Glassdoor Blog » Carol Bartz

Inside Yahoo: Employees Sound Off In Post-Bartz Era

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:05:29 +0000

It’s been almost two months since Carol Bartz was ousted as CEO of Yahoo and the company continues to be a feature story in the news, as rumors have been swirling about the search engine’s next big move. This week alone, Yahoo has made headlines as a result of its annual Product Runway conference which debuted new products like Livestand, and the company’s purchase of Interclick for $270 million.

While Yahoo has been no stranger to the limelight, Glassdoor turns to the employees to get an insider’s perspective as to what it’s been like to work at Yahoo since Bartz left and as the company looks for ways to further innovate.

Advice Yahoo employees have for senior management:

“Yahoo needs a re-boot, it’s time to let go of everyone between manager level and Tim Morse.” – Yahoo Software QA Engineer (New York, NY)

“Be bold and decisive, and create a more unified objective for the company. What is Yahoo today?’” – Yahoo employee (Sunnyvale, CA)

Employee perspective on pros and cons of working at Yahoo:

“It is great to work at Yahoo and I’m proud to be part of it. However, sometimes we just don’t know what our focus is.” – Yahoo Technical Yahoo, Front End Engineer (Sunnyvale, CA)

“[Pros] Yahoo is a great place to get your feet wet with Internet technologies and big datasets. [Cons] Yahoo has been in decline for a long time, and I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. The company has lost a huge amount of talent over the past few years, especially after the search deal with MS.” – Yahoo Scientist (Santa Clara, CA)

“[Pros] It has been a great experience working in Yahoo. [Cons] No future direction is causing some concerns amongst employees.” – Yahoo Vice President (Sunnyvale, CA)

Reaction to Bartz’s ousting and opinion of leadership at the company:

“The board seems to have handled the firing of Bartz rather poorly. It was very abrupt and without any good reason. The executive staff is all fairly new to Yahoo, with many of them coming from Microsoft. It gives the impression that Microsoft is slowly taking over, which is not a good thing from my standpoint.” – Yahoo Software Engineer (Sunnyvale, CA)

“[Pros] I like all the Smart people. [Cons] Senior Management is having tough time understanding all product potential.” – Yahoo Senior Manager (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Hire smart ones [senior leaders]. Find a leader who has online industry experience. Get your innovative ideas marketed before the competitor does.” – Yahoo Senior Systems Engineer (location n/a)

Viewpoint on competitive landscape and company priorities:

“INNOVATE and let the company be engineering driven, for some stupid reason, they’re branding it as a premier digital media company. This doesn’t work dude! Just look at AOL and Demand Media, they are barely alive, so don’t be silly!” – Yahoo Technical Yahoo (location n/a)

“Lack of consistent and lasting strategy translates into sometimes competing priorities within the company and much wasted work. With the right management and strategy, Yahoo could remain a force in its industry.” – Yahoo Senior Director (location n/a)

What’s your perspective on Yahoo as of late? Are you a Yahoo employee? Share a company review.

Inside Yahoo: Employees Sound Off In Post-Bartz Era is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Yahoo CEO Bartz Leaves With 33% Approval Among Employees

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:09:39 +0000

As the world continues to buzz about what’s next for Yahoo after CEO Carol Bartz got fired over the phone, turns out, Yahoo employees may not be so sad to see her go.

According to the nearly 300 Yahoo employee reviews on Glassdoor, Bartz is leaving Yahoo with a cumulative 54% approval rating,and a 46% disapproval rating. The average CEO approval rating on Glassdoor is 62%.

However, as we dug deeper into the data, we found that Bartz’s approval rating has generally been on the decline since late 2010. According to the most recent Yahoo employee reviews, Bartz garnered a 33% approval rating, thus far, during Q3 of 2011. The table below shows how Bartz’s approval rating has changed each quarter since taking the top job at Yahoo in January 2009.

In addition, it’s interesting to note that when former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang left office, he held a 43% approval rating, and a 57% disapproval rating among employees.

Yahoo employees also give the company a 3.2 (OK) rating (ratings based on a 5-point scale). This is slightly higher than the average company rating on Glassdoor, which is a 3.1.

