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SAP Employees More Satisfied Than Oracle Employees; Will It Help Them To Retain Customers Following Copyright Suit?

Glassdoor Team — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:39:46 +0000

Last week news broke that German-based software company SAP faces $1.3 billion jury verdict for stealing Oracle’s intellectual property. As the Associated Press reported, the jury in the case found that SAP’s behavior in plundering software and documents from rival Oracle Corp.’s secured websites was so egregious that it awarded Oracle nearly all of the damages it was seeking.

While SAP decides whether to appeal the decision, we turned to the employees to find out how these companies internal reputations are faring. To date, SAP holds a slightly higher company rating than Oracle, and SAP’s co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe share an 81% approval rating, just three percentage points higher than Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

But will SAP be able to persevere with its more satisfied workforce? Only time will tell.

In looking at more specific workplace satisfaction ratings, it’s interesting to note that SAP has a clear advantage when it comes to employee morale: SAP receives a 3.6 (satisfied) rating compared to Oracle’s 3.1 (OK) rating. It’s also worth pointing out that another strong area for SAP are ratings for fairness & respect: SAP receives a 3.2 (OK) rating and Oracle receives a 2.8 (OK) rating. Will SAP employee ratings hold as the impact of the suit and public notoriety sets in?

Curious what else employees have to say about working at these two companies? Below are some recent reviews shedding light on the culture within these companies.

In the SAP company reviews on Glassdoor, we find employees speaking highly about team culture, employee empowerment and notable brand name:

“Strong brand name, good reputation, good benefit, combination of business knowledge and technology skills, solid customer base, relax working environment,” - a SAP employee

“I’ve never seen a business where information is shared so freely among co-workers and teams. It’s a very entrepreneurial company, so you can really mold your experience here depending on what you are interested to do.” – SAP Solution Manager

“SAP is looking to change for the better – to empower employees, become more agile, sort out work life balance,” – SAP employee

Over at Oracle, employees write in about the senior leadership and the intense work ethic:

“Executive management is really strong at running a business and making it profitable.” – Oracle Principle Product Manager

“Great to participate in a winning company. Management is brilliant.” – Oracle employee

“Incredible, hard-working people, with great personalities and very strong work ethic; slackers are weeded out and don’t last.” – Oracle Senior Director

Do you work at SAP or Oracle? Share a company review and tell us what it’s like where you work. Does all this public and legal attention of your employer impact your job?

SAP Employees More Satisfied Than Oracle Employees; Will It Help Them To Retain Customers Following Copyright Suit? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Oracle’s Sun Acquisition Complete; Sun CEO To Be Cut

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:57:31 +0000

As of today, Oracle’s acquisition of Sun is complete, according to reports by the Associated Press. Based on commentary from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, this acquisition means bad news to thousands. Oracle has plans to lay off approximately 2,000 people in the first few months, primarily Sun employees, and more layoffs are expected to occur down the line.

Larry Ellison also stated that, as part of the upcoming layoffs, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz will likely be ousted from the company. To Sun employees this may come as no surprise — according to Glassdoor’s CEO Watch List, which evaluates the 25 lowest rated CEOs, Schwartz has been consistently noted for his dismal approval ratings. Based on the most recent Watch List, Schwartz held a low 20% approval rating, and it’s dropped even further to 19% in just 26 days. He has continued to see his approval rating decline for the past four consecutive quarters: Q309 he held a 21% approval rating, Q209 he held a 23% approval rating, and held on to a 25% approval rating in Q109.

Sun Microsystems Reviews – Glassdoor Review

Oracle Reviews – Glassdoor Review

Schwartz will be the 8^th Watch List CEO to leave his post since Glassdoor began monitoring the lowest rated executives in 2008. He joins Rob Glaser of Real Networks as the second tech CEO to leave the building in 2010 (Glaser announced he was stepping down earlier this month). Similar to Schwartz, Glaser held a 21% approval rating at the time of his departure and had been on the CEO Watch List for four consecutive quarters.

Here are some recent Sun company reviews that show how Schwartz has earned such a low approval rating among employees, and providing perhaps a clearer picture as to why we may soon see Schwartz’s departure from the company:

“Management has seemed lost and cannot direct the ship. Then in April of 2009, Oracle announced they were purchasing Sun. Management has basically checked out since the announcement.” – Sun Microsystems Senior Program Manager (Menlo Park, CA)

“For the past 8 months Sun has operated under the uncertainty of pending acquisition from Oracle. This has led to a lot of internal stress and “paralysis” within the company. Top management has been missing in action for the past 8 months and it often feels like we are a ship without a sail in a challenging business environment.” – Sun Microsystems Supply Chain Manager (Location n/a)

“Jonathan Schwartz has not shown the ability to heed or learn from advice.” – Sun Microsystems Engagement Manager (Location n/a)

“Senior management lost track of the health of the company. Even with year after year of layoffs and management did not do any major restructuring to make the company profitable.” – Sun Microsystems Software Engineering Director (Menlo Park, CA)

And in advice to senior management, a Sun Microsystems Product Marketing Manager (Menlo Park, CA) adds, “Please take your parachute and scoot. Larry Ellison is just what the Dr ordered. SUN will benefit from some discipline.”

It will be interesting to see how Sun and Oracle employees react as company cultures merge under the leadership of Ellison. We will keep you posted on how Larry Ellison fares with his growing employee base (he currently garners a 62% approval from Oracle employees), and we’ll be sure to give you the inside scoop if Jonathan Schwartz pops up at the helm of a new company.

Oracle’s Sun Acquisition Complete; Sun CEO To Be Cut is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Oracle Shareholders Not the Only Ones to Complain About Ellison’s Salary

Glassdoor Team — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:12:40 +0000

It was announced today that Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle has agreed to be paid a salary of $1 for the upcoming fiscal year, down from the $1 million he got in the 2009 fiscal year. The move comes after Ellison was criticized at last fall’s annual meeting for making $543.8 million when he exercised 36 million stock options. And it’s not only the stockholders expressing concerns over Ellison’s significant executive compensation.

Here’s what employees have to say:

Stock option grants are small and infrequent while Larry and his cronies give themselves millions every year. – Oracle Director (Redwood City, CA)

NO pay raises. No advancement opportunities. Too many management levels; almost no real communication from upper management. Executives get high pay and stock options; workers get nothing. Stock purchase plan for employees is a joke. – Oracle Systems Engineer (Location n/a)

Company does not reward company loyalty. Employees promoted from within are usually paid 30-40% below external hires. – Oracle Sales Representative (Dublin, Ireland)

Here’s how Oracle employees’ salaries compare to Ellison’s:

Oracle Salaries – Glassdoor Salary

Larry Ellison currently holds a moderate 63% approval rating and a 13% disapproval rating, and interestingly, he falls among the top 100 highest rated CEOs on Glassdoor.com as of today (ranking #85 among CEOs with more than 25 reviews).

Oracle Shareholders Not the Only Ones to Complain About Ellison’s Salary is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Glassdoor’s Blog Highlights: A Roundup

Glassdoor Team — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:26:11 +0000

Feel like you need Cliff Notes to keep up with some blogs? With so much going on with the current job landscape, as well as here at Glassdoor, we thought we’d help you out with some posts you might have missed. Here’s what has been generating the most attention on the Glassdoor blog this past month:

Any topic you’d like to see us cover in the future? Let us know!

Glassdoor’s Blog Highlights: A Roundup is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Oracle to Buy Sun: Larry Ellison to become next Steve Jobs?

Glassdoor Team — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:40:28 +0000

Oracle, based in Redwood City, Calif., announced Monday it had agreed to buy Sun for $9.50 a share in cash, or about $7.4 billion. The deal comes after talks between Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun and IBM Corp. came to a halt.

According to Forbes, the deal also represents a bold move by Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison. And to add on to the story, TechCrunch notes that Larry Ellison has always wanted to be the Steve Jobs of the enterprise IT industry. And with this morning’s announcement, it seems as though he is making a big step toward making Oracle more of a soup-to-nuts provider of enterprise technology.

So how close is Larry Ellison to becoming the next Steve Jobs? According to their respective employees, these two tech giants vary quite widely in terms of their approval rating. Apple‘s Steve Job’s holds a 27 percentage point higher rating that Oracle’s Larry Ellison. In addition, we find that 12% of Oracle employees actually disapprove of the way Ellison manages the company compared to just 2% of Apple employees who disapprove of Jobs.

Glassdoor Report: Apple & Oracle Comparison
Company	CEO Name	CEO Rating	Company Rating
Apple	Steve Jobs	91%	Satisfied (3.8)
Oracle	Larry Ellison	64%	Neutral (3.2)

So what can Larry Ellison do to improve? Below is what Oracle employees list as cons about working at Oracle which in turn gives some big hints as to what Larry could work on and in turn hopefully push up his approval rating.

“Performance feedback is very lacking. I’ve been here 4 years and gotten 1 formal review. In addition to this, getting hired at Oracle can take some time, sometimes people have to wait a long time (up to a year) for Larry to approve their offer…. yes, that Larry.” – Senior Member of Technical Staff (Nashua, NH)

“The career planning role of HR is non-existent; they’re just administrative drones. There are lots of organization silos, even duplicative functions, who all care about reporting up the command structure rather than work together. All of this also translates into the company being weak at home-grown execution, and has a lack of vision in segments that Larry Ellison is not yet convinced about.” – Product Management Director (Redwood City, CA)

“Very process driven to the point of being absurd. No authority to do anything. Everything must be approved through multiple levels of management up to and including Larry Ellison. Even for minor contact changes. Not very nimble in the market.” – Sales Representative (Boston, MA)

“The shift in company strategy to grow through acquisitions reduced the motivation to innovate.” – Senior Development Manager (Redwood City, CA)

“Depends on what department you work in, but it’s easy to get lost. Oracle buys so many companies that they just eat you up and forget about you it seems. It’s very easy to have your skills outdated if you work there too long. My department worked on legacy stuff and it was very difficult to get another job with the skill set I had.” – Software Development Engineer (Pleasanton, CA)

Stay tuned as we watch how employees at both Oracle and Sun react to the news of this acquisition. Are you an employee at these companies? Tell us what you think.

Oracle to Buy Sun: Larry Ellison to become next Steve Jobs? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog