"eBay – the stuff Dilbert cartoons are made of"

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There’s trouble and dissent at eBay. And for once, I’m not talking about sellers. Wired points out that eBay’s CEO John Donahoe has been voted the twelfth least popular CEO on glassdoor.com, a site where employees can review their employers. JD’s approval rating stands at a dismal 28%, while comments about the company itself are hardly more positive:

“Horrible for engineers.”
“Too many talkers, not enough doers.”
“eBay attracts a lot of great people, then the company culture beats them down and they leave within a couple of years.”
“Ebay – the stuff Dilbert cartoons are made of.”

There are rumours that eBay are preparing to lay off up to 10% of their employees. Though a spokesperson for eBay said that the company “does not comment on rumors or speculation”, Brad Stone in the New York Times commented that the reports have “the ring of truth”, and cited another report from Deutsche Bank, which said that a decrease in employee numbers could help offset falling revenue from fee changes and flat sales.

Whether they’re true or not, the rumours can’t be helping morale in San Jose or in Richmond. Witness, for example, the conversation overheard by Dan on a train yesterday; sadly we only have one side of it:

– Didn’t you know I’m working for eBay now?
– Yeah, X months now.
– It’s fucked.
– Maybe a year ago. But it’s fucked now.
– Total lost cause.
– I’m a Senior Manager, XXXX . Yeah, dealing with XXX.
– They had me in for 13 interviews.
– Yeah. Fucking ridiculous.
– Fucking stupid.
– Haven’t got a clue.
– The Managing Director’s an idiot.

14 Responses

  1. ………“Too many talkers, not enough doers.”

    Reminds you of the US & UK banks!!!!!.

    ………..“eBay attracts a lot of great people, then the company culture beats them down and they leave within a couple of years.”

    Are they talking about the staff or dellers or both!!.

    …………’ JD’s approval rating stands at a dismal 28%!!!!

    Sniff a suspension coming on, “What goes around, comes around”.

  2. If I were part of a business that relied solely on another business for its existence that is the sort of comment I would keep to myself.

  3. Interesting, Dave. I wonder exactly who you’re referring to? I’m sure you can’t be meaning TameBay should only publish positive comments about eBay? (Goodness knows, we get criticised enough for that as it is…)

  4. #7 I believe Dave was referring to a certain company that promotes the use of videos on eBay listings.

    You should report good & bad, and you do, otherwise Tamebay would just be a big boring advert for eBay, which thank fully it isn’t. If the day ever comes when you start selling “We love eBay” Flags,pens, mugs & T-shirts I am off lol.

  5. I love TameBay and want to buy the t-shirt but I do think that you have to be a bit careful about reporting overheard phone calls from unidentified strangers on a train (even if they do make good reading & come from a good source).

  6. # 11 Chris Dawson.

    Start printing the stuff Vhris, we’ll all buy it !!! .

    # 12 Jimbo.

    Good god mate isn’t that what the Gov’ papers etc, do all the time. A good gossip starts & ‘destroys as well’ (see HBOS)

  7. # 7 Sue, no reference to Tamebay, Whirly caught my drift.

    Re JDs approval with employees at 28%, there was a great degree of seller dissatisfaction with Ebay management before JD took over, maybe a staff shakeup was overdue, time will tell

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