Below is recent commentary from Yahoo employees on what it’s been like to work under Bartz as of late:

Recent Employee Commentary

“No strong leadership with vision & execution. Especially lacks execution.” – Yahoo Principal Engineer (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Be straightforward with the real problems Yahoo is facing and focus on the core business rather than spread the money over many irrelevant projects that are destined to die from the day they start.” – Yahoo Employee (location n/a)

“Very low employee morale is taking a toll on those who still want to work here. Upper management gives the same raa-raa speeches with little to back up the talk.” – Yahoo Employee (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Lack of numbers drive decision making, lack of customer focus. Top leadership denies the world changed so we are still pursuing the portal business when the world rapidly changes to mobile, apps, social networks and location based personal solutions.” – Yahoo Product Manager (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Keep fighting the good fight; keep employees motivated, and reward them for doing well! Do better at identifying top talent and nurturing, stimulating, and retaining that talent.” – Yahoo Technical Yahoo (Sunnyvale, CA)

In advice to senior management, some employees had this to say:

“Go away already!” – Yahoo Web Analytics Manager (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Please stop making senseless speeches about your vision and strategic plans. Instead, focus more on quality engineering and addressing the platform problems. Please don’t attempt to save a few bucks by outsourcing.” – Yahoo Technical (New York, NY)

Tech CEO Report Card: Schmidt Goes At All-Time High Approval Rating; eBay’s Donahoe Climbs As Yahoo’s Bartz Falls In Past Year

Glassdoor Team — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:30:52 +0000

As Google CEO Eric Schmidt prepares to hand over the reins, his employee approval rating is at an all-time high – and the highest among his peer group CEOs, according to new analysis from Glassdoor.com that evaluated employee opinions of 12 large technology companies over the past two years¹. Based on surveys submitted by Google employees over the past 12 months (March 2010-March 2011), Schmidt’s approval rating is 96%, up three points from the prior 12-month period.

He’s followed closely by Apple’s Steve Jobs, who — even while on medical leave — has a 95% approval rating, down 3 points from the prior year. During the same period, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Oracle’s Larry Ellison both dropped four points to 83% and 73% approval respectively.

eBay’s John Donahoe saw the greatest improvement in his approval rating year over year. Between March 2009 and March 2010, he had just a 24% approval rating among employees, whereas between March 2010 and March 2011, he held a 46% approval rating.

Other CEOs on the rise include Intuit’s Brad Smith, who saw an 18-point improvement from 69% approval to 87% in the most recent 12-month period. And, Dell’s Michael Dell saw a 12-point improvement year-over-year, holding an average 48% approval in the past 12 months.

The largest year-over-year decline belongs to Yahoo’s Carol Bartz, indicating her honeymoon may be long over. In the year she started, Bartz maintained a 77% approval rating, which was more than twice the approval rating of her predecessor Jerry Yang, who had a 34% approval upon his departure. In the past 12 months, Bartz’s approval has dropped to 50% after months of declining approval as seen in the line chart below.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer saw the second biggest decline among the dozen CEOs evaluated. Between March 2009 and March 2010, he held an average 46% approval rating, which has dropped to 40% in the past 12 months.

Over the two years, company ratings for the dozen tech companies evaluated remained pretty stable year-over-year. The highest rated is Google at 3.8 (satisfied), followed closely by Adobe (3.6, satisfied), Apple (3.6, satisfied) and Intel (3.6, satisfied). eBay saw the greatest increase, increasing from a 2.7 to a 2.9 (ok) rating in the past 12 months. Amazon slipped during the same period from a 3.3 to a 3.1 (ok) rating.

How will Larry Page rate? We invite Google employees to tell us starting Monday. Even as a co-founder, he has some large shoes to fill. Are you a tech employee? Fill out a Glassdoor survey and tell us how your CEO is doing.

(1) For this report, Glassdoor evaluated company and CEO approval ratings between March 16, 2009 through March 15, 2010, and March 16, 2010 through March 15, 2011.

