Why senior management should have their own Glassdoor.com
Why is it that employees can vent online about their bosses, but their bosses have no outlet to do the same about their employees?
We've already got salary.com, jobvent.com and even, yes, rateyouremployeramerica.com.
Sites where America's downtrodden and downhearted employees voice their opinions about their bosses.
On the the latest, Glassdoor.com, a creation of three former Expedia executives, the CEOs of Cisco and Google do very well and the CEOs of Microsoft and Yahoo, shockingly, do not do so well.
But why no overpaid.com? Or uselessemployee.com? Or even a worstemployeeinamerica.com?
I can see the Valley's finest (and not so finest) working on it now.
The online superhighway seems to be a one-way street. A street where you can speak truth to power, but power has a much tougher time speaking truth to you.
Have you bought some golf apparel from johnmccain.com? Neither have I. (The Embroidered Fleece jacket is $200. Bargain.)
Being a boss is not quite as simple as it might seem. You have to trust your employees to be at least vaguely honest, remotely committed and actually doing something remotely akin to working when they claim to be working remotely.
So let's create Glassfloor.com.
A site where you have to have at least a V and P in front of your title to log in and where you can anonymously rate those second-rate wasters that were all your reduced budget allowed you to hire.
The paeans have splendid fun venting about the shortcomings and occasional high points of their bosses, although sometimes it is hard to tell which is which.
Take this from a Glassdoor.com reviewer: "Microsoft is the new government job with better pay, better benefits, nicer offices, free Starbucks coffee, flexible hours and fewer hours overall."
Sometimes, though, the feelings are clear.
The poor bosses have to sit in silence as, for example, a Yahoo employee on Glassdoor.com calls them "condescending."
On Glassfloor.com the bosses could speak their own hearts and minds.
How about: "My marketing department is full of people who have migraines, more personal days than personalities and no ideas on how to sell anything. Other than their entirely questionable value to the company"?
Or perhaps: "My Head Of Purchasing is of indeterminate abilities and, frankly, indeterminate consciousness. He looks like a truck made by Banana Republic. He is as efficient as a rubber staircase. And I pay this halfbrain $110,000."
With free and anonymous commentary from America's most senior managers, wouldn't we get a truer picture of a company's present state and future prospects?
We might read: "How can anyone expect me to deliver 20% growth when I am saddled with individuals in sales who, together, would not represent 20% of the IQ of a pair of my Bruno Maglis?"
We might discover that "my company's support staff couldn't support the Lakers with free season tickets."
Or: "If you believe that with my comatose IT department we are going to hit our targets, then you believe that Michael Douglas really can twitch his forehead."
Yes, we might finally have a place to compare how far apart employers' and employees' views are of the same company.
Glassfloor.com.
How about it, you Glassdoor.com founders? I will take my usual 20% if you go ahead.