In terms of employee satisfaction, Southwest ranked the highest low-cost airline and Continental received top score as traditional network leader. But when it comes to customer satisfaction, JD Power reports that JetBlue ranks #1 for low-cost airlines and Alaska takes the lead as the traditional network airline. As we dug deeper into our airline employee reviews and ratings, we found four of the airlines (Alaska, JetBlue, Northwest and Southwest) had Glassdoor ratings that were significantly different than their JD Power ratings.  Although JD Power gave JetBlue and Alaska Airlines perfect scores, workers gave them neutral scores. 

To help show why Southwest and Continental rate so highly by employees check out some of these comments:

Continental Airlines

CEO Larry Kellner’s Approval Rating: 77%

“Pros: Best reasons to work for Continental are the Benefits, Work Schedule and People I work with!!

Cons: Schedules change every month and base on senority you may have to work Holidays. However, there is always a way to change your schedule to hold days off. Dealing with Passengers who are not familar with the rules of the airline industry and become confrontational is hard to deal with. Carry on baggage has been an issue during boarding. Also having to deal with cramped seating during a long, full flight.”

“Pros: I see the world and get paid for it. Most of my coworkers are fantastic people and we have a lot of fun working together. I’m a reserve flight attendant which is what every flight attendant will be the first few years so you never know what you’re going to fly. Sometimes it’s exciting and sometimes it can make you crazy.

Cons: Being on reserve and dealing with crew scheduling. Reserve life is like being back in college. There are days you will just sit around and wonder if you’re going on a trip and then there are times when you’re used so much you just sleep on your layover and relax.”

Southwest Airlines

CEO Gary Kelly’s Approval Rating: 89%

 ”Pros: Southwest is the “Disneyland” of the airline industry. Our corporate structure and business model reflect excellency and efficiency within the industry. We at Southwest are proud to work for a company that cares as much about its employees as our customers. It shows in the way we do business. Our moral is high, due to excellent leadership and the high standards we hold, regardless our position within the company. Management is excellent as well. Communication and a healhty, happy work environment add to our happiness as well as job security. Our benefits are the best; our compensation above average. No wonder we are known as the “LUV” airline!

Cons: I see no downside of working at Southwest. I am grateful to work in a time when so many are unemployed.”

“Pros: This is a company that TRULY puts its Employees first and puts a lot of effort towards maintaining a fun-loving attitude in the workplace. Not only does the company know how to have a good time, but they are extremely supportive in helping you find the department and position which truly suit you best and serve your interests.

Cons: The only downside I can think of is that the salaries might be a little lower than market average, but I believe that is more than offset by the level of job security and the extremely generous benefits packages offered.”

It’s not all too surprising to see why the employees at these two airlines speak so favorably of the company. However, we discovered that working at an airline is not for the faint of heart — it was common for employees to mention the well-known cyclical nature of the industry.   

At the end of the day winning a JD Power customer satisfaction award does not automatically equal out to winning employee support.   So for those packing their bags and getting ready to hit the runway, keep in mind that golden rule because you just never know when a happy employee may in turn mean a happier you.

Editor’s Note: Sadly, this post was prophetic - it was written before we received the very sad news this morning that a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death as people rushed into a Long Island Wal-Mart on Black Friday.  Glassdoor extends its deepest sympathies to those that were injured or died, and their families, in this senseless violence.  [11/28/2008 10:20am PST]

Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season which falls the day after thanksgiving, may be particularly hectic for Wal-Mart employees this year. That’s because high jobless rates and record low consumer confidence will cause holiday shoppers to seek out deep discounts in order to stretch their holiday budget further. Wal-Mart, known for its low prices, is a natural place for discount seeking shoppers to turn. This added influx of holiday shoppers may be bad news for Wal-Mart employees, who are already “Dissatisfied” with the overall work experience at Wal-Mart, which rates lowest among employees of major retailers on Glassdoor.com

We compared employer ratings of frontline sales associates at major retail chains and found Wal-Mart to be at the bottom of the list of places to work, with overall scores of “Dissatisfied”. Other retailers, Best Buy and Nordstrom topped the list with overall scores from their sales associates of “Satisfied”.

Retail Chain	Sales Associate’s overall employer rating:
Best Buy	3.7		“Satisfied”
Nordstrom	3.7		“Satisfied”
Circuit City	3.0		“Neutral”
Target	2.7		“Neutral”
Wal-Mart	2.3		“Dissatisfied”

Looking a little deeper, we find that Wal-Mart sales associate’s rate Wal-Mart particularly low for Employee Moral and Fairness and respect:

Sales Associate’s category ratings of their employers

So what’s to make of all this? Well, if you find yourself holiday shopping at Wal-Mart this year, please try to be extra kind to the sales associates – chances are they are they may be having a bad day.

Here’s how:
1. Visit the Glassdoor voting form
2. Enter your email address and click ‘Vote’
3. Confirm your email when mashable sends you a confirmation email.

Public voting closes on Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 11:59 PM PST (-8 GMT).

The final round of voting begins on December 3, 2008 and winners will be announced on Tuesday, December 16, 2008.

Rules for public voting: http://mashable.com/openwebawards/rules/

Enrique T. Salem, Symantec’s current chief operating officer, will take the lead and replace Thompson as the top executive at the security software firm. 

So as a courtesy to the CEO, employees are offering up advice on what the company needs:

“Pay your employees better. Demand more - there are too many people that are doing too little, and when job cuts happen you need to cut them first. Other more competent people are ready to step into their place.” 

“Stop attempting to force tech support in India down customers throats. Allow support engineers to specialize in specific product areas so they can become experts. Attempting to have support engineers know something about everything causes support cases longer to get resolved. Passing a customer who has multiple issues to different support technicians who are experts in the product area is not bad, it can help resolve a case faster. This is an example of a customer not necessarily knowing what is best for them when the complain about getting sent to different support engineers to resolve multiple problems.” 

“Pick something you want Symantec to be the best at, and execute to that goal. Being the most diverse, least integrated conglomerate of little software companies in the world does not count as a goal. Best consumer anti-virus company, or best enterprise storage software company are valid goals. Execute toward one of those goals with innovation, action, integrity and respect, and customers will reward Symantec with market share.”

 “Please come down into the trenches and see that the vast majority of your employees want to be better employees and they want to progress, just as you did, but in their own area of expertise. Please offer us training and viable career paths within the company.”

By adhering to some good constructive advice from employees, Salem’s future as CEO could be an all around positive experience. We’ll keep you updated on Symantec reviews once Salem takes the reigns in April as to how employees are responding to his approach to company leadership.

Stay tuned…

So new CEO, here’s your chance - listen close to what your soon to be employees have to say:

Business Development Manager in Sunnyvale, CA

“Big layoffs to reduce expenses. Figure out what Yahoo stands for - no one seems to know (Google = search, Microsoft = software, Yahoo = ??? email, gossip news???, large audience??). When I was there, Marketing couldn’t come up w/ a coherent message b/c no one could figure out what defines Yahoo. A bunch of lame marketing at that time - FUSE acronym, TV commercials w/ people carrying around placards w/ URLs on them, etc”

Anonymous Employee in Santa Clara

“Retain your best talent and cut the fat (there’s a lot of it). Provide clear directions and act like you mean it. Just a while ago, upper management was constantly chanting “We have to win” at all-hands. Watch closely and you’ll see that no alignment in action has taken place at all. Engineering excellence is not recognized nor rewarded. Your perseverance in finishing crap jobs is valued more than outstanding engineering work. Company talks innovation but doesn’t value it.”

Software Engineer in Sunnyvale, CA

“Company has clearly lost direction. Yahoo is now mostly busy chasing Google, even though it’s clear that Google has pulled too far ahead. Yahoo should return to its roots as an innovator and risk taker. Try things and see what works. There is still enough (for now) talent at Yahoo to come up with the next brilliant thing.”

VP of Engineering in Sunnyvale

“Buy AOL. Partner with MSFT on search. Focus on Display with the same level of commitment that G has to search. Press-the-flesh with the rank-and-file as much as you possibly can.”

Yahoo employees, like AIG before them, have some pretty strong opinions about what needs to happen with the company. And given the continuous news coming out of Yahoo! we have been watching the situation pretty closely.

One thing that was surprising to note is that Jerry Yang did not grace the Glassdoor CEO Watch Lists. (The Glassdoor CEO Watch list identifies the lowest rated CEOs according to employees - Watch List alumni include the CEOs of Alcatel-Lucent , AMD and WaMu. This month we have a newcomer to the list - Office Depot CEO Steve Odland takes “top” rank with a 98% disapproval rating.) Although we are observing that employee opinion doesn’t always dictate a departure of CEO, it does present some compelling arguments that a low CEO approval rating may mean tough days ahead for a top executive boss.

Company reviews remain balanced
Since our launch, employees have shared a pretty balanced view of their employers.  On average, 42.4% of reviews are positive, 32.2% are negative, and 25.2% are neutral.  When we compare our positive review percentage to the Consumer Confidence Index, we see that majority of reviews have remained positive and constructive, even in October, when the Consumer Confidence Index plummeted to an all time low of 38 (1980=100).  Frankly, that surprised us.  We hypothesized that when the economy slowed, employer ratings on Glassdoor.com would fall, but they haven’t.  That’s the good news.

So overall, our analysis has revealed that as the economy worsens, a majority of employees have remained positive about their employers but are expressing more and more concern about losing their jobs. So if you are looking to move around in your career or start your career, keep a close eye on what the Glassdoor community is telling you. We will keep watching these trends and keep you posted on any developments.

This Credit Analyst’s review stresses the impact that location, management and banking division have on the shape of one’s career experience at Bank of America, so be sure to research those areas before joining the bank (read the full review here):

I can’t stress how much your experience at the bank will be VERY dependent on what city you live in, what division you work in, and who your manager is. Some managers are highly incompetent, and poor motivators, others are great motivators, great leaders, and inspire you to work hard. So when you interview, assess your manager very well.

And if you are debating a career in the financial industry now and are worried about job security, the reviewer suggests you might consider a safer industry and would also be wise to negotiate for your severance package up front if you can (not always the most planned or expected form of compensation).

In this environment, banking jobs are hard to come by, and there is a lot of stress and worry about being downsized, so a safer industry may be more appealing right now. If you go, try to negotiate severance up front.

Lastly, the reviewer points out to management that they need to do a little more to keep the best people from leaving.

Take a hard look at what you offer displaced employees…In my time at the bank, I’ve seen a lot of talented people leave for negligible amounts of money. The bank would be a better place if they were able to keep some of these people.

Thanks for the good review – we hope that other Glassdoor community members continue to benefit from this insight.

Keep the reviews coming – you might be our next $500 Review of the Month winner!  Post your review and salary now!

In case you aren’t familiar, the Open Web Awards is the only multilingual international online voting competition that covers major innovations in Web technology. Last year more than 250,000 people like you voted Twitter, Netvibes and Mahalo among the best in the Web. We think Glassdoor can be a contender.

Please cast your vote for Glassdoor here!

The deadline for nominations is Sunday, November 16. Winners will be announced in December.

Thanks!

The Glassdoor Team

The past few months have been a whirlwind, and Glassdoor.com has experienced significant growth. Our new investors share our vision of providing greater transparency to the employment space and helping people make better decisions about their work.

With this round, I’m happy to announce that Jim White, managing director, Sutter Hill Ventures, will join the Glassdoor board of directors. Jim has a proven track record of successful collaborations with leading business and consumer-facing companies, including Shutterfly.com, Fix.com, Farecast and Infinera, and his experience will be a valued asset to our board. He’s also great guy and I’m looking forward to working with him.

Since we launched our public beta in June, the site’s “employee generated content,” has grown nearly 40-fold to more than 115,000 contributions for 14,000 companies across a wide section of global industries. Immediately following the public debut, we received contributions from employees around the globe, prompting us to accelerate the community’s international capabilities in August. As result, Glassdoor community members have the ability to view salaries in more than 100 local currencies.

Now more than ever, people want to know what it’s really like inside a company and more and more employees are sharing details about their jobs and work environments. With increased resources, employees and employers can improve upon the decisions they make for their career and for their company. In this environment, in particular, we think this investment sends a strong signal about the value of the information available on Glassdoor.com to people around the globe.

This additional funding allows Glassdoor to capitalize on substantial community growth rates. We have a lot of work to do and we look forward to further developing the breadth, depth and quality of our content.

While it remains to be seen whether or not the bailout bill will curb top executive salaries and payouts, the topic of CEO compensation has always been the subject of controversy and gossip. In particular, the debate over severance packages circulates around what is fair and whether the executive should really be paid for a job that was not well done. One of the most memorable in recent history was the $210 million exit package awarded to Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli in 2007.

With all the moving and shaking in the job market, we started thinking: What is the going-rate to fire a CEO executive these days anyway? Is there any correlation between a CEOs approval rating and the quality of their severance package?

Thanks to SEC requirements, various public records and Glassdoor’s CEO approval ratings system, we wanted to see if there is any consistency in how severance packages have been awarded to CEOs that have recently been asked to see themselves out the door.

It seems that no matter what a CEO did to get fired or how low their employee approval rating drop, there is definitely an option of a huge payout at the end of the tunnel. Even though only two of the seven CEOs identified above actually took (or even had a chance to take) their exit package, it still doesn’t seem too justify some of the huge sums of money these executives are offered to simply walk away. I guess if you’re going to be forced out the door, why not try to get every million you can!