Chances are the Steve Odland, the CEO and chairman of Office Depot, Inc., didn’t get a “World’s Best Boss” mug from his employees this year.
Odland, who has been at Office Depot since 2005, topped the list of naughtiest executives on the recently released annual December list of naughty and nice CEOs put together by the web site Glassdoor.com.
The rankings are compiled using anonymous submissions from employees. At least 50 workers at any one company must submit reviews for their CEO to be included for consideration.
Reviews from 73 Office Depot workers averaged out to a 4 percent approval rating and 80 percent disapproval rating for Odland.
“Who’s in charge at Office Depot and who was stupid enough to put them in charge?” asked a management level employee from Melbourne, Fla., in his or her review.
“Office Depot needs to get back on track,” advised a customer service specialist from Sugar Land, Texas.
The reviews flowed in during a difficult year for Office Depot, as the company was hit by weakened demand for office products from small businesses and consumers.
The company’s stock price fell from $15.54 at the beginning of February to $1.45 near the end of November.
In December, Office Depot announced plans to close 112 underperforming stores in North America. After these are shut, the company will have 1,163 North American stores. The stock has risen to just under $3 a share.
Before he came to Office Depot, Odland had been the chairman, president and CEO of AutoZone, Inc. since 2001.
In 2002, Bloomberg Markets Magazine named him the top new CEO of the year.
Odland came to AutoZone with extensive experience in the food industry, having served as chief operating officer of Ahold USA, Inc., the supermarket retailer. Previous to that he spent 16 years at General Mills in a variety of capacities.
Anthony W. LaFetra, the CEO of RainBird, a maker of irrigation products, finished in second place on Glassdoor’s list of naughty bosses.
He received an approval rating of 9 percent and a disapproval rating of 75 percent on the basis of reviews from 114 employees.
Randy Falco, CEO and chairman of AOL, was the third least popular CEO followed by Greg Brown of Motorola, Inc. and Ronald A. Rittenmeyer of EDS.
Arthur D. Levinson, the chairman and CEO of Genetech, Inc., topped the list of nice company leaders with a 93 percent approval rating from the 58 employees who submitted reviews.
“I feel very lucky to be a Genetech employee,” wrote a clinical specialist from South San Francisco.
Steve Jobs of Apple, Inc. followed Levinson on the nice list with an approval rating of 90 percent.
Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Eric E. Schmidt of Google, Inc., and Alan G. Lafley of Proctor & Gamble Co., followed Jobs, each man getting an 88 percent approval rating.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment