When it comes to layoffs, the light always seems darker over your co-worker’s cubicle. A new employee confidence survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of company/job review site Glassdoor.com shows that 26 percent of respondents are concerned about being out of work in the next six months. That is up from 21 percent in the last quarter. But when asked about their colleagues, a full 44 percent said some of them wouldn’t last through the summer. You never think you are the one who is going to get fired until your boss calls you into his office for a little chat.

More than half of those surveyed, 57 percent, said that layoffs or planned layoffs had occurred at their companies the past six months. Other findings from the survey:

• 35 percent think their company’s outlook will improve over the next six months
• 51 percent think their company’s outlook will stay the same
• 36 percent of employees still expect a raise, down from 40 percent last quarter
• 39 percent are confident they could find another job with comparable pay and experience if they had to
• 70 percent would be willing to take on more projects and responsibities to keep their jobs
• 62 percent would be willing to work longer hours to keep their jobs
• 40 percent would be willing to take a pay cut
• 35 percent would be willing to accept reduced health or dental benefits
• 34 percent would take an unpaid leave of absence to save their jobs longterm
• 30 percent would give up vacation time

Interesting what people value the most. More people would take a pay cut before giving up health benefits or vacation time. What would you give up to keep your job? Full survey results embedded below:

Glassdoor Employee Confidence Survey 1Q09 – Get more Business Plans

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The Company Reputation Index

Social evaluation platform Vanno launched a widget application of its real-time company reputation index called ReputationCheck. Vanno’s platform allows customers and others to share stories about their personal experiences with a particular company, submit news articles they’ve read about companies, fill out surveys and comment on companies. Vanno then quantifies this dialogue and information into an index using Bayesian algorithms (the same statistical methods used to filter spam and detect credit card fraud). The company’s index measures the reputation of more than 5,800 companies worldwide.

Vanno’s reputation index was recently brought into the public light when Vanno quantified the damage Kellogg’s brand sustained after the company pulled the plug on Michael Phelps’s sponsorship following the swimmer’s marijuana photo fiasco. Vanno’s data suggested that Kellogg’s reputation plummeted after its decision, falling even further on the index than when the company had to recall products after this year’s peanut butter salmonella scare.

ReputationCheck, the index’s embeddable widget, shows a company’s real-time reputation rank and compares the rank to the best and worst companies relative to customer and employee satisfaction, community involvement, the environment, patriotism and social responsibility. The widget can be used in a post or in the sidebar of a site. Considering all of the various inputs of the index, the ranking system cannot be deemed as 100 percent authoritative. But it certainly is a measure of the public’s perception of a company. (Contrast to Glassdoor, another reputation service from employees’ point of view). While the index widget could be useful to bloggers and writers to show one measure of a reputation of a company, its probably best not to rely upon ReputationCheck as the final arbiter of a company’s standing.

Here’s the index for Google, which ranks highly

The Company Reputation Index

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Initial seed funding for Glassdoor was provided in 2007 by its co-founders Hohman, Tim Besse and Richard Barton. The startup remained in stealth mode before picking up $3 Million in Series A funding from Benchmark Capital last March (they’ve also participated in this round), and ultimately launched in the beginning of June.

Glassdoor enables anyone to find and share real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs for specific employers, free of charge and anonymously. A quick glance at the traffic stats shows that the site had a dip after the momentum of its public launch, but is now headed in the right direction. Glassdoor claims it has received 115,000 contributions for 14,000 companies across a wide section of global industries to date. CEO Robert Hohman told the NY Times that many of the site’s visitors are starting their travels at other online job boards and end up at Glassdoor.com to look for ratings and reviews before making a decision.

With the economy in a downturn, man who have been laid off in the past few weeks might want to take the time to join the Glassdoor community in search for the right new employer.

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The idea behind Glassdoor is simple: You tell me your salary, and I’ll tell you mine. The stealth startup, which raised $3 million from Benchmark Capital last March, just went live. The site collects company reviews and real salaries from employees of large companies and displays them anonymously for all members to see. (The startup plans to make money from ads targeted at job seekers, premium services, and aggregated compensation data it wants to sell to HR professionals).

The idea is to collect as much detailed salary information and feedback for every job title at a company so that job seekers can know how to evaluate an offer, and current employees can see how they are doing relative to their peers. “When the annual compensation review comes,” says CEO Robert Hohman, “you need to know what your market value is.” Or you can just live vicariously through others.

So how much does a Google software engineer really make? The average, based on ten submissions, is $97,840. And the range is between $80,000 and $150,000, with annual cash bonuses coming in anywhere from $20,000 to $45,000. Adding salary and bonus together, the Google engineers that have entered information on Glassdoor average $112,573 in take-home pay. (And then there are stock options on top of that). Yahoo and Microsoft engineers get about the same salaries, but smaller bonuses, leaving their take-home pay at an average of $105,642 and $105,375, respectively. Apple software engineers make only about $89,000, on average, but they get to create some of the most loved products on Earth.

As a teaser, anyone can see the full details for four companies (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco), but beyond that it is a give-to-get model. You need to post your own review to see the other reviews. Same with salaries. (Using a variety of techniques it won’t discuss, the company does its best to sniff out false posts). And each company and CEO gets a rating. Here’s a chart comparing Jerry Yang’s and Steve Ballmer’s approval ratings from their own employees over time (Yang’s is currently 59 percent, Ballmer’s is 69 percent):

Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s approval rating, incidentally, is 89 percent. While the overall satisfaction rating for Google as a company to work at is 4.2 out of 5. Microsoft’s satisfaction rating is exactly the same, whereas Yahoo’s is not surprisingly lower at 3.8. These ratings are by no means scientific. They are based on 124 responses for Microsoft, 50 for Yahoo, and 37 for Google, all collected during the company’s private beta. The more honest responses the site collects from any given company, the more accurate the results will be.

Beyond the ratings and salary information, what is really revealing are some of the in-depth reviews. Even at Google, it’s not all happy faces. “The free food is starting to wear off,” says Hohman. One review is titled: “Awesome culture, bad management.” Another one: “Fun at first, frustrating in the long run.” And the most devastating: “Google:An Elitist’s Playground.” Here’s an excerpt:

If you enjoy your individuality and time alone, Google is not the place for you (keep in mind I’m not an engineer). Google pushes a highly “googley” atmosphere, which is something akin to what the Brady Bunch would be like if they lived in communist Russia. . . . People are encouraged to have googley attitudes, wear plastic smiles, and not to question the infallible nature of the executive management group. . . . If you like feeling awkward during forced group activity, Google is your haven. It isn’t exactly “forced” (no guns), but if you don’t participate you become labeled as “ungoogley.” Once deemed “ungoogley”, you’re practically viewed as a rotten apple that threatens to spoil the bunch.

Advice to Senior Management:
“Stop acting as those you’re King Midas…just because you struck it rich with AdWords does not mean whatever you create will be tech gold. For a company that prides itself on innovation, I can’t think of any product Google has released since AdWords that has been truly innovative…unless you are calling Google’s mergers and acquisitions innovative (just because Google owns YouTube does not mean you can take credit for the innovation).

Someone is obviously bitter, but it doesn’t make what this person says any less true. (Assuming it truly is a Google employee—there is no way to know for sure). Most of the reviews for Google are positive. Reading through all of them gives a nice cross section of attitudes at the company. Who knew that the heated toilet seats at Google were such a big draw? Or that Netflix has a don’t ask, don’t tell vacation policy? (You take one whenever you can).

If Glassdoor can get people to fess up about their salaries and the inner workings of their companies, the Internet’s culture of transparency will claim another stronghold.

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