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

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On Wednesday, Peter Kafka with AllThingsDigital wrote about the Google press conference in which CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brin candidly discussed the next wave in Google culture as they learn from the recession and continue their commitment to innovate. Schmidt, who currently garners an 87% approval rating and 3% disapproval rating, said “you ought to be happy to work at Google…because it’s Google.” But as reported late last month when we compared Google with Yahoo, Schmidt’s approval rating has declined slightly in recent months.

However, is Schmidt’s claim true? Is working at Google enough to keep employees satisfied with their work? As of right now – with national unemployment at 9.8% – probably. Even more so given the fact that only 16% of those who have interviewed at Google have received an offer according to Glassdoor interview reviews. But when the economy recovers it will be interesting to see if  all this will change; according to the recent Glassdoor  confidence survey, one quarter of 18-44 year olds expect to look for a new job  at that time.

Google employees give the company a 4.0 (satisfied) rating which is something to be proud of – it means employees generally like the company, like the leadership, and like their jobs. Plus, the Glassdoor analytics team evaluated Google company reviews to determine if employees showed any growing concern over cutbacks in perks (food), worries of increasing bureaucracy, or perhaps more layoffs, but it seems rather that employees are humming along. In fact, nearly a third (31%) of employees talk about the perks and more than one out of  ten employees (13%) talk about Google’ s innovation.

Although, you can find some less than favorable feedback about Google from employees…

Google has become very hierarchical, political, and bureaucratic. Over the years, management has distanced itself from its employees and become more and more arrogant. – Sales (Location n/a)

Getting big and bureaucratic (e.g., launch process long and painful) – Senior Software Engineer (Mountain View, CA)

They also point out opportunities for improvement like:

Diversify into more areas besides the “core” area of search. Google has so much cash — use it.. For example, consumer devices.. phones, video games, set-top boxes, etc. – SWE III (Mountain View, CA)

Or…

I think management would do well to learn to have fewer meetings, and focus on working more. Management focuses too much on the future plans and creating processes and does not tend to the processes that are already in place. – Technical Support Analyst (Thornton, CO)

And…

Focus more on enabling innovation to happen, and planning career paths for your employees. – Product Manager (Mountain View, CA)

To keep employees satisfied, as a prior comment points out, management may want to explore the area employees report lowest satisfaction: career opportunities with a 3.3 (neutral) rating. One employee reports that times are changing for all and opportunities for professional growth remain within product development:

A few years ago during the internet boom we all received fat raises so our salaries would keep pace with the booming Silicon Valley. Well, those days are over, and look how well most of those start-ups with their extravagant compensation packages did. You want a fatter paycheck? Create some revolutionary product that raises profits: your paycheck is tied to Google’s bottom line. – Accountant (Location n/a)

Do you work at Google? Did you?  What do you think? Is this just part of moving from start up in a garage to life as a start up to life as 20,000-employee company.

Google Hits Reset on Company Culture is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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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

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