(2) Glassdoor CEO approval ratings are calculated similarly to presidential approval ratings; Employees are simply asked: “Do you approve of the way your CEO is leading the company?”

Tech CEO Report Card: Schmidt Goes At All-Time High Approval Rating; eBay’s Donahoe Climbs As Yahoo’s Bartz Falls In Past Year is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Yahoo CEO Gives Herself ‘B-’; 54% Of Employees Approve Of Bartz

Glassdoor Team — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:21:34 +0000

Now that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has been in office a year, she felt it was time to do some serious professional evaluation. Well Carol, we couldn’t agree more…especially given that we did try to offer some helpful hints after former CEO Jerry Yang left office and you took the reins.

Yahoo! Reviews – Glassdoor Review

Last Friday, Carol Bartz awarded herself a B- grade for her first year leading the notorious tech giant. So naturally we turn to Yahoo! employees to see how they feel Bartz has been performing. And based on the ratings submitted since Bartz took office, employees award her a 54% approval. By comparison, when Jerry Yang left office he had 34% approval. We have scoured the past 12 months of Yahoo! company reviews to shed some light on what they think Bartz could improve upon:

“Provide a clear direction. Let the employees know what to expect in 6months, or at least prove that you know what to expect.” – Yahoo Software Engineer (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Remove yourself from senior management, jettison the board and regroup with people who are knowledgeable and passionate about this field. The employees and stock-holders have no faith. We’re all looking for better jobs and selling our already undervalued shares.” – Yahoo Senior Director, Product Management (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Listen more to your engineers, prioritizing some of their ideas. Product managers must understand that the engineers can provide and guide ideas for a technological company.” – Yahoo Software Engineer (San Paolo, Brazil)

“The most important asset to an organization is the people! Hire talented, charismatic leaders who lead by example and earn respect of others.” – Yahoo, Technical (location n/a)

“Simplify the core business.” – Yahoo Product Marketing Manager (location n/a)

“It’s time to either come up with something innovative or just sell the business.” – Yahoo Employee (London, UK)

Do you Yahoo! or are you a Yahoo! employee? If so, what do you think Bartz should do to improve the company and its offerings?

Yahoo CEO Gives Herself ‘B-’; 54% Of Employees Approve Of Bartz is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

“Frickin’ Google” – Did Yahoo’s Bartz Have a Reason to Get Mad?

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:34:22 +0000

During Tuesday’s Yahoo! press conference announcing the launch of a $100+ million brand campaign, Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo got fired up following a reporter’s question that led to flurry of frustration that rang through Silicon Valley – and beyond – comparing Google and Yahoo.

Below are some of Bartz’s highlights captured by the San Francisco Chronicle:

“I just want to transplant all you guys out of this sort of cynicism you’re in. I mean, why are you cynical about us? Be cynical about frickin’ Google. Leave us alone.”

“If you don’t like us, just leave us alone, we’ll just deal with our users, because you know what? We do great things for them and we’re excited about what we are.”

Sure there’s added pressure when you’re under the lime light, but was Bartz’s reaction a result of the constant battering or did the press deserve a reality check?

Since Bartz took over the top job at Yahoo!, she’s had the attention of friends and foes to see how she would fair. We decided to do our own digging, turning to the people who know best about Yahoo and Google – the employees. After analyzing company and CEO approval ratings at Google and Yahoo! over the last year, here’s what we found:

Bottom line, Yahoo! employee sentiment about the company has improved since Bartz took over the helm while their chief rival has seen some footing shift. Here are a few highlights from the Glassdoor analytics team:

After nearly nine months in the job, Carol Bartz quickly surpassed her predecessor Jerry Yang in terms of approval rating. Bartz’s approval rating is 55% (disapproval 10%) whereas at his departure, Yang was 34% (45% disapproval)
Although Eric Schmidt has a high cumulative CEO approval rating of 87% (2% disapproval), his trailing 30-day average has declined slightly in recent months but still well ahead of Bartz’s rating.
While Google still rates higher than Yahoo! in terms of overall company satisfaction rating (4.0 versus 3.2 at publish date/time), the trailing 30-day average converged about a month ago as Yahoo ratings rose and Google lowered; Looking at these trailing averages, both companies are now in the neutral to satisfied rating category (3.0 to 3.5).

Here are a few quotes from recent employee reviews of both Google and Yahoo to give some more insight:

Yahoo

“Yahoo! is often spoken of in the shadow of Google – even though Yahoo! is a prime Internet portal. Also, management is not always transparent, for e.g., with the recent Microsoft-yahoo deal.” – Yahoo Senior Software Engineer

“Things have been so muddled for so long that it will take 2-3 years to cut away the fat to get to where yahoo needs to be in terms of systems, operations, product development, and processes.” – Yahoo Ad Operations Manager

“Jerry and Sue were the wrong people to lead the company. That’s fixed now, and friends there seem much more optimistic.” – Yahoo Vice President

“People do not appreciate the great undertaking of maintaining one of the biggest websites on the planet and yet still keep innovating.” – Yahoo Anonymous

Google

“Google is a big company that provides a comfy job but none of the burning desire to go that extra mile because they aren’t making the effort to take you with them.” – Google Senior Engineer

“Google has a tremendous brand equity, incredibly brilliant colleagues, and it has a culture that truly fosters innovation.” – Google Senior Analyst

“The company is getting really big. Products and infrastructures are huge now. Launching new products is getting really hard. Persuading people to go for a new idea can be an endless round of futile meetings.” – Google Product Manager

“Google is a large corporation, and that is starting to show more and more due to the economy.” – Google Account Manager

Do you think Bartz’s reaction was warranted or will Yahoo always be ripe for press scrutiny? Tell us what you think.

“Frickin’ Google” – Did Yahoo’s Bartz Have a Reason to Get Mad? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

February’s Review of the Month

Glassdoor Team — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:54:11 +0000

Recently when we have selected the winning Glassdoor Job Review of the Month, we look for reviews that offer other employees a well-rounded perspective about the job and/or the company. But, February’s winner offers our readers and community members something slightly different. The winner of the February Review of the Month, a Yahoo! Engineering Manager in Sunnyvale, CA, gives feedback that is not only valuable to employees but equally useful to the employer. In the job and company review, you’ll find some insights on what could make Yahoo more satisfying to work at and perhaps a more successful Internet search and navigation services company.

Given that Yahoo! has a new CEO at its helm, the tips that this one employee has to offer may come at an ideal time as the company is looking to reinvigorate its business. Carol Bartz, the CEO of Yahoo, receives a moderate 62% approval rating – this rating may improve if she takes some of the following employee feedback:

In advice to senior management, this engineering manager suggests:

“Stop reorganizing. Start prioritizing. Stop doing so much, start doing something better. Focus people on high-priority projects, and spend the time to kill off low priority projects. Start explaining what the long-term company strategy is.”

Interestingly, approximately two weeks after this review was published on Glassdoor, Carol Bartz posted a message on the Yahoo corporate blog that in effect demonstrated her commitment to, as she coined it, having the brand kick ass again. Bartz commented, “I’m singularly focused on providing you with awesome products. Period.”

However on the downside of this reviewer’s suggestions, Bartz also announced her reorganization plans. She reported that she would be “rolling out a new management structure that will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet.”

The reviewer’s suggestions to management appear to stem from the downsides of working at the company:

“The culture has decayed over the last 5 years, as the old guard has gotten complacent, then retired. Yahoo never recovered from losing the search war to Google, and the company morale reflects it. Constant reorganizations and people shuffling mean that there’s really no career path.

Although, Yahoo’s battles have been quite public over the past year this one employee shows that this doesn’t mean all is lost. On the positive side, the employee comments on the impressive talent pool that remains at Yahoo. In addition, the Glassdoor community member mentions that:

“There are still some pockets of creativity where interesting things are happening. The level of pride and company identification is very high: people take “wearing the purple” pretty seriously.”

Thank you to this employee for their great feedback. If there are other fellow Yahoo Yodelers out there who haven’t submitted a review on Glassdoor, tell us what you think about your job and what suggestions you have for Bartz and upper management.

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