[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.

Next: Ex-Jobster CEO Jason Goldberg: Hot head, hot lead

(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)

VeriSign chairman Jim Bidzos
An employee's advice to senior management:

Don't drag out the divestiture process in an effort to get a few extra bucks. And if you're going to kill the whole thing, be honest with employees about opportunities.

AMD chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz
An employee's advice to senior management:

AMD needs to go back to basics. What business is AMD in, who do you need onboard to lead the company in that business, who do you need that can create demand for the product, and what do the customers want? Ignore the "how" and focus on the "who." Stop treating employees like costs and more like assets. Threatening cubical hoteling and pushing the "do more with less" story is oppressive, not inspiring. The most marketable talent will leave first.

EMC CEO and chairman Joe Tucci
An employee's advice to senior management:

Senior management needs to respect its employees, listen to feedback and not bury its head in the sand as it relates to issues of sexism and lack of diversity. The culture continues to be predominantly young white men and this is largely because people hire who they know. "Breaking the glass ceiling" requires a lot of sacrifice! They will cite a few examples of high profile women, but these are the exception, not the rule. Work/life balance is not a priority in this company. Most of the highest ranking professional women in this organization are unmarried or do not have children. They need to recognize the need for more flexible work options that promote the importance of family. And most importantly, there need to be consequences for illegal and unethical behavior, regardless of who commits it! People cannot be protected from this. There are too many blind eyes turned when sexual harassment, illegal business practices, or other unethical acts occur.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang

An employee's advice to senior management:

Be more open to the workforce opinions. Be more humble. Be less political. Listen more, do more, and quickly.

eBay CEO John Donahoe
An employee's advice to senior management:

Streamline the process so people can focus more on getting their work done. Share more of the details of the vision for eBay and the competition of eBay.

Symantec CEO John Thompson
An employee's advice to senior management:

Open your eyes to how the actually successful companies are doing it. Use your talent pool and clear the way to innovate internally. Shift the focus from salesmanship to inherent quality. Build products that sell themselves rather than needing an aggresive sales cycle to move.

Hewlett-Packard chairman, president and CEO Mark Hurd
An employee's advice to senior management:

Stop screwing the employees. Stop reducing benefits every week. Stop saying you plan to invest in research and development when you are actually reducing everything except your bonuses. Start treating people as people. Get some moral fiber.

EDS chairman, president and CEO Ron Rittenmeyer
An employee's advice to senior management:

As I said above, either learn to trust the junior leadership you put into place or replace them. Set goals and then GET OUT OF THE WAY and allow the leadership the flexibility to execute to them. If they don't perform, release them. The micromanagement culture has to stop.

IBM chairman, president and CEO Sam Palmisano
An employee's advice to senior management:

One thing is missing though, an acceptance of the fact that there are "superstars" in the world, and that these superstars perform several orders of magnitude better than regular employees. What is missing within IBM is the ability to seek out, and nourish these superstars. Over time superstars will leave IBM because they will get much more recognition in other organizations. This has an impact on IBM's ability to deliver some things.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
An employee's advice to senior management:

There is a severe lack of leadership in the company. With so many things going on it takes executives too long to commit to business decisions and too long to pick up on competitive responses to disruptive technologies.Microsoft promotes based on 2 facets - technical knowledge and political saavy. What Microsoft does not promote based on is leadership ability, managerial ability or business saavy.

(Photo of Ballmer by AP/Sarbach)

Dell's Michael Dell, EMC's Joe Tucci, Oracle's Larry Ellison, AMD's Hector Ruiz and Intel's Paul Otellini, drunk on power and hubris made the most upsetting corporate ad I seen to date. Even the poor Linux penguin is debased in this flick, but Larry jumping out in gold armor is priceless.

Someone in Dell marketing is going to get fired, because if this was meant to be viral I want a vaccine. A shiny nickel if you can sit through the whole thing.

[youTube]