How does your CEO stack up?

October 23, 7:39 AMEntry Level Careers ExaminerHeather Huhman

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I say it all the time: company hunt, don’t job hunt. So, how does the CEO at each of the companies you’re hunting stack up? What are people who currently working there say about him or her?

The Glassdoor quarterly report on CEO performance is out, and it seems the down economy and internal actions may have impacted the popularity of CEOs across the board. More than 60 percent of CEOs on both the highest and lowest rated lists recorded a decline in overall approval ratings since the beginning of July while less than 25 percent moved up. New analysis this quarter reveals that, at many companies, opinions of the CEOs vary widely depending on whether an employee works close to the power center in the corporate headquarters or further removed from the CEO in a satellite office.

In fact, 68 percent of CEOs on both the highest and lowest rated lists have higher approval ratings from employees in headquarters than employees working in non-HQ offices.

A perfect example of this phenomenon is Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, who happens to be one of the highest rated CEOs on Glassdoor. While his score has slid from 91 percent approval in Q2 to 76 percent in Q3, most of the decrease has to do with an influx of negative reviews from Netflix operations in Oregon. As of early October, Hastings had a 92 percent approval rating among headquarter employees and 55 percent approval rating aggregated from employees in other locations.

Frost & Sullivan CEO Krishna Srinivasan has moved onto the list as the least favored CEO with a 4 percent approval and 84 percent disapproval rating; Srinivasan’s approval rating is up just one percentage point from early July.

Seven CEOs have been on this list since December 2008: Office Depot’s Steve Odland (7 percent approval, 80 percent disapproval); Rain Bird’s Anthony LaFetra (11 percent approval, 72 percent disapproval); CSAA Inter-Insurance Bureau’s James Pouliot (13 percent approval, 72 percent disapproval); Affiliated Computer Services’ Lynn Blodgett (17 percent approval, 57 percent disapproval); Amgen’s Kevin Sharer (18 percent approval, 54 percent disapproval); eBay’s John Donahoe (20 percent approval, 53 percent disapproval); and, Sun Microsystems’ Jonathan Schwartz (21 percent approval, 57 percent disapproval).

Of these, there are some notable differences among employees by location. For example, Affiliated Computer Services Lynn Blodgett, who has 17 percent approval rating overall has a 36 percent approval rating from employees in the headquarter office, but just 10 percent approval rating outside HQ. However, Corporate Executive Board CEO Thomas Monahan receives only half as much support in his HQ office than in remote locations. In the HQ office located in Arlington, VA, Monahan garners an 18 percent approval rating whereas elsewhere he garners a 36 percent approval rating.

Four out of the top five CEOs reported in Glassdoor’s Q2 report remain among the top five highest rated CEOs this quarter, this includes: General Mills’ Ken Powell (96 percent approval, 3 percent disapproval), Northwestern Mutual’s Edward Zore (90 percent approval, 3 percent disapproval), Apple’s Steve Jobs (90 percent approval, 4 percent disapproval) and Google’s Eric Schmidt (87 percent approval, 4 percent disapproval).

Only General Mills CEO Ken Powell has been among the top five highest rated CEOs for three consecutive quarters.