Glassdoor recently completed a survey which creates what it calls its “CEO Watch List”. It is not surprising that among the firms with detested CEOs are operations that have a history of bad management, layoffs, and investor frustration. Many of the companies also get low marks from the Glassdor corporate rating system.
Dillard’s (NYSE:DDS) has had a history of same store sales declines and layoffs. CEO Bill Dillard II is disliked by his employees. So is Glenn Tilton of United (NASDAQ:UAUA) and Julian Day at Radio Shack (NYSE:RSH), another faltering retailer. In the same category, W. Bruce Johnson at Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) is held in remarkably low esteem.
The top of the list is filled with companies that have had long successful runs as business and are often led by inspirational CEOs; Steve Jobs at Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Gary Kelly at Southwest (NYSE:LUV), and Eric Schmidt at Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). The biggest surprise at the top end of the highest rated CEO list is Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS). He does make his employees a lot of money.
The rest of the list:
| Company | Company Rating | CEO | CEO Approval Rating | Lowest Rated Company |
| Frost & Sullivan | 2.2 | Krishna Srinivasan | 3% | |
| LexisNexis | 2.3 | Andy Prozes | 7% | Yes |
| Xilinx | 2.2 | Moshe Gavrielov | 10% | Yes |
| United Airlines | 2.0 | Glenn F. Tilton | 11% | Yes |
| Rain Bird | 2.2 | Anthony LaFetra | 11% | Yes |
| CSAA Inter-Insurance Bureau | 2.4 | James R. Pouliot | 11% | |
| Nortel Networks | 2.8 | Mike S. Zafirovski | 11% | |
| Dillard’s | 2.3 | Bill Dillard II | 12% | |
| Delphi | 2.7 | Rodney O’Neal | 13% | |
| RadioShack | 2.3 | Julian C. Day | 14% | Yes |
| Level 3 Communications | 2.3 | Jim Crowe | 14% | Yes |
| Gibson Guitar | 1.9 | Henry E. Juszkiewicz | 14% | Yes |
| Panduit | 2.4 | Jack Caveney | 15% | Yes |
| Affiliated Computer Services | 2.3 | Lynn R. Blodgett | 15% | Yes |
| Spherion | 2.2 | Roy G. Krause | 16% | Yes |
| Corporate Executive Board | 2.6 | Thomas L. Monahan III | 18% | |
| Kimberly-Clark | 2.8 | Tom Falk | 18% | |
| Sears | 2.7 | W. Bruce Johnson | 18% | |
| Rite Aid | 2.5 | Mary F. Sammons | 19% | |
| Gannett | 2.6 | Craig A. Dubow | 19% | |
| Pfizer | 3.0 | Jeff Kindler | 19% | |
| eBay | 2.8 | John J. Donahoe | 20% | |
| Sun Microsystems | 3.2 | Jonathan I. Schwartz | 20% | |
| Office Depot | 2.7 | Steve Odland | 20% | |
| Amgen | 3.1 | Kevin W. Sharer | 20% | |
| Glassdoor Report: Highest Rated CEOs as of 1/1/10 | ||||
| Company | Company Rating | CEO | CEO Approval Rating | Best Place to Work |
| General Mills | 4.4 | Ken Powell | 96% | Yes |
| Southwest Airlines | 4.7 | Gary C. Kelly | 94% | Yes |
| Apple | 3.8 | Steve Jobs | 91% | Yes |
| Northwestern Mutual | 4.0 | Edward J. Zore | 90% | Yes |
| Procter & Gamble | 4.0 | A.G. Lafley | 87% | Yes |
| Goldman Sachs | 3.8 | Lloyd C. Blankfein | 86% | Yes |
| 3.9 | Eric E. Schmidt | 86% | Yes | |
| BlackRock | 3.3 | Laurence D. Fink | 84% | |
| CareerBuilder | 3.8 | Matt Ferguson | 82% | Yes |
| FactSet | 3.8 | Philip A. Hadley | 81% | |
| Chevron | 3.9 | Dave O’Reilly | 80% | Yes |
| Edelman | 3.7 | Richard W. Edelman | 80% | Yes |
| Rackspace | 3.9 | A. Lanham Napier | 79% | Yes |
| Overstock.com | 4.0 | Patrick M. Byrne | 79% | |
| Marriott | 3.7 | Bill Marriott Jr. | 78% | Yes |
| Scottrade | 3.7 | Rodger O. Riney | 78% | Yes |
| USAA | 3.5 | Joe Robles Jr. | 77% | |
| Edward Jones | 3.8 | Jim Weddle | 77% | Yes |
| National Instruments | 3.7 | James J. Truchard | 76% | Yes |
| Schlumberger | 3.6 | Andrew Gould | 75% | Yes |
| Costco Wholesale | 3.5 | Jim Sinegal | 75% | |
| Netflix | 3.5 | Reed Hastings | 75% | |
| Caterpillar | 3.6 | Jim Owens | 74% | Yes |
| salesforce.com | 3.6 | Marc Benioff | 73% | |
| Citrix Systems | 3.6 | Mark B. Templeton | 73% | |
Douglas A. McIntyre
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks