobile Company Employees Report What It’s Like on the Inside
3. Healthcare Workers Needed: Glassdoor Offers Inside Look at Major Healthcare Companies

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 (17% disapprove), something started to dawn on us. Were these reviews from…Dunder Mifflin?

We all know there’s speculation out there that maybe the popular TV show The Office, which satires American office life, is modeled after one of the office giants. We are huge fans, so in anticipation of the fifth season premier we thought we’d share with you just how close fact can mirror fiction.

See if you find these real employee reviews from Glassdoor reminiscent of some of the more eccentric characters from The Office.

FICTION	FACT
	Staples, Inventory Manager in North Haven, CT “I’d rather…” “I’d rather fly a cargo plane full of rubber dog sh*t out of Hong Kong then stay working at Staples.”
	Office Depot, Lead Engineer in Delray Beach, FL “Keep on looking…” “It doesn’t hurt to say thank you from time to time. With the work environment as poor as it is, being gracious for the extra time and effort employees put in, a thank you would at least help ease some of the anxiety and poor morale.”
	Office Depot, Account Manager in Indianapolis, IN “I love my job on a day to day basis.” “Right now things are not good…. I am told by those who have been around much longer that the pendulum swings both ways and now it is WAY to the bad. Morale is very bad and I am sick of hearing everyone crab…”
	Office Depot, Project Manager, Delray Beach, FL “Leadership needs to grow a set or leave.” “Ineffective senior management – same stuff over and over and over and over. It’s like Groundhog Day at OD!!”
	Office Depot, Account Manager II in Philadelphia, PA “FLEXIBILITY, MAKING MONEY, TERRIBLE BENEFITS!! OVERALL GOOD PLACE TO WORK” “I hate that we pay so much for our benefits and the only time that is helpful is if I break a leg or slip into a coma.”
	Office Depot, Senior Manager in Delray Beach, FL “Morale sucks!” “The company leadership has no clue right now how to lead the company forward. And the board of directors is stale and also part of the problem.”
	Staples, HR Framingham, MA “Staples is the land of opportunity! For its associates, its customers and its investors!” “Staples is a place of integrity, with a leadership team of highly ethical business leaders. Treatment to the customers is held to that standard as well. There is a pride that is apparent for those of us who work at Staples.”
	Office Depot, Sales Associate in Wichita, KS “We need to get back to the basic principles.” “The company needs to get back to its roots on creating a productive and happy environment for its employees. The company used to have a slogan written on the walls of every store: ‘Our customers mean everything, without them nothing else matters’. Back then the leadership understood that happy customers are created with happy employees. The principles back then were simple and there was no confusion.”

So, whaddya think? Guess there’s a little Dunder Mifflin in every workplace. Find out more about prospective employers and share your own experience by posting an anonymous review of your own at Glassdoor.com.

Life Imitates Art? Office Depot, Staples and Dunder Mifflin is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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1. Dunder Mifflin Salaries Revealed by Glassdoor.com
2. QUIZ: How Much is Your Office Like ‘The Office’?
3. HR Pros Sound Off On Job Satisfaction, Work-Life Balance Edges Up

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 change. Get out there on the teller line, on the floor, and in the back office. Make your own conclusions about what’s working and what’s not. The Senior VPs are great at telling you what you want to hear – how about finding out the real story for yourself?
• Longevity penalty? Recognize the quality of talent you have within the company, and work with HR to find ways to reward that talent instead of always looking to bring people in from the outside. Make it more equitable, reward your talent, and they will pay you back with their loyalty.

Over time, we plan to be able to report on the approval ratings of past CEOs vs. replacement CEOs. For example, we will be able to show how eBay’s John Donahoe (28% approval rating) is doing relative to former CEO Meg Whitman, or what’s been happening at VMware since popular CEO Diane Greene (one of Glassdoor’s most popular CEOs at 84%) was ousted and replaced by Paul Maritz, who now has a 41% approval rating.

For now, we’ve updated our CEO Watch List. Below are the 20 least popular CEOs who have been reviewed by more than 50 employees or more.

Any opinion on who will be the next to fall?

WaMu CEO Bites the Dust – Who’s Next? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Related posts:

1. Glassdoor Q4 CEO Watch List: Another One Bites the Dust – Rob Glaser
2. Bush Should Consider Lowering Salary to Boost Approval Ratings
3. CEO Approval Ratings Forecast Job Tenure

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.”

Their advice to management.
“Talk to employees and listen to what they have to say. Address the issues. This is the last of the great regimes, I think.”

Although this is only one perspective from a big company that operates in 170 countries, we think this is exactly the type of review that can offer valuable insights and perspectives to all those that are considering a job or just looking to get a better understanding of the company. And if you read some of the other reviews, you’ll see that similar undercurrents – I know I would have a few questions to ask if I was interviewing with Hewlett-Packard.

As with our other ‘Review of the Month Winners‘, this employee will receive $500 for taking the time to offer a thoughtful inside look to the community. So keep those reviews coming, we’re already on the look-out for next month’s winner.

August’s Review of the Month is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Related posts:

1. Better Late Than Never – September’s Review of the Month Winner
2. February’s Review of the Month
3. March Review of the Month