[VMware] employees have talked to us about going into meetings with [cofounder Diane] Greene and crawling into their foxholes, hoping to avoid being struck by criticism or worse, a tirade.

These same employees describe Greene as "a hard-driving perfectionist who loves nothing more than to get her way." But despite her flaring temper, VMware cofounder Diane Greene's underlings loved her as the head of their company, especially as her dictatorial management style helped send its stock through the roof. But the stock eventually faltered, and Greene's tempestuous attitude threatened Joe Tucci, CEO of VMware's parent company, EMC. Greene and Tucci never got along, and so when Tucci got the chance, he pushed Greene out of the company.

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(Photo by AP/Risberg)

Very fair with compensation and one gets the feeling the core founders (Diane, Mendel, etc) really care about people working in a good and healthy environment.

Tucci's Glassdoor approval rating has improved from the 44 percent level which qualified him for our list of tech's 10 worst rated CEOs. Does anyone smell an astroturfing campaign? Even with the suspiciously speedy improvement, Tucci enjoyes far less support from his reviewers. One headlines a review: “Joe Tucci knows what stockholders want to hear and uses that to maximize HIS compensation.” Another, among the more positive reviews, hardly helps Tucci's cause:

Joe Tucci has done a good job of leading the company through some tough times, but is he an innovator or visionary like Gates, Jobs, or even Larry Ellison? Maybe that's what is needed to boost the company's profile - and stock price.

As early as September 2007 — when analysts began wondering how long it would be before VMware's market capitalization would outgrow EMC's — rumor had it a rivalry of intense personal animosity was brewing between Greene and Tucci. Tucci supposedly disdained Greene's intense managerial style, one that would, according to Vance, have employees "going into meetings with Greene and crawling into their foxholes, hoping to avoid being struck by criticism or worse, a tirade." Vance posits that as VMware grew to be EMC's growth engine, Greene got too heady in her power and turned some of that intensity toward her sort of, kind of, not-really-because-he-needs-me-more-than-I-need-him boss, Tucci. If so, it's hard to think of anyone more deserving, since Tucci's no wallflower himself. Anyone have good Greene stories? Or Tucci tales? Send them in. (Photo by AP/Risberg)

Company shares are down 30 percent so far on the day. The people who get paid enough to watch and report on the virtualization industry say it's Microsoft that has put the squeeze on VMware, by building virtualization features into Windows. Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman, for example, says Microsoft's virtualization features — it launched "Hyper-V" in June — will probably take over the virtualization market among small to medium-sized enterprises. Greene founded VMware in 1998 and sold it to EMC in 2003. The experience has likely made her wealthy, but not happy. (Photo by AP/Risberg)