A fledgling company going by the name of glassdoor.com is coming up with some interesting numbers for CEO approval ratings across all industries. The CEO ratings, only a portion of what the site offers, are based upon anonymous reviews submitted by current and former employees. The site also collects salary information for companies and posts it so that employees can see whether their level of compensation is on par with the rest of the industry. The catch? You have to post a review to get more then precursory information regarding the company you're interested in.
Fortunately for us, the site is sharing some of that data with the masses. Glassdoor has received some 40,000 reviews on 9,800 companies since launch, one of which is, of course, Apple. The pertinent information here is the approval rating of one Steve Jobs, CEO of the Cupertino-based company. According to SeekingAlpha's coverage, Jobs' approval rating among former and current employees is currently a robust 91 percent. While the company claims that two out of every ten reviews is rejected based on the posting criteria, we have to wonder whether 91 percent is an accurate number.
This is, of course, the same Steve Jobs who is infamous for firing employees on the same elevator as him in the past, and who, in recent years, has been seen throwing digital cameras across the stage at Macworld. I'm not doubting that the majority of Apple employees are satisfied with their CEO's performance and resurrection of the company, but I'm doubting the sample that the number is taken from.
According to the sample information given on glassdoor.com, five of the sample ten reviews are provided by Apple Store employees in retail locations throughout the country, and only one of the ten actually works in Cupertino. While there are 176 reviews total regarding the company, one has to wonder just how many are from people that have no experience actually coming into contact with the CEO.
It seems to me that it would be more appropriate for retail employees to judge the performance of someone in charge of Apple's retail endeavors instead. In the survey's current state, you might as well poll shareholders.
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