Tech’s top turkeys: 5 fowl execs get plucked

Tomorrow is Turkey day, but today is Tech Turkey day, a time-honored tradition at Tech’s Bottom Line where we wag a finger in the face of tech leaders who have made life miserable for their employees and users unlucky enough to be stuck with their products. As always, it’s a target-rich environment, with turkeys like Marrisa Meyer, Steve Ballmer, and the man in charge of security at Adobe simply crying out for ridicule.

Top tech turkey: Marissa Mayer, Yahoo

When it comes to employee relations, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is the Queen of Mean. Worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Meyer has little sympathy for employees who need to work at home to care for kids or elderly parents, or to avoid a horrendous commute. After all, she’s a mom and comes into the office every day, so what’s the problem? Oh right, she’s the boss who built an onsite nursery just for herself. So in February, Mayer took a peek at the VPN logs, decided that remote folks aren’t logging in frequently enough, and issued a directive ending the practice of working from home.

[ InfoWorld’s Robert X. Cringely offers a counterpoint: 10 pillars of tech to be thankful for. | For quick, smart takes on the news you’ll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief — subscribe today. ]

But she didn’t stop there. She launched a new policy you might remember from college: Grading on a curve — except this time it’s not about how well you understand physics, it’s about keeping your job. Mayer wants supervisors to grade their staffers on a curve and fire the ones at the bottom. I guess it’s just a coincidence that Mayer is on the board of directors of Walmart, one of America’s worst major employers.

Top tech turkey: Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

Just when you thought that Microsoft had gotten the message about Windows 8, Windows 8.1 rolls up out of the ditch. The new iteration has a few good tweaks, but by and large, it’s still the same old Frankenstein. Though he’s (finally!) leaving, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in charge of all this and apparently hasn’t learned much about what users need. What’s particularly bad is that the basic framework of Windows is now locked in for years to come, unless we’re lucky enough to get a successor who doesn’t deserve to be trussed and stuffed.

Top tech turkey: Ginni Rometty, IBM

IBM CEO Virginia Marie “Ginni” Rometty runs a company that holds an enormous portfolio of patents and is more than rich and powerful enough to beat any troll that comes a-knockin’. But IBM (along with Microsoft) selfishly and successfully lobbied Congress to remove a key provision from an anti-trolling bill working its way through Congress.

The bill would have expanded the CBM (covered business method), which makes it faster for the U.S. Patent Office to knock down low-quality software patents, the weapon of choice for many trolls, and freezes litigation while the patent is examined. The latter point is very significant because litigation is simply too expensive for many smaller firms, so they often surrender even when they know they’re in the right. But IBM, apparently worried that the change would somehow undermine its patents, led the charge, and the bill is moving forward without the key CBM. Shame on you, Rometty; I expected better.

Top tech turkey: Brad Arkin, Adobe Systems

Adobe’s software is practically ubiquitous, so the company, and its CSO Brad Arkin have a special obligation to be sure it’s, well, secure. But as we all know, it’s anything but. Flash and Acrobat have long been conduits for malware. But the latest incident, takes the cake, or should we say — turkey? Adobe has admitted that 38 million users have been affected by a cyber attack. The software giant, responsible for programs found on hundreds of millions of computers, originally claimed 3 million customer accounts had credit card information stolen. Seriously, what does Arkin do for a living?

Top tech turkey: The federal contracting system

It would be tempting to blame Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for the horribly botched rollout of HealthCare.gov, the website for applying for coverage under Obamacare. While the onetime governor of Kansas surely deserves a good deal of blame, the problem is actually broader. The whole federal contracting establishment (vendors and agency procurement/management) has long mishandled major software and hardware projects that have a huge impact on people’s lives — not just someone’s profits.

The FBI, IRS, and other high-profile agencies have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars and years of operational competence due to the many failed software efforts undertaken by this broken system of insider contractors and hapless government bureaucrats. The unconscionable delays in benefits faced for several years by returning veterans because of the failures of Veterans Administration databases is in some ways even worse than the Obamacare debacle because it’s gone on so long.

No doubt turkeys galore are still out there, but those are five of my least favorite. Speaking of Thanksgiving, let me say I’m grateful for the privilege of writing this blog (for money!) and grateful to you for reading it. Have a great holiday!

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This article, “Tech’s top turkeys: 5 fowl execs get plucked,” was originally published by InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bill Snyder’s Tech’s Bottom Line blog and follow the latest technology business developments at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.