4 in 10 CEOs Would Face Performance Improvement Plans, Employees Say — Despite 16% Valuation Rise
A sharp divide emerged between Wall Street and workplace sentiment, with a new Blind survey showing 43% of CEOs would face Performance Improvement Plans (PIP) if held to employee standards—even as their companies' valuations surged 16% in Q2 2025.
The survey asked 3,545 verified employees across 42 companies to rate their CEOs on a five-point scale designed to mirror employee performance reviews: Far Exceeds Expectations, Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, Needs Improvement, and Unsatisfactory.
83% of CEOs Rated Below Expectations
The evaluations revealed significant concerns: 83% of CEOs fell short of expectations. Only two stood out with positive reviews — Jensen Huang of NVIDIA earned the highest rating of Far Exceeds Expectations, and Hock Tan of Broadcom received Exceeds Expectations.
In contrast, 43% were rated Needs Improvement, while 40% received the lowest rating of Unsatisfactory, which in a typical workplace would trigger a Performance Improvement Plans (PIP).
CEOs receiving Unsatisfactory ratings included Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Glenn Fogel (Booking.com), Andy Jassy (Amazon), Jack Dorsey (Block), Mike Cannon-Brookes (Atlassian), Evan Spiegel (Snap), Cristiano Amon (Qualcomm), Alex Chriss (PayPal), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), and Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba (Indeed).
Why CEOs Scored Poorly
Employees identified decision-making quality (50%) as the top factor driving their ratings, followed by company performance (31%). On recent HR decisions such as layoffs and salary adjustments, only 10% said these actions were appropriate, while 67% said they were not.
Concerns also extended to executive team size: 44% said leadership teams were too large for the company’s growth stage and workload, compared with just 26% who felt the size was appropriate.
Market Growth vs. Employee Discontent
Despite these poor reviews, the surveyed companies’ market capitalizations rose 16% on average from Q1 to Q2 2025. The contrast underscores how investors and employees judge leadership on very different terms.
At Microsoft, where the CEO was rated Unsatisfactory, one employee said: “Consistent mass layoffs crush morale and expose a short-sighted strategy prioritizing stock prices over long-term organizational and human health. It’s a lose-lose: the company loses good talent and ultimately devalues itself in the long term.”
At ByteDance, where the CEO was rated Needs Improvement, one employee commented: “Feels like it's mostly the junior folks doing the real work, while the executives take home the big salaries without contributing much. They're just laying off junior people.”
Methodology
This survey was conducted on Blind, the anonymous workplace app that verifies users through their work email. Data was collected from August 11–17, 2025, with responses from 3,545 verified employees across 42 companies. Participants rated their CEO and executive team, assessed executive team size, evaluated recent HR decisions, and identified the primary factor in their CEO rating.