Although rumors often cast him as an apoplectic, purple-faced tyrant stamping through his Cupertino headquarters, Apple’s Steve Jobs is the most beloved of any major tech CEO by his employees, according to a Silicon Valley Insider chart.
Ranked by his own employees, His Steveness hovers at the 95% mark as far as employee approval ratings go, relegating the naysayers as a small minority of malcontents.
More surprising than Jobs’ approval rating, though, is that of unctuous, toad-like and reportedly misanthropic Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: he’s almost tied with Jobs. Google’s Eric Schmidt comes in third just a point behind Zuckerberg, while Yahoo’s Carol Bartz and Microft’s Steve Ballmer hover with approval ratings around 50%.
Looking at this chart, what seems to be clear is that employee approval rating of a CEO has a lot less to do with the CEO’s personality or affability and a lot more to do with the entire company being on top. That makes sense: when a company’s doing well, employees can be proud of where they work, and their work is more likely to be rewarded with perks and benefits. Not having to ignore Steve Ballmer’s ubiquitous pit stains seems to help too.
