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Topic: CXO

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

Summary: Employee approval rating of only 35%, down from 49% only a year ago.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

By for Hardware 2.0 |

Glassdoor.com has put together its yearly "Tech Industry Report Card" for technology CEOs, the results of which are based on ratings given to that company's CEOs by employees, and it seems that Microsoft employees don't think much of their current CEO.

How bad did he do? Very badly. Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer took the #3 spot, with an employee approval rating of only 35%, down from 49% only a year ago. He was only 7 percentage points away from the bottom.

By comparison, Apple's CEO Tim Cook was rated at 96%, Google's Larry Page rated at 92%, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg rated at 89%. Only James J. Truchard, CEO of National Instruments, and Tom Georgens, CEO of NetApp, scored a perfect 100% employee approval rating.

So who was voted worse than Ballmer? In the #2 spot was Yahoo's CEO Timothy Morse with a rating of 31%, while Xerox's Ursula Burns took the #1 spot with a miserable 28%.

Is this likely to cause any power shift at the upper echelons of Microsoft. Unlikely. Steve Ballmer has already said that he plans to retire come 2017/2018, and it seems he is sticking to this plan.

Related:

Topics: CXO, Microsoft

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  • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

    Utter Bollo*ks report, who cares about glassdoor.com.
    owlnet
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

      @owlnet
      Apparently you.
      anono
      Reply Vote

    • Evidently

      @owlnet
      You cared enough to read the article!
      use_what_works_4_U
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

      @owlnet
      And ZDNET is #2 worst tech blogging site only second to eWeek, which is #1 worst tech site.
      Ram U
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

        @Rama.NET And yet, here you find yourself.
        Rabidcb
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

        @Rama.NET
        Why should you complain. You're here all the time.
        ScorpioBlue
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

        @Rabidcb, @ScorpioBlue<br>There is nothing wrong in reading horrible sites and horrible blog posts, I think. Is it banned to do so? Also you didn't deny my original statement. :D. Have a happy holiday season.
        Ram U
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

        @Rama.NET <br>But you're complaining about it being the worst. I think it's one of the best since it's a great place to bash Microsoft.<br><br>Stop whining. lol...
        ScorpioBlue
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

    Nothing will change at Microsoft cause Ballmer will still remain the CEO and their stock will continue to go down with no innovation out of the door, mean while Apple will continue to innovate and their stock will continue to rise...
    shellcodes_coder
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

      @shellcodes_coder You are talking about one company spent 14% of its revenue on R&D, and have a number of world leading computer sciences research centers around the world; and another company which spent just 2% of its revenue on R&D or let's say making beautiful cases and totally un-useable keyboards, and spent most of its money on marketing and brain washing ppls. Apple makes more money, but that doesn't mean they actually doing better coming to innovation.
      yoroto
      Reply Vote

      • I wonder... Apple is making money hand over fist so

        @yoroto... if percentages are based on revenue I wonder is Apple's 7 close to MS 14? Hmmmmm? Also despite research centers of which I suspect Apple has some as well and percentages of revenue what is the true meaning is the results of said percentages and research. Do you have the percentage of revenue spent for brain washing numbers by Apple? how about advertising which I assume since you mentioned both they are not one in the same:) Do you have the same for MS? Just curious as to this claim that Apple makes sales based not on customer satisfaction which is very high but rather marketing which they do of course but do they do it so much more so than others? I see MS commercials, Android commercials and yes Apple's ones but how much more does Apple do it than others I wonder? Or is that just an empty claim as well?

        Pagan jim
        James Quinn
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

        @yoroto

        LOL! By comparison to Microsoft, Apple's R&D spending is staggeringly efficient. What did Vista cost in R&D, roughly $6 Billion? Where's the fruit of their R&D investments? Finally, you references to "beautiful cases" demonstrates your ignorance. Please continue though, I find responses like this to be amusing.
        techconc
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

        @yoroto

        Can I add that Apple has no use for R&D. A little copying, a little company buying and one or two reverse engineers. You probably have them confused with a software company ;-)
        tonymcs@...
        Reply Vote

      • Msft spent THREE TIMES as much $$$ as Apple in Advertising

        @yoroto <br><br>"spent most of its money on marketing and brain washing ppls."<br><br>huh? in 2009 Msft spent 3 times as much as Apple for ads, then if you include Msft's partners like dell, HP etc the PC world outspends Apple by a MONSTER amount. Dell with a tiny fraction of Apple's profits spends more on ads than apple in 2009.<br><br>2009 stats link below, 2010 stats are just as amazing but you have to google the financial reports (that's why I used the 2009 as the link has a easy read chart. 2011 stats not out yet). Last year Msft spent $500 million to launch the Windows Phone which is equal to Apple's entire one year ad budget of 2009 (macs, phones, software, stores etc !!!) Who is the one trying its best to brainwash people? lol <br><br> <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2009/10/28/apples-2009-ad-budget-half-a-billion/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2009/10/28/apples-2009-ad-budget-half-a-billion/</a>
        Davewrite
        Reply Vote

    • And you'll continue to troll,

      @shellcodes_coder <br>continuing to make a fool of yourself, so you're right, nothing will change.
      William Farrel
      Reply Vote

  • So 4% of Apple employees are about to be fired

    Remember, you get fired if you make negative comments about Apple to anyone at all. If I knew that I would get fired for not giving my CEO the thumbs up, I would say I was happy with him too.
    toddybottom
    Reply Vote

    • Fairly certain that is NOT Apples policy and you know that much at least:)

      @toddybottom .... Just saying.

      Pagan jim
      James Quinn
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer rated #3 worst tech company CEO ... can you guess who is at #1 and #2?

        @James Quinn
        He just hates that Apple is mentioned.
        daikon
        Reply Vote

    • Bull

      @toddybottom
      You don't know what you are talking about. I worked at Apple for several years and they *encourage* employees to provide feedback about everyone, including anywhere that improvements can be made. Their prohibition on publicly lashing out against the company is no different than most corporations.

      Having "been there, done that" with Apple I think their policy of "Fearless Feedback" is a huge part of their success. But go on, continue spewing unfounded opinions which show off your ignorance.
      use_what_works_4_U
      Reply Vote

      • glassdoor is owned by Apple?

        @macadam
        No, it isn't. Telling an outside company like glassdoor that you aren't happy with your CEO violates Apple's policy about publicly expressing any amount of dissatisfaction with Apple.

        But go on, continue spewing unfounded opinions which show off your ignorance.
        toddybottom
        Reply Vote
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