• Fortune, Tuesday, September 27, 2011 12:55 PM

Rumor has it that Microsoft employees left "in droves" during a recent speech by Steve Ballmer at an annual company meeting. True or not, Fortune thinks the blog reports -- and a flood of ensuing comments -- "suggest that morale in Redmond has hit a new low." Reads one comment: "Steve Ballmer has done to Microsoft what George W. Bush did to the United States from 2000-2008 -- run things straight into the ground."

According to Glassdoor.com, which allows employees to anonymously rate their employer, 55% of employees disapprove of Ballmer and 45% approve, based on 1,691 ratings. Meanwhile, David Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital, recently blamed Ballmer for the company's floundering stock price, and said it was time for the CEO to "give someone else a chance" after running the show for over 10 years. "His continued presence is the biggest overhang on Microsoft's stock," Einhorn said May.